Yesterday morning was the first of the congressional hearings with Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee. As I look at it, both of these guys looked nervous when being questioned under oath. Neither of them could handle the truth or the pressure. But I would have to say I believe McNamee more than I do Clemens.

Andy Pettitie said under oath that Roger Clemens told him about using HGH, but Clemens still denies it. He claims Pettite "misremembers". How could Pettite "missremember" something like this? This is a big deal, steroids is a big deal. Something is just fishy here. After being questioned several times especially by Elijah Cummings (House of Rep. D-MD), Clemens looked nervous, he had a look in his face that made him look guilty. Clemens' stories are going to come back and hurt him because everything isn't matching up. I can't believe Mr. Clemens, I just can't.

I found it hilarious yesterday to learn that Roger Clemens' lawyer, Rusty Hardin, plans to launch an investigation into the allegations that his client was a big time steroid abuser in the Mitchell Report. In other words, this guy Hardin, who hasn't exactly dressed himself in glory throughout this mess, is going to launch an investigation into the investigation.

That's really going to be objective, isn't it?

Yep, Roger Clemens won't rest until he finds out who the real steroid abusers are. It certainly can't be him. You know this so-called investigation will do nothing but try to smear Brian McNamee, who basically rolled over on him and Andy Pettitte to George Mitchell and his investigators. Clemens basically lost any leg to stand on when his buddy Andy came clean (sort of) about the HGH McNamee supplied to him.

Congress today officially sent a letter to the Justice Department, and recommended that they launch an investigation into the possibility of bringing perjury charges against Roger Clemens. They said nothing about investigating Brian McNamee. It was a bi-partisan letter to the DOJ.

The Texas Con Man was expecting it, as was the rest of the country. Clemens continues to try to blow off the media as he pitches batting practice to Houston Astros players at spring training in Kissimmee, Florida.

It's the beginning of the end for Clemens, and he knows it.

His appearance before Congress tomorrow starts at 10 AM, but it is High Noon for Roger Clemens on Wednesday, as he will plead his innocence before them that he never took any performance-enhancing drugs.

Let's face the facts. Clemens has boxed himself into such a corner that he has absolutely no choice but to do that.

You'd have to be blind or some kind of crazy Clemens fan to believe in his innocence. Right now he can't go before Congress and say that Brian McNamee supplied him and shot him up with PEDs. If he were to do that, he can kiss his Hall of Fame induction, his legacy and millions of dollars in endorsements goodbye. So he HAS to go before Congress and risk perjury and declare his innocence.

The case against him is just too strong. Two days after The Mitchell Report came out, Andy Pettitte came clean and admitted that McNamee shot him up (at least twice) with HGH. That was a near-death blow to Clemens, as the public simply won't believe that McNamee told the truth about Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch (who also came clean about his dealings with McNamee), but that McNamee was making some incredible lie about Clemens. Pettitte had plenty to lose, so he came out and admitted that the Mitchell Report was indeed truthful about him.

Roger Clemens yesterday filed a defamation suit against Brian McNamee, citing 15 statements he made in the Mitchell Report. The suit was filed in Harris County, Texas. I would bet we will see a counter suit coming from McNamee's camp soon as well. (I would still bet that neither will ever see a court room too.)

From the Boston Globe:
"Clemens' good reputation has been severely injured," the suit said. "McNamee's false allegations have also caused Clemens to suffer mental anguish, shame, public humiliation and embarrassment."

Good reputation? You mean it hurt his rep for being a money-grubbing, obnoxious, me-first asshole?

This should make the press conference he's holding today even more fascinating. I love the fact that now Clemens can't shut up. The grave he's digging is his own.

I'm sure many of you out there saw the Roger Clemens interview with his buddy Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes" tonight. This was going to be "must see TV" and there was no way I could miss it.

So having seen it, I start off by saying this:

Roger Clemens is lying through his teeth.

