February 14, 2008
Clemens at The Capitol - The Day After
Photo of (left to right) Rusty Hardin, Roger Clemens, Lanny Breuer by AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
And now Roger Clemens’ fate hangs in the balance. Not just his baseball fate, but also his entire future. Because there is only one thing we can definitively conclude from yesterday’s hearing in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - somebody lied. Brian McNamee and Roger Clemens told two completely different versions of the same story yesterday and if Congress decides to investigate, chances are one of them will face perjury charges.
Clemens clearly drew the ire of Congressman Waxman on two separate occasions. First, when they discussed how Roger had met with the nanny over the weekend and second when he interrupted Waxman’s closing remarks. Clemens’ attorney, Rusty Hardin, may have blundered when he accused Waxman of timing the nanny question in the press conference following the hearing.
The most interesting part of the entire hearing was the absence of Pettitte. Andy verified most of Brian McNamee’s assertions in his deposition and it would have been very interesting to hear him respond directly to Clemens’ charge that he “misremembered” things. Several Congressmen went out of their way to praise Pettitte’s honesty, which is ironic, so their decision to allow him not to appear is hard to understand. Pettitte has also been excused from reporting to Yankees’ camp until Monday; so don’t expect to hear anything from him for a while.
If you want to listen to any of the hearing, WCBS880 has it online.
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Well, at least we all now know that "misremember" is an actual word...
They're both lying.
Despite Congress' "jurisdiction over national drug policy," whose interests are served by such hearings?
Costing taxpayers millions of dollars, panel members offered their editorial opinions and asked inane questions of two adolescents in adult bodies. Those opinions were partisan, intended not to get at the truth, but to demonstrate to their constituents that they are serious about drug abuse (or about their love of the national game). One of those questioned got paid lots of money to play doctor without a medical degree. Now, faced with legal action, he decides to "come clean" about his experiences. The other, one of baseball's stellar pitchers, calls his best friend a liar, offers no reasonable explanation for his gluteal abscess, and constantly reminds panelists how hard he has worked for his success, for his country and for the love of fans. We are not that easily fooled by either individual. Note to Congress: move on...there's much more important business to do.
It's great that the country is doing so well that Congress has nothing better to worry about than baseball. Maybe they'll investigate American Gladiator next. And then try to figure out how to keep social security from bankrupting us.
I know ... so glad they got that whole Iraq 'thing' worked out.
Who cares about Iraq... this is America's Pasttime® we're talking about.
they both lied, but who is the one who is lying under oath? that's clemens. Mcnamee has admitted to lying and under oath is now telling the truth, which is backed by pettite and knoblauch. Clemens is the one who is in serious shit cause he's saying that his wife, unbeknownst to him, went around his back and called Mcnamee to administer HGH to her. Now, that does not ring true in any form you put it. Clemens wife -"OH, honey I thought you'd be so pleased when I called your handpicked personal trainer and told him to inject me with human growth hormone!" Clemens -"What? Human Growth Hormone is bad! don't ever do that again!". CLemens wife 'Okay, I won't. since you told me not to and admonished me against the evil ways of Human growth hormone". Does this sound any way fucking plausible to anybody?
What a waste of tax payers money. Who the fuck cares if he took roids? The shits grilling him wouldn't stand a snow balls chance in hell if they were asked about all the illicit shit they do. Let's start throwing stones at those jerks.
snoopy: so you are perfectly fine with letting a guy cheat the system, abuse drugs to gain an upper hand and make millions of dollars in the process while joe schmoes who make an honest living can't get anywhere? all the while, being a role model for a drug culture and infesting our youths minds with the mindset that you need to use performance enhancing drugs to be good at sports? I agree that this might be a smokescreen to get us off the iraq war but it is important too. Last time I checked I think Clemens is worth more than 100 million, 100 million dollars that he took away from other guys who didn't use drugs.
Whoa Whoa Whoa BabyH.
Have those fat lazy fucks in Washington ever thought about questioning the NFL or the AFL or any of the other bulked up pieces of shit that play what is called professional sports? How about Basketball? duh?
How about college sports? Duh?
Of course these people are using drugs to get with it. It's called entertainment. No different than some blonde bimbo getting breast implants so the people spend more money at the box office looking at some plastic titted broad.
except implants are legal. and don't enhance performance. if they did, Pam Anderson would be so much more interesting.
so it's not quite the same thing.
this baseball situation is very similar to what happened with Quiz Show in the 50s...the show was being fixed in order to drive up viewership/ratings, which drove up the advertising revenues. Congress investigated.
that's what's happened with baseball...the fix is in the illegal performance-enhancing drugs, which came into prominence in the 90s, after the baseball strike capped off an already sagging attendance for professional games. fans want to see home runs, lots of hits...lots of excitement. That wasn't happening as much before steroids, now several records have been broken. and viewership/ratings have gone up. as have advertising dollars.
which, by the way, are unregulated during professional sports games. how many beer ads do you see and hear at a stadium?
add to that that professional sports teams are essentially monopolies within their respective cities (few exceptions have more than 1 team in 1 sport within a single city)...
and, well, one can understand why congress would investigate a fraudulent, corrupt system that benefits only a select group.
though it certainly would be nice if they'd be more consistent with their investigations of fraudulent, corrupt systems...but that's another argument.