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I, personally, don’t think that Roger Clemens is telling the truth about using steroids. That is my opinion, and you may have a different one, but that’s what I think. There are a few things from the congressional hearing on Wednesday that just make me feel like he’s not telling the truth. So, below I’m going to lay out my reasons for feeling this way. If you disagree with my assertions, please do not hesitate to let me know. I would love to engage in a little discussion about it with you.

1. Clemens’ Lawyers. To me, Roger Clemens’ lawyers, Rusty Hardin and Lanny Breuer, come off as a couple of weasels. They just don’t seem like honest people. They really give me the feeling that they’re more interested in the limelight then actually representing Roger Clemens, especially Hardin (on the left in the picture below). They were told by Chairman Henry Waxman that they could not speak directly to the congressional panel, but they could speak through Clemens. Yet, on more than one occasion, they stood up and either spoke or yelled at the congressional panel (as illustrated by the picture below). At one point, Waxman even gave in to them and let them speak their mind, which I thought was very gracious of him since they were breaking the rules. Now, you may think that Clemens’ representation has nothing to do with whether he’s lying or not. But personally, I feel like Clemens has two lawyers that would lie right along with him, and they certainly don’t help his case in my eyes.

    

   

 

2. Andy Pettitte, Laura Pettitte, and Chuck Knoblauch.So, let’s take Brian McNamee out of the situation for one moment as a person in the hearing, but leave him in the situation as a trainer.I mentioned this in my previous article about this case.Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch both admit to being injected with performance enhancing drugs by McNamee, and both have said that Clemens was injected, as well.Also, Pettitte’s wife, Laura, says Andy told her everything as it happened.So, taking McNamee and his bad credibility out of the picture as a witness, you still have 3 credible sources saying the same thing.Clemens’ defense, thus far, has been all about attacking Brian McNamee’s credibility and flat-out denying taking steroids.But the other side has 4 people, 3 of them with no credibility issues, using facts as the basis of their accusations.I just think, logically, it’s easier to disprove one guy’s argument then it is to disprove 4 people’s arguments that are all the same.

 

3. Inconsistency in Clemens’ Testimony. There’s one point in particular where I think Roger Clemens’ story has a major hole. In 1999 or 2000, Clemens and Andy Pettitte had a conversation about taking Human Growth Hormone (HGH) or some other type of performance enhancing drug. A few years later, Pettitte asked Clemens what he would do if reporters came to him and asked if he had ever taken steroids. Clemens basically said he would say no, and that saying no would be telling the truth. Pettitte responded by reminding Roger of their conversation in 1999 or 2000. Clemens said that Pettitte misheard him during that conversation, and that Clemens was actually talking about his wife taking HGH. BUT, it is a fact that Brian McNamee injected Clemens’ wife, Debbie, with HGH in 2003 for a swimsuit photo shoot that she had. So, how could Clemens be talking about an HGH injection for his wife in 1999 or 2000, when the injection didn’t take place until 2003? In my opinion, the conversation in 1999 or 2000 between Clemens and Pettitte was about Clemens taking HGH, but in 2007 and 2008 when Clemens was questioned by government officials, he used his wife’s injection as a cover-up, forgetting about the 3 or 4 year discrepancy in the story.

 

4. McNamee’s responses during the hearing. During the congressional hearing, I feel like Brian McNamee handled the questioning very well. After a question was asked, he took moment to think, and then responded quickly, calmly, and concisely. He had short, pointed answers that seemed to be truthful because some of his answers were admissions of guilt. But those answers were usually followed quickly by McNamee pointing out that he was ashamed to have done such things. McNamee always answered for himself, without his lawyer standing up and speaking out of turn, and he took some vicious ridiculing from some members of the congressional panel. He did so with his head up, never looking away from them or losing his cool.

 

5. Clemens’ responses during the hearing. I think Clemens did a great job of dodging a lot of questions that could have really hurt his case at the hearing. It was a great job because he got the congressional panel to change the subject quite often, but it was easy to see that he was doing it on purpose. So, overall, I think he did a poor job of answering truthfully. I think one of the most damaging series’ of questions came from Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton from D.C. She did not allow him to dodge the issues. She asked him why, if Brian McNamee did so many horrible things to him, did he keep McNamee as a trainer? Clemens began answering about other people, and just saying things that had nothing to do with the question. But Norton kept cutting him off, telling him to answer the question. When he couldn’t answer with anything more than that he is “a trusting person,” she responded by saying, “Mr. Clemens, I’m sure you are going to heaven.” Clemens had been taking the high road all day, but he couldn’t come up with an answer when asked why he was dealing with someone who was apparently so despicable. I think it was a great, and very damaging, point. Clemens and McNamee were the best of friends for about 9 years, but when the Mitchell Report came out, all of a sudden McNamee became a despicable liar.

 

So, that’s why I think Clemens is lying. If you have any feelings whatsoever about my article, good, bad, or indifferent, please leave a comment and let me know. I would love to discuss it with you.

By the way, I still think Chairman Henry Waxman looks like a Who from Dr. Seuss.

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