Clemens to address media on Monday

Clemens to address media on Monday
Session will take place after appearance on '60 Minutes

HOUSTON -- Roger Clemens will address reporters in Houston on Monday, the day after his interview with Mike Wallace runs on "60 Minutes."

Clemens plans to meet with the media at 4 p.m. CT at a yet-to-be-determined site in downtown Houston. Although most of the questions will likely be answered during the "60 Minutes" interview, Monday's meeting will be the first time Clemens will speak face-to-face with reporters other than Wallace.

Clemens originally planned to address reporters immediately after the show, but an agreement with "60 Minutes" to grant them exclusivity encompasses the West Coast airing as well. Not wanting to conduct a media briefing as late as 10 p.m. on Sunday, Clemens will instead talk the next day.

"It was simply a request from '60 Minutes' that we treat the interview as exclusive -- and Roger agreed that he wouldn't do any other interviews until after it aired to honor that request," said Joe Householder, the managing director of Public Strategies Inc. and the handler of the public relations efforts on Clemens' behalf.

Clemens, through his attorney, has issued several denials regarding his former trainer's allegations that the seven-time All-Star used steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001. Brian McNamee, who trained both Clemens and Andy Pettitte, gave a detailed account of Clemens' alleged steroid use in the Mitchell Report, which was released on Dec. 13.

Two days before Christmas, Clemens posted a video denial on his personal Web site and on Youtube.com.

"Let me be clear -- the answer is no, I did not use steroids, human growth hormone, and I've never done so," Clemens said during the one-minute, 48-second video. "I did not provide Brian McNamee with any drugs to inject into my body. Brian McNamee did not inject steroids or human growth hormone into my body, either when I played in Toronto for the Blue Jays, or the New York Yankees. This report is simply not true."

Clemens taped the interview with "60 Minutes" last week in Houston. According to several New York Times reports, McNamee has hired Richard D. Emery, a lawyer who specializes in libel and defamation, and the two plan to sue Clemens if Clemens says on "60 Minutes" that McNamee was lying when he said he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs.

"He's got a chance to protect himself," Emery said to the Times. "We're not going to sue him if he doesn't do it. But if he does it, we're going to sue him."

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Jerry Green
Detroit News

Could Clemens have been framed?

My rooted image of Roger Clemens was that he was a self-serving blowhard with a preening gait and a frightening fastball who never minded sticking the ball into some batter's ribs. He pitched with excellence, and he knew it. That notion has not changed.

But America's perception of Clemens, the most successful pitcher of the past quarter-century, has changed from the excellent to the terrible.

He has become the poster person of Major League Baseball's accusatory Mitchell Report. The fingering of Clemens as a user of steroids and human growth hormones was the most shocking revelation of the condemning document.


What bothers me is Roger might have been framed! We truly don't know.

George Mitchell, the former senator from Maine, has attested he conducted a thorough investigation before writing the 409-page report. He has said the testimony of his witnesses was truthful and believable.

The testimony is likely going to prevent Clemens from going to the Baseball Hall of Fame and send him instead into baseball's purgatory.

What bothers me is Mitchell might have been dreadfully gullible.

He based his condemnation of Clemens on evidence supplied by one stool pigeon who himself was faced with a jail term. So the voice sang essentially to save his butt.

The stoolie's name is Brian McNamee. He once served as a trainer to the Yankees and also to Clemens as a personal trainer.

Mitchell's report stated McNamee injected Clemens with the steroids and HGH starting in 1998 through 2001, according to the Associated Press. Clemens pitched for the Blue Jays and Yankees during those years.

So Major League Baseball's mess is about to become murkier. Some media marvels across the country have judged Clemens guilty, based solely on the Mitchell Report.

In a reversal of our American ethos, Clemens is now forced to try to prove himself innocent.

And he is doing it in typical American fashion: He has retained a dynamo attorney to counterattack.

Clemens himself has ignored overtures to defend himself in the media while at the same time proclaiming innocence via a video released on his foundation's Web site and on YouTube.

That is the modern American way.

And he has a scheduled appearance on CBS's "60 Minutes" next Sunday.

After that he might condescend to speak to some ink-stained wretches.

"Let me be clear: The answer is no, I did not use steroids or human growth hormone, and I've never done so," Clemens said in video released last Sunday. "I did not provide Brian McNamee with any drugs to inject into my body. Brian McNamee did not inject steroids or human growth hormones into my body either when I played in Toronto for the Blue Jays for the New York Yankees. The report is simply not true." Those quotes, borrowed from an AP report, seem to me to be powerful. The remarks were not evasive.

What bothers me is the Mitchell Report could well be flawed by skimming over basic theories of investigation.

There is an ancient rule in journalism that states when obtaining damning evidence the investigator should at least multiple-source the material. Two, three or four sources should be required. It is a rule, according to all available material, Mitchell's investigators ignored.

And as I said, it is an ancient rule -- so ancient -- that too many of today's ink-stained wretches never learned it. Rather, they eagerly rush to print on the say-so, often hearsay, of one individual with a spiteful agenda.

What bothers me is McNamee seems to lack credibility despite statements from Mitchell and federal law enforcement agents supporting the stool pigeon.

They maintain McNamee could be charged with drug dealing and lying to investigators if he failed to be truthful, according to the New York Times.

And Mitchell publicly believes that because of this McNamee would not lie to save himself. In a statement to CNN regarding the report, Mitchell said: "(witnesses) have overwhelming incentives to tell the truth. If they didn't tell the truth, they themselves are subject to criminal prosecution."

