Cheating Archives

Sports Law Blog notes that McNamee's legal team can't use much of Roger Clemens's alleged affairs as evidence. In that case, it seems these leaks are meant to embarrass Roger into dropping the suit.

Roger Clemens issued an unspecific apology:

In his first comments since a tabloid linked him to extramarital affairs last week, Roger Clemens on Sunday acknowledged making ''mistakes'' in his personal life. For those mistakes, he apologized to his family and the public, but the seven-time Cy Young Award winner remained steadfast in his denials that he has used steroids or human growth hormone.

''I know that many people want to know what I have to say about the recent articles in the media,'' Clemens, who has raised his four children with his wife, Debbie, in the Katy and Memorial areas, said in a statement to the Chronicle. ''Even though these articles contain many false accusations and mistakes, I need to say that I have made mistakes in my personal life for which I am sorry. I have apologized to my family and apologize to my fans. Like everyone, I have flaws. I have sometimes made choices which have not been right.''

Via the Projo SoxBlog, a comparison of Pete Rose and Roger Clemens:

"(Clemens) is Pete Rose to a T,'' Paul Janszen said Thursday. Janszen was Rose's close friend, workout partner and senior bobo, until Rose stiffed him on some money he owed Janszen . Janszen spilled his knowledge to John Dowd, who made his case with it.

"Certain athletes become larger than the game in the fans eyes, and in their own eyes,'' said Janszen . "(Rose) was always above it all. He thought no one would ever dare to question him. It's the same mentality Clemens is (showing) in the Congressional hearings and on 60 Minutes.''

In many ways, Janszen was to Rose who Brian McNamee was to Clemens. Each was an ordinary guy who befriended, enabled and bobo-ed a superstar player. Each was star-struck at first, then fiercely loyal. "I felt an obligation to protect Pete, and his image,'' Janszen said.

Eventually, each turned on his famous friend. Janszen wanted his money, then did what he felt was right; McNamee wanted to stay out of prison.

"It's not just athletes,'' Janszen said. "It's politicians, celebrities. People who think they're bigger than the institution. "When competition becomes obsessive, when nothing matters (but) winning, not even integrity or honesty, that gets you in the pickle those guys are in.''

It's good to see the breakup of BALCO hasn't stopped Giants players from finding drugs:

San Francisco Giants catcher Eliezer Alfonzo was suspended 50 games Wednesday for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance, the first player penalized this year under Major League Baseball's drug program.

The 29-year-old Venezuelan was optioned to Triple-A Fresno just before opening day and is batting .306 with three homers and 14 RBI in 16 games. The suspension will start Thursday.

Just another example of a marginal players trying to get a boost.

Will Brinson thinks there is something strange about the Jordan Schafer suspension, because Schafer's side won't talk about it beyond, "No comment." I have two words for Will; Roger Clemens. If Rogers reaction to the Mitchell report was to have his lawyer say, "We have no comment on that," Roger saves himself a whole lot of trouble. Writers and pundits, unable to get the Rocket on record, would instead examining McNamee, trying to determine his truthfulness. Given that he lied in a NY Times article, and given that some of his allegations were true, it would have been a mixed bag. There wouldn't have been that much scrutiny of Roger.

So Shafer is playing this right. If he was wrongly accused, he can work this through proper channels without having the media poke into every part of his life. At least he's listening to his lawyers.

Mindy McCready confirms her affair with Roger Clemens.

Roger Clemens filed a defamation suit against Brian McNamee, and now the Rocket's reputation is under attack. Via The Big Lead, this article in New York Daily News:

Roger Clemens carried on a decade-long affair with country star Mindy McCready, a romance that began when McCready was a 15-year-old aspiring singer performing in a karaoke bar and Clemens was a 28-year-old Red Sox ace and married father of two, several sources have told the Daily News.

The revelations could torpedo claims of an unsullied character that are central to the defamation suit Clemens filed Jan. 6 against his former personal trainer Brian McNamee. Vivid details of the affair could surface in several media projects that McCready is involved with - including a documentary that begins filming today in Nashville, a new album and a reality show.

Canseco's claim that Roger was the only player who didn't cheat on his wife seemed far fetched to me. I had heard rumors about Clemens carrying on with women during my days at ESPN. This just goes to show that not talking about the charges would have been Rogers best defense.

Joe Hamrahi sums up the new drug deal between MLB and the MLBPA. I sure in a year we'll find that this isn't adequate, either.

