Was Roger Clemens better off not doing 60 Minutes?

[ratm1221]

Clemens might have been better off not going on 60 minutes. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt on the whole steroid thing, but after seeing him on 60 minutes, I've made up my mind. I didn't believe a word coming out of his mouth. He was obviously lying. He would have been better off not doing the interview. Anyone else watch it?

[MajorMike]

I want to believe him... but I just can't. I have always thought in my own brain that he did use them, then the report came out and I felt affirmed. Now he does this interview where he looks like shit, has this frantic/scared demeanor about him, and just doesn't come off well at all. The part that turned me off the most was when he said he deserved some respect because he was in the league 25 years.

[atlfan25]

How do feel about him now that he's suing McNamee?

I did watch it, now I want to go pull a tractor with my teeth.

[MajorMike]

Well, why not sue the guy? When it is nothing but he said/he said with no hard evidence, it makes him look better.

[K-State Spur]

I'm sick of any of these guys acting like they deserve any kind of respect or benefit of the doubt. The players had EVERY opportunity to get out in front of this thing when reports (i.e. Ken Caminiti) started coming out early in the decade. But they dragged their feet, used testing as a bargaining issue, and continued to go about business as usual.

The blame for the steroid problem in baseball falls on both management and players. But the blame for the individual players' legacies being ruined - that's nobody's fault but their own.

[Fabbs]

^^ what he said.

This era of zero accountability has gotten way beyond old.
"I did have sex with that women".
"Legally i did nothing wrong"
"I broke no rules" the latter two just smokescreens to lead to an endless dodgeball on what is legal, what are the rules.

"What really is truth?" :elephant one of my favorites. By Johny Cochroach.

[BeerIsGood!]

I give Clemens credit. At least he's actually filing the lawsuit and going hard core at it. It's about time somebody does, and I want to see where this goes.

[dbreiden83080]

I am a Yankees fan and i want to believe him but i just can't do it. The biggest piece of damning evidence against Roger is the fact that Andy Pettitte confessed to what this trainer said about injecting him with HGH. These guys at least were, as close as can be. They are both Texans and when Roger came to the Yankees, he took Andy under his wing. There is documented footage of them training together in the offseason, Andy overhauled his training and tailored it to that of Clemens, completely. They even took vacations together with their families. For Roger to say last night that he had no idea Andy was taking HGH when it was the same trainer that Clemens was using when he and Andy were that close is an obvious LIE. There is little chance Andy did not council Clemens about using HGH and it is even more likely that Clemens in fact steered Andy in the direction of HGH. Clemens is GUILTY of taking steroids and HGH, there is no doubt of that in my mind.

[MajorMike]

Ditto.

[samikeyp]

I give Clemens credit. At least he's actually filing the lawsuit and going hard core at it. It's about time somebody does, and I want to see where this goes.

Me too.

At least he is talking somewhat unlike "I'm not here to talk about the past" or "No habla inglais"

I hope he is not guilty but I am not going to hold my breath.

[Pistons < Spurs]

Filing the lawsuit is simply part of the scheme, part of the act. Honestly it sounds like a premeditated way for him avoiding Congress. Now all he has to say is that his lawyers won't let him comment while the lawsuit is still in effect.

[leemajors]

the tape of his conversation with dude they are airing on CNN right now is interesting. dude basically said he lied about roger in order to avoid jail and clemens recorded it?

[dallaskd]

Clemens might have been better off not going on 60 minutes. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt on the whole steroid thing, but after seeing him on 60 minutes, I've made up my mind. I didn't believe a word coming out of his mouth. He was obviously lying. He would have been better off not doing the interview. Anyone else watch it?

I totally agree. I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he looked like a fucking liar in that interview.

[BeerIsGood!]

Brian McNamee says he'd go to jail for Roger Clemens

By JAIME ARON, AP Sports Writer
January 7, 2008

AP - Jan 7, 6:37 pm EST
More Photos



HOUSTON (AP) -- "What do you want me to do?"

