The Reaction: Seven Cy Youngs, zero credibility

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I didn't bother posting on the Clemens-McNamee House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform baseball steroid scandal hearing this past week -- I didn't have much to add to the massive amount of reporting and analysis out there -- but here are a few points and comments:

1) Committee chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) says that he "didn't particularly want to do a hearing," that "Roger Clemens wanted that hearing, because Roger Clemens wanted the chance to speak in public and make his case," but the Clemens camp is denying that claim.

2) Still, a hearing there was, and, like many, I think McNamee came out of it looking much better than Clemens. McNamee may be a sleazebag, but we knew that going in, and while he had nothing to lose, and lost nothing. Clemens is also a sleazebag, of course, and many of those who know him have been saying that for a long time, but he has a reputation as one of the greatest pitchers of all time to lose, and, as SI's Tom Verducci, one of the best in the business, put it, his reputation took a big hit. (Why did he have to turn to his lawyers so much?)

3) Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, the former one of Clemens's best friends (or maybe not, given this), should have been there. Clemens and McNamee are engaged in a sort of he-said-he-said standoff, barring additional evidence, but the testimony of either or both would likely have bolstered McNamee's case.

4) Clemens on Pettitte: "I think he misremembers." McNamee, at the very least, was clear and straightforward. Clemens, on the other hand, was vague, shifty, and defensive -- and at times, linguistically, like George W. Bush.

5) Based on this (unscientific) poll, public opinion is with McNamee, not Clemens. Also, in getting to his former nanny before the Committee did, it looks as though Clemens engaged in witness tampering. Clemens said he "was doing y'all a favor" -- yeah, sure.

6) One of the best analyses I read was by Josh Levin at Slate: "McNamee spoke in short, declarative sentences, never wavering on his allegations that he repeatedly injected Roger Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone. Clemens spoke haltingly, answered evasively, contradicted himself, and whispered with his lawyers when asked to explain these contradictions."

7) Clemens's bleeding backside seems to be the lasting image of the hearings.

8) As Levin indicates, the hearing broke down, perhaps predictably, along partisan lines. The Democrats, led by Waxman, were generally critical of Clemens (if not entirely sympathetic to McNamee), while the Republicans lined up behind Clemens. Strange, or not? Republicans like their hero-worship, after all, and to them a muscular super-athlete with a military haircut is the right sort of sexualized hero. It's like they all have crushes on Clemens, and they weren't too ashamed to get into it. And what a line-up of wacko Republicans it was: Dan Burton (R-IN), Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Virginia Foxx (R-NC). Burton, no stranger to making an absolute mockery of himself, called Clemens "a baseball titan," neglecting to mention that he is probably a titan on HGH with a bloody backside and zero credibility. Oh -- and a Republican, too, close friends with George H.W. Bush. (Clemens just looks like a Republican, doesn't he? Acts like one, too.)

9) Finally, let me turn this over to ESPN's Bill Simmons -- one of my must-reads, even if he is a shameless Boston homer -- who knows a thing or two about Clemens and can let him have it with the best of them. Here are a few of the points he makes in his latest mailbag:

When you're an athlete in trouble and you have to throw the most important people in your life (wife, best friend, agents and players' union) under the bus to defend yourself, it's definitely time to re-evaluate things. I'm just saying.
Along those same lines, imagine the validity of this scenario if I had pitched it to you two years ago: There's a famous baseball player whose career will have a curious resurgence well after his prime, and eventually there's going to be evidence pointing to his possible usage of steroids and HGH... but as it turned out, only his best friend and his wife used HGH! And he wasn't involved at all! You would not have believed me.
Let's assume Clemens' ex-friend was sitting there lying about him with only one person between them. Why wasn't the Rocket more upset? If that were you, wouldn't you have been trembling with anger and making "I can't believe this!" faces the whole time? I couldn't get past that. For someone who was allegedly being betrayed, Clemens sure didn't seem to feel that betrayed.
The enduring question for me: How much of a me-first scumbag was Clemens that McNamee inexplicably held onto evidence for all these years, even though there was no reason to do so? He thought so little of Clemens' character, he protected himself during a time when there was absolutely no reason for him to consider protecting himself. I thought that was telling. And you wonder why the late Boston Globe columnist Will McDonough derisively called Clemens "The Texas Con Man," attacked his character at every turn and wrote roughly a million times that Clemens only cared about himself and nobody else. Maybe we won't get a definitive answer on whether Clemens cheated, but maybe we don't need one.

Roger Clemens: sleazebag or scumbag? You make the call.