"The Texas Con Man" looked nervous throughout most of it, and he seemed to be looking around at times while giving his answers. I'm no expert on body language, but he sure looked like a guy who wasn't comfortable in the answers he gave.

You knew this would happen. The conspiracy theorists are now having their say, and a few have taken their cases to the New York papers. 
I've now read where some Yankee fans think that the Mitchell Report is somehow "invalid" because there are no names of any "major" Red Sox stars in it. (I guess Eric Gagne and Brendan Donnelly don't qualify under "major.") And they seem to think that George Mitchell, because of his ties to the Sox, probably overlooked or covered up any big name Red Sox players who may have been juicers.
What rubbish.

The contents of the affidavit that Jason Grimsley made in 2006 were revealed yesterday, and curiously the names of Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were not in it. Nor were a few other names in the Mitchell Report, like Miguel Tejada, Brian Roberts or Jay Gibbons. (Grimsley did mention such players as Sammy Sosa, Allen Watson and Pete Incaviglia.)

An article in the Los Angeles Times in 2006 said that Clemens and Pettitte were a part of it, and their names were redacted out of it. The unsealing of the document proves they were not named in it, and the Times is planning on running an apology in the paper tomorrow about it.

Listening to Clemens' lawyer, Rusty Hardin, you'd think this makes Clemens an innocent man who has finally been let off the hook.

I read this morning (courtesy of a link through Joy of Sox) that the agents of disgraced former future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens have been contacted by the producers of the newest Fox reality show, "The Moment of Truth" to come on their show and be hooked up to a lie detector about his alleged steroid use.

Here is a real chance for Clemens to prove his innocence in front of the world and take a polygraph test. (The show puts contestants on the show and hooks them up to a polygraph and has their friends and relatives in the audience.) The producers have said they will donate $500,000 to the charity of Clemens' choice if he comes on the show.

Here's more on the story, from TMZ.com: http://www.tmz.com/2008/01/25/is-clemens-ready-for-his-moment-of-truth/

The fallout from the Roger Clemens steroid scandal has now been felt in another area: memorabilia.

I read in today's New York Post that the market for Clemens stuff has literally fallen through the floor. The Post reported that an autographed Clemens jersey from his Red Sox days (pictured) had a suggested asking price on eBay of $160.27, and it sold for the meager price of $18.75. A mint condition Clemens rookie card from 1984 had an asking price of $75, sold for just $3.99.

So, if you're holding on to any Clemens memorabilia, you'll be taking a serious bath if you try to move it now.

David Kohler, a memorabilia expert, was asked what could bring the Clemens stuff back to its former value. He had a very interesting reply.

"His death."

Ouch.

There was no bigger "casualty" in George Mitchell's steroid report that was released this past week to MLB than Roger Clemens. There had been whispers for years that he was on the juice, but now it has been put in a report for all the world to see. And it could just be the tip of the iceberg.

Clemens was a sure-bet first-ballot Hall of Famer. His numbers are very well known: 354 wins, 7 Cy Young Awards, two World Series rings. He was arguably the pitcher of his generation.

And now it appears that his chances for enshrinement to Cooperstown may have died with that report being released.

His career now appears to be finished. I can't imagine any team taking a chance on him now. He's 45, and his body was breaking down late last September, and he threw just two postseason innings for the Yankees. They certainly don't want to be associated with him any more.

I wonder if The Babe knew. Everytime he rubbed his face, he was stabbing the game that he (Ruth) loved and protected in the back.

A punch in the gut is the only way that I can describe my feeling for Roger Clemens association with steroids. I hate steroids and cheating and love the game of baseball. I was very excited for the Mitchell investigation to come out because I felt like it was a necessary step to protecting the integrity of the game that we all love.

