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December 19, 2007
Roger Clemens Denies Using Steriods or HGH
While other players, including his good friend Andy Pettitte, have stepped forward to confirm that information contained in the Mitchell Report is mostly accurate, Roger Clemens continues to insist that he never used performance enhancers. In a statement released yesterday by his agent, Clemens said,
"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'd like to give Clemens the benefit of the doubt - no fan has any way of knowing for sure without a positive drug test, federal indictment, and admission or other concrete evidence, for sure if a player's used performance enhancers. But I don't believe Clemens. For one thing, it wasn't until fairly recently that Major League Baseball cracked down on the use of performance enhancers and added substances like HGH to the banned list. So Clemens may very well have been taking performance enhancers but because they weren't on MLB's banned list at the time he was using them he may feel he's done nothing wrong. In addition amphetamines, otherwise known as "greenies," are also considered performance enhancers. Greenies were widely used by many players, including those who would never touch steriods or HGH. I find it hard to believe that at the very least Clemens didn't use greenies at some point.
Clemens continued,
"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."
Clemens has had plenty of opportunities to defend himself starting with talking to George Mitchell for The Mitchell Report. Clemens declined to do so even though that would have been the perfect opportunity to refute Brian McNamee's claims. Or now that the report has been released Clemens could prove McNamee wrong. But he hasn't, and I suspect an "appropriate time and appropriate way" will never come. There's been some talk that Clemens wants to sue MLB or McNamee over these allegations. That'll never happen. By doing so Clemens will open himself up to having every part of his life examined and investigated and I highly doubt he wants that to happen.
Clemens should have let his initial denials last week speak for him and remained quiet. But by being so insistent that he's an innocent man that's been wrongly targeted on the basis of false accusations, I think Clemens is digging a rather large hole for himself that he might have trouble climbing out of . Someone, somewhere right now is likely taking Clemens statement that he's never used performance enhancers in his entire life as a challenge and eventually if there's proof out there that Clemens used it will surface. In addition, there's going to be another round of congressional hearings on performance enhancers in baseball. Clemens could get called to testify and he will get questioned about McNamee's allegations under oath. Will he answer their questions or take the Mark McGwire route?
What's most damning in my mind is that Pettitte confirmed some things from the Mitchell Report which means that McNamee is telling at least part of the truth. If he told the truth about Pettitte it seems to me that there's a good change he was telling the truth about Clemens as well. It will be really intersting to see what's going to happen at the congressional hearings if Pettitte is called to testify as well - he'll say that he got HGH from McNamee and then Clemens is going to say that McNamee is a liar? Either McNamee is a liar or he isn't.
Some are wondering why Clemens would issue such a strong denial if he really did take performance enhancers and I'd guess that's because he's trying to salvage his chances to still be considered for the Hall of Fame. It remains to be seen whether he'll be elected to the Hall or not, but one thing's for sure, Clemens's accomplishments in baseball are forever tainted much like those of Barry Bonds.
Posted by silverdsl at December 19, 2007 09:39 AM