Joba Getting Rocket Texts

Joba Chamberlain is getting text messages from Roger Clemens with advice on how to become a better major leaguer. No word on whether the texts contained a recipe for performance-enhancing-drugs.

Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain, who is making the transition from eighth-inning reliever to the rotation, says he is in touch with Clemens regularly.

“We text back and forth and I ask him a lot of questions, because that’s how you get better,” Chamberlain said before the Yankees’ game in Baltimore Tuesday night. “You can’t be afraid to ask questions. I ask him everything from workout questions to how to pitch to certain batters. I never thought I’d be texting Roger Clemens.”

...Chamberlain says he’s taking pieces of Clemens’ workout routine and incorporating them. One piece of advice Clemens gave him: “The easiest day should be the day you pitch,” Chamberlain says. “Then, I beat myself up in between starts. I run, lift, eat right and take care of myself between starts.”

Maybe Chamberlain should stick to pitching tips and leave the "workout questions" alone for now.

Report: Clemens Had 10 Year Affair

According to this morning's Daily News edition, Roger Clemens held a ten year affair with then 15 year-old country singer Mindy McCready. Clemens was 28, married and a father at the time of the alleged affair.

Is this the worst calendar year of all time for an athlete? Rocket's getting into hall of shame territory:

Roger Clemens carried on a decade-long affair with country star Mindy McCready, a romance that began when McCready was a 15-year-old aspiring singer performing in a karaoke bar and Clemens was a 28-year-old Red Sox ace and married father of two, several sources have told the Daily News.

The revelations could torpedo claims of an unsullied character that are central to the defamation suit Clemens filed Jan. 6 against his former personal trainer Brian McNamee. Vivid details of the affair could surface in several media projects that McCready is involved with - including a documentary that begins filming today in Nashville, a new album and a reality show.

...Contacted by the Daily News Sunday through his lawyer Rusty Hardin, Clemens confirmed a long-term relationship but denied that it was of a sexual nature.

“He flatly denies having had any kind of an inappropriate relationship with her,” Hardin said. “He’s considered her a close family friend. ... He has never had a sexual relationship with her.”

What's the statute of limitations on statutory rape, I wonder.

McNamee EBays Clemens Items

Brian McNamee is selling all of his Roger Clemens related paraphernalia. No word on how much the deca-durabolin vials and blood-encrusted needles fetched:

With legal bills mounting, lawsuits pending and his professional future uncertain, Brian McNamee, former trainer to the stars, is very clear on at least one aspect of his life:

He wants no part of any gifts from a man who calls him a liar.

McNamee has 50 to 60 signed pieces of memorabilia - photos, baseballs, hats and jerseys - given to him by Roger Clemens, his former client. Clemens has spent the last three months assailing his character - basically since McNamee stated in the Mitchell Report that he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs. Six weeks after his nationally televised congressional showdown with Clemens, McNamee has turned over the entire collection to Phil Castinetti, owner of Sportsworld in Saugus, Mass., one of the biggest sports-memorabilia dealers in New England.

McNamee is also selling other items signed by Jose Canseco, Andy Pettitte and Jason Grimsley.

“He was going to throw this stuff away,” said Castinetti, who has already begun listing the items on eBay and believes the pieces could generate up to $75,000 in all. “Because of the hard feelings between him and Clemens, he wanted nothing to do with it.”

McNamee Crashes Lexus In Queens

Hat tip to Baseball Think Factory

Apparently Brian McNamee, the embattled former trainer and now professional accuser of Roger Clemens fainted due to a medical condition before ramming his car into a bus yesterday afternoon:

Roger Clemens’ former trainer Brian McNamee smashed his Lexus into a city bus in Queens yesterday after blacking out behind the wheel, authorities said.

McNamee was heading westbound on Central Ave. near Beach 11th St. in Far Rockaway when he rear-ended another car and careened into the bus head-on around 12:30 p.m., cops said.

The former Yankees trainer who confessed to providing performance-enhancing drugs to some of the biggest names in baseball told cops he fainted from his diabetes and then “woke up in front of a bus.”

