Friday, February 08, 2008

Today's Question

Is baseball pitcher Roger Clemens lying?

5 comments:

Frank Marcopolos said...

Yep. No question about it.

Patrick S. @ RedFez said...

I'll say no for now. We'll accept or reject heroes too easily these days. Seems like much of the evidence against Clemens was provided by a squirrelly trainer, a guy who just turned over a bunch of used syringes from years ago. Sounds like a shakedown to me!

And looking at the "authority" behind this investigation, George Mitchell and Bud Selig... oh my god why are these goofs given any credibility? They should have been put out to pasture years ago. Selig was even a laughingstock in MILWAUKEE of all places before he became the commissioner. Perfect guy to clean up the sport, him and Jose Canseco!

Frank Marcopolos said...

Well, I think we have now 3 forms of evidence against Clemens:

1) Statistical. His #s dramatically improved after the dates MacNamee says he injected him.

2) Circumstantial. Testimony by MacNamee who was under oath with federal investigators when he gave testimony to George Mitchell in the Mitchell Report. Also, Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch corroborated Mac's testimony about them using steroids, lending him credibility.

3) Material. Gauze pads, needles, etc., from when Mac injected Clemens, which should have Clemens' DNA on them, as well as residue from the drugs.

And all we have on Clemens' side is what he has said. Seems like a slam dunk case to me, unless the lab tests from the material evidence come up inconclusive.

Patrick S. @ RedFez said...

Clemens did win a Cy Young w/ Toronto in 1997. He met McNamee the following season and won another Cy Young. (Uhoh, Jose Canseco was on the 98 bluejays)...but Roger really can't be that dumb, can he?

Material evidence could have been altered by the trainer back when he still had access to Roger's dna.

Frank Marcopolos said...

true, but when everything's taken together as a whole, including there being zero reason for macnamee to lie about clemens' steroid use, i find it hard to believe the "rocket."