When Roger Clemens goes before Congress today, he may be faced with eivdence that his buddy Andy Pettite has testified that Clemens has used HGH.
According to last week’s sworn affidavit from Pettitte, Clemens told Pettitte in either 1999 or 2000 that he used human growth hormone, the Associated Press reported Tuesday, citing a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Clemens, who along with McNamee will testify in today’s public hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in Washington, has denied using performance-enhancing drugs and has said he and Pettitte didn’t talk about their own use of drugs.
According to the person familiar with the affidavit, who said it was signed Friday night, Pettitte also said Clemens backtracked when the subject of HGH came up again in conversation in 2005, before the same House committee held the first hearing on steroids in baseball.
Pettitte said in the affidavit that he asked Clemens in 2005 what he would do if asked by the media about HGH, given his admission years earlier. According to the account told to the AP, the affidavit said Clemens responded by saying Pettitte misunderstood the exchange from five or six years earlier and that, in fact, Clemens had been talking about HGH use by his wife in the original conversation.
Responding to the latest development, Clemens’ attorney Rusty Hardin told the Chronicle: “Everybody needs to just relax and wait and see what the testimony shows (today). We do not know what Andy has said to the committee, and I am somewhat surprised that people continue to write stories about what he confidentially said, whatever that is.
“We don’t know what he has said, and we’re waiting to see. What Roger would testify to is, if Andy’s memory is that somehow Roger ever suggested that he used steroids or human growth hormone, Andy’s memory is mistaken.
“Andy is a good friend of Roger’s. We’re convinced he would never intentionally misstate anything. But if he believes Roger said that, he’s mistaken.”
Hardin’s point about not getting ahead of what has been made public is well-taken. That said, testimony from Pettite in support of allegations about Clemens using so-called PEDs would be a major hit to Clemens’ credibility. It’s been pretty easy so far to have doubts about what Brian McNamee has said. But Pettite is a friend of Clemens, and has no known motive to lie about this, having already admitted his own limited use of HGH. His words will be taken seriously, and will be harder to dismiss. It still won’t be proof of anything, but it will be another piece of the puzzle, and if we were in a courtroom, it would be a step towards a conviction.
Having said that, even if Pettite offers evidence to suggest Clemens has not been fully truthful, that doesn’t necessarily mean McNamee has been telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth, either. Unless Pettite directly corroborates McNamee, it’s entirely possible that Clemens did use HGH, but did so without McNamee’s assistance or intervention. Clemens picked up some defense against McNamee’s claims from an unexpected quarter the other day.
Retired slugger Jose Canseco says Roger Clemens’ former trainer, Brian McNamee, lied in the Mitchell Report and is lying when he says Clemens used steroids and human growth hormone.
“Absolutely, he’s lying and he’s a dirty liar,” Canseco said in a phone interview Sunday.
Former senator George Mitchell’s report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball includes a passage in which McNamee describes a 1998 party Canseco hosted at his Miami home.
“McNamee stated that, during this luncheon, he observed Clemens, Canseco, and another person he did not know meeting inside Canseco’s house, although McNamee did not personally attend that meeting,” the Mitchell Report says.
McNamee says Clemens, who has denied using steroids or HGH, brought up steroids for the first time shortly after the trip to Florida, according to the Mitchell Report.
“McNamee is a point-blank liar because Roger never showed up at my house,” Canseco said. “It’s up to Roger’s people to find out why McNamee is saying these things. I think he was pressured by someone into saying them. …
“I’m 1,000% sure Roger never showed up at the party. We didn’t talk then.”
[…]
Canseco said Clemens is a friend and he doesn’t think Clemens took steroids. “If he had taken steroids,” he said, “he would have gotten them from me, just like everyone else.”
Now, I’m certainly not going to claim that Jose Canseco is a font of veracity. But he has been cited as proof of various players’ alleged usage of steroids by some members of the press. I do think that if you believed him then, you ought to believe him now. In the meantime, I hope we all wait to see what Clemens and McNamee have to say today before we draw any further conclusions. Will Carroll has more.