The New York Times reports baseball will appoint an overseer to do something with drug testing.

The overseer will be appointed to a fixed term and will be given many protections from dismissal, said the lawyers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In the current system, Major League Baseball and the union each appoint two representatives to the health policy advisory committee, which oversees the testing program. A fifth person can be appointed to cast a decisive vote when matters are deadlocked. Antidoping experts have questioned its independence.

How do I get this job? The job description is undefined and there's little chance of being fired. I can sit around all day and blog and get paid for something else! How cool is that? Plus, I could revoke all HGH suspensions because it doesn't do anything.

Plus, how cool would it be to have the title Overseer? It sounds pretty godlike. Maybe the job comes with the power to produce lightning from your fingers. A cross between Charlton Heston and Darth Sidious.

Where do I apply?

According to an indictment, some agents were involved in steering players to doctors who were willing to write prescriptions for PEDs.

A federal indictment unsealed Wednesday charged that unidentified agents for baseball players steered clients to a California physician linked in media reports to supplying Troy Glaus and Scott Schoeneweis with illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

more stories like thisNo players or agents were mentioned by name in the 11-count indictment returned by a grand jury against Dr. Ramon Scruggs and two of his associates at the New Hope Health Center in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Schoeneweis is represented by Scott Boras, and Glaus by Mike Nicotera.

"I have no knowledge of this medical practitioner or any relationship that he has with any of our clients," Boras said. "We have never referred any of our clients to a wellness center."

I'd rather they release the names. Now, pretty much all agents are under a cloud.

J.C. Bradbury sums up my feelings on the Jordan Schafer suspension. I'm most interested in how he was caught, since a test doesn't exist yet for HGH. If someone ratted him out, was it a supplier? Was it a teammate?

Bob Watson informed the Padres that the umpires will keep an eye on Peavy's hands to make sure they stay clean.

Bob Tufts donated $50 or more to the Baseball Musings Pledge Drive and dedicates this post to the late Doug Pappas and all the excellent work he did with the business of baseball through SABR.

Bob also sends this story, about how the Albany steroid investigation may be in jeopardy because the district attorney was not registered to practice law!

But according to the records of the state's Unified Court System, Soares had no legal authority to act as a district attorney as he is not currently registered to practice law in New York State.

Or Florida either, for that matter.

All of the arrests and charges in the steroid scandal may be in jeopardy and may have to be dismissed because in New York State, persons who are not licensed members of the Bar of the State are prohibited from engaging in the practice of law.

That includes P. David Soares, Albany County district attorney.

This certainly hasn't been a good month for New York Democrats.

Update: Here's an update on the matter.

Suspensions are on hold:

Negotiators are close to an agreement that would call for more frequent drug testing and would strengthen the authority of the independent program administrator. If there is an agreement, the suspensions of Gibbons and Guillen most likely would be eliminated as part of an overall amnesty for players implicated in the Mitchell Report.

I wish they had done this before the Mitchell report so the players would feel free to talk to the investigator.

Pat Jordan tells you all you need to know (and somethings you don't) about Jose Canseco. I need to go disinfect myself now.

Hat tip to Alex Belth.

ABC New posted a long excerpt of Canseco's new book. I found this interesting as it somewhat contradicts the story that Bonds started juicing after the 1998 season:

As I drove off, I remembered an earlier meeting with Barry Bonds, and suddenly our little encounter made perfect sense. It was back in February 2000. We were in Las Vegas, for the Big League Challenge, a home-run hitting contest at Cashman Field. I was given $100,000 just to show up, and I was told that the winner would take home $600,000. I'd just had back surgery, though, so I figured I'd be lucky to hit anything at all.

When we were in the locker room, changing before going out into the field, I took off my shirt and found Bonds staring at me, his eyes bugging out of his head. "Man," he said, "you are ripped!"

I guess I was. I looked like Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV. There wasn't an ounce of fat on me (if I may so myself). I was 255 pounds of chiseled, high-def power.

"You have to tell me what the hell you've being doing," he said.

"I'll tell you after the game," I said.

We went outside, and I knocked several moon shots out of the park, including twenty-eight bombs in the last round. I went home with the $600,000 enchilada.

Bonds hadn't even made the finals, and he was in a lousy mood, but he waited for me because he wanted us to have our little talk. I told him everything I knew. It was Jose Canseco's Guide to Steroids 101, and over the years I'd had that identical conversation with hundreds of other guys, players and non-players alike.

