What in the wide world of sports is this country coming to?
Sports on every channel: CNN, MSNBC, Fox News...heck, even C-SPAN!
Memo to C-SPAN: If I want to watch sports and sports news I have ESPN, Comcast Sports Net, the NFL Network, the NBA Network, the Golf Network, Versus, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, and ESPN News.
If I need to know who is and isn’t on steroids, I have the Mitchell Report, Jose Canseco’s book, and that book about Barry Bonds.
Of course, C-SPAN's coverage brings up another important question: What the hell are my elected representatives doing holding hearings (again!) on SPORTS?
When the stress caused by Kevin Garnett’s abdomen injury, the Patriots choking away the Super Bowl, Kobe Bryant’s finger keeping him out of the three-point shooting contest, and worrying whether or not Jason Kidd is going to kill Devean George gets to be too much, I like to calm down by tuning into C-SPAN and watching grumpy old men and women debate things that just don’t matter.
You know, things like healthcare, the Iraq war, taxes, the undervalued dollar, foreclosures, oil prices…the boring junk us Americans just don’t care about.
If this is so important, why don't we ask Clinton and Obama whether they believe McNamee or Clemens during the next presidential debate?
I repeat, what in God’s name is this country coming to?!
When in Rome, I guess…
If it’s important enough for Henry Waxman, I guess it’s important enough for Bleacher Report.
We can get into McNamee and how badly he came off, but frankly it’s not relevant to a sports-related discussion.
Suffice to say, McNamee is ruined. He admitted to not being completely truthful with investigators. He admitted to peddling illegal drugs. He admitted to lying to investigators on numerous occasions.
That said, where it was important, he ended up extremely credible. It was Clemens who, as the hearing went on, lost more and more of his credibility as his convoluted story came out.
McNamee claimed that he injected Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, and Debbie Clemens with either HGH, steroids, or both. This is what Clemens would lead you to believe:
Clemens expects us to believe McNamee told the truth about everyone except for him.
Clemens expects us to believe that his wife, one day out of the blue, asked McNamee to inject her with HGH.
Clemens expects us to believe that he knew nothing about this.
He expects us to believe that his wife somehow knew McNamee could get HGH but her husband, who employed and spent a good deal of his life with him, didn’t.
He expects us to believe that Pettitte “mis-remembered” two separate conversations about Clemens’ HGH use.
He expects us to believe that an abscess that developed on his butt came from a B12 shot, even though B12 shots are not known to cause such things and steroids commonly do.
He expects us to believe that he was “trying to help” when he first didn’t give over the name of his former nanny, then met with her in person prior to giving her information to the Congressional committee.
He expects us to believe he wasn't trying to influence a potential witness' testimony. He was just trying to catch up on old times.
He expects us to believe that he really thought the bat he fired at Mike Piazza was a baseball…because whenever there’s a chopper back to the mound you always fire it directly at the runner.
Sorry, lost track of Clemens’ stories for a second there.
It just doesn’t add up.
Clemens is either the dumbest person on the planet—or he’s innocent. And the evidence doesn’t suggest innocence.
McNamee is not a credible person, but his testimony is made credible by the supporting evidence. Pettitte makes him credible. Knoblauch makes him credible. Roger Clemens’ own testimony helps to make McNamee credible.
Roger Clemens spent four and a half hours throwing everyone he knows under the bus to save his own ass.
It was amazing watching his wife sit behind him and just take it.
His mother told him about B12 shots.
The Blue Jays' medical staff caused the abscess on his butt.
He was too kind and trusting of a man to question what McNamee was doing.
Pettitte is a liar (or a mis-rememberer).
His wife is a moron who allows other men to sneak into their bedroom and inject her in the butt with stuff she knows nothing about.
His agents never told him he was under investigation.
The players association told him not to testify.
Bud Selig didn’t try hard enough to get in touch with him.
Everyone is to blame except for Roger, who is a saint, loves everyone, kisses babies, and according to one Congresswoman, is certainly on his way to heaven.
I went into Wednesday thinking Clemens was a decent guy who did anything he could to get an edge.
I came out of Wednesday thinking that Roger Clemens is a complete jerk who will destroy anyone and anything if it makes him look bad. His reputation comes before everything and everyone else.
Don't like it? Too bad. He pitched for the US in the World Baseball Classic, for God's sake! That's serving his country, damn it!
So, what did we accomplish?
In the end, absolutely nothing was accomplished.
We saw a sad, pathetic man attempt to stick to his story under the face of extreme pressure (mostly from the Republicans).
We saw a determined, but just as pathetic man attempt to stick to his story at all costs (the biggest probably being a perjury investigation by the justice department).
We saw a Congress that could have been doing something constructive waste yet another day grandstanding for the cameras, and in some cases proving how incredibly stupid they are, discussing sports.
More tax dollars well spent.
Can’t wait for the Spygate hearings next month!
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5 months ago
Oh...Jose Canseco is having another pool party in about a months time in honor of the release of his new book. Your family can come but they have to supply their own syringes however—that's just how they roll I guess. I completely agree though, there are tons of better things to spend time dissecting than...well...this. This story has gotten so weird, so unbelievable, so strange, that I just don't care anymore. I mean, Clemen's wife was even getting injections. As they said on PTI the other day: "What's next, they start injecting the dog and he starts walking on his hind legs?" What's pinpointing Clemens and ousting him going to do? Aside from the boatload of legal trouble, he'll miss out on the Hall of Fame, meanwhile there's probably guys in there now that did some sort of steroid, and there WILL be players in there from the steroid era who either weren't ousted, or won't be made into nearly as big a deal as this.
