February 12, 2008

The Brian & Billy Show; Pettitte Won't Appear

It'll be Brian McNamee vs. the Texas Con Man tomorrow morning in Washington. Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch and Kirk Radomski will not appear.


Newsday reports that, Tom Davis, the ranking Republican on the congressional committee investigating steroid use, said that Pettitte, in last week's deposition, backed up McNamee's account "in most details".

Times:
A congressional staff member and several other people familiar with the case said that Pettitte did not want to have to testify publicly, on national television, and perhaps be forced to reiterate statements that would not be in Clemens's interest. ...

After Pettitte gave a two-and-a-half-hour deposition to committee lawyers Feb. 4, he emerged looking shaken.

The Post claims that
Pettitte verified a story McNamee told in his deposition about training at Clemens' home in 2002 with both Clemens and Pettitte. McNamee said that during a break, Pettitte said to him something like, "How come you don't give me the same stuff you give Roger?" indicating Clemens told Pettitte about his human growth hormone use.
Meanwhile, Clemens's attorney Rusty Hardin was taken to task by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair Henry Waxman for comments he made about FBI agent Jeff Novitzky.

Meanwhile, there is this:
[John] Rocker said that doctors from management and the players' association, following a spring training talk with the Texas Rangers about steroids and other topics, pulled himself, A-Rod, Rafael Palmeiro and Ivan Rodriguez aside. Rocker was with the Rangers in 2002.

"Look guys, if you take one kind of steroid, you don't triple stack them and take them 10 months out of the year like Lyle Alzado did," Rocker said the doctors told them. "If you do it responsibly, it's not going to hurt you."

9 comments:

Pokerwolf said...

"If you do it responsibly, it's not going to hurt you."

I'll point out here that the doctor is 100% correct. The reason that steroids screw up so many bodies is because people are abusing them.

If you want a *very* interesting read, pick up the book Steroid Nation. It discusses the history of steroids in the U.S. and the subsequent fallout.

Jack Marshall said...

Which is of course beside the point: the issue is that use of steroids gives a prohibited advantage over players obeying the rules.

Meanwhile, most of the commentary last night about Pettite begging off described it as good news for Clemens, when in fact it is just the opposite. Pettite wasn't going to be asked anything that he hadn't already been asked in his deposition. He didn't want to implicate Roger to his face. This means he is a weenie, but doesn't mean that he is doing Roger any favors.

Zenslinger said...

I thought this article on Radomoski was interesting. He appears to be pretty candid in general. He's as sleazy as you might think, but insists he didn't make a lot of money off the deals. Although given all the junk they found when they raided his house (see article), it's hard to believe.

Amy said...

I read this the same way that Jack does. Congress got enough evidence from Pettite behind closed doors and is allowing him off the hook in terms of public testimony. How long til they reveal what he said?

allan said...

How long til they reveal what he said?

10 AM tomorrow?

All members of the committee will have Pettitte's statements and they can read from it and ask McNamee and Clemens about it.

TSN is carrying it up here, so it'll be "TCM on TSN"! I think I'll have to tape it and watch later, though.

Amy said...

TCM? TSN? Are these Canadian versions of CNN or C-Span?

I couldn't find these in the glossary. :)

allan said...

TCM: Texas Con Man

TSN: The Sports Network (?), like ESPN

Amy said...

Thanks for the translation. All these acronyms/initials, and you aren't even living in DC....

SoSock said...

If anyone comes back to this post/subject - Slate on-line magazine has a letter in their "Hot Document" section you'd find interesting.
It's from Committee Chairman Henry Waxman to Hardin, lambasting him for language that could be percieved as "intimidating a federal officer"
As always in this series, they have a photocopy of the original document, complete with Congressional letterhead and all.