Events Calendar
In This Section
Most Read Stories
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Can DNA tests free ex-Akron captain?
Browns' roster nearly devoid of consistent players
Coventry man killed in crash at I-77 ramp
Does it work? Test team returns to try out new products advertised on television
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Night Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Browns vs. Lions live …
Akron Zips:
Akron trounces Howard to reach .500
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Robiskie, Harrison inactive
Kent State Sports:
Kent State blown out in second half, loses to Temple 47-13
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
The Sunday Sanity Challenge
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (69) The Brookings Institute Study on "Bending the Curve" – Four General Strategies
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
George is looking for a Thanksgiving buffet in Akron.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
A Random Rant on Testing
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
Pitcher talks to several lawmakers, denying he took banned drugs
Published on Friday, Feb 08, 2008
Associated Press
WASHINGTON: Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee brought their vastly different stories to Capitol Hill on Thursday, when the star pitcher met one-on-one with congressmen informally and his former personal trainer met with House lawyers for a sworn deposition.
The seven-time Cy Young Award winner's denials of McNamee's allegations in the Mitchell Report about drug use drew Congress' attention.
McNamee did not speak to reporters on his way into the offices of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. On another floor in the Rayburn House Office Building, Clemens made brief comments as he walked through marble hallways to go to various offices of representatives on the committee. Clemens and McNamee were accompanied by lawyers.
''I'm just glad they made time in their schedule so I can go by and talk to them today,'' Clemens said shortly before stepping through the wood double doors to the office of Rep. Tom Davis, the committee's ranking Republican.
Clemens met with Davis and committee chairman Henry Waxman for about 20 minutes, then signed an autograph for a bystander upon exiting.
''I'm ready for Wednesday to get here,'' Clemens said earlier, referring to the committee's public hearing next week, when he, McNamee and other witnesses, including current New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, are to testify.
In former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell's report on doping in baseball, released in December, McNamee said he injected Clemens 16 times with steroids and human growth hormone in 1998, 2000 and 2001. Clemens has repeatedly denied those accusations, including, he said, under oath during his deposition with committee lawyers Tuesday.
Clemens was to visit about a dozen congressmen Thursday and today, according to a schedule released by Clemens' camp. Clemens, 45, who pitched for the Yankees last season, requested the meetings. He carried a white three-ring binder as he headed from one House office building to another, going through a garage and taking a freight elevator at one point.
''Because the perception out there was so strong originally that he did it and was lying, he's going to extra steps to try and persuade and make people comfortable with the fact that he didn't do it. He's having to take extraordinary measures because the allegations are extraordinary,'' one of Clemens' lawyers, Rusty Hardin, said outside the office of Rep. John Tierney, a Massachusetts Democrat on the committee.
Hardin said Clemens was meeting with individual representatives ''to assure them privately the same thing he's saying publicly — that he didn't take steroids, and he didn't take human growth hormone, and he's here to talk to anybody about it who wants to.''
Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat on the committee, said after speaking with Clemens: ''While he asked for the meeting, I wanted to make sure that when all the dust settles, that he fully understood that baseball players — whether they want to be or not — are role models and that children are looking at them.''
On Wednesday, word emerged that McNamee's representatives turned over gauze pads and syringes they said had Clemens' blood to IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky in early January. A person familiar with the evidence, speaking on condition of anonymity because McNamee's lawyers did not want to publicly discuss details, said the syringes were used to inject Clemens with steroids and HGH. A second person, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the evidence was from 2000 and 2001.
''I think this is a significant point in the case. We believe that this is significant corroboration,'' McNamee's lead lawyer, Earl Ward, said Wednesday.
Hardin, though, scoffed Thursday when asked if he was worried about the physical evidence.
''Find a prosecutor or a judge that would ever see this as evidence, all right? This is waste material. In fact, I think we're going to file a complaint with the health department,'' Hardin said.
''McNamee really did us a great favor yesterday because it truly revealed what he's out to do — and that's to destroy Roger.''
Richard Emery, another of McNamee's lawyers, said Wednesday the committee was going to be given a description of the evidence that was turned over to prosecutors.
''It does change the nature of the case from a he-said, she-said to something about physical evidence,'' Emery said.
Doping expert Don Catlin said steroids still could be detected in a sample that old.
''But if you don't find it, it doesn't mean it wasn't there before,'' said Catlin, who added there are sure to be chain-of-custody issues.
He said HGH would be much less stable.
Keith Ausbrook, the committee's Republican general counsel, told the Associated Press the committee was not aware that such physical evidence existed.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
