I really, really, really don’t want to write about this, so I’ll just lay it out there. Roger Clemens is suing Brian McNamee for defamation, stemming from McNamee’s testimony to the Mitchell investigation. Wake me when this is over.
Update by Ben: A copy of the suit is available here as a PDF for those interested. One of us will take a look through it later in a post.
As we all get ready to ignore watch Roger Clemens’ appearance on 60 Minutes tonight, take a read through this excellent piece at Baseball Analysts by Pat Jordan. In it, he discusses his experiences covering Roger Clemens in 2001. The focus is, of course, on Clemens’ relationship with Brian McNamee and the way the Rocket would seemingly blindly follow McNamee, who Jordan calls “sour, suspicious, and taciturn.” It certainly makes me wonder why teams would so accepting of these sketchy trainers during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Scott Proctor’s Arm directs our attention to a piece in The Daily News about Roger Clemens. This time, Hank Steinbrenner opened his month and smart words flowed out: The Yankees will not be signing Clemens in 2008. Well, phew. Talk about $20 million poorly spent.
This is just weird. As per The Post’s Yankees Blog, Roger Clemens’ people are on the prowl:
Roger Clemens’ attorney has launched his own investigation into whether the Yankees pitcher used performance-enhancing substances as the Mitchell Report claimed.
“We are convinced the conclusions in Mitchell’s report are wrong and are investigating the findings ourselves,” lawyer Rusty Hardin told The New York Times. “At this stage we have uncovered a lot of logical people who we thought Mitchell was going to talk to but never talked to him or his investigators. That’s troubling.”
Who knows if this is all just for show? No one else in the Mitchell Report is doing much denying, and no one’s launching their own investigation. But no one else in the report is one of the top pitchers of all time with a Hall of Fame reputation on the line.
I hope Clemens’ people release their own version of the report, and I have to wonder if this will be a farce of an investigation or the thing that brings down the Mitchell Report. Either way, this is one surreal development.
Roger Clemens posted a video on YouTube in which he defends himself from the accusations in the Mitchell Report. Take a look:
As ESPN reports, Clemens will sit for a 60 Minutes interview in an effort to clear his name.
We’re a bit Mitchell’ed out around here, but I’m breaking the steroids embargo to bring you this hot news: Roger Clemens has vehemently denied the allegations against him in the Mitchell Report.
His statement, if you please:
“I want to state clearly and without qualification: I did not take steroids, human growth hormone or any other banned substances at any time in my baseball career or, in fact, my entire life. Those substances represent a dangerous and destructive shortcut that no athlete should ever take.
“I am disappointed that my 25 years in public life have apparently not earned me the benefit of the doubt, but I understand that Senator Mitchell’s report has raised many serious questions. I plan to publicly answer all of those questions at the appropriate time in the appropriate way. I only ask that in the meantime people not rush to judgment.”
Who knows the truth? Not I.
T.R. Sullivan, MLB.com reporter and one-time head of the Baseball Writers Association, looks at Roger Clemens’ Hall of Fame chances in the wake of the Mitchell Report. Some members of the media are already saying they won’t vote for him despite the flimsy nature of the evidence. Apparently, some voters have said unequivocally that they won’t vote for anyone who appears in the report no matter the context while others, such as John Hickey as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, still believe that innocent until proven guilty should rule the day. Clemens has the luxury of five years’ distance from the report before he lands on the ballot. Lucky him.