Live blog the Roger Clemens "60 Minutes" interview!

(the live blog of the Clemens Congressional hearings is here)

In keeping with the tradition of live blogging sports and political events...we present the Roger Clemens 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace.  (transcript here)

[0:30] Clemens asks why after 30 years, he is accused of steroid use.  It's all hard work.  Mike Wallace can barely interview Clemens, BTW.  BTW#2, I hope I am that good when I am 90.

[1:00] Clemens asks "Where is the person who gave me the steroids"?  Probably in jail or dead???

[3:00] Clemens is really upset McNamee sold him out.  "I treated him fairly...so shut up"

[5:00] Clemens accuses McNamee of buying and selling steroids.  Whoaaaaaaaaaa.

[6:00] Wallace asks Clemens about Andy Pettitte who admitted to HGH use. Clemens blows off the Pettitte admission.  He  had no idea what Andy did.

[7:30] Now Clemens saying he took B-12 and lidocaine (Xylocaine).  Lidocaine injections are worthless unless you have a cardiac arrhythmia.

[9:15] Clemens is complaining about Vioxx.  Crazy.  An anti-inflammatory with mild side effects compared to HGH and anabolic steroids.  Clemens also says he will take a lie detector test (as if that determines truth from fiction)

Mike Wallace was born in 1919, the year Curly Lambeau founded the Green Bay Packers.  October 1919 brought the Black Sox Scandal.  Interesting.  The Chicago White Sox players were found not guilty by a jury; however Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis threw them out of baseball saying:

Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ball game, no player who undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked ballplayers and gamblers, where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.

How's that for innocent until proven guilty?

Comments

[Rick]

As a trained investigator (no joke) the most telling question to me in the whole interview was when Wallace asked Clements what shoud be done to him if he used steroids. This is a common investigational tactic and is *very* useful. An innocent person will generally say something along the lines of "Throw the book at them". A guilty person will suggest a milder penalty.
Clements failed the test miserably. Given his other observed body language and answers, I have little doubt he knowingly used PED's.

[G]

Thanks for the comment.

I also deal with questions, and to be honest, I cannot tell truth from deception.

I thought the overall tenor seemed to be that McNamee was a rat.

Why did Clemens talk about Vioxx? That's a total canard.

Maybe players try to convince themselves that they really have B-12 in the syrynges.

[Rick]

G Said: Maybe players try to convince themselves that they really have B-12 in the syrynges.

I have observed these kind of defense mechanisms many times...best example: OJ Simpson. He would pass a lie detector tomorrow if I asked him if he killed Nichole and Ron. A little extreme but the concept holds.

[G]

A minister once assured me in an interview that he never abused children. He was serious, somber, and convincing.

He later admitted to abusing many young children involved with his church.

So much for earnest, heartfelt denials.

[Millard Baker]

Interesting strategy by Clemens to reveal that he had so many injections over the course of his career that included various drugs/substances (albeit legal and permitted). Seems like a legal strategy to suggest he had some many substances injected that neither he or McNamee would know if they contained anabolic steroids or growth hormone.

Certainly taking drugs that allowed Clemens to mask pain and play while injured can't be healthy; yet he is proud of it.

[G]

B-12 injections are bogus, unless one has a anemia due to B-12 (pernicious anemia). Lidocaine injections for Clemens are completely bogus.

If Clemens claims these are legit, then produce the physician's prescription for the injections.

Thus, these are likely not 'legal' injections.

Why would Clemens continue to take B-12... that's lunacy.

[Rick]

Doc...
The lidocane in the butt sounded suspicious to me...any reason that it would be legitimatly given IM in that area?

[G]

Lidocaine in the butt might be good for anesthetizing the gluteal region. New meaning to 'pain in the ass'.

I think orthopedists might use lidocaine to determine if particular pain originates in a joint. It would numb up the joint for 30 minutes or so.

However, a 'caine' drug in itself would be a stimulant (like cocaine) thus Clemens may have inadvertently admitted to using a PED.

[rawdawgbuffalo]

i have a different purview of the issue clemen----cy

[Kyle]

You guys have got to be kidding. Who cares what you speacialize in. That doesn't make clemens a steroid user. The man doesn't have to answer to the media doesn't have to answer to anyone but he has because it makes him mad that someone would make up such crap. What if someone made things up about you and destroyed your reputation? What would you do? Tell the truth... but just like a bucket of feathers thrown into the wind, you will never be able to take every feather back. People need to take clemens word for it and know that the man is telling the truth.

[Henry]

i thot clements only used hgh when he was injured to help his muscle tissue repair itself?

[Gal]

Why is it so important , for so many people, to decide that he is guilty, based on an interview on national TV, not a very relaxed environment, even if he is used to perform in national sports?

How many times have we experienced such interviews, where leter the person was exonerated? and still, the basic instinct is that everyone is guilty unless proven innocent.
Perhaps our media does not promote democracy and freedom, after all?

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