Brian McNamee asked Roger Clemens that question -- or variations of it -- 21 times during a 17-minute taped conversation.

He never really got an answer.

A recording of last Friday's telephone call between Clemens' former trainer and the seven-time Cy Young Award winner was played at Clemens' long-awaited news conference Monday, the first time he faced a group of reporters since McNamee's accusations were made public in the Mitchell Report on Dec. 13.

"What do you want me to do? I'll go to jail, I'll do whatever you want," McNamee said.

"I need somebody to tell the truth, Mac," Clemens told him.

Never, though, did Clemens angrily confront McNamee during the call nor did he accuse the trainer of lying when he told Mitchell he injected Clemens at least 16 times with steroids and human growth hormone in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

Asked why Clemens never directly answered the "what do you want me to do" question, his lawyer, Rusty Hardin, said: "The last thing Roger wanted, just as we did, was any suggestion that we were trying to interfere or coerce a federal witness. So, yeah, all he kept saying (was) nothing. Except you hear him throughout saying, 'Tell the truth."'

Under state law in New York and Texas, only one party has to give consent for a phone conversation to be taped. In this case, it was Clemens, who was at home. McNamee spoke on a cellular phone.

Hardin said that because McNamee didn't deny Clemens' claims that he never used steroids, it amounted to proof that Clemens was telling the truth. Clemens said McNamee initiated the conversation by sending him an e-mail.

"He said his son was sick and dying. That's why I reached out," Clemens said.

Late Sunday, Clemens filed a defamation suit against McNamee in Texas state court, another salvo in the escalating fight between the pair, who had worked together since they met while with the Toronto Blue Jays a decade ago. One of McNamee's lawyers, Richard Emery, said his client probably will sue Clemens in New York.

After the tape was played, Clemens took about a dozen questions from reporters before testily ending the session on the subject of the Hall of Fame.

"Do you think I played my career because I'm worried about the damn Hall of Fame?" he told a room filled with many potential voters. "You keep your vote. I don't need the Hall of Fame to justify that I put my butt on the line and I worked my tail off, and I defy anybody to say I did it by cheating or taking any shortcuts, OK?"

Hardin said the pitcher was willing to testify Jan. 16 to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. McNamee also has agreed, and the pair will have to repeat their assertions under oath on Capitol Hill. Hardin said Clemens will deny steroid use.

"I'm going to Congress and I'm going to tell the truth," Clemens said. "I'm going to tell everything that I know about the situations and steroids and anything else that I have knowledge about, which isn't a lot."

The committee planned to ask Clemens' representatives for the complete recording of the telephone conversation played at the news conference, said Karen Lightfoot, communications director for the panel's chairman, California Democrat Henry Waxman.

Clemens' former teammates Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, also have been asked to testify. Pettitte hired Jay Reisinger, the lawyer who represented Sammy Sosa before the committee three years ago.

Kirk Radomski also was asked to appear before the committee. In the Mitchell Report, McNamee said he obtained the drugs he used to inject Clemens from the former Mets clubhouse attendant or Clemens supplied them.

Emery said Brian McNamee Jr., 10, has celiac disease, which damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food.

"It's outrageous and disgusting for them to for their own cynical purposes, to perpetuate a continuing lie, to use this child and splay his disease and disability all over the press for the world to know," Emery said. "It just shows they'll go to any lengths."

McNamee sounded distraught during the conversation.

"I'm in your corner. I don't want this to happen. But I'd also like not to go to jail, too," he said.

His voice cracked when he said: "My wife is gone. My kids are gone."

"I don't have any money. I have nothing," McNamee said. "I'm not doing a book deal. I got offered seven figures to go on TV. I didn't do it. I didn't take it. I didn't do anything. All I did was what I thought was right -- I never thought it was right, but I thought that I had no other choice, put it that way."

McNamee said during the call that in 2004 he warned Jim Murray, who works for Clemens' agents, to be prepared for a link to Radomski to come out.

