Sports and Politics: A Day in D.C. with Roger Clemens, Brian McNamee

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!