MLB Steroids Scandal

Waxman and Clemens' Lawyers Go Head to Head

Paul Kiel | February 13, 2008, 4:29PM

I’m not sure if we’ll be adding a category for Best Legal Eagle Blowup to the Golden Duke Awards, but if we did, this might take the prize.

Roger Clemens' hearing today was mostly a cordial one, all things considered. But at one point, things broke down to the point where Clemens' two top-flight lawyers Lanny Breuer (formerly President Clinton's special counsel in the Lewinsky affair) and Rusty Hardin were standing behind him, their hands on his shoulders in an attempt to silence him, shouting at Waxman. Here's the video:

The issue itself was over a rather minute detail. As I understand it (not being a Mitchell Report-ologist), Brian McNamee, Clemens former trainer and main accuser, has said that Clemens first approached him about using steroids and human growth hormone after a party at slugger Jose Canseco's Miami home in 1998. Clemens' lawyers have gone after McNamee's credibility on this, offering proof that Clemens was in fact not at that party. McNamee says he saw him there.

Again, the party in and of itself is not a very consequential detail. But since it goes to McNamee's credibility, Clemens' lawyers have been hammering on it. And during Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-CA) questions, Waxman revealed that when Waxman's committee inquired after the name of Clemens' nanny at the time who was supposedly at this party, Clemens' lawyers immediately tracked her down and interviewed her at Clemens' home. The nanny would supposedly be a key witness on this ultimately inconsequential detail.

Waxman didn't allege anything exactly, but it was clear from his questions that he was hinting that Clemens' lawyers had wanted to get to the nanny first in order to make sure she remembered things "correctly." Clemens' lawyers were enraged, Hardin at one point shouting in response to one of Waxman's questions about whose idea that was, "It was my idea! It was my idea to investigate what witnesses know, just like any other lawyer in the free world does!"

Transcript of the exchange is below.

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MLB Steroids Scandal

Clemens Makes Bid for Golden Duke Award

Paul Kiel | February 13, 2008, 12:25PM

It's a nightmare scenario for a witness. When Roger Clemens went to testify this morning before the House oversight committee, lawmakers, armed with testimony from two other witnesses, tried to spring what they could on him to catch him in a lie.

Sitting at the same table -- on the other side of an investigator on the Mitchell Report on steroids in baseball -- was Brian McNamee, Clemens' former trainer, who has said under oath and said again today that he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) a number of times.

And in the first round of questions, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) came at Clemens with a second line of attack: Clemens' friend and former teammate Andy Pettite had told the committee under oath that he'd had a couple conversations with Clemens and one key conversation in particular where Clemens had told him that he'd taken HGH. Ouch. You can see video here:

Clemens denies it all. He's already called McNamee a liar and launched a lawsuit against him. As for Pettite, Clemens said that he must be "misremembering," and said that the conversation was really about "a TV show, something that I've heard about three older men that were using HGH and getting back their quality of life from that." Cummings kept producing more details from Pettite's testimony and Clemens kept claiming that Pettite had misremembered. The denials culminated in this memorably tangled answer:

"Once again, Mr. Congressman, I think he misremembers the conversation that we had. Andy and I's relationship was close enough to know that if I would have known that he had done HGH, which I now know, if he was knowingly knowing that I had taken HGH, we would have talked about the subject. He'd have come to me to ask me about the effects of it."

So should Clemens be up for Best Testimonial Trainwreck in 2008?

A transcript of the exchange is below.

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MLB Steroids Scandal

Waxman Asks for Criminal Probe of Alleged Juicer

Paul Kiel | January 15, 2008, 12:55PM

From The Los Angeles Times:

Congress asked the Justice Department to investigate whether former AL MVP Miguel Tejada lied to House committee staff when he was interviewed in 2005 in connection with the Rafael Palmeiro steroids case.

House Oversight and Government Committee chairman Henry Waxman opened today's hearing into the Mitchell Report about drug use in baseball by announcing that he and ranking minority member Tom Davis sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey today.

You can read the letter, which walks through the interview with Tejada, here (pdf).

MLB Steroids Scandal

Waxman Invites Clemens, Other Players to Testify

Paul Kiel | January 4, 2008, 5:07PM

House sleuth Henry Waxman (D-CA) has set a date, January 16th and invited a stable of players fingered in the Mitchell Report to testify, he announced today. They are: Brian McNamee, Kirk Radomski, Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, and Roger Clemens.

