hmmmm

further complicating mcnamee's testimony is this submission to the boston globe from pitcher cj nitkowski (didn't he pitch in the yankees system at some point...yes...in 2004). nitkowski defends mcnamee and farily credibly, i would add. but it begs the question, if nitkowski approached mcnamee about steroids, as he claims, why didn't mcnamee sell him out to mitchell like he did clemens, petitte, and knoblach? or....did he and mitchell left it out??? either way, something's rotten in the country of denmark...

so of course things have to get more confusing

needless to say, once i finish the previous post, here's something to muddy the waters.

i won't go all the way to say that this salvo one in clemens' campaign to salvage his legend, but this absolutely sounds like a clemens consigliari coming out swinging for the rocket. i will note that just because someone is an alcoholic and has demons doesn't make that person a liar. of more interest is baichu's first person testimony saying he never saw any of the physical symptoms of steroids.

my remaining question is was clemens contacted by mitchell's people to respond to mcnamee's allegations? if no, why not? if yes, why didn't clemens submit baichu at that time?

boston's ultimate revenge on roger clemens

to meet the demand that no one has for me to comment on the mitchell report, here is post number one:

mitchell, as part of the boston red sox ownership group, has suffered some rightful criticism that his objectivity is compromised and many anticipated a dearth of information related to the sox and their current and former players. considering that most of the report's salacious details came from two trainers that worked with the yankees and mets, you can't be too dismissive of mitchell's output. after all, the players association told its members not to cooperate and mitchell had no way to compel testimony of any kind. so, if there's very little in the report that implicates the red sox (aside from the communication from theo epstein speculating about eric gagne's steroid status), mitchell can't be held totally responsible.

but i'll tell you what, fans of the red sox should be openly celebrating this report and lionising the former senator. not because he was able to steer the report away from their team, but because with it, mitchell has managed to scalp the two most hated entities of red sox nation: the yankees and roger clemens. 22 current and former yankees are named in the report, in particular, many players from the 2000 championship team. granted, none of them are derek jeter or mariano rivera or bernie williams, but i would think it has to feel good that the hated yankees come out of this investigation with the stink of steroids all over them.

while that must be tremendously satisfying, the real payoff for the nation has to be the permanent tainting of roger clemens and all the things he accomplished after being shipped out of boston. at the time he was traded to toronto, red sox gm, dan duquette, openly questioned how much clemens had left as a pitcher. he had nearly reached his mid-30s, hadn't been the same pitcher for years, and even if he could prove himself to be an effective major league hurler, no one expected what clemens produced in the ten years that followed. four more cy young awards, two world series wins (four appearances overall) and a run past 300 wins to become the winningest pitcher in the history of the modern game. duquette has been chided at best and ridiculed at worst for questioning clemens' greatness. comes now the mitchell report detailing the testimony of former clemens' personal trainer brian mcnamee of how roger started using steroids in 1998, and everything clemens did after being traded by the sox looks highly suspect.

add on the fact that in the days since the report was released, andy petitte has confirmed mcnamee's claims about his use of human growth hormone, and clemens is thisclose to becoming the white barry bonds. petitte's admission completely undercuts the statement that clemens' attorney dispatched in response to mcnamee's allegations. that statement not only denied those allegations, it said they were made by financially troubled man with an axe to grind. well, if that's true, why did mcnamee also provide apparently true information about petitte while lying about clemens, and in such detail?

to be sure, clemens' days as a major leaguer, as we suspect with bonds now that he is under indictment for perjury, are over. all of his greatest achievements, his once-cemented legacy as the greatest right-handed pitcher of all time, his championships, his total legend are now lost and unlikely to be repossessed. his inclusion in the hall of fame is far from assured. if he's lucky, clemens will be able to go on with his life in quiet retirement, but that isn't roger's style. most likely, he'll fight this out somehow (suing mlb perhaps?), but as this situation is currently arranged, he will never be regarded the same way.

roger clemens just surrendered the biggest home run of his career. george mitchell got tipped off on what pitch to sit on and he just knocked clemens' career over the green monster in fenway. red sox nation erupts. the finally drove the rocket oout of the game.