Clemens To Sue McNamee

Clemens filed a law suit against McNamee for defamation. This is somewhat surprising given how hard these cases are to prove. But at this point, what does Clemens have to lose? He's claimed his innocence countless times through countless different forums, but the vast majority of people still think he cheated.

McNamee is now likely to file a suit against Clemens. I thought McNamee would file one even if Clemens didn't. It's possible, however, that McNamee will let Clemens be the one who has to try to prove one of these difficult defamation cases. McNamee may not want to pay more lawyer fees when he has such an advantage in the Clemens defamation case.

Sports Illustrated had an exclusive interview with Brian McNamee. It's actually pretty interesting if you have time to read it. McNamee defends hismelf against Clemens' accusation that he was "movin' steroids" saying "the feds look at bank accounts, and there's no money unaccounted for. I don't launder money. I don't have anything in my mattress. If I was pushing drugs, what did I do with the money?"

McNamee also says he respects Clemens and thinks he should be in the Hall of Fame. He even downplays Clemens' alleged steroid use. According to McNamee, "Roger was in no way an abuser of steroids. He never took them through our tough winter workouts. And he never took them in spring training, when the days are longest. He took them in late July, August, and never for more than four to six weeks max ... it wasn't that frequent."

It's tough for me to believe either one of these guys. Neither one seems very trustworthy. But I'm inclined to believe what the Mitchell Investigation has uncovered. Why would investigators be out to get Clemens for no reason, as he claims? What motive would there possibly be?

Clemens Meltdown

Perhaps Clemens is finally starting to realize that he may not make it into the Hall of Fame. He's shown some erratic behavior lately. On Friday, he taped a phone conversation with McNamee, without McNamee knowing the conversation was being recorded. McNamee was emotional; he was one of Rogers' close friends for a long time. But to McNamee's credit, he didn't know he was being recorded and he still didn't say anything that would call his testimony into question.

Then today, Clemens broke down in his scheduled press conference in Houston. According to Peter Abraham at 5:56,

"The press conference is over. Clemens started cursing, said he didn’t care about the Hall of Fame and walked off the stage. Pretty ugly scene."

Clemens On 60 Minutes

I don't know how many other people just caught the interview, but I thought it was pretty interesting. Clemens was visibly angry, but he seemed as nervous as he was angry. Clemens was licking his lips so often that it looked as if he was wearing lip gloss. When the camera panned away, you could see that he was fumbling with something in his left hand. At times, his right eye even seemed to twitch. It would be interesting to see if any body language "experts" dissect the interview.

One of his main defenses seemed to be, why would he take something that would cause him to break down? He even specifically mentioned the negative affects of steroids on flexibility. And Clemens seemed to act as if he never suffered under similar issues. Any injuries that caused Clemens to break down later in his career could be related to his age, and not at all to steroids use, but I think it's pretty clear that Clemens did suffer from such injuries.

Here are some actual excerpts from the interview. They aren't exaggerated, but rather taken word for word from the transcript.

Wallace: Why would Brian McNamee tell the truth about Andy Pettitte and lie about you?

Clemens: Andy's case is totally is, is totally separate. I was shocked to learn about Andy's situation. Had no idea about it.

...

Clemens: Why would I want to get tight or lose my flexibility, put something harmful in my system that's gonna cause me to break down when I've had a 24 year career?

Wallace: Look, because you're at the end of your career, and because you you don't want to give up the career and give up the fame and so forth. So if it's necessary to stick something into you—

Clemens: I didn't play my career to get fame or go to the Hall of Fame or worry about all that. That's nice. That, all that's nice. Again, it's not who I am. I've worked my tail off to get where I'm at. I'm not gonna put something in my body for a quick fix that's gonna tear me down.

...

Wallace: In two of the three years that McNamee claims that he injected you—'98 and 2001 you won 20 games and the Cy Young award as the American League's best pitcher.

Clemens: I won—in 1997 I won the Cy Young Award. 2004 when he supposedly, I wasn't doing it.

Wallace: Yeah, but these are the years in which McNamee claims that he injected you.

Clemens: It didn't happen. It didn't happen. It just didn't happen.

Breaking News: Congress Would Like A Word With Clemens

According to ESPN, Congress is requesting a hearing with Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Brian McNamee. The hearing is to be held January 16th. And David Marin, a member of the committee has made it clear what Congress is looking for.

ESPN asked committee member David Marin if the hearings were meant to gets answers from Clemens and Pettitte while they're under oath. Marin responded, "that's a question goes without saying. Under oath is under oath."

If Congress then suspects Pettitte or Clemens of lying under oath, they would likely be investigated for perjury, just like Barry Bonds. Perjury is a felony of the third degree, punishable by jail time. For those who were upset over the speculative nature of the Mitchell Report, you may get some irrefutable answers soon.

Clemens Likely to Face Law Suit

An interview of Roger Clemens is scheduled to air on 60 Minutes this Wednesday. In the interview, Clemens is expected to claim innocence (again) but this time he could just be incriminating himself further. Brian McNamee's lawyer is set to sue Clemens, should he claim that his client's testimony was untruthful.

Personally, I don't feel bad for Clemens one bit. Clemens' drug use as described in the Mitchell Report is on par with that of Barry Bonds. Clemens' obnoxious attitude is in that category as well. Of course, Clemens could be innocent. And the entire Micthell Report could be a Red Sox conspiracy. People will believe what they want to believe, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

So I hope Clemens doesn't dance around the issue on Sunday. That way McNamee can provide even more details on Roger's illegal drug use. It will be hard for Yankees fans to claim that Clemens is innocent, and that the Mitchell Report is a Red Sox conspiracy, should a court of law find McNamee's testimony to be truthful.