"Any suggestion by Brian McNamee that he gave the name of Kirk Radomski to anyone at our firm is erroneous," Hendricks Sports Management said in a statement.

On Sunday, McNamee told SI.com that Clemens was "in no way an abuser of steroids."

"He took them in late July, August, and never for more than four to six weeks max," he was quoted as saying. "Within the culture of what was going on, he was just a small part of it. A lot of guys did it. You can't take away the work Roger did. You can't take away the fact that he worked out as hard as anybody."

Hardin said he is recommending that Clemens not take a lie detector test.

"I think he's the one guy who could probably beat the test," McNamee told SI.com. "He might actually believe that he's telling the truth."

AP sports writers Ronald Blum and Rachel Cohen in New York and Howard Fendrich in Washington contributed to this report.

[DisgruntledLionFan#54,927]

That phone conversation sounded contrived to me. It's interesting that Clemens didn't go into details when he was the one that recorded the conversation. Wouldn't you pick apart the accusations?

If someone whom I trusted accused me of something like that and I had to deal with the shitstorm that followed, then I don't think I'd be as civil and vague as Clemens was during that call.

EDIT: I forgot about the tampering aspect of it. I don't think that calling him a cocksucker would fall under that framework, though.

[MajorMike]

What a complete ass. Dude sends him an email saying his kid is dying and he calls him back trying to get evidence on a tapped call. Evidence he never got, no matter how they spin it. Then Clemens attacks reporters and HOF votes by saying, "You keep your vote. I don't need the Hall of Fame to justify (my career)."

Toast.

I have always loved Rocket (except when he pitched at Houston). However, everytime he steps in front of the camera he is getting more shit on his nose.

[johngateswhiteley]

i've always been a prescriber to the idea of ignoring those that claim falsities (about you). i never understood why people were so nuts about Clemens vocally and vehemently denying the allegations...if i were him and i was clean i would have just ignored it.

anyway, i'm fairly certain he used illegal performance enhancers...seems the logical answer.

[degenerate_gambler]

He says he's going to testify before Congress. I'm on the fence about him right now honestly. I hope it's not true, although I've met the man twice and he's one of my least favorite Longhorns.

But if he's being honest about the accusations, then there should be no reason to plead the 5th. But if he invokes it just once, McNamee's credibility can probably be justified.

[DisgruntledLionFan#54,927]

Didn't Clemens say that he had no advance knowledge of what McNamee had said in the Mitchell report until after the report came out?

Hmmm...


Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte sent private investigators to conduct a taped interview with Brian McNamee the day before the release of the Mitchell Report.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/01/08/2008-01-08_brian_mcnamees_lawyers_demand_release_of.html

[JamStone]

Clemens is probably lying but so are most players denying use or saying it was only once or twice. They're all lying. Who cares? I don't think it's that big of a deal if they used steroids anyway.

[Bob Loblaw.]

Clemens needs a new lawyer.

[johngateswhiteley]

...clemens would have been better off not saying anything...not one word in response to all this, like i said in the beginning. i think he's fucked, i already believed Brian McNamee so of course i'll believe what Pettite said in his affidavit.

[FromWayDowntown]

Congress shouldn't be conducting mini-trials about matters that aren't part of the lawmaking process -- Congress isn't a law enforcement body, even though it's acting like one with these hearings.

I think Clemens is probably a user. But I'd prefer to see allegations that he's lying about that tried in a court of law, where he can be afforded constitutional protections that don't apparently exist in Congressional hearings. If Clemens violated the law, prosecute him for those crimes; if he lied under oath, prosecute him for perjury. But it's ridiculous that Congress is interjecting itself into this issue and it's all the more ridiculous that it's (apparently) going to hold a public trial without any procedural safeguards and, ultimately, expose one of these witnesses to a perjury charge in that manner.

Clemens' lawyers are fools for letting this hearing take place.

[dbreiden83080]

He would have been better off just shutting up and not saying a word at all. He was too consumed with trying to hang on to his legendary pitching status, and now he is knee deep in shit.