Eight-Year-Old Needles and the Case Against The Rocket
That was a fine garment Roger Clemens wore at his deposition this week-the grey pinstripe-although it did look eerily similar to the prison garb he’ll be wearing a few months from now.
I don’t know about you, but this sudden smoking gun in the form of decade old syringes saved by Clemens’ trainer, Brian McNamee, gives me reason for pause. Â
Who in their right mind saves medical waste for eight years?Â
Roger, Please!
So let me get this straight…
Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettite’s former trainer, while under subpoena was compelled to provide a truthful accounting of his experiences with various players or risk the governments wrath, wrath that would have him behind bars. So Mr. McNamee provided an extremely plausible accounting of his years in the New York Yankees’ employ, an accounting which described in shocking detail the process by which he injected Roger Clemens with testosterone Cypionate (a banned and illegal anabolic steroid) in 1998 and 1999 and Human Growth Hormone - HGH - in 2000 and teammate Andy Pettite with HGH in 2002. Pettite has since corroborated everything McNamee said as it related to his steroid use as have others on whom the trainer dished dirt.
The first obvious question I have is why would this man, who under the threat of jail time for perjury, drug trafficing and myriad other charges, fabricate all of this against Clemens, yet tell the truth about everything else? Clemens supposedly treated him well and they had a good working relationship according to both men, so what axe did he have to grind?
The next obvious question is why is that the Roger Clemens career statistics improved dramatically right around the time of the purported steroid use? In the mid 90’s as he reached the point where most major league pitchers see stark declines in performance, he became an average MLB pitcher and was not resigned by the Boston Red Sox out of fear that he was “in the twilight of his career.” Then the late 90’s rolled around, just the time of the alleged steroid use, and Clemens won an unprecedented 3 CY Young Awards in 5 years, 2 with the Toronto Blue Jays and 1 with The New York Yankees. Read more