A few months later, when the regular season got underway, Bonds showed up with an extra thirty pounds on him, all of it muscle. And I'll be the first to tell you: you don't get that kind of muscle just from working out. It's literally impossible. Now, I'm not saying I saw him use the stuff, because I didn't, but I was pretty much an expert on the subject of steroids, and I can tell you that steroids had changed the man -- including the size of his goddamn head. That head was hard to miss!

And of course his performance spoke volumes. Here was a guy who'd never broken 50 home runs in a single season, and suddenly he hits 73, breaking the previous major league record, McGwire's 70.

There's also video of his Nightline interview here.

Brain McNamee passed out in his car and hit a bus head on. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt.

Bob Tufts sends along another piece of literature that indicates HGH doesn't do much for athletes:

Athletes, in particular body builders, reportedly use growth hormone to increase strength and improve muscle definition (5, 17, 76). We found that although growth hormone significantly increased lean body mass and was associated with a near-significant trend toward decreased fat mass, it did not result in gains in biceps and quadriceps strength. How can increases in lean body mass not translate into strength improvements? Because methods for evaluation of lean body mass do not reliably distinguish lean solid tissue from fluid mass (77) and because the included studies evaluated only short-term changes, we suspect that much of the increase in lean body mass from growth hormone is due to fluid retention rather than muscle hypertrophy (77-79). A nonrandomized study in experienced weight lifters supports this view. Yarasheski and colleagues (80) provided high-dose growth hormone to college football players and weight lifters and found that growth hormone did not increase muscle protein synthesis or decrease protein breakdown, suggesting that an increase in muscle mass from growth hormone use in such athletes is unlikely.

This is not new research, but a synthesis of other research brought together in one paper. As the authors note, there are limitations to this method:

Our study reflects the limitations of the included studies. First, our review highlights the lack of published evidence about the physiologic effects of growth hormone among athletic, young adults. Although we reviewed thousands of studies, only 8 studies assessed strength and exercise capacity for growth hormone treatment in a randomized fashion. Thus, our analysis may not have detected small but clinically relevant differences in outcomes and adverse events. Since no studies evaluated growth hormone for periods longer than 3 months, there is no evidence with which to evaluate the long-term use of growth hormone for athletic enhancement.

Still, it makes you wonder if the money being spent on developing an HGH test is just being flushed down the drain.

Mike Greenwell's wife is a nurse, and she wouldn't let him take steroids:

"The truth?" he said. "My wife's a nurse and basically told me she'd kill me if she caught me doing it. Really. Reality.

"She was a nurse. I looked into it [steroids]. I studied it. I know a lot about steroids, to be honest with you. Because I was very, very tempted as a player to do it and I think there's many, many players out there that were tempted to do it. Probably if I didn't have my wife I would have done it to try to perform at that level. Another little slight reason I retired when I retired. I just didn't feel like it was quite even anymore."

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Bob Tufts sends along this article on performance enhancing drugs in academia:

But others insist that the ethics are not so clear, and that academic performance is different in important ways from baseball, or cycling.

"I think the analogy with sports doping is really misleading, because in sports it's all about competition, only about who's the best runner or home run hitter," said Martha Farah, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. "In academics, whether you're a student or a researcher, there is an element of competition, but it's secondary. The main purpose is to try to learn things, to get experience, to write papers, to do experiments. So in that case if you can do it better because you've got some drug on board, that would on the face of things seem like a plus."

Baloney. Competition for entrance to colleges is fierce. When I applied to Harvard in 1978, one in ten applicants were accepted. Harvard added 300 places since then, but this year's applicant pool faces a 1 in 15 chance of admission. It's exactly the same problem baseball players face. The ones that remain clean might miss an opportunity to succeed because of someone who is doping. On top of that, I've never met a Principle Investigator who didn't face tough competition in applying for a grant, nor a pre-med student who didn't worry about the difference between an A and an A-. It's all about the competition.

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The Baseball Economist tries to answer the question, "Why Do Players Take Human Growth Hormone If It Doesn't Work?" He examines new research on the placebo effect.

It turns out that the placebo effect of human growth hormone could be even stronger than previously expected. New research by economist Dan Ariely finds that the placebo effect is exacerbated by the price of the drug.

Since HGH is four times as expensive as Winstrol, there's a desire to see it work.