In a recent exchange on NY Times v. Sullivan and the Mitchell Report, Jack Balkin and Sanyd Levinson assert that Roger Clemens cannot "clear his name" by suing George Mitchell for libel, assuming he never took steroids or HGH. I guess I don't understand why. Mitchell is a private citizens, who has published a report for private entity -- Major League Baseball -- it is a "Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation." So I do not understand why Clemens cannot sue Mitchell, MLB, or Bud Selig. The report is copyrighted by the "Office of the Commissioner of Baseball." I assume the copyright holder and the author could be sued for libel. I am sure I am missing something here, so please explain the reasoning. He might not win under Times (I suspect he would not be able to win) but I do not see why he could not sue any of these parties.

I read on the NY Daily News web site today that Congressman Anthony Weiner wants the FBI to end the investigation into whether Roger Clemens lied to Congress last month because the government should target its resources into more serious threats, like terrorism and organized crime.

Weiner, a Democrat from New York (who ironically enough, was once my representative to Congress and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School two years after I did), doesn't seem to realize that the genie's out of the bottle, and that Clemens brought all of this on himself. Uncle Sam doesn't like being lied to, and will go after people like Clemens who think they are above the law and think they are bulletproof.

And besides, you know the usual suspects like Al Sharpton will come running out of the woodwork screaming racism if the government lets Clemens off the hook while prosecuting other athletes like Barry Bonds and Marion Jones on similar charges of perjury.

The US government will have to come up with a better excuse than "we have more important business to take care of" if they don't go after Clemens.

The George Mitchell Report was released today at a press conference in New York, and to say the least, it got the interest of anyone who cares about Major League Baseball. And it is being treated like an earthquake just rocked the sport.

The former senator from Maine was commissioned by MLB to investigate the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs that have proliferated in the sport over the past decade. The 304-page report named names. And their were some huge names mentioned.

I found this newspaper headline from The Trentonian from a fine Orioles fan site called "The Wayward Oriole." (http://www.thewaywardoriole.com/) It is from last December 14, the day after the Mitchell Report was released.

Insert (tee-hee) your own joke about it here...

It was also revealed today that Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Brian McNamee will not testify before Congress next Wednesday, as the Congressmen involved need more time to prepare for it, so it has been pushed back to February 13. But George Mitchell and Bud Selig will testify next Tuesday as scheduled.

Just some odds and ends today. This morning, we got our 80,000th visitor to The Mighty Quinn Media Machine since I added the Site Meter back in April 2006. That person was from Burnsville, Minnesota and found the site through a Google search of Adrian Peterson's winning the Pro Bowl MVP award. The person was obviously a Vikings fan. (I was in Burnsville, Minnesota back in 1999 when I saw both the Vikings and Twins play at the Metrodome, and it is a suburb of Minneapolis.)

Once again, I thank all of you who come here, especially those who come here regularly. We've been getting 150-200 hits daily on a pretty regular basis. It's very much appreciated.

I saw at a web site called The Biz of Baseball (thanks to them for that cool photo I have here) that it was announced today that the Red Sox will be meeting with President Bush on Wednesday, February 27, at 3 PM, in the annual visit of baseball's World Series champions to the White House. Of course, they met with him back in March 2005 to celebrate their 2004 title.

Last December, just before Christmas, I was contacted by a reporter named Lance Pugmire from the Los Angeles Times about a story he was writing about Roger Clemens and former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette. He contacted me through the fine Red Sox site I write for, Bornintoit.com.

I spoke to Lance for about 15 minutes. He asked me about being a Red Sox fan in New York, and for his article, what Red Sox fans thought about Roger Clemens since the Mitchell Report came out. He also asked me about how Duquette was viewed by us now that Clemens' legacy was severely tarnished.

I didn't see the article on the Los Angeles Times web site for a long time, and I figured maybe he decided to either postpone or not write the article at all. But I was doing a search tonight, and I discovered that Lance had indeed written the article, and 17 days ago, on January 29. I had no idea it ran, but it is a good article, entitled, "Clemens' Twilight Revisited."

