Roger Clemens Sure Seems Innocent To Us 
 Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

 

It's a daily annoyance here at ConnieTalk, seeing how the press treats people that unwittingly get shoved into the white-hot spotlight of guilty-until-proven-innocent media speculation.  We do our best to counteract the vultures as best we can, and in this case, we are announcing our opinion of the Roger Clemens media blitz up front:  we think he's innocent.

Clemens was listed on the Mitchell Report for allegedly using Human Growth Hormone (HGH), a performance-enhancing drug with similar effects to steroids.  He has vehemently denied these claims since December when the HGH hit the fan.

Last month, former MLB player Jose Canseco gave Congress a sworn affidavit that he has never seen Roger Clemens "use, possess, or ask for steroids or human growth hormone."

"I have never had a conversation with Clemens in which he expressed any interest in using steroids or human growth hormone...Clemens has never asked me to give him steroids or human growth hormone, and I have never seen [him] use, possess, or ask for [it]," the AP reported from the affidavit.  "I have played on three teams with Roger Clemens and I have no reason to believe that he has ever used steroids, human growth hormone, or any other performance-enhancing drugs."

Here's why we think Roger Clemens is innocent.  For one, the "evidence" against him in the Mitchell Report was an allegation from trainer Brian McNamee, whom Clemens filed a defamation lawsuit against thereafter (which has been moved the Federal Court).  From the moment this came out, Clemens - who was shocked by it - has said the accusations were "untrue and defamatory," and he'd take a lie detector test if asked.  If he's willing to go to Federal Court to fight the smear on his name...well, he's got to know that you cannot hide a needle on a 10-acre farm from the Federal Government.  And if you don't know that, you don't watch the Biography channel enough.

Secondly:  trainer Brian McNamee claims he has photographs of the HGH that Clemens was injected with, and that he has the needles he injected Roger with.  Now.  Clemens has maintained from the beginning that he gets vitamin B shots - which is very normal in the world of sports.  So having the needles with Clemens' DNA on them would be pointless.

And why on earth would McNamee photograph and save the needles just used on Clemens?  Stalk much?  If anything, that just makes it sound like McNamee purposely mixed HGH into that syringe because: 1) he knew Clemens was against it (he's strongly opposed it as a temporary fix that actually shortens careers) and 2) he was planning on possibly framing and/or cashing in on it.

And finally:  let's not mince words here.  Brian McNamee was a drug dealer.  HGH is illegal unless prescribed for specific ailments by a doctor - and even then, it's completely forbidden in Major League Baseball.  Brian was a trainer who was skipping around peddling illegal substances in the locker room.  And his testimony was part of a deal to avoid prosecution for it.

If someone's going to attempt to tarnish a legendary pitcher's name, they at least ought to have more evidence than one man's word and strange photo/needle shrine.  Now that it's up to Federal Court, though, we will definitely find out the truth.

We could be wrong...we can be gullible at times...one of those unfortunate consequences of taking people at their word, unless proven otherwise...then again, journalists used to do that, too, didn't they?

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