Mitchell Report on Steroid Use in Baseball

McNamee was just grilled pretty hard though, and got caught in a few lies. That may really damage this case.


The amount of money being spent on this is a complete waste of time, btw.

 

Here's my conclusion: They're both liars, and can both go to jail - maybe share a cell.

(ok, so I'm half-joking. Only half, though)

 

whoa. talking to the nanny was a big **** up on his part.

 

I think Clemens has already set the record for number of times that "uh" and "um" can be said in a period of a couple of hours.

 

It seems obvious that Clemens lobbied a few Congressman. Corruption in politics you guys!!one!12! Congressman Clay said, "A colleague of mine, Mr. Capuano of Massachusetts, wants to know what uniform you're going to wear to the Hall of Fame." Oh give. me. a. break.

EDIT: As J. Stark says on ESPN.com, here we go with Nannygate. Her picture and name will be on the front page of the New York Post by Friday.

 

As J. Stark says on ESPN.com, here we go with Nannygate. Her picture and name will be on the front page of the New York Post by Friday.

Yep. Feel sorry for her, really, getting thrown into this mess when her name will almost certainly leak out very quickly.

But yeah, they're both lying, so I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them both in jail. The same cell part of my last post was a joke, though.

 

I think Clemens came off as a lier, and a cheat. His answers to some of the questions were pretty ambiguous and vague. Also, did someone forget to tell him that we don't care how much he loves America, or that he was a hero,.... JUST ANSWER THE QUESTIONS!!

Are we also to believe that Clemens knew nothing of his wife being injected?

I don't see how Mcnamee was telling the truth about Pettite, Mrs. Clemens, etc...But he is lying about Roger. Why would he do that? I think Clemens looked guilty.

 

Agreed. I think Clemens is lying about the main point: that he used HGH and steroids. McNamee is lying about some of the details: when, how and where.

 

This has all gotten out of hand anyway. With that though, it is rather suspicious that everyone else that Mcnamee testified against confirmed his story, but not Clemens. Extremely suspicious. If I am to come away listening to anyone from this, it'll be Pettite. He seems to most honest to me.

 

That's what it comes down to -- Pettitte's deposition killed Clemens. I read Stark's blog on ESPN, McNamee certainly didn't come out looking good (especially not after the one guy called him a drug dealer -- ouch!), were it not for Pettitte's statements about conversations, Clemens might have gone pretty far in rehabilitating himself yesterday.

The worst part about the whole thing is that it's all focused on one player. That's ridiculous.

 

That's because that one player is the only player challenging the findings of the report by an ex US Senator. So of course they are going to focus on him. They didn't just choose to focus on Roger Clemens.

 

If David Segui had challenged the findings, would we have had him on the Hill yesterday?

 

Probably. They wanted Chuck Knoblauch up there yesterday but pulled a 'Pettitte'.

 

^^^I highly doubt it.

 

Waxman has now stated that he regrets having the hearing. have to agree, it was an absolute waste of time.

 

Probably not, because it would take the combination of fighting the claims as well as star power. But, still, you can't have it without the fighting of the claims.

 

Sorry, I don't have a whole lot of value in Waxman's opinion since he said Andre the Giant's condition was the result of using Human Growth Hormone.

Get. This. Man. A. Clue.

 

"We know that HGH can cause problems, because it's actually a disease when the body produces too much HGH. Doctors call it acromegaly. It can lead to diabetes, heart problems, liver problems., kidney problems, cancer and even death. It can also cause permanent changes in the face. We know what these changes look like. The pro wrestler, Andre the Giant, died of complications of untreated acromegaly, and Richard Kiel, better known as Jaws from the James Bond movies, has publicly spoken about his experience with the disease." Henry Waxman

You were saying something about getting a clue?

 

It's now been a year since the Mitchell Report came out. Hard to argue that it hasn't had an impact, and a good sized one, on baseball in whole.

Anyone got any reflections?

 

Yeah I do. I wish it never came out. Our relative loss of innocence in the game has soured baseball. If everyone took steroids but nobody fussed, fans wouldn't mind.

 

I was bumping this to bring in another news item (see below), but to answer Inty's question, I have mixed feelings. It is very problematic that one of the teams unscathed in all of this is Boston, when Mitchell has an ownership interest in them. On the other hand, he had to go with what they had evidence of, and they're key sources, McNamee and the mets club house attendant (forgot his name) certainly gave them a laundry list of names.

The problem is that the "evidence", which Mitchell tried to portray as solid, isn't as a solid as he claims. In a lot of cases, including Clemens, it comes down to a he said - he said situation. The evidence is mainly canceled checks, which could be for anything. Apparently clubhouse attendants really do get tips that high. The question then becomes whether the Mitchell report should have named names.

I'm not sure. In a perfect world, we'd have all the names, and rock solid evidence. But this isn't a perfect world. In the end, Mitchell had to name names to justify the time and expense of the investigation, and to avoid making it look like another baseball whitewash. Baseball has had a very dirty little secret for over a decade, and it's resurgence in popularity in that time is based in part on a fraud perpetrated by the players with the tacit collusion of management and the union. That has to stop.

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Now to what I came here to post: the judge unsealed the grand jury evidence in the bonds perjury trial. Apparently Bonds tested positive for steroids in tests performed by BALCO, and a sample he gave to MLB (which was negative in the initial testing) has now been retested and found positive for THG. There's also a statement made by Bond's trainer that he injected Bonds with steroids all over the Giants club house. The judge in the trial now has to rule whether the evidence is admissible.