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Via BBTF, Sports on my Mind offers one of the best posts on steroids I've seen. He starts by laying into the players and club officials who kept this quiet during the 1980s and 1990s:

Baseball players in the segment like Atlanta Braves pitcher Tom Glavine made excuses for steroid abuse:

"What goes on in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse. That's the culture of the game. And it doesn't matter if the guy has a drinking problem or guys are doin' drugs, or whether guys are doin' things in their marriages they shouldn't be doin. You just don't discuss that.

If they're going out there and performing, then there's reason for everybody in the whole chain-of-command to not worry about what's goin' on or at least not explore so much what's goin' on."

In other words, Glavine, as do almost every other MLB player, engages in "the code of silence." It is a code that can only bring with it negative outcomes. It is the code that must be broken by policemen when they expose graft in their department. It is the code that must be broken by politicos to expose lies in the government. It is the code that must be broken by corporate employees when those they work for willfully entwine themselves in illegal acts that negatively impact the public.

However, he also has it in for reporters who don't report all the medical findings on steroids:

Here Quinn laughs sardonically before continuing:

"But that same winter you had the medical directors from both Major League Baseball and the Player's Association speak to clubs at the Winter Meetings and gave what people there said was a pro-testosterone speech. Said that there were definite benefits to it; that they should consider informing the player's about the benefits and dangers. There were people who left that meeting shocked that that was the opinion of the two top medical people in the game."

This is where there the unfathomable disconnect between writers like Quinn and other of his ilk with reality occurs. It is here where Quinn and the many like him stop - for whatever reason(s) - short in their investigative work and cease in aiding the conversation about performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and sound more like propagandists. The result is that they fail to educate their peers, fail the public, and even fail lawmakers who, in part, rely on their countless hours spent close to the subject of PEDs for direction.

The author then cites studies that show for men over 25 years of age, steroids can help enhance well being. It's well worth the read to get the contrarian view on the subject, one for which I hold sympathy. While I don't think players should have used drugs illegally, I do think they they should be allowed to use them under a doctors care, and that use should be public knowledge. Then the fans can decide if they like those players or not.

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ShysterBall analyzes the Bonds grand jury testimony and concludes the government is going to have a tough time convicting Barry:

There are about 70 more pages, but they're pretty much all variations on the above themes. Overall Barry seems evasive and defensive, but like I said, not so much that there's perjury on the face of his testimony. If he's going to get got, the government has to put someone on the stand to call him a liar.

And that's pretty much that. Given the indictment being temporarily thrown out on Friday, it's going to be a long time before Bonds gets to trial. Given the nature of the questioning and charging, he may never be convicted. Given the opinion most of the public has about Bonds, it may never matter one way or the other.

Hat tip, Baseball Think Factory.

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The AP published snippets of Barry Bonds's grand jury testimony. The Smoking Gun has the PDF of the full testimony.

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Your tax dollars at work:

A federal judge on Friday told the government to re-craft its perjury case against Barry Bonds, saying prosecutors had improperly lumped multiple alleged offenses into each of four counts of its indictment of the former Giants star.

At a hearing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Judge Susan Illston said the case could not proceed because Bonds' indictment, handed up by a grand jury in November, was "duplicitous" - a legal term meaning it was improperly charged. By law, the government can only accuse a person of one crime per count of an indictment. But the judge said that in Bonds' perjury case, the slugger was being accused of telling as many as five different lies under oath in each count of the indictment.

She said the government could correct the flaws by rewriting the indictment or filing a new one.

Update: Bonds grand jury testimony is coming to a browser near you.

The Department of Justice is looking into perjury charges against Roger Clemens. Given the location of the alleged injections, Roger might want to turn to Cartman for advice:

Don Fehr proposed a good idea during Congressional steroid hearings today:

Fehr did suggest one way in which Congress could help sports leagues: require that commercially sold human growth hormone contain a chemical marker that would be detectable in a urine test.

This wouldn't be perfect, of course. Players might be able to buy it outside the country with no marker. At least Don is looking for a workable solution.

Also, to show the level of Congressional intelligence, they think pro wrestling is a sport:

The chairman also said he was "exceptionally and extremely disappointed" that World Wrestling Entertainment chairman Vince McMahon was the only witness to decline the subcommittee's invitation to testify Wednesday.

Tony La Russa doesn't believe Mark McGwire used steroids. Tom Fornelli reaction:

Seriously, if Tony LaRussa honestly believes that Mark McGwire was completely clean after everything we've learned in the years since he retired, the man needs to retire right the hell now. He's obviously insane, and shouldn't be managing a baseball team, even one as bad as the Cardinals are going to be.

