Steroid Nation

Super Tuesday! Roger Clemens on deck in Congressional probe.

Today will go a long way in the most important decision made for the United States Congress, Washington DC, and all the 50 states in the past 8 years: did he or didn't he?  Did Roger Clemens juice his way into infamy?  (and the sidebar: who will be the Democratic and Republican nominees for president, but that's boring).

The Peoria Journal-Star puts it this way:

Not one of Roger Clemens' flat-out denials about using steroids or human growth hormone was delivered while he spoke under oath. Now he gets that chance.

The seven-time Cy Young Award winner is scheduled to give a deposition to lawyers from a congressional committee behind closed doors today in Washington, D.C., one day after his former New York Yankees teammate and workout partner Andy Pettitte delivered sworn testimony for about 2 1/2 hours.

We touched on the Clemens's story many time over the past 2 months.  Since the Mitchell Report, we and the media, appear obsessed whether or not Clemens's butt was the target of juiced needles.   Clemens stand accused by the Mitchell Report of using anabolic steroids and HGH to enhance his fastball.  This is why we elect representatives to Congress: get to the 'bottom' of the matter.   Did Clemens throw a fastball or a sleaze-ball?

Mississippi football recruit shows juiced Junior Achievement: sells steroids

Even before he took Econ 101 at Ole Miss, Mississippi quarterback recruit Jared Foster had himself a little enterprise going: selling 'roids.

Ole Miss is not likely to give Foster the Junior Achievement award, although new Rebel football coach Houston Nutt does some goofy things.  To the Jackson Clarion-Ledger:

A former Madison Central High School quarterback who was expected to play at the University of Mississippi next season has been released on $5,000 bond in connection with a steroid investigation.

Jared Foster, 19, was arrested Monday in Oxford by the Madison County Sheriff's Department and charged with the sale of narcotics, jail records show.

Madison County authorities have said the arrest is part of an ongoing investigation but have not said whether more arrests are expected.

Madison County Sheriff Toby Trowbridge, who did not return calls for comment Tuesday, told ESPN.com that Foster was observed selling steroids to a "confidential informant" three months ago, before he enrolled at Ole Miss.

The 6-5 QB has quite a record -- of victories and of law breaking:

He recently transferred to Ole Miss from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, where he was a part of last fall's NJCAA co-national champion team.

He was expected to join the Rebel football team officially in February, but Ole Miss head football coach Houston Nutt said Monday that Foster's scholarship offer had been pulled.

Foster, of 238 Fox Lane in Canton, transferred to Madison Central from Canton Academy his senior year.

At 6-foot-5 and 215 pounds, he was touted as a dual-threat quarterback, but he failed to draw any offers from big-name universities his senior year.

As a senior at Madison Central, Foster was arrested on two counts of alcohol possession by a minor and 13 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after police disrupted a party at his home in Madison in November 2006.

Foster was given a mulligan, and a chance to clear himself, but oops:

Madison police and the Madison County Sheriff's Department opened a joint steroid investigation after a controlled substance was found in the home.

Authorities later agreed not to prosecute Foster if he helped in the steroid investigation and stayed out of trouble for two years.

Authorities said Foster cooperated with police, which resulted in the arrest of at least one juvenile who attempted to sell a controlled substance to an undercover officer.

But just three months later, Foster was charged with assault in an alleged altercation with a fellow Madison Central player, and he pleaded guilty in Canton Municipal Court.

MSNBC needles Clemens: steroids and other congressional issues

MSNBC (Ted Robinson) speculates on congressional depositions upcoming in February for players like Chuck Knoblauch, Roger Clemens and the gang.

What’s the government’s preoccupation with Chuck Knoblauch? Why is Congress so bent on hearing from someone who not only last played in the majors five years ago, but also had disappeared from the baseball world?

It is clear that Congress has Roger Clemens in its sights. The esteemed George Mitchell, a former Senator, has been challenged over some of the findings included in his report to baseball commissioner Bud Selig on the steroids era in the sport. Congress is sticking up for one of its own.

(an)interesting theory is that the public testimony before Congress of Clemens, McNamee, Knoblauch, Pettitte, and Kirk Radomski has been held off until Feb. 13 in order to give Clemens time to alter his story. The Clemens camp denies that is the case. But one thing we know in Northern California is that the Feds have no sense of humor when it comes to anything less than truthfulness under oath. We were reminded of that when we watched Dana Stubblefield, a former 49ers hero, face jail time after pleading guilty to lying to a federal agent four years ago. And if Stubblefield's woes don't convince you that one has to come clean to the Feds, just go ask Barry Bonds or Marion Jones what they're feeling about the consequences if one is caught lying to the Feds.

Any advice about perjury when 'sworn in'?

When I think about Clemens’ eventual appearance before Congress, I keep going back to conversations with people close to Bonds before his BALCO grand jury appearance. All Bonds was repeatedly schooled about, according to one source, was “don’t commit perjury,” and look at the situation Bonds is in now.

