The Clemens Congressional Fiasco

With his appearance before the Waxman Congressional panel investigating the use of steroids and Human Growth Hormones (HGH) in baseball, premier pitcher Roger Clemens accomplished one thing – no matter how many ballots his name appears on - he will not be going to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

His willingness to play the stubborn fool in desperately trying to cling to his fantasy that America will accept his actions of throwing his wife under the bus for her usage of HGH for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit layout and trying to label his best friend Andy Pettitte as deaf (“he misheard –misremembered- me”) will not work.

As a Yankee fan since 1961, I have followed this team and it’s players through good and bad, ups and downs and the mediocre and never once, not once, have I ever heard a bad thing being said by anyone in baseball about Andy Pettitte. “Stand up”, “honest”, “hard worker”, “family man”, “Born Again Christian” are the words and descriptions that are most often heard when Petitte’s name is brought up.

Pettitte came right out and admitted using HGH twice and that he was told by Clemens that he (Clemens) too had used it. They even had some discussions about how Clemens would respond if asked by the media about whether he used these drugs or not.

Forget the trainer, Brian McNamee, and his statements. Forget the former Senator George Mitchell and his report’s findings; forget Clemens’ former teammate, Chuck Knobloch and his endorsement of the McNamee statements.

It comes down to who you believe – Andy Pettitte or Roger Clemens.

Andy does not necessarily have a place in the Hall of Fame waiting for him – a good pitcher, but not an automatic famer. In his written testimony to the committee, a deeply religious Pettitte mentioned how he had to tell the truth, that one day he would have to stand before God and account for all he had done.

I'll believe Andy.

Until he opened his mouth yesterday, Roger Clemens was a first round definite Hall of Famer.

Not anymore.

The best he can hope for now is maybe getting together with Mark McGuire for some batting practice and that the tests on the saved syringes from McNamee's injection sessions come up as a negative match to Roger's DNA.