No truth to the rumor that he threw Andy Pettitte and Clemens underneath said bus before the incident.

Wall Street Journal: HGH No Rocket Fuel

According to a Wall Street Journal article, scientific evidence goes against the idea that an HGHed up Roger Clemens would result in an increase in fastball velocity, strength and rage associated with its PED cousin, the anabolic steroid. It will, however, let your body recover like a radioactive Peter Petrelli, but it would seem that is not a point of interest.

What if Roger Clemens did take human growth hormone? It’s not clear his fastballs got any hotter because of it — at least not according to the scientific literature.

Stanford medical school researchers, their curiosity piqued by the brouhaha around athletes using HGH, recently tried to determine if the folks alleged to have used HGH were practicing evidence-based medicine. Do the data demonstrate any benefit for athletes? Little, if any, according to the results published in the current issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

The Stanford researchers found 27 past randomized, controlled studies, with a total of 303 participants, that tested the physiological effects of injections of growth hormone compared with a placebo in healthy people. The studies were also double-blinded, meaning the patients and researchers didn’t know whether they got the HGH or not.

Participants in the studies did seem to show an increase in their lean body mass, which is generally associated with more muscle. But in the two studies that looked at muscle strength, HGH users didn’t show an improvement. One possibility is that HGH is causing fluid retention, Hau Liu, the study’s lead author, tells the Health Blog. It’s hard to differentiate between muscle and fluids, he explains.

Happy Hangover Links

[Rhona Mitra, star of the new horror flick Doomsday, helps spice up a lazy Sunday afternoon]


- The Yankees added lefthanded reliever Billy Traber to the 40-man roster. Traber has pitched very well this spring, striking out five and allowing zero runs in four innings of work. He does not have dominating stuff but shockingly throws strikes and flashes a serviceable breaking ball. Joe Girardi likes what he's seen thus far through Spring Training, though Traber could just as easily become a relief version of last year's Chase Wright emergence.

From LoHud:

This not necessarily mean that Traber will be on the man roster on March 31. But don’t bet against it. He has appeared in five games this spring. His line: 4 3 0 0 0 5. Opponents are hitting .167 against him.

“Very intriguing,” Joe Girardi said.

In Other News . . .

• Joba Chamberlain is not having a great Spring, but don't overreact says Pete Abraham.

• Roger Clemens [and Brian Cashman] helped ease the heartache for a family who lost their son during the tragic events of 9/11.

• Shelley Duncan will appeal his three-game suspension. So will Melky Cabrera.
  
  
• Bill Madden says the young Yankees pitching faces some daunting history.
  
  
• Murray Chass wonders if the AL East is becoming a four team derby?
  

Larry Lucifer Won't Retire Clemens Jersey. The man who coined "The Evil Empire" label regarding the Yankees, Larry Lucchino, is reconsidering the idea of immortalizing Roger Clemens in Beantown:

Once an icon in the game, Clemens is now a baseball pariah. Now comes evidence that the Red Sox may be backing off their efforts at rapprochement.

While the organization had spoken in broad terms about holding a special day to honor to Clemens and perhaps even retire his number, those plans are now on hold.

“I seemed to remember some talk about that,” confirmed Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino yesterday, noting that former vice president of public affairs Charles Steinberg spearheaded the discussions. “But since that time, there’s been nothing further. I know there are no plans at this point (to do anything).”

Afternoon Links:

· FBI opens case investigating whether Roger Clemens committed perjury. MLB fans offer their overbearing indifference.

· Jon Heyman says Joe Torre will have a tough time keeping the Dodgers together as embittered veterans will mix with LA's uber prospects.

· Jonathon Mayo, good source of MiLB info, takes his swings on the Clemens predicament and may offer a surprising perspective.

· The NY Observer thinks a Betemit/Duncan platoon at first base best serves Yanks though Joe Girardi will probably institute the "hot hand" approach.

