Clemens Ups The Ante

O.K., I did watch the Roger Clemens “60 Minutes” piece on Sunday. My impression was that he was angry about McNamee’s allegations. But, the anger seemed to be more like that of a child who doesn’t get his way than that of a justified man.

The problem with a he said-he said situation is, impressions, how things seem, are all you have to go on.

When Mike Wallace asked Clemens why he did not talk to George Mitchell when asked, Clemens said he was acting on the advice of counsel. I don’t get that. If he would have talked to Mitchell, he would have been on record, in the official report denying the charges of steroid use. To me, it seems like bad legal advice. Wallace asked Clemens if he knew that McNamee had made the allegations and Clemens said he had no idea. Again, that doesn’t seem likely. If a former Senator contacts you and says he wants to talk to you for his “Report On Steroid Use In Baseball”, what would you think he wants to discuss?

So, next we have the news that Clemens is going to sue McNamee for defamation of character and a truly bizarre spectacle of a press conference. The feature of said press conference was a 17 minute, phone conversation, taped on January 4, between Clemens and Brian McNamee. It was just strange. The premise is that McNamee e-mailed Clemens to tell of his 10-year-old son’s very serious medical condition. Clemens then sets up a sort of sting operation. He (Clemens), gathers his team of lawyers around, rolls tape and calls McNamee under the guise of offering sympathy but, in reality Clemens is rooting around for dirt to use in the defamation suit.

There is 17 minutes of Clemens saying he wants the truth to come out and, McNamee saying, “What do you want me to do?”, repeatedly. At no time does McNamee say “I lied”. At no time does Clemens say, “You lied”.

Then, Clemens stood up to answer questions from the reporters present. He talked about the millions he would have to “shell out” to defend his honor. He asked; “How can you prove a negative, how can you prove you’re innocent?” When, ironically that is exactly what he has to do to win a defamation suit. He said he didn’t give a “rat’s ass” about the Hall of Fame. He was visibly irritated and angry and, after a short while, said this, before walking off.

“I made a statement through this man (attorney, Rusty Hardin) when it first happened. I made a statement through my foundation. That wasn’t good enough. And now I’m here doing this. I cannot wait to go into the private sector and hopefully never have to answer it again. I’ve said enough.”

The “private sector”?

Here’s the thing, at this point, unless somebody (McNamee or Clemens) trips up or confesses to lying, all you have is impressions. That’s all you have to go on. At this point, I don’t think Clemens has done himself any favors by not meeting initially with Mitchell, not personally and publicly denying the charge immediately, the “60 Minutes” appearance, the contrived phone call or the surreal press conference. As a matter fact, the way he conducted himself yesterday (flustered, angry, irrational) reminded me of how a couple of steroid popping, body builders I know were acting at a party I threw several years ago.

Who knows though? It will be interesting to see what happens when these guys go before congress on the 16th. Hopefully Clemens won’t suddenly forget how to speak English, ala Sammy Sosa. And, I don’t think, after all of this mess he’ll be able to say: “I’m not here to talk about the past”, like Mark McGwire.