Watch Out Roger, They're Lowering The Mound

Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter said this about Roger Clemens: "I didn't like him too much when I played against him because he has always been very competitive. But he's always been a great teammate."

While it's likely that only Clemens' former teammates, Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, can bring some approximation of closure to the debate over his achievements, Capitol Hill is far from a baseball clubhouse and testifying under oath is anything but a postgame interview in the locker room.

How far we've come. Only three weeks ago, Roger Clemens was still being accused by many in print, in the blogosphere, and at bars and watercoolers across America, of hiding from the allegations against him by his trainer, Brian McNamee. It wasn't that Clemens was keeping quiet about whether he'd taken steroids, it was that the only noise he was making was through his lawyer. How could the Intimidator, the burly winner of 354 games, be so cautious and inaccessible on the question of his legacy?

Yet one lawsuit, one press conference and one 60 Minutes interview later, that question has been largely put to rest. But in its place is a more troubling one for Clemens, if he is indeed guilty: what will his teammates say once they've put their hand on the Bible?

If this were merely McNamee v Clemens, a Shakespeare-meets-Puzo-meets Halberstam chronology of favor and betrayal, you'd have to take the 7-time Cy Young winner. With the self-assurance of the classic drop-and-drive pitcher he is, Clemens has pushed off the mound he built in the sand in the form of a video denial on his website, and delivered. He has chosen the path of most resistance, and by all forecasts he will meet it. Last Sunday, he went on 60 Minutes and told Mike Wallace that if he'd taken what McNamee said, he'd have a "third ear growing out of his forehead." (Why this is seen as a credible denial is beyond me, but Alan Dershowitz, on this very site, said that if he were a jury he'd acquit.)

Then, the day after the interview was televised, Clemens filed a defamation lawsuit against McNamee and played a 17-minute taped phone conversation from three days prior. Observers will note, despite the assertion by Rusty Hardin, Clemens' lawyer, that McNamee didn't contradict Clemens in his claim of innocence, we learned basically nothing more from this conversation than the disquieting fact that McNamee has a dying son who idolizes the Rocket, and that perhaps McNamee regrets not having taken the stoic path of Barry Bonds' trainer, Greg Anderson, who chose jail time over spilling the beans on his client and benefactor.

In a nutshell, Clemens has worked this jam the way he used to pitch out of them: with the philosophy that the best defense is a good offense -- loosely translated in pitching as "I'm gonna knock your ass down." A sensitive and vengeful guy, by some accounts, Clemens has shown he'll give as good as he gets. And if it's just an ugly case of he said-she said, the burden of proof is on McNamee -- a flunky to the stars who purportedly lied to investigators in narrowly avoiding a Florida rape charge in 2001.

But it's not. The Congressional hearing on steroids that will likely precede the defamation lawsuit will feature Pettitte and Knoblauch. And baseball's warped clubhouse ethics -- in which pitchers are lauded for retaliatory plunkings of opposing hitters, and in which you never rat out a teammate -- will hardly apply under a looming threat of jail time.

Frankly, it's hard to imagine Pettitte, one of the more God-fearing players in the game, telling a lie that would put an innocent man in jail. When named in the Mitchell Report, Pettitte immediately came forward and acknowledged he'd taken human growth hormone in 2002, as alleged. Both pitchers worked out with McNamee. Is it possible that Pettitte, a close friend of Clemens who trained with him for years in New York and Houston, wouldn't have known if the Rocket took steroids? Sure. But it's not exactly credible.

Clemens' aggressive denials have had impact: Congress pushed back the players' testimony four weeks, to February 13. So when they all finally swear on the bible, federal investigator Jeff Novitzky (the heavy lifter in the cases of Barry Bonds and Marion Jones), will have had a whole month to sniff around and determine if Clemens has delivered his verbal chin music from a real mound or nothing more than a line in the sand. Clemens will be dared to perjure himself. With McNamee left with nothing to lose and Pettitte an admitted user, the Intimidator will be the only one left to knock down.

Comments

[WilliePilgrim]

You say "Capitol Hill is far from a baseball clubhouse"...evidently too far away for the likes of sports fans in congress.
Why should we care? Aren't we drowning in news about sport celebrity and scandal. It doesn't really matter...all that crap about youth looking up to sports stars...more crap from the lowest common denominator. Kids like a lot of stuff and the only reason baseball and kids are associated is because type A parents(the "A" for asshole) drive their kids to it and make a big deal out of it because...well, because they're assholes.
If any of the candidates for whom I can vote are involved with this grandstanding show of misdirection you can be sure they will not recieve my support.
And by the way, I love sports! Just not the crap that is foisted on us as if it matter'd. And why is that? Because the sports I love to participate in don't come with multi-million dollar tax frauds...let the kids swallow that nugget.

[Jey]

These poor men who have been, so called wrongly, accused. Bush will bail them out. Marion Jones, Martha Stewart and the women who have served their time...they are my heroes. Women rock. Men are pussies. Rock on girls.

[donjoe4]

The senate will have hearings on this crap...but say nothing about the criminal acts from the White House...we deserve what we get ..

[rlc41]

Marion Jones for lying under oath about something that was not against the law? Six months

Scooter for compromising a CIA agent possibly causing deaths to an unknown number of agents then lying about it? Zero, nada, none, 0, goose egg.

What the fuck is wrong with this picture? Then again perhaps the idiot in the white house might commute her sentence. Nah, would make too much sense!

[charlietuna11]

like fellow texan george bush, clemens said he didnt do anything wrong and he promises not to do it again.

[liveandlearn]

marion jones has to spend six months in jail away from the infant she is currently breast feeding as well as her four year old. this is in contrast to roger clemens, who says he didn't do it, as she used to say.

what justice is served?

as for george w. bush, he is mentally incapable, and i hate to say that because by the 25th amendment it could make richard cheney president. let's hurry up and impeach both of them.

[bushdoescrack]

clemmen's big pumpkin head is an indicator that he used steroids.

[Quaoar]

"Frankly, it's hard to imagine Pettitte, one of the more God-fearing players in the game, telling a lie that would put an innocent man in jail."

Actually, it's easy to believe that any player, god-fearing or not, would lie or omit information to protect their own reputation. Among MLB players, it may be better to be thought of as a one time drug user than a tattletale.

[NABNYC]

I've never seen such an enormous waste of taxpayer money as this Congressional nonsense about steroids in baseball. Can't these Senators and Representatives think of anything worthwhile to do with their time other than go watch baseball games? And the fact that I'm paying for it makes me sick. What a great diversion from the war, inflation, unemployment, housing disasters. Man how stupid are we?

I would love to see Congress go out and conduct hearings about people in some other industry who smoke. You want to get concerned about people's health habits? How many people die from smoking every year compared to steroids? Steroids is a non-issue.

You want baseball to prohibit steroids? Pass a law saying everybody has to pee in a cup once a week. Done. Do it in one day and stop wasting time and wasting my money.

This is what this whole ridiculous thing comes down to: some guy says Clemens did, and Clemens said he did not. And Andy Pettite did twice? In his whole career?

Let's have hearings on how many times George W. Bush used cocaine. Now there's a position in which drug-induced psychosis is a real concern to the nation, because it could lead some lunatic to start unnecessary wars against other countries.

Or still better. Let's have hearings about every single member of Congress who ever used drugs and got a blow job from someone other than their spouse.

But enough with the baseball already.