Photo Shows Clemens Attended Canseco Party. According to the Daily News report, a young man who attended the now infamous Jose Canseco barbecue - 11 years old at the time - may have photographic evidence showing Roger Clemens was there as well. Though the debate as to whether or not Clemens appeared at such a BBQ seems to be trivial at best, the Republicans and the Rocket's defense team spent an awful lot of Congressional hearing time attempting to prove he was never at Canseco's house. Just as was the case with Clemens' former nanny, it appears new evidence will emerge, proving him to be inaccurate. According to the photographer, he took several pictures of his baseball heroes, one of which was Roger Clemens. The article states Richard Emery and his client Brian McNamee were aware the photo had been circulating as evidence for over a week. Just another lie from a couple of liars. Can we put a fork in this, now?

Barry Bonds is a sad, sad individual. The recently revealed typo which mistakenly cited Bonds had failed a drug test in 2001 [the correct year is 2000] motivated the mongoloid, syringed slugger to declare "the damage to the case was already done," the AP says. Roger Clemens based his case on the word "misremember" and Bonds is building his defense around the idea that a typo recants a positive drug test. These guys have to be long lost brothers, right? At least within whatever fairy tale world they now inhabit.

Pettitte Looks To Move Forward

Today's press conference allowed Andy Pettitte to address his use of HGH on three separate occasions in 2002 and 2004. Pettitte came across honest and genuine. The mistake of using HGH occurred when desired to return from two trips to the disabled list. It is a faux pah which will follow his career now and long after he retires.

Pettitte answered every question - with exception to a couple whose legal ramifications made them off-limits. By and large, Pettitte showed himself to be an honorable, remorseful individual who knows he was "stupid" to implement HGH into his rehabilitation process. A few photos from the day [courtesy of Yahoo!] are included below.

Some will remember Pettitte as a cheater, but Roger Clemens more appropriately fits that label. After all, Pettitte pursued a quick return from the DL to help his team while Clemens apparently pursued a fountain of youth and steroid help. Pettitte looked for an edge in recovery, but he did not abuse drugs, pump himself full of steroids or sell out his wife in the process.

Those Yankee haters baseball fans who allege Pettitte lied and used HGH more than his admitted three days suffer from a clear case of having your cake and eating it too. The 2004 incident was something only he and his father knew about and Pettitte could have chosen never to confess it as no one would have ever been the wiser.

Instead, Pettitte was compelled to tell the whole truth. Using Pettitte's testimony to incriminate Clemens is very rational. But, turning around and questioning Pettitte's deposition regarding his own HGH use reveals a biased observer with an agenda. Either Pettitte lied and Clemens has been wrongly implicated, or he is telling the truth and has only used HGH over a three day period. Can't have it both ways.

Yankee fans will embrace Pettitte when he returns to the Bronx. Whether or not the average baseball fan will be so kind - when recollecting his career - will not be realized until years later. Some athletes can never recover their career from PED use, and should Pettitte have a terrible year in 2008, his detractors will point him as a cheat. A slippery slope has been accumulating in Major League Baseball over the past decade and The Mitchell Report doused it with ice water.

"It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of the truth." - John Locke

1) The new manager, Joe Girardi and GM Brian Cashman bookend Pettitte:



2) The rest of the "Dynasty Yankees" lend support:



3) Jeter, Posada and Pettitte hug it out:



4) The end result? Humility personified . . .

Pettitte circus press conference to commence at 3:00 p.m. That's right nonsports fans, Andy Pettitte will be on the griddle this afternoon, though it's been reported he wanted to meet with the media on this topic months ago. The big news outlets - ESPN, USA Today, FOX Sports and Yahoo! - are descending on Tampa with pens, cameras and journalistic aspirations, says Pete Abraham. Pettitte's lawyer will be on hand to help him sidestep questions pertaining to Roger Clemens' upcoming defamation lawsuit against former trainer Brian McNamee. Trapeze teams, fire jugglers and domesticated elephants may or may not appear at the tent to be constructed on Legends Field.

Posada Believes Clemens

The LoHud Blog reports Jorge Posada believes Roger Clemens who recently testified in front of Congress that he was innocent of accusations that he used steroids, HGH or any other performance enhancing drug.