My colleague Sandy Levinson asked me whether Roger Clemens got a raw deal. In particular, he asked whether Senator Mitchell's report that Roger Clemens was among the major league baseball players accused of steroid use shows the folly of the Supreme Court's constitutional rules in defamation cases. New York Times v. Sullivan and its progeny hold that public figures cannot succeed in defamation suits unless they show actual malice. (The actual case in point is Gertz v. Robert Welch, which extends the NYT privilege from public officials to public figures like Clemens). After all, Sandy pointed out, Clemens can't clear his name by suing Senator Mitchell. All he can do is cost the newspapers and Mitchell (and himself) hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees in a case that he will eventually lose because the bar is set so high.

Trivia Night returns to Tuesday this week, and the special category will be "January 8th Trivia" or questions about people, places and things connected to January 8. It will also be multiple choice, the first time in a long time we've used that.

We will also have the other four categories, and I promise you, no questions about Roger Clemens! The Sneak Peek question for Tuesday night:

Named after a region in France, the Anjou is a variety of what fruit?

Hope to see many of you on Tuesday night.

My friend Adam sent me an email the other day about the alleged "the greatest pitcher of the modern era" Roger Clemens, and his postseason numbers with the Red Sox. As most of you Red Sox fans know, he had a very mediocre record for the Sox in his postseason appearances of 1986, 1988, 1990 and 1995. His record was 1-2, with an ERA of 3.88. He had only one shining moment in the postseason for the Red Sox: winning Game 7 of the 1986 ALCS to get the Red Sox into the World Series. But he also got hit hard in that World Series in Game 2, but the Sox hit Dwight Gooden harder and won. He pitched decently in Game 6, but he famously asked out after 7 innings (or did he?), as the Mets tied the game in the eighth, and...you know the rest.

Well, not really. My friend John in Omaha, NE sent me this very funny YouTube clip of that video that The Texas Con Man put out on the Internet back in December after the Mitchell Report first came out where he absolutely denied everything regarding his alleged steroid use.

This clip is a very funny and creative edit, and in honor of Clemens' Congressional appearance today, I thought you might enjoy this,which lasts a little less than a minute and a half.

Age of Conversation is back with another book underway">, "100 voices, one conversation". And In the true spirit of collaboration, you're invited to decide the book's topic together and vote on the topic collectively.

Topic choices are:

Marketing Manifesto
Why Don't People Get It?

This hilarious statement comes from Rusty Hardin, Roger Clemens' screwball attorney, who has not exactly distinguished himself the last month, after the "60 Minutes" interview tonight:

"Anyone not persuaded by that interview is not a well person."

I guess about 99% of America is need of help right now.

The Mitchell Report is released to the general public. After days of speculation and even a bogus list that appeared on nearly every major sports site and even WNBC in the hours leading up to the report, the wait has come to an end.

Keep in mind in that just because a name existed in the report, it doesn't mean they are actually discussed in terms of using steroids. The report is over 400 pages long and very detailed. The parameters of the contest however dictated that the name merely had to "appear" in the text of the report. All I've done is scan the report for the names in our pool to determine a winner.

Team Youk(s)
x - Jason Giambi
x - Rick Ankiel
x - Scott Schoeneweis
x - Brian Roberts
Ivan Rodriguez
x - Jerry Hairston Jr.
Rafael Betancourt

Ah, another one of those letters in the newspapers.

Today, it comes from the New York Post's Sound Off column, where most of the letters were about Shelley Duncan's dirty slide and bench-clearing dustup last week at Tampa. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course.
But this one jumped out at me, and for two reasons:

Joe Girardi was right to tell his players to fight back against Tampa Bay or any other team that tries to play rough, especially in spring training games. That's the way to play ball-payback, always. Mike Piazza gave it the "laidback" California-dreamin' approach to Roger Clemens' beaning and bat-throwing during the 2000 season, and the Mets lost the World Series in five games. If Piazza would have gone out and twisted Clemens' arm out of its socket, the Rocket might have watched the World Series from a hospital bed. If Girardi plays it rough, he may even get a few of us Mets fans cheering him on.
Michael J. Gorman