Clemens depositions start in Congress: Agent testifies; Knoblauch scheduled today

An associate of Hendricks -- Roger Clemens's agents -- testified in Congress yesterday.  The New York Daily News gives testimony for us:

Jim Murray became the first person known to have submitted to a private interview with the House Oversight Committee Thursday as it prepares for its Feb. 13 hearing on the Mitchell Report. But the sports agent's allegiance to employers Randy and Alan Hendricks - who negotiated record contracts for Roger Clemens - raises doubts that his statements will settle the feud between Clemens and his chief steroid accuser, Brian McNamee.

Murray, 30, met with the committee's attorneys for about three hours yesterday. Murray's interview with the panel's lawyers could be crucial to the committee's inquiry; McNamee's attorney Earl Ward said the former Yankee trainer expressed concerns about Clemens' use of performance-enhancing drugs to Murray as early as 2003.

"I answered all the questions they asked of me," Murray said in a statement.

McNamee says he met with Murray in 2003 to warn Clemens about the impending MLB steroid testing dry-run.  Clemens's makes several disputed claims: he didn't take PEDs, and he didn't know he was featured in the Mitchell Report.  However, Clemens hired a lawyer before the Mitchell Report came out; Murray could provide corroborate evidence that Clemens's people were concerned about the consequences of PED use long before the fall of 2007 and the release of Mitchell's tome.  McNamee discussed this issue in the ill-fated phone conversation prominently featured in a Clemens press conference:

When McNamee couldn't contact Clemens directly, he later claimed, he spoke with Murray.

On Jan. 7, Clemens shared with the world a recorded call he had made three days earlier to his friend-turned-accuser. In that call, which McNamee did not know was being taped, McNamee refers to Murray, insisting that he warned Murray about Clemens.

"He sat down writing on the stupid yellow pad," McNamee said on the call, referring to the 2003 conversation. "He took notes."

Up today for Congress, Chuck Knoblauch.

Will the truth come out in these hearings?

"It's hard to lie under oath to Congress," said Richard Emery, one of McNamee's lawyers, asked what he believed Murray might have said in his three-hour interview. "If he tried to pull that off, he's going to get hurt."

Rocket attack: Roger Clemens launches counterattack on steroids charge

Roger Clemens launched a counterattack on the prevailing theory that he juiced up to revitalize his career (Houston Chron).

Roger Clemens' agent released an 18,000-word statistical report Monday to refute allegations that the pitcher's career rebounded around the time period he was accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. "Clemens' longevity was due to his ability to adjust his style of pitching as he got older, incorporating his very effective split-finger fastball to offset the decrease in the speed of his regular fastball caused by aging,'' said the report, created by Randy Hendricks and two associates at his firm.

Excellent.  True or not, at least Clemens's people put together some actual data.  That effort deserves an 'A'.  (Clemens Report found here)  We wish we had that kind of help.

Clemens's first point -- that ERA is a better indicator of pitching effectiveness than W-L sounds good.  We were also troubled by claim that Clemens totally revitalized his career when he went from Boston to Toronto.  A look at the ERA values in the last 4 Clemens Boston years show that his ERA slipped slightly, although his W-L record slipped somewhat dramatically to 40-40.    Injuries, run production by the Red Sox, any number of factors might contribute to Clemens's relative drop-off in production, including his age.

Clemens's agents look at Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, and Nolan Ryan, 3 pitchers who continued pitching into extended age ranges.  Clemens's career appears similar in many ways to these other elite level pitchers.  Every career, when examined, shows peaks and valleys.

Clemens's agents do not directly address the issue of steroids and HGH, however make reasonable claims about the aging, run support, and variability of an Hall of Fame level pitcher.

Here is the issue with the Mitchell Report on 1998:

On page 169, it is reported that Clemens approached McNamee sometime around June of 1998 about using steroids after learning about them from Jose Canseco at Canseco's Miami home. The report goes on to say: "McNamee injected Clemens approximately four times in the buttocks over a several-week period with needles that Clemens provided ... McNamee never asked Clemens where he obtained the steroids."

June of 1998.  Let's look at Clemens's 1998 numbers:

I Split              G  GS GF  W  L  S CG SHO   IP          ERA   H   R   ER HR  BB         IBB  SO HBP

+-+------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+-----+------+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+
1st Half  18 18  0  9  6  0  2   0 119     3.55  96  54  47  7  56   0 120   4 
2nd Half  15 15  0 11  0  0  3   3 115.2   1.71  73  24  22  4  32   0 151   3 

Clemens's second half of 1998 s hows a remarkable, incredible performance.  His ERA decreased from 3.55 to 1.71, while his record was 11-0.  Juiced or not, an elite performance of the highest level for a team that won 12 more games than the prior year.

Whatever juice Roger Clemens's was using in 1998, that stuff needs to be bottled.  Was Clemens's using the 'shoot-in-the-butt' kickapoo juice?  You decide.

Any juiced writers out there?

Due to an illness and severe complications with a family member, we feel a bit out of touch the past two weeks.  As soon as the situation looks better, things then get worse.  Frustrating.

Any writers out there who wish to contribute to our site?  We try to engage the readership with a medical viewpoint of steroid and PED use, while remaining stylishly sarcastic.  Or is it we try to sarcastically insult our readership while acting like medical dopes?

Anyway, if any readers feel like contributing to the site drop us a line.  You could really help out the next few difficult months.