So sometime in 2008 we will be treated to an investigation of an investigation, perhaps a report on the Mitchell Report.

That appears to be the plan of Clemens' attorney, one Rusty Hardin, of Houston.

In a statement during the past week, Hardin said: "To our surprise, we have identified several people who logic dictates the Mitchell team should have talked to but did not. That's troubling. We are asking questions, and we encourage the news media to do the same."

What bothers me is Hardin has been described out of Houston as a showman-celebrity attorney, slick and sharp, prone to turning a case involving justice into a circus.

What bothers me also is Roger Clemens, if ultimately exonerated, would never get the smear off of him. And what bothers me most of all is I believe Roger Clemens and his pleas of innocence -- and I wind up more gullible than George Mitchell.

Who Framed Roger Clemens?!

Roger Clemens claims he was injected with lidocaine, B-12, not steroids

January 3, 2008

FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES

NEW YORK — Roger Clemens said former trainer Brian McNamee injected him with the painkiller lidocaine and the vitamin B-12 — not any performance-enhancing drugs.

In the first excerpts released from the pitcher’s interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” which is to be broadcast Sunday night, Clemens maintained the denials he has issued since McNamee implicated him in the Mitchell report on doping in baseball, which was released Dec. 13.

McNamee, a former strength coach for the Blue Jays and Yankees, told Mitchell he personally injected Clemens with steroids in 1998 while they were with Toronto, and with steroids and human growth hormone in 2000 and 2001 while with New York.

“Roger took bunches of his shots over his career, much the way racehorses do, unfortunately,” Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin, said after the excepts were released Thursday.

Clemens issued a video statement on Dec. 23 denying McNamee’s accusations and plans to hold a news conference Monday. Clemens did not mention injections of painkillers or vitamins.

“That short statement didn’t go into any details and simply told the public at large he did not take steroids or any other performance-enhancing drugs. That’s never been a contention of his,” Hardin said.

“The reason he hasn’t stepped out personally before now was really our decision, not his, and that was to more deliberately look into how in the world the Mitchell report could have reached what we believe was this totally wrong conclusion before we started talking out. Now we’re more comfortable with all of that, and he’s going to answer whatever questions they have.”

During the CBS interview, recorded last Friday at Clemens’ home in Katy, Texas, Clemens was asked whether McNamee had injected him with any drugs.

“Lidocaine and B-12,” Clemens responded. “It’s for my joints, and B-12 I still take today.”

Lidocaine is a local anesthetic that can be used by dentists and in minor surgery. It also is available as part of ointments used to treat skin inflammation.

Clemens told CBS that McNamee’s accusation was “ridiculous” and said he “never” used banned substances.

“Swear?” CBS’s Mike Wallace asked Clemens.

“Swear,” Clemens responded.

Baseball players and owners did not have an agreement to ban steroids until
September 2002, and they didn’t ban HGH until January 2005.

The Mitchell report states McNamee injected Clemens with substances provided by the pitcher or that McNamee obtained from former Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski. In his video statement, Clemens said: “I did not provide Brian McNamee with any drugs to inject into my body. Brian McNamee did not inject steroids or human growth hormones into my body.”

McNamee’s lawyer, Richard Emery, has threatened to sue the seven-time Cy Young Award winner for defamation.

“I think that this is a lawyers’ game, which allows him to try and attempt to say that McNamee didn’t know what he was injecting or that at least Clemens didn’t know what he was injecting,” Emery said.

“It really depends now on how the whole interview goes, and whether he goes after Brian. Look, I don’t care whether Clemens used Sodium Pentothal. I don’t care if he used strontium 90. My only concern is for Brian’s well-being and his future.”

Emery said a decision whether to sue won’t be made until after the “60 Minutes” interview is broadcast.

“It really depends on what a reasonable person would take away from the entire interview as to whether he’s going to damage Brian. And we can’t tell until what we see happens on Sunday,” Emery said. “But it is fascinating. I think that Hardin and Clemens are responding to the fact that McNamee is going to defend himself aggressively by them trying to parse this closely and issue this statement through CBS. So it’s fascinating, and I’m glad to see that they are responding to Brian’s notice to them that he is not going to be trashed by them.”

When Baltimore’s Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for steroids in 2005 and was suspended for 10 days, he said a tainted vial of B-12 given to him by a teammate — later identified as Miguel Tejada — might have caused the doping violation.

Emery wouldn’t say whether McNamee did inject Clemens with lidocaine and B-12. “That’s much too specific. That evidence has yet to be developed,” he said. “There is a ton of evidence that the Mitchell report failed to explore that will corroborate Brian, and so it would be foolhardy for Clemens or Hardin to allow Clemens to trash Brian.”

Emery said it was unlikely McNamee would sue CBS. He also hasn’t decided whether a suit would be filed in New York state court or federal court.

“Either court in New York would be perfectly acceptable,” he said. “No New York jury is going to be hoodwinked by this claim if he ends up defaming Brian.”

Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado, a teammate of Clemens on the 1998 Blue Jays, said the pitcher and strength coach didn’t appear to be close at the time.

“It wasn’t anything more than the usual pitcher and conditioning relationship,” he said.

Delgado did find fault with Mitchell’s report.

“There’s a lot of accusations with not enough evidence,” he said.

money + greed = bad moon rising

I could care less what Clemens says

I like the Rockapella.....SWEET!!