Mitchell Report Damning of Yankees

One important issue to remember, is that this report only sheds light on the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED's) in baseball over the last 20 years. Even so, the report is still rather damning towards the Yankees. Over 15 former and current Yankees were named, including Kevin Brown, Jose Canseco, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, Jason Grimsley, Glenallen Hill, David Justice, Chuck Knoblauch, Josias Manzanillo, Hal Morris, Denny Neagle, Andy Pettitte, Gary Sheffield, Mike Stanton, Ron Villone, Rondell White, and Todd Williams.

Many of those players played key roles in the Yankees dynasty years of last decade. Roger Clemens pitched well with the Yankees during the 1999 and 2000 playoffs, winning two World Series games and a game against the Red Sox in the 1999 ALCS. Clemens is the only Yankees player listed, who is accused of using steroids throughout his entire tenure with the Yankees.

David Justice was traded to the Yankees in June of 2000. He then hit .305/.391/.585 with 20 home runs and 60 RBI in 78 games with the Yankees, to help them win the division over the Red Sox by 2.5 games. Later, Justice would go on to be the 2000 ALCS MVP with the Yankees.

Pettitte was with the Yankees in all four of their dynasty World Series years. He spent most of that time as the Yankees Game 2 starter and was a solid force in the playoffs. Although the Mitchell Report doesn't trace his use of PED's back any further than 2002, he may have been using them earlier.

Chuck Knoblauch hit .375/.500/.563 in the 1998 World Series. He also hit .333/.429/.389 against the Red Sox in the 1999 ALCS, and .313/.353/.563 in that year's World Series. His use of PED's was traced back as early as 2001, although he may have been using them earlier.

The Yankees also got considerable help from PED's when they played the Red Sox in the 2003 ALCS. Both Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte received wins in the series with Jason Giambi hitting two home runs in the deciding Game 7, which went to extra innings. Mitchell claims that all three players had already taken PED's prior to that year.

Four Reasons the Yankees Will Not Advance

The Royal Rooters spent quite a bit of their time engaged in debate about the rival Boston Braves. The Braves are now long gone and have been replaced by an even more bitter rival - the New York Yankees. So, in the spirit of The Royal Rooters, I thought I'd take a moment to put the Yankees in their place. Here are five reasons why the Yankees won't see the ALCS this year.

1. Lions In September, Mice In October - The Yankees have had some offensive trouble as well lately. Both Hideki Matsui and Melky Cabrera have hit below the Mendoza line in September. It's hard to predict even how their hottest hitters will do in October however.

Last year, A-Rod's best month of the year was September. He hit .358/.465/.691 for an OPS of 1.157. Come October however, A-Rod hit under .150 for the second postseason in a row. A-Rod has posted his highest strikeout total of any month this September, striking out more than once every four at bats. Could it be a sign of things to come?

The Yankees have lead the major leagues in runs scored, each of the past regular seasons. Come playoff time however, they haven't been able to average more than four runs a game in either one of the last seasons. 2006 was an especially horrendous series for the Yankees offensively, as they compiled a batting average of .246.

2. Bullpen Inferiority - The Yankees bullpen has been an issue for them all year. It's not really fair to compare the two team's bullpens. The Indians have one of the deepest bullpens in the league. Some of the bullpen arms they can trust include Betancourt (1.47 ERA), Perez (1.78 ERA), Lewis (2.13 ERA) and Fultz (3.03 ERA). Fultz is the only one of those pitchers who does not have more strikeouts than innings pitched.

When it comes to the Yankees however, they essentially only have two bullpen arms which they can trust. One of them is Mariano Rivera, but the other one is rookie Joba Chamberlain, who has never pitched in the postseason. Former Yankees set up man Luis Vizcaino, has really struggled lately. Perhaps his 77 appearances have caught up with him as he's had an ERA over 10 in September.

3. Sabathia and Carmona - Sabathia and Carmona are arguably the best 1-2 punch in the league. Both pitchers were in the top 10 in the league in wins, ERA and WHIP. Sabathia could be especially tough for the Yankees. The Yankees have done poorly against lefty starters this season (19-19). They also haven't faced Sabathia in years. The Yankees will have to face those pitchers on the road, where they've gone 42-39 this year.

4. Starting Woes - Outside of Chien-Ming Wang, every member of the Yankees playoff rotation is a question mark. Pettitte, typically one of the best September pitchers in baseball, has really struggled down the stretch. In September, he's had an ERA of 5.86, a WHIP of 1.67 and a BAA of .324. That's good for his worst September in over nine years.

By the time Clemens gets the ball in game three of the ALDS, he will have gone 20 days without pitching. There have been jokes that Clemens will be pitching with his arm on a thread. His real issue however is his hamstring, which is an infamously pesky injury. The last time Clemens pitched in the postseason with a hurt hamstring, the results were disastrous. He blew up in the ALDS and then again in the World Series, lasting only 2 innings. His postseason ERA in that year of 2005, was 5.63.

And finally, we arrive at the Yankees fourth starter, Mike Mussina. Mussina lost his rotation spot after completely falling apart in August. After stringing together two quality starts in a row, Mussina again got lit up, allowing six runs on 11 hits in his last outing. He didn't get out of the fifth inning.