Maki: Still waiting for the truth

Now that was fun, wasn’t it?

Many of us weren’t sure who to believe before today’s U.S. congressional hearing on baseball’s Mitchell report – the snake-oil peddling trainer or the full-of-himself pitcher – and we were left, almost five hours later, feeling the same way.

One thing is certain, though: despite the fondling bits about him being a baseball titan, an icon (and the question about what uniform he will wear into the Hall of Fame), Roger Clemens took a beating in Washington.

He had to throw everybody under the bus to save his hide – his mother (who years ago told him to take B-12 supplements), his wife (he wasn’t aware she woke up one morning and suddenly decided, “Hey, I need a shot of HGH”), his agents and lawyers (for not passing along important bits of information) even the doctor who injected him with B-12 (must have been a bad batch since it reacted the way a shot of Winstrol would).

Must be tough going through life with all those turkeys around you.

The business about the nanny was especially hard on the stomach.

As chairman Henry Waxman outlined, the committee more than once requested the name and contact info for the nanny, who was eventually questioned about the Jose Canseco party Clemens allegedly attended and discussed drug usage. Before the committee got the contact data, Clemens, who hadn’t seen the nanny in years invited her to his home and to reminded her – out of the blue, of course – that he really wasn’t at that Canseco party.

Waxman told Clemens he chose an inappropriate course of action, which prompted a defiant outburst from Clemens crack legal team as it stood behind him, one ace with a comforting hand on Clemens’ shoulder. This was followed by Clemens saying he was “hurt” by such insinuation.

“I was just trying to help y’all,” he explained.

How noble.

The best words spoken all day came from Rep. Elijah Cummings, who said if two sides were telling opposite stories he would choose to believe an outside source, in this case pitcher Andy Pettitte, who admitted he’d taken HGH more than once, as the sneaky trainer had testified, and that Clemens told him he had used HGH.

Clemens said Pettitte had “misheard” what he was saying and was not a drug user.

Cummings’s comeback was knee-buckling.

"I've listened to you very carefully. And I take you at your word. And you're telling me that Andy Pettitte is an honest man, and his credibility is pretty much impeccable,” said Cummings. “You said you were misunderstood. But all I'm saying is it's hard to believe. It's hard to believe your story.

“I hate to say that,” Cummings added. “You're one of my heroes. But it's hard to believe you.”

It was almost five hours of blathering tied up in a single truth.


Source : Dave Leeder, www.theglobeandmail.com