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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The Congressional Hearings Of Roger Clemens Vs Brian McNamee Thus Far

9:55 A.M.

Well, right now we are just moments away from the big show. The ESPN guys are speculating and filling in time until the congressional hearing begins.

Something new and interesting was revealed though. Andy Pettitte, in his statement yesterday, said he took HGH in 2004....and his father provided Pettitte with those steroids. Imagine that.

I agree with the statement that this is reality television at its finest.

10:11 A.M.

Chairman Henry Waxman, among many claims, made the statement that the sole purpose of this congressional hearing is to confirm the accuracy of the Mitchell Report (not to make Clemens look bad, which will probably happen). Roger Clemens promptly denied steroid use, despite his name being listed 82 times in the Mitchell Report. Therefore, the committee wants to be certain whether they made any mistakes in the report or not. McNamee and Clemens claim to be telling the truth, yet their accounts are completely different. There is nothing in between. After this hearing, there will be no more hearings on steroids in baseball or the Mitchell report, or so Waxman claims.

10:20 A.M.

I agree with ESPN's Jayson Stark's point. This is clearly a lopsided hearing in McNamee's favor. Within the first two minutes of his opening remarks, Rep. Henry Waxman called the Mitchell report "impressive and credible." That tells you exactly what Rep. Waxman believes, and, more importantly, whom he believes.

It's as if the committee has already made up their mind before this hearing started and they are only entertaining Clemens to keep him temporarily at bay. After all, the members of the committee are the ones who assigned George Mitchell to create his report, or so I believe.

10:36 A.M

Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee just swore to tell the truth UNDER OATH. Why do I point this out? Because this is the reason why one of the two men is going to be charged for perjury.

Also, Clemens' lawyers helped talk Waxman out of not canceling this hearing, saying it would be "unfair" to cancel the hearing without giving Roger a chance to testify publicly.

Clemens, in his opening statement, firmly DENIED using steroids or HGH.
McNamee, in his opening statement, CONFIRMED injecting Clemens, Pettitte, and Chuck Knoblauch with steroids and HGH. He also made an apology statement.
Rep. Waxman made it obvious somebody is going to be charged with perjury once this hearing concludes -- because "it's impossible to believe this was a simple misunderstanding. Someone isn't telling the truth."

Now stop right here.....Why would McNamee claim to have injected Pettitte and Knoblauch with steroids (both of which have been confirmed to be true), but for some reason make up a story about injecting Clemens? That makes no sense and McNamee has no reason to lie. That's enough evidence for me to believe Clemens is lying, unless he can prove me wrong in his later testimony.

10:51 A.M.

That was laughable. Clemens agreed Pettitte is a very reliable man based on numerous sources, but then Clemens said Pettitte was wrong about their conversation involving steroids. Clemens said Pettitte "misremembers" the conversation. Can you say "contradiction" on Clemens' part?
Don't you think that's odd? I mean, how can you forget a conversation like that. Well, one thing is sure....Pettitte's testimony really did come in handy and it's making Clemens look stupid. Even Pettitte's wife's testimonies are damaging Clemens' credibility.

11:11 A.M.

I don't understand the whole Clemens bleeding through the pants angle and buying bandages. Is that supposed to be a joke back in 2001 or some kind of evidence?
Rep. Davis reported that McNamee had testified that Mike Stanton once noticed that Clemens was bleeding through his dress pants -- which caused him to start carrying band aids around, presumably for his bleeding butt.
Prompting the following exchange: Rep. Davis: "Mr. Clemens, do you recall bleeding through your pants in 2001?" Clemens: "I do not." Yet, you can't just imagine this stuff.

Also, Jose Canseco claims in his statements that Clemens never went to his barbecue in 1998 and Clemens proved he was playing golf that day. However, I do not believe this is critical evidence in Clemens' steroid use.

11:20 A.M.

Very interesting how Clemens admits to taking B-12 and says McNamee injected him with B-12. McNamee, however, denied injecting Clemens with B-12.
Also, Clemens denied talking to McNamee about HGH 3 times in the early part of his deposition, but in his later deposition he talked to McNamee twice about HGH in regards to his wife getting the injections from McNamee. We have some credibility issues on Clemens' part here.
Make this clear...if you're going to lie, make sure you remember what you said.
Give Clemens some credit though....he's keeping his cool under the hot lights.

11:32 A.M.

Brian McNamee kept the needles he used to inject Clemens because he claimed to be Clemens' friend, but yet had deep mistrust for him. He also kept Chuck Knoblauch's needles too. He felt horrible about being in the position he was in and didn't give the needles to Mitchell immediately when he was making his report. Basically, McNamee admitted to lying on numerous occasions and the congressman actually stated he doesn't believe McNamee at all. This is actually a strong testimony to help Clemens.
Rep. Dan Burton was all over McNamee, wondering about a question many of us have asked: Why would he ever have held onto vials and syringes for five years that could implicate a friend? "He was my employer," McNamee answered.
Burton: "You do this to all your employers?"
McNamee stammered an answer about how he'd "done things before for other people and gotten hurt by it, so I might as well hold onto it."
Burton asked why he didn't give this evidence to the Mitchell investigators immediately. "Because I felt horrible being in the position I was in," McNamee said.
Burton: "You kept needles for five years ... and kept working for him ... and now you say you felt bad?"
McNamee: "No, sir."
Burton: "My goodness."
However, that congressman really annoyed me with his rant about how the law works and how McNamee is trying to breakdown Clemens' career. That wasn't the purpose of this current case and its looks like he just wanted to get that off his chest.

11:48 A.M.

Clemens' side effects from recovering from an injury, based on MRI results from a very reputable doctor and McNamee, was more likely caused by steroids, rather than B-12 shots. Clemens denied that these side effects were from steroid shots. However, no one can seem to remember Clemens' side effects, except McNamee. The congressman is firm in saying that Clemens had to have received a B-12 shot. Score one for Clemens?

Interesting, I didn't know McNamee was a former police officer. Why would a police officer, who is supposed to uphold the legal law, give players illegal steroids? What irony. That's like a fire truck catching on fire.

12:10 P.M.

A very good point was made. Nowhere in the Mitchell report does it say, regardless if Clemens' showed up at Canseco's house in 1998 or not, that they discussed or shared steroids. So, throw that whole Canseco argument out the window.

12:20 P.M.

Clemens claimed 6 times he had no idea Senator Mitchell wanted to talk to him when his report was released, but on 60 Minutes Clemens told Mike Wallace that he knew Mitchell wanted to talk, but his council advised him not to. I don't know how this helps, but I thought I'd mention it. I guess, if anything, this is an attempt to damage Clemens' credibility

12:45 P.M.

The most pointless 5 minutes belongs to Rep. John Mica. He spent his entire line of questioning trying to determine the color of the various injections these two guys claim were given.
For anyone interested, Winstrol is a "powdery white," while testosterone was "oily" and "honey-colored" and HGH, when added to water, was "clear." And Clemens testified that B-12 was "red or pink."

Whew, a 15 minute break. Well, if Clemens does go to jail, at least he'll go to heaven, according to a congress woman. So far, Clemens appears to be squirming more in his seat than McNamee.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Congressional Committe mostly is pro Clemens, based on their comments today. As usual, Congressmen have a personal reason to take a particluar stance and these guys ( and even the old lady) obviously have some reason to support Clemens. Only the Chairman seems to be fair and reasonable