Sergeant Joe Friday would implore “All we want are the facts, ma’am,” in what seemed to be nearly every episode of “Dragnet.” That is precisely what we all want in the Roger Clemens steroids scandal. While there may never be that proverbial ‘smoking gun’ type of evidence, it is quite clear that The Rocket is not being totally forthcoming when his staunch denials of using performance-enhancing drugs are questioned.
From his soapbox statements on “60 Minutes,” to his press conference in Houston and the Congressional Hearings from the Committee on Oversight and Reform, Clemens has made it a point to at least be consistent in attempting to distance himself from any PEDs.
The man who clearly stated that he doesn’t “give a rat’s a**” about being elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame could not seem more like a liar, with that statement and his endless others.
JOSE, CAN YOU SEE
Perhaps the most truthful person in the entire baseball steroids scandal ended up being Jose Canseco, of all people. Looking back on his book “Juiced” (Regan Books, 2005), the former slugger and admitted steroid user speaks candidly about Clemens, but not what you may have expected. Canseco wrote, “I’ve never seen Roger Clemens do steroids, and he never told me that he did. But we’ve talked about what steroids could do for you, in which combinations, and I’ve heard him use the phrase “B12 shot” with respect to others.”
Canseco previously described how the term “B12 shot” was used as a code term for steroids by players and trainers. During his “60 Minutes” performance with Mike Wallace, Clemens stated that former trainer Brian McNamee injected him with Lidocaine and B12. He further stated “It’s for my joints and B12 I still take today.”
In the Mitchell Report, page 169 states that “Canseco told members of my investigative staff that he had numerous conversations with Clemens about the benefits of Deca-Durabolin and Winstrol and how to “cycle” and “stack” steroids.” This statement corroborates what Canseco said in his book about the conversations between him and Clemens.
Later in that same chapter, Canseco describes one of the “classic signs of steroid use – when a player’s basic performance actually improves later in his career” and that he was thinking of that at the time about Clemens. After leaving Boston, Clemens “decided to make some changes. He started working out harder. And whatever else he may have been doing to get stronger, he saw results.”
On “60 Minutes,” Wallace brought up a section from the Mitchell Report when McNamee said Clemens was training harder and dieting better during the time he used steroids in 1998. Clemens countered by stated “I trained hard my entire career.”
That’s two people saying Clemens stepped up his training - and possibly more – in the same time frame.
