The “60 Minutes”, Roger Clemens piece will be airing tomorrow night. This Yahoo/AP article has this bit of info.
In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” to be aired Sunday night, Clemens admits he was injected by McNamee but with painkillers and vitamin B-12 — not performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens also told CBS that McNamee’s accusation was “ridiculous” and said he “never” used banned substances.
Is Clemens changing his story? It seemed like I remember Clemens, in his own video statement, saying that Brian McNamee did not inject him with any drugs. I was wrong here is what he did say.
no, I did not use steroids, human growth hormone and I’ve never done so. I did not provide Brian McNamee with any drugs to inject into my body. Brian McNamee did not inject steroids or human growth hormones into my body either when I played with the Blue Jays in Toronto or, the New York Yankees. This report is um. simply not true.
He did not provide Brian McNamee with any drugs to inject into his body; provide. See, he left the door open there. Hey may have taken drugs (painkillers but not steroids) but, he didn’t provide them.
This may seem like a very minor point; like nitpicking. This is the kind of thing that can keep Clemens free of a perjury charge. Last month it was being reported that the players identified in the Mitchell Report would not be called to testify before congress. Now the news is that several players, including Clemens and his sidekick, Andy Pettite, have been invited to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Jan. 16; under oath.
Here is one scenario. Andy Pettite, who has admitted to taking HGH at the hand of McNamee, might be asked if he ever saw Clemens being injected by McNamee. Which, given the fact that the two were work-out buddies, is not unlikely. But, would Pettite be able to say, with complete certainty, that those injections were steroids or HGH? Unlikely.
So, Clemens, by saying this one little phrase; ” I did not provide Brian McNamee with any drugs to inject into my body”, allows him to cover his tracks. He then tells noted steroid expert and respected baseball authority, Mike Wallace, that he was injected but, with pain medication.
It all seems very strategic because it keeps the dialogue in the “my word against his word” realm. It takes the eyewitness possibility out of the equation.
Clemens may be telling the truth, who knows? That’s the whole point. He and McNamee know the truth. So, unless McNamee goes before the House Oversight Committee and says; “I did not inject Roger Clemens with steroids or HGH. The Mitchell Report is false”, then, one of these guys will be committing perjury.
Which one?
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Tags: Andy Pettite, Brian McNamee, Mike Wallace, Mitchell Report, Roger Clemens
phlembol wrote,
I can’t help but feel we are wasting time trying to keep sports “clean”. For every test that comes along there will be another drug that won’t show up. It is an endless battle that will be lost in the end I think. And what do you do if someone comes along with evidence that someone in the record book for years got there with illegal drugs? Do you go back and change it? What a nest of snakes that would be.
phlembol’s last blog post..Ron Paul with Bill Moyers 01/04/08
Link | January 7th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Pribek wrote,
“And what do you do if someone comes along with evidence that someone in the record book for years got there with illegal drugs?”
Well phlembol, it seems to me like that is exactly what’s going on here with the Mitchell Report. Not only were a lot of players cheating, coaches, owners of teams, including Bud Selig, and organizations were complicit. You can’t go back and change the records but, what you can do is “define” the era. When you look at Ty Cobb’s numbers, you take into account the fact that he was hitting a dead ball. When you look at Babe Ruth’s numbers, you must consider that black players were not allowed therefore, he wasn’t facing the best of the best.
Now we have started to define the steroid era. I think that has to be done before you can move on and even consider the idea of keeping the sdport “clean” as you say.
Link | January 7th, 2008 at 8:49 am