By coincidence, Roger Clemens was indicted for perjury Thursday while Andy Pettitte struggled to come off the disabled list with a groin injury. The two pitchers used to be friends and teammates on the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros but that relationship ruptured amid talk of how banned drugs could help heal injuries.
Pettitte said Clemens told him about Clemens's use of performance-enhancing drugs -- specifically human growth hormone. Clemens has denied it. Pettitte said he used HGH to recover from injury. Even if HGH really helped recovery, Pettitte would have to avoid it now that major-league players are tested for PEDs. The tests might not pick up HGH but it is hardly worth the risk.
Clemens brought the heat upon himself with his testimony before Congress in 2008 in which he acted defiant under oath toward Representatives. He also toured offices beforehand, signing autographs and posing for pictures. The effect was high-handed, as if he was saying ``Hit me with your best shot; I'm the star of the show here.''
Clemens acted as if he could bully and bamboozle Congress the way he could intimidate hitters with fastballs, up and in, or back down sports reporters groveling by his locker for post-game quotes. Maybe he will beat the rap the way so many athletes do in their young lives when they throw their stardust in the eyes of traffic cops and teachers and other authority figures.
Or, perhaps, the public revulsion toward cheaters and liars will help to make Clemens the symbolic fall guy for a tainted era. If this case comes to trial without a plea-bargain, we probably won't see and hear Clemens interrupting lawyers and judges the way he did before the committee on the Hill.
Clemens used to go by the nicknames "Rocket'' and, later, just "Rock.'' As the line in the old song has it, the time has come for "breaking rocks in the hot sun. I fought the law and the law won.''
Follow Joe Lapointe on Twitter: www.twitter.com/joelapointe
One arrogant sob who walked into Karma.
Also you'd have to prove Bush didnt believe there were WMDs. See that's what you guys don't get.
It's not enough to prove there weren't . You'd have to prove that he knew there weren't and lied and was under oath or in some forum where such lying is prosecutable.
It's not enough he was wrong, or stupid to believe it, or that you don't like him personally.
In this case, it's easier. Either he did them or he didn't. and a witness who has no reason to lie about hearing him admit it.
Most of the other alleged examples below of perjury are far more questionable with far more wiggle room and often based on the alleged liar's statement that was really opinion.
Clemons: So big, so strong, so fast, so juiced, so hostile, so what.
****
More like schmooze and blind them with star wattage. That's what the autographs, pictures, hand shaking, and talking was all about
slow balling to infamy
The puritanical streak that we drag into such discussions is horrifying to me. If I have a job that requires me to overexert my shoulder muscles until they rip, give me both human growth hormone and steroids. They weren't even illegal for many years in MLB.
Ever ask why Bush was so concerned about steroid use? To distract us from real news about war criminality. To repeat, "Bush lied, people died." There's the real revolting fact, and that we have accepted that without prosecution is a sign of our docile, acquiescent national mentality.
****
because he's a well known baseball fan.
Mays did speed, as did many others. So did Kennedy. So did a lot of peoples' grandmothers studying for college. They didn't make a habit of it. Of course, now, they'd put you away for life for it.
Steroid and human growth hormone shouldn't be used by high school kids or college kids, but we place such a premium on athletic success, and then tear the athlete's bodies up with violent sports like football that it's small wonder they use every trick in the book to bulk up.
Lying about it is natural, if stupid, with people being so revolted and angry and disgusted with people in this brave new world of purity and innocence.
Clemons is just dumb. You can lie to your wife, the fans, commisioner of baseball. But what you cant do is lie to congress. Not going to work.
Is there more to the case that I'm missing?
Oh, Roger is a jerk? Maybe. But it ain't against the law.
No money listed at this site by Clemens to anyone. though i think he was friendly with the first President Bush.
He even testified that Brian McNamee was injecting his wife
in their home with HGH while Clemens was in another room, all to cover
his butt, as it were.
Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and Bremer were guilty of war crimes starting with lying, and still unending. Clemons' crimes were victimless. Lying to Congress? Takes one to know one.