“I’m supportive,” Posasa said. “He says he never took it and I’m behind him 100 percent. Rocket is one of my favorite teammates ever. It doesn’t take anything away from what he did. For me, he’s the best pitcher I ever caught and it doesn’t change that.”

Maybe more importantly, the report mentioned Posada's belief that things will be "a little different" under Joe Girardi's watch as opposed to what went on during Joe Torre's tenure. Posada stated Girardi is "a little more critical" than Torre and will probably "be a little tougher on us." That's the plan.

Posada also told reporters “the Mets were really, really involved” this Winter and that the Yankees career catcher had to seriously mull their offer(s).

The Pettitte Depo Debunked

After reading through the 100 pages which comprise the Andy Pettitte deposition, you get a real sense for who the Yankee lefthander really is. Throughout his testimony, Pettitte was noticeably troubled with the mention of Roger Clemens' name, but his desire to tell the truth was just as evident. According to Pettitte, he and Clemens never discussed any PED use. However, Brian McNamee would vent about Roger's drug-use to Pettitte.

When the Jason Grimsley report leaked, Pettitte says in the deposition that he wanted to come clean and told McNamee he planned to. However, McNamee asked him to keep his name out of his admission which Pettitte knew was impossible. As a result, Pettitte did not confess his three days of HGH use, protecting his trainer and others around him.

If you really want to know Pettitte better, I recommend reading his entire deposition, but I have cut and paste a handful of telling excerpts from the report:

Q: And why did you stop after the four injections?

A: I just -- I did feel uncomfortable with it. I felt really that's it. I can't explain any better than that, just knowing if you've ever been somewhere and you don't feel right about it, so you just leave. I mean I just didn't feel right about it. I don't know. It was because -- every time, you know, before any injections I'd ever had had been administered to me by a team doctor or you know a trainer. And you know, just didn't feel comfortable with, you know, him doing that.

And on why McNamee tried to dissuade Pettitte from using HGH to return from injury:

A: Yeah. He discouraged me from doing it.

Q: Why? What did he tell you?

A: I mean, he told me that he knows what kind of person I am. He knows -- I mean, I'm a Christian man. I try to live my life a certain way. And he told me that he did not think that I would feel comfortable doing it once I did it. I definitely listened to what he had to say.

Pettitte's reasoning for trying HGH:

I felt like it was the right thing to do. I was making an awful lot of money. I wanted to give back to the team. I had been on the DL before. But I knew I had hurt my elbow pretty bad this time. I was on there for an extended period of time, where before with my elbow I'd only missed a couple of weeks. But I knew that I was missing some extended period of time there. And I just felt like that it was the honorable thing to do, if I could do whatever I could to try to get back on the field and try to earn my money. I just told him I think that I ought to do it. And so that's why he agreed to do it.

Q: Did it help? I mean, was it effective for your elbow?

A: I mean, I don't think so just because I think you have to take the stuff for an extended period of time. And you know, I don't believe it did.

According to the deposition, Pettitte had previously attempted to stop his father from using HGH at his mother's behest. Within the transcript Pettitte cites his father's involvement as the major reason for his exclusion from the public hearing explaining "it would be a very uncomfortable situation for me to try to talk about [my dad's involvement] in front of the whole world."

He then discussed his second and final use of HGH - though it is important to understand Pettitte's father had had numerous open heart surgeries and had been taking HGH to help his recovery:

Again, I was on the DL. First start of the season with the Houston Astros in '04 I check swung, very first at-bat, and I popped my tendon in my elbow. My flexor tendon. The next day I had an MRI, found out I needed to have surgery and decided not to have the surgery, you know, they recommended that I have surgery. But I just signed a $30 million contract with the Astros. My first start with the hometown team and I was like, there's no way I'm going out like this. So got a few cortisone injections into my elbow that year through the team doctor to try to help me get back. I came back off the DL after trying to rehab it. Went back on the DL. Had to miss a start here and there.