Tough luck, Spencer. Looks like the Yanks are very well represented.

MLB Steroids Scandal

Bush Moped, Players Doped

Spencer Ackerman | December 14, 2007, 2:29PM

Happy Friday, I can't resist this. Froomkin, go!

John D. McKinnon blogs that Perino was asked yesterday why Bush didn't notice the epidemic of performance-enhancing drugs that was taking hold of the game when he was an owner.

Perino pointed to an ESPN interview in which he said that he's thought long and hard about it, but doesn't recall ever seeing or hearing evidence of a steroid problem.

Writes McKinnon: "A Fox News reporter, Wendell Goler, pointed out that former Ranger Jose Canseco has said 'he cannot comprehend why Mr. Bush didn't know that steroid use was going on on the team.' So does Bush regret not picking up on the problem, Goler asked?

"'I don't think it's a time for regret,' Perino said. 'I think it's time to do what the president has done, which is . . . to shine a light on the issue. And now we have a result . . . a report that is getting a lot of attention, and deservedly so.'"

MLB Steroids Scandal

Waxman, Davis: We're Looking At Steroids in Baseball -- Again!

Spencer Ackerman | December 13, 2007, 5:06PM

Remember that fateful day? March 17, 2005? When House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) held his hearing into steroids in baseball, and Mark McGuire disgraced himself for all time? When Jose Canseco named names? And Sammy Sosa pretended not to speak English?

Well, there may not be do-overs in baseball, but it's time for a rematch of sorts. Davis, now the committee's ranking member, and Henry Waxman (D-CA), the chairman, announced today that they'll ask steroids investigator George Mitchell, baseball commissioner Bud Selig and players' union chief Don Fehr to testify next week. Unfortunately, none of the implicated players -- Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, the whole gang -- will be "invited" to speak. However, reliable sources tell us the official soundtrack for the hearing will be Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days."

Full statement after the jump.

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MLB Steroids Scandal

Yanks 2B Chuck Knoblauch Lost His Ability To Throw To First, But Gained A Love for HGH

Spencer Ackerman | December 13, 2007, 3:45PM

Commenter Joe Corrao takes me to task in my last post for cherry-picking a data point from the Mitchell Report that reflects badly upon my hated Boston Red Sox. He goads me into citing some Yankees named in the report who were part of the Bronx Bombers' torrid 1996-2000 teams. Sure, I mentioned both Clemens and Pettitte in the last post, but you know what, Joe? Fair enough. Behold, the horrible coda to one of the strangest psychological tales in baseball: the case of Chuck Knoblauch's wonky arm.

Every Yankee fan remembers the horror of Knoblauch. Knoblauch was a fantastic second basemen who, starting in 1999 and accelerating in 2000, lost the ability to throw to first base. Sure-fire outs sailed into the stands or into the home-team dugout. The conventional wisdom said it was a vicious circle of self-inflicted psychological pressure, as Knoblauch buckled under the freight of playing for the Yanks. Buster Olney devoted a whole chapter to Knoblauch in his book The Last Night of The Yankee Dynasty.

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MLB Steroids Scandal

Theo Epstein, Eric Gagne and the Boston Red Sox: A Match Made in Muck Heaven

Spencer Ackerman | December 13, 2007, 2:52PM

The fallout from George Mitchell's 409-page report (pdf) into baseball's Steroids Era (Mitchell's words) is yet to fully drop. We're still combing the report for the most explosive revelations -- no big surprise that Yankee greats Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte juiced -- but for now, this Yankee fan wants to bring you his moment of schadenfreude. To wit: the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox. According to Mitchell, Sox general manager Theo Epstein acquired flop reliever Eric Gagne nearly a year after learning of serious circumstantial evidence of Gagne's steroid use.

Gagne and Paul Lo Duca were teammates in Los Angeles from 1999 to 2004. During that time, Gagne used Lo Duca, who went on to a beloved career catching for the Mets (sorry, Paul), as his hook-up to steroid and human-growth hormone pusher Kirk Radomski. The Red Sox scouted Gagne, once a valuable relief pitcher, after the 2006 season, when Epstein began overhauling the Sox pitching staff. Yet a certain concern lingered. On November 1, 2006, Epstein emailed his scout, Mark Delpiano, "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?"

Delpiano replied:

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