Clemens Guilty Until Proven Innocent

For weeks now, since he was named in the now infamous Mitchell Commission Report on steroid use in baseball, I have followed the Roger Clemens/Brian McNamee saga with great interest. Once a hero to me as a member of the Boston Red Sox in the mid 80's-early 90's, Clemens became a pariah to Sox fans when he let himself go physically his last several years with the team, left as a free agent without so much as a "Thank you" to the fans and signed with the division rival Toronto Blue Jays (where he won back-to-back Cy Youngs in 1997 and 1998). The only thing worse than that would have been his signing with the Yankees; Clemens took care of that in 1999 and officially became dead to me as a Sox fan.

Much like nobody really questioned the assaults on the record books by artificially bulked up hitters such as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in the 90's, nobody really questioned how Clemens went from a player who won 30 games total his last 3 years in Boston and looked close to finished to one who won 41 with more than 550 strikeouts in 2 years with the Jays and continued this revival with the Yankees. Until now, that is. With his naming in the Mitchell report and revelations from former Clemens trainer Brian McNamee that he injected the seven-time Cy Young Award winner with steroids and human growth hormone 16-21 times in 1998, 2000 and 2001, Clemens now finds himself square in the crosshairs of federal investigators and Congress who seek clarification of his role in the fraud that was baseball's steroid era.

Now, of course, there is always the presumption of innocence until proven guilty when it comes to the American legal system. As much personal animosity as I have towards Clemens, I do understand in principle that even he deserves the opportunity to tell his side of the story and defend himself. And while a lot of the Clemens/McNamee situation boils down to he said/he said - Clemens claims McNamee injected him with only the painkiller lidocaine and the vitamin B-12 - the reality is that if you look at Clemens' actions since the release of the report, he is hardly behaving in a manner consistent with someone who is innocent. For starters, he did not immediately come out swinging as most would have when the Mitchell bombshell dropped in mid-December. And when Clemens eventually did address the matter, he did so via a statement through his attorney, Rusty Hardin, and a video on his website.

Clemens "60 Minutes" Interview - Part I

Clemens "60 Minutes" Interview - Part II

Clemens continued the media parade by doing an interview with Mike Wallace (Yankees fan, by the way) on "60 Minutes." In the interview, which aired January 6th, he continued to vehemently deny McNamees's allegations and also denied having advance knowledge that he would be named in the Mitchell report. This despite the fact that Mitchell sent two letters to the Major League Baseball Players' Association seeking comment from Clemens in advance of the report's release. Once again, this was carefully choreographed theater with Clemens playing the "Woe is me" card and being outright dishonest about the fact that he was blindsided by the allegations.

In a bizarre development just prior to the airing of the "60 Minutes" interview, Clemens and McNamee spoke by phone with Clemens' lawyer in the room taping the conversation. The tape is revealing in that at no point does McNamee indicate a willingness to say that Clemens did not use steroids, and McNamee also implies that he is telling the truth and would of course face jail time if he lied to the feds. Unlike Barry Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson, McNamee would not go to jail to protect his former client. The "60 Minutes" interview was followed up the next day by Clemens first actual press conference since the release of the report - a full 3 weeks after the report's release. In the press conference, an outright hostile Clemens lambasted the press for its treatment of him and lobbed a grenade at Hall of Fame voters when he said "You think that I played my career because I'm worrying about the damn Hall of Fame? If you have a vote and it's (turned) because of this, you keep your vote."

The way things are going for Roger right now, whether or not he makes it to the Hall of Fame should be the least of his concerns. His legacy has been tarnished and the trainer who Clemens claims is lying has already been proven correct once when his testimony that Andy Pettitte, a longtime friend and teammate of Clemens, used human growth hormone was confirmed by Pettitte. I wonder just what exactly a trainer with no medical degree was doing with the prescription drug lidocaine, as opposed to a team doctor. First of all how did he get it, and why would he inject it in Clemens' rear end, as Clemens claimed, when it is normally injected in one's arm? And just exactly why would McNamee tell the truth about Pettitte but lie about Clemens? Furthermore, why would he lie about Clemens to federal investigators knowing full well that if he did so he would go to prison?

Who knows just how much of the truth will come out when Clemens, McNamee and Pettitte, among others, testify before Congress on February 13th. Maybe Clemens will take the 5th like Mark McGwire did in 2005, mysteriously drop a bunch of weight and disappear from public view. Actually, that wouldn't be so bad, never having to see or hear from Roger Clemens again.