Through all this I was getting Toradol injections, which was a painkiller that you get, you know, so I could just deal with the pain when I was making my starts. And the team doctors were administering that and the trainers for the Astros. And anyhow, just ended up going back to my dad. We were just having a conversation. I had asked my dad if he had had any of the HGH that he had had before. He ended up bringing me two syringes over to my house. And you know, I injected myself once in the morning and once at night. He had brought two syringes over. That's what he brought over to my house. You know, that's the best that he recalls also that he had brought two syringes over. And that was it. I did it that time. I did it for that day. And to this day, I don't know why, it doesn't make a whole lot -- heck of a lot of sense. I knew -- I think that's probably why I didn't continue to pursue it. I did it. I was desperate and you know I really knew that it wasn't going to help me. My flexor tendon was already torn. I knew I needed surgery. I would just say just out of desperation I tried to do it again. But that was the extent of it.

And when I took HGH both times, it was not banned from Major League Baseball. If it was, I would have never taken it.

When Pettitte talks about pitching through a torn elbow tendon it makes me wince. Some of these professional athletes are pampered - there are many others, however, who are anything but.

According to several reports, Pettitte will be given an extra three days before arriving in Spring training camp on Monday - pitchers and catchers officially report tomorrow.

Breaking: Get Your Depos

The House Oversight Committee now has all of the depositions available online on their website.

Click the above link and happy reading.

Here are links to the four most important depositions:

Roger Clemens

Brian McNamee

Andy Pettitte

Chuck Knoblauch

Happy Congressional Hearing Day!

The depositions are beginning to leak out. Andy Pettitte admitting to - aside from using HGH for two days to recover from elbow issues in 2002 - he also used HGH once before elbow surgery was necessary in 2004. The HGH was supplied by his father. Pettitte's deposition also confirmed conversations with Roger Clemens in which the Rocket admitted use of Human Growth Hormone nearly a decade ago.

Essentially, it appears Pettitte used HGH on two different occasions for the sole purpose of recovering from injury - and not to enhance performance on a regular basis. Pettitte's decision was a mistake, however, his limited use [three days total] speaks to his degree of use. Considering Pettitte admitted conversations with Clemens and implicated himself as well, it is hard not to take Pettitte's testimony as fact.

Roger Clemens told Yankees teammate Andy Pettitte nearly 10 years ago that he used human growth hormone, Pettitte said in a sworn affidavit to Congress, the Associated Press learned Tuesday.

Pettitte disclosed the conversation to the congressional committee holding Wednesday’s hearings on drug use in baseball, a person familiar with the affidavit said. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the document had not been made public.

According to the person familiar with the affidavit, who said it was signed Friday night, Pettitte also said Clemens backtracked when the subject of HGH came up again in conversation in 2005, before the same House committee held the first hearing on steroids in baseball.

Pettitte said in the affidavit that he asked Clemens in 2005 what he would do if asked by the media about HGH, given his admission years earlier. According to the account told to the AP, the affidavit said Clemens responded by saying Pettitte misunderstood the previous exchange in 1999 or 2000 and that, in fact, Clemens had been talking about HGH use by his wife in the original conversation.

Andy Pettitte has admitted to also using human growth hormone in 2004, saying it was supplied to him that time by his father, The Associated Press learned Wednesday.

After the Mitchell Report was released, Pettitte said he used HGH for two days in 2002. Last week, Pettitte was asked to discuss drug use in both a deposition and affidavit before a congressional committee.

“In that affidavit, Andy informed the committee that in addition to the two shots a day of HGH he took for two days in 2002, he also took HGH for a one-day period in 2004, shortly preceding season-ending elbow surgery,” his lawyer, Jay Reisinger, said in a statement.

God bless America. The people who are implying Clemens will be charged and convicted with perjury, that is not a threat. Unless a smoking gun surfaces - like physical evidence - regardless of how many people testify, the conflict remains a "he said, she said" scenario. Therefore, there is not enough evidence to supply perjury charges.

Pettittte's Testimony Backs McNamee

A report from Newsday.com reveals Andy Pettitte's testimony given to investigators supports the claims of trainer Brian McNamee, who has been engaged in a bitter war of words with Roger Clemens this past month.

The affidavit of Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte helps to support the account of Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens' former trainer, that he gave Clemens injections of banned drugs, according to a ranking member of the congressional committee investigating the use of illegal drugs in baseball.

