Clemens vs. McNamee

Who do you believe?

Personally, I still don't know who is lying and who is telling the truth. I think each side has a little bit of both. It's still hard to tell because of a useless Congressional Hearing. The whole idea was brought about by Clemens, mainly because he wanted to address the public and Congress about his denial of the accusations against him in the Mitchell Report. Roger made his situation worse, however, as he failed to reveal any information, and attorney Rusty Hardin made some juvenile comments about how Congressmen attacked Clemens. Hardin thought that one certain Congressmen should "smoke his own dope." Ridiculous.

I feel that Roger Clemens did not take steroids, but did use HGH as a member of the Houston Astros, where he spent three years, and had 2 terrific seasons. Those years, he was at age 41 and 42. It seems suspicious that he could be a top-5 pitcher when others are twenty and thirty years old. Also, it would make sense that as his career winded down that his velocity would decline. It did, but barely. As an Astro, he still threw 95 mph. In his prime, he maybe reached 98. Clemens even hit .207 in 2005, his second season in Houston and also his second ever having to hit! In his last season, with the Yankees, he probably stayed clean, throwing around 88-90mph and finishing 6-6 with a 4.18 ERA. Reasonable, right?

It's sad to see such a legend like Roger Clemens be involved with the situation he is now. I believe that Brian McNamee did inject Clemens with the HGH, but that's hard to tell due to McNamee's Bill Belichick-like answers to reporters, Congressmen, etc. At the hearing, he mumbled short, uninformative responses to answer some important questions. If the hearing weren't sponsored by Barnum and Bailey, us fans could have learned something. McNamee appeared crazy when he claimed he also injected Clemens' wife with HGH, but it doesn't make sense for him to just throw that in. Debby Clemens later admitted that she did use human growth hormone before a photo shoot with Roger for Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue in 2003.

Because Roger Clemens lied under oath about using performance-enhancing drugs, his name will never be trusted again in the world of sports. Had he been honest, "The Rocket" could have saved a chance of getting into the Hall of Fame. Had he been honest, his 7 Cy Young Awards wouldn't go to waste. Had he been honest, Clemens wouldn't have used HGH to prolong his career and cheat on baseball.