Roger Clemens, the uberpitcher, was on a certain path to Baseball's Hall of Fame when Brian McNamee, his former trainer, accused him of taking growth hormnes and steroids. He has vehemntly denied taking any performance enhancing substances and is suing McNamee for defamation of character. He is currently under investigation by the Justice Department to determine if he committed perjury while testifying before Congress.
If that's not bad enough, Clemens is now facing a public relations nightmare of allegations that, for many years, he has been cheating on his wife with a number of different women. The Daily News, a New York tabloid, has reported that Clemens had a 10-year long intimate relationship with country singer Mindy McCready.
According to the initial story in The News, Clemens met McCready at The Hired Hand, a karaoke bar in Fort Myers, Florida, when she was a 15-year old aspiring singer and, at 28, he was the ace Red Sox pitcher and married father of two. That report indicated Clemens began the affair that night in his hotel room. When contacted by The News, McCready said, "I cannot refute anything in the story." Thereafter though, sources told The News that Clemens and McCready did not have sex that night and that the intimacies did not begin until after she had moved to Nashville in pursuit of her singing career.
Rusty Hardin, Clemens' Houston attorney, rushed to release this statement: "At no time did Roger engage in any kind of inappropriate or improper relationship with her. It is unfortunate that the Daily News has chosen to report anonymous allegations that are completely unfounded, have no basis in fact, and have nothing to do with Roger's baseball career or the issue of steroid use in baseball." That statement was made before McCready told The News she could not refute anything in the story. Hardin accused McNamee's attorney of planting the story in an attempt to influence the defamation lawsuit.
Gayle Inge, McCready's mother, told The News, "I know Roger was infatuated with Mindy." Inge admitted knowing that her daughter had traveled to Las Vegas and other cities with Clemens. Apparently, Mindy was not the only object of Roger's affection. He was reported to have had a romantic relationship with Paulette Daly, former wife of golfer John Daly. Paulette did not deny the allegations, telling The News, "You know what, I'm really uncomfortable talking about this. I'm just going to have to say, 'No comment'."
Clemens is also reported to have had an intimate relationship with Angela Moyer, a former Manhattan bartender, now a real estate agent in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania. A New Orleans woman by the name of Jennifer is reported to have accompanied Clemens on a private jet to a University of Florida basketball game. On that occasion he gave Jennifer a pair of diamond earrings in the presence of at least two friends. And, sources told The News that, throughout his baseball career, Clemens also hung out with several other women in California and Boston.
In response to the Daily News stories, Clemens denied the extra-marital affairs accusations. But he did issue a public apology to his family and fans for having made "mistakes in my personal life." He did not specify what those mistakes were.
In my blog, AMAZING AMUSING ALIBIS (January 7, 2008), I wrote about the steroid and human growth hormone allegations. At the time, I came to believe that Clemens was lying when he denied using any performance enhanding substances. Here are some excerpts from that blog which strongly indicate Clemens was lying:
"Clemens claims that McNamee injected him with lidocaine to relieve pain in his joints and with Vitamin B-12 which he said he takes on a regular basis for his health. He insisted that he has never taken any steroids or human growth hormones.
Lidocaine is a local anesthetic used topically to relieve itching, burning and pain from skin inflammations. It is injected as a dental anesthetic and in minor surgeries. While a lidocaine shot in his butt might relieve Clemens of a pain in the ass, it is impossible for that injection to have any effect on a pain in his joints."
Subsequently, in the presence of Hardin, "Clemens changed his story about why he was taking lidocaine. Instead of 'It's for my joints' as he explained it on 60 Minutes, he now claims to have taken the lidocaine injections for back pains. While his butt is clearly closer to his back than to his joints, lidocaine must be injected directly into the immediate site of the pain for it to have any effect. Thus, a butt injection could not possibly relieve a pain in his back."
I could care less if Clemens used performance enhancing drugs. And his philandering ways with several women, including another man's wife, don't bother me either. Spousal cheating goes on all the time, especially among professional athletes. Ironically, Mindy McCready had a No. 1 single in 1996 with GUYS DO IT ALL THE TIME.
What does bother me is that Clemens has pretended to be a role model to the nation's youths, when in fact it appears as though he has been a liar and cheat all along. The Hall of Fame? No, no! He belongs more appropriately in the Hall of Shame, along with such other baseball greats as Pete Rose and Barry Bonds. Or if, considering the initial Daily News story which McCready said she could not refute, the 28-year old Clemens did have sex with Mindy when she was only 15 - Hmmm, how about the Hall of Justice?
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