Newsday.com first reported the story last night after interviewing Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) yesterday. Davis said that in an affidavit given to the House Oversight Committee, Pettitte's account matches McNamee's in most details, but that in a separate affidavit to the committee, Clemens said both are mistaken.

Sources said McNamee has told investigators that in the winter of 2002, he, Clemens and Pettitte were working out together at the gym in Clemens' Houston home. According to the sources, McNamee says that during a break in the workout, Pettitte went over to McNamee by himself and asked: "How come you don't give me the stuff you give Roger?" McNamee supposedly replied, "Because it's illegal."

Guess we can close the book on that one.

Pettitte Asks To Be Excused From Hearing

According to the New York Times, Andy Pettitte asked to be excused from testifying publicly during the upcoming hearing in Washington DC. Only Pettitte, his attorney and investigators know what is in the lefty's deposition, but legal experts may predict this to be a bad sign for Roger Clemens and his defense team.

From the article:

The chairman of the House Oversight Committee is supporting Andy Pettitte’s request not to have to testify publicly against his former teammate Roger Clemens at a public hearing on Wednesday, a congressional staff person said Monday.

The chairman, Democrat Henry A. Waxman of California, wants to take Pettitte off the witness list but he is consulting with Republican members of the panel first, said the person, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Two other people familiar with the case said it is also possible that Clemens and his accuser, the former trainer Brian McNamee, may be the only witnesses who will ultimately testify on Wednesday.

Pettitte asked out of public testimony because he did not want to say something to hurt his friend and former teammate while in the glare of national television coverage, according to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

There has been no final decision on Pettitte’s request, the official said. A final witness list may be released shortly.

.

McNamee Evidence May Be Weak

According to a New York Times report citing scientific experts, the physical evidence trainer Brian McNamee submitted to officials yesterday may be impossible to date. The Clemens defense team will also lambaste McNamee during a trial as the fact that the evidence was handled by his accuser does not work in the ex-trainer's favor. From the article:

The syringes, vials and gauze pads that Brian McNamee has turned over to federal investigators to back up his contention that he injected Roger Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone will be the subject of a strenuous attack if they enter the courtroom, according to medical and legal experts.

The syringes, vials and gauze pads are said to date from 2000 and 2001, part of a four-year period in which McNamee contends he gave Clemens drug injections. But even if the physical evidence tests positive for Clemens’s DNA and, say, steroids, Clemens’s lawyers could argue that McNamee added steroid traces to the original evidence in a bid to incriminate Clemens, experts say.

“You can test to figure out what the substance is, but you cannot figure out how old it is,” Dr. Don Catlin, the former director of the Olympic testing lab at U.C.L.A., said in a telephone interview.

There is no way to date blood either, Catlin said, which means there may not be a conclusive way to establish that the syringes, vials and pads were from 2000 and 2001.

The experts said that any syringes were particularly important because they could have come in contact with Clemens’s blood and a substance he might have been injected with.

This is where I get off. Legal mumbo-jumbo and scientific experts become a baseball blog's worst nightmare. Not that this story hasn't been intrusive and annoying from the jump.

McNamee Has Physical Evidence

Brian McNamee has physical evidence against Roger Clemens, according to The New York Daily News. Should the samples contain traces of PEDs and a DNA test proves the sample came from Clemens, the smoking gun will have finally made an appearance.

Brian McNamee has turned over physical evidence to federal investigators that he believes will show Roger Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs, according to McNamee's lawyers.

"This is evidence the government has that we believe will corroborate Brian in every significant way," said McNamee lawyer Earl Ward.

McNamee's attorneys would not discuss the details of the evidence, but according to a source close to the former Yankee strength and conditioning coach, McNamee gave the Justice Department's BALCO investigators vials with traces of steroids and growth hormone, as well as blood-stained syringes and gauze pads that may contain the Rocket's DNA.

Justice Department officials have sent the evidence to a lab for testing, and if the materials do indeed contain traces of drugs and blood, prosecutors may attempt to get a court order for a DNA sample from Clemens.

And the band played on, even though nobody was listening.