5 months ago
Fantastic, fantastic analysis Sean.
The first (and most important point) you make is dead on: WHY THE HELL ARE TAX DOLLARS BEING SPENT ON THIS? WHY ARE OUR ELECTED LEADERS WASTING THEIR TIME DELVING INTO THE ISSUES OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS WHEN THERE ARE REAL PROBLEMS OUR COUNTRY IS FACING THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED?
As for Clemens: he really is proving to be a despicable character at this point.
I don't think Clemens should be in this situation in the first place—but he is. If it were up to me then no professional athlete would have to testify before congress for using performance enhancing drugs, and extensive measures would be taken to rid the game of steroids and HGH in the future. The past would be the past, and we wouldn't devout our nation's resources to figuring out who juiced and who didn't. MLB would deal with the problem and that would be the end of it.
But it isn't up to me. And it isn't up to Clemens either.
The situation is what it is, and Clemens needs to accept that. In his attempts to skirt the truth and sell out his friends and family, he is in fact ruining his reputation rather than protecting it.
His selfishness and willingness to lie under oath is downright disgusting. But then again: what can you expect from a guy who named all his kids after strikeouts?
from 5 months ago
Zander, I'm sure that Koby, Kacy, Kory, and Kody are very nice people haha.
from 5 months ago
Funny thing about the government wasting money on this: My last comment about the Spygate hearings was a half-joke. Then I see the news today.
And meanwhile, I'm paying a ridiculous amount of taxes and can't afford heating oil or enough gas to drive to work. Never mind paying the mortgage...
But by all means, spend my tax dollars on investigating athletes and teams....
5 months ago
This whole issue is very troubling to me. For one I do not think there should be hearings on this subject. Let MLB deal with this not Congress. Two, my opinions aside, there is no proof that Clemens did anything, maybe he did, but for the most part we are taking the word of a loser who peddled drugs- McNamee. The facts that we know are this: One, HGH was no illegal for players to take when Clemens allegedly took it, I am not even sure of its legality or illegality period at this time. Two, Clemens was a great pitcher before this and taking this did not change that. Three, Clemens had an intense training regiment and that alone would produce his fitness, HGH did not propel him through this regiment. There is no proof that Clemens took anything, there is no smoking syringe. At the end of the day this whole matter does nothing to change my life. I would like to take Clemens for his word simply because one would have to think that if he did take HGH then he is an idiot for pushing so adamantly that he didn't. One could saw "He doth protesteth too much," but not this much. I think if he took something he would have just stayed quiet. And now this "trainer" is saying that he injected his Clemens' wife. McNamee's story has been too inconsistent. What about the Petite factor? I didn't Hear what Petite said but its possible that a conversation with Clemens was misunderstood, I do not know. I just don't think that Roger is that dumb. That and I think we need more than assuming to destroy a mans career. I mean Clemens was a hell of a pitcher, he deserves to be in the Hall. There is no proof and this is his career, his legacy, this is the culmination of all his hard work. I think we just need to do more than assume to erase all that. Even for Bonds. I hate Bonds, I think he is an arrogant jerk, but I don't think there is proof, well yet- I haven't read up on the supposed steroid tests that he failed. And Bonds looks more guilty than anyone. Until I see a failed test or a picture of a syringe sticking out of Clemens' ass I think we should give the man the benefit of the doubt. I have no idea if he did anything. All I know is that he earned his Hall spot before he supposedly used any drug. I honestly do not know why baseball players see the need for steroids, maybe Shoeless Joe Jackson's little tricks to strengthen his eye's would be a better solution. I just don't trust people who procure drugs and then admit to injecting people with drugs. And it was ridiculous when he had all this refuse from supposedly injecting Roger, used syringes and HGH bottles. One problem, Roger wasn't in these pictures. And he honestly seemed to think that this was a smoking gun and it couldn't just be a random pile of garbage.
Bottom line: I think that until there is proof, real proof, then we shouldn't dismantle a great ballplayers career and legacy. But that's just me, what do I know?
from 5 months ago
Debbie Clemens says McNamee injected her. So he's telling the truth there. And there's plenty of evidence, it's just all circumstantial. Not enough to convict in a court, but plenty enough for a rational person to draw his or her own conclusions.
I agree on the used syringes...more disgusting than anything else. Certainly can't be used as evidence.
Why would McNamee tell the truth about everyone, then lie about Clemens? It's hard to give Clemens the benefit of the doubt given the evidence at hand...
5 months ago
Linda Chavez, author, actually just wrote a really good column about how much of a waste of time this case was. The url is www.creators.com/opinion/linda-chavez.html.
from 5 months ago
Great article. Thanks for the link.
5 months ago
What do steroids shrink? I forgot—oh wait, as Clemens put his naive mask on, the image entered my mind.
So according to Clemens, did I "re-remember"?
Great article, I am in total agreement with you.
5 months ago
My new name for Roger Clemens is the Eqyptian
because he's in de-nile
5 months ago
My new name for Roger Clemens is the Eqyptian
because he's in de-nile
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