Clemens defends himself on 60 Minutes

Tonight on 60 Minutes, Roger Clemens defended himself against the steroid accusations levied against him by former trainer Brian McNamee.

Sort of.

The former Red Sox pitcher refused to elaborate or offer any counter-evidence to McNamee’s claims, choosing to counter every accusation with a brief “never” or “never happened.”

He appeared defeated at times, and at one point said, “ I don’t know if I can defend myself. I think people—a lot of people have already made their decisions.”

Wallace then asked him if he would consider taking a lie detector test to help clear his name, but Clemens was noncommittal. “I don’t know if they’re good or bad,” he said.

It’s my understanding that lie detector tests are generally good for people who are telling the truth, and generally bad for people who aren’t. But what do I know.

Clemens suggested that he was being unfairly targeted because of his status as a future hall of famer. He offered an unfortunate analogy, given the bodily location of his alleged steroid injections. “The higher up on the flagpole, the more your butt shows.”

Clemens understandably feels betrayed by McNamee, who emailed Clemens a couple days before the Mitchell Report was released and asked him where to find the fishing poles in Cabo, but made no mention of the accusations he’d made against him.

“I’m so upset about it,” Clemens said, when asked whether he felt betrayed by McNamee. “How i treated this man and took care of him.

“I treated him fairly. I treated him great as anybody else. I helped him out.”

Wallace did not go as easy on Clemens as many had expected, given their personal relationship over the years.  In one of the most revealing series of exchanges, he asked Clemens what McNamee could gain by lying when he had so much incentive to tell the truth.

“Evidently not going to jail.”

“For what?”

Clemens froze for a minute and then sheepishly said, “Well I think he’s been moving and buying steroids.”

The highlight of the interview was what may have been Clemens’ final public roid rage.

Agitated with the way the public and the press have rushed to judgement in this case, Clemens became agitated, shouting, “Twenty-four, twenty-five years, Mike. You’d think I’d get an inch of respect. An inch.”

Then he threw a splintered bat at Wallace.

Ok, not really. But it would have been funny if he did.

Vaughn, Clemens, Gagne among former Sox named in Mitchell report

Mo Vaughn, Roger Clemens and Eric Gagne are among the former Red Sox players mentioned in the Mitchell report.

You can read the entire report here.

Here’s what I believe is the complete list of implicated former Sox players--let me know if I’ve missed any:

Roger Clemens
Mo Vaughn
Eric Gagne
Brendan Donnelly
Steve Woodard
Jose Canseco
Manny Alexander
Paxton Crawford
Jeremy Giambi
Josias Manzanillo
Chris Donnels
Mike Lansing
Kent Mercker
Mike Stanton

The portions of the report on Gagne, Clemens and Vaughn are particularly interesting to me. Here are some excerpts:

Mo Vaughn
“A former major league player has confirmed that Hill and Vaughn had a conversation in early 2001 in which Radomski’s name was mentioned. Radomski recalled that Vaughn had an ankle injury and called him for advice.Radomski told Vaughn that human growth hormone would help his ankle heal faster. Radomski said that thereafter he sold human growth hormone to Vaughn.

Radomski also provided Vaughn with a program for the use of the human growth hormone.

Radomski said that he delivered the substances to Vaughn personally. Radomski produced three checks deposited into Radomski’s accounts and drawn on Vaughn’s checking account: two checks for $3,200 each, and one check for $2,200.

Radomski said that the two checks in the amount of $3,200 were each for two kits of human growth hormone. He stated that the check in the amount of $2,200 might have been for one-and-a-half kits of human growth hormone. Radomski said that he did not sell Vaughn steroids because Vaughn was “afraid of the big needles."”

Eric Gagne
“Paul Lo Duca and Gagné were teammates with the Dodgers from 1999 to 2004. Although he is not sure when, Radomski recalled that Lo Duca called Radomski and told Radomski that Gagné was with him and wanted to buy human growth hormone. Gagné then came onto the phone and asked Radomski a question about how to get air out of a syringe. This is the only time Radomski spoke to Gagné. Radomski said that Lo Duca thereafter placed orders on Gagné’s behalf.”

“When the Boston Red Sox were considering acquiring Gagné, a Red Sox official made specific inquiries about Gagné’s possible use of steroids. In a November 1, 2006 email to a Red Sox scout, general manager Theo Epstein asked, “Have you done any digging on Gagne? I know the Dodgers think he was a steroid guy. Maybe so. What do you hear on his medical?” The scout, Mark Delpiano, responded,

“Some digging on Gagne and steroids IS the issue. Has had a checkered medical past throughout career including minor leagues. Lacks the poise and commitment to stay healthy, maintain body and re invent self. What made him a tenacious closer was the max effort plus stuff . . . Mentality without the plus weapons and without steroid help probably creates a large risk in bounce back durability and ability to throw average while allowing the changeup to play as it once did . . . Personally, durability (or lack of) will follow Gagne . . .”

Roger Clemens
“Toward the end of the road trip which included the Marlins series, or shortly after the Blue Jays returned home to Toronto, Clemens approached McNamee and, for the first time, brought up the subject of using steroids. Clemens said that he was not able to inject himself, and he asked for McNamee’s help.

Later that summer, Clemens asked McNamee to inject him with Winstrol, which Clemens supplied. McNamee knew the substance was Winstrol because the vials Clemens gave him were so labeled. McNamee injected Clemens approximately four times in the buttocks over a several-week period with needles that Clemens provided. Each incident took place in Clemens’s apartment at the SkyDome. McNamee never asked Clemens where he obtained the steroids.”

“According to McNamee, from the time that McNamee injected Clemens with Winstrol through the end of the 1998 season, Clemens’s performance showed remarkable improvement. During this period of improved performance, Clemens told McNamee that the steroids “had a pretty good effect” on him. McNamee said that Clemens also was training harder and dieting better during this time. In 1999, Clemens was traded to the New York Yankees. McNamee remained under contract with the Blue Jays for the 1999 season. In 2000, the Yankees hired McNamee as the assistant strength and conditioning coach under Jeff Mangold. According to McNamee, the Yankees hired him because Clemens persuaded them to do so. In this capacity, McNamee worked with all of the Yankees players.”

To be clear, Mo Vaughn is accused of using while he was with the Mets, Gagne with the Dodgers, and Clemens with the Blue Jays and Yankees.

I haven’t read all of the reports yet, but so far I haven’t seen mention of juicing in Boston.