Jeter, Rivera, and Pettitte Could Testify Against Clemens

Yankees%29&utm_content=Google+Reader">According to Nathaniel Vinton of the NY Daily News, Brian McNamee’s defense attorney has current Yankees Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, and Mariano Rivera listed among those he could call to testify against Roger Clemens. Clemens is currently appealing a decision by a judge to throw out a defamation suit the Rocket brought against his former trainer.

Here is more from the Daily News:

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The Yankees have never relished the destructive defamation suit former pinstripe hero Roger Clemens brought two years ago against his accuser, former Yankee trainer Brian McNamee, but bigger headaches for the club may yet lie ahead according to a new appeals-court brief issued by McNamee’s defense attorneys.

A footnote deep in the 60-page brief lists current Yankee stars Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, and Derek Jeter as witnesses McNamee might call to the stand for sworn testimony about Clemens’ purported use of steroids and human growth hormone. Also listed among potential witnesses for McNamee is Angela Moyer, an alleged mistress of Clemens who tended bar near the Upper East Side apartment where McNamee said he visited Clemens after Yankee games to inject the pitcher with steroids and human growth hormone (Clemens has testified he thought the syringes contained vitamin B12).

The brief, which McNamee’s attorneys sent Friday to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, portrays Clemens’ defamation suit as nearly dead in the water. It comes in response to Clemens’ appeal of a lower court’s ruling last year that eviscerated the suit, which Clemens first brought against McNamee on Jan. 6, 2008, three weeks after a report by former Senator George Mitchell first publicized McNamee’s accusations.

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Thoughts: I can’t see how any Yankee fan would like this news. You might think that Clemens’ friendship with the trio might somehow mean they are less likely to actually get called in to testify, but this is actually McNamee who would be calling them. So it is hard to say what will happen. Obviously you hope that if any of them do get called it’s Pettitte the day after he pitches. Even if they all do get called, it’s not like any of the three had a lot to do with him taking steroids so it’ll probably be over shortly.

We’ll obviously pass along any news if this does eventually lead to any players missing time.

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