The man had andro in his locker, in the Cardinals club house. Yes, it was legal at the time but as we know now it helps. McGwire's bulk wasn't all natural.

The Rocket's lawyer concedes that Clemens may have been at Jose Canseco's party. That's another shot at Roger's credibility.

The New York Daily News reports that a photo exists of Roger Clemens at Jose Canseco's party:

Their leads could include new photographic evidence that has emerged to potentially undermine Clemens' sworn testimony that he did not attend a 1998 party at the home of his then-teammate Jose Canseco - a party that figured both in the Mitchell Report and the Feb.13 public hearing in Washington.

The photo is owned by a young man who attended the party when he was 11 years old and took photos of his baseball heroes, including Clemens. Richard Emery, one of the lawyers for Clemens accuser Brian McNamee, was aware that such evidence had been circulating this week.

The party seems irrelevant to me. It's the kind of thing that fades with time, so it's quite possible McNamee or Clemens or both don't remember the details well, or are conflating multiple events into one. Clemens attending or not attending the party proves nothing.

Jonathan Mayo is a senior writer at MLB.com covering the minor leagues. His new book, Facing Clemens: Hitters on Confronting Baseball's Most Intimidating Pitcher, hits stores March 1st. Jon finished the book before the Mitchell report appeared, and wanted to weigh in on the subject.

Well, the dust has settled...for the moment. While everyone will wait for the next step ... an indictment, a guest spot on "The Moment of Truth," whatever it is, I can finally take a breath and try to figure out what all this Roger Clemens stuff means to me.

Why am I different than anyone else? I'm not really, other than the fact I recently completed my first book and boy, do I have interesting timing. It's called "Facing Clemens: Hitters on Confronting Baseball's Most Intimidating Pitcher." I kid you not. It was written, needless to say, before the Mitchell Report was released and there's nary a word about steroids, HGH, Vitamin B12 or eight-year old gauze.

It is, in pretty much every sense of the term, a pure baseball book. OK, so maybe pure isn't the best word to use, but you get the idea. I talked to some of the greats of the game over the last generation, from Cal Ripken Jr. to Ken Griffey Jr., from Gary Carter to Torii Hunter about the challenges of trying to hit Clemens over the course of his quarter-century career. Seemed like a nice, simple first foray into the book-writing world. Boy, was I unprepared for what was to come.

Since all the news has broken, I'm constantly peppered with questions from friends and family about whether it will help or hurt sales (I'm leaning toward helping), if I'm going to write an epilogue about all this stuff (sorry, no time for it) and, of course, who I believe (not really relevant right now). I've become a kind of pseudo-Clemens expert, though I never talked to the man for the book (I did do a chapter with his son, Koby, and he wrote the foreword).

In the end, I feel the book still stands on its own merits. Whether you think Clemens is guilty (Andy Pettitte's sworn testimony makes it hard not to, doesn't it?) or whether you think his vehement denials are sincere, the challenge of facing Clemens as a hitter hasn't changed. Maybe the respect the players I interviewed for the book had for Clemens has dissipated, but they still had to figure out how to hit him when he was a young fireballer and then figure out how to avoid seeing that splitter later on. Even if there had been public knowledge that Clemens was taking something he shouldn't have been, it's not like Torii Hunter would have refused to get in the box against him, seeking his first hit against the Rocket (he went 0-for-28).

Now maybe I'm being naïve and maybe I just want to sell a few more books. Both could be true. I still think that the insights the hitters gave into trying to make a living off arguably the elite right-hander of his era (Again, whether he cheated is beside the point. He was thought of in that echelon before all of this went down) makes for a pretty compelling book. I hope you agree with me.

As for where I stand on all of this, I'd love to stay impartial. But I also know that would be a weak stance to take. For the longest time, I really wanted to believe in Roger Clemens' innocence. I've been covering baseball long enough not to be shocked by anyone's indiscretions, but for once I wanted one person, especially an icon of this nature, to be wrongfully accused, for his denials to be 100 percent sincere. Alas, it has become increasingly difficult to do so and I've seen the faint hope of redemption pretty much extinguished by the testimony of Andy Pettitte. Who knows, maybe I'll be wrong and the Rocket will prevail. I'll still hope so because that would be good for the game of baseball. But I won't hold my breath.

Gelf Magazine takes an in-depth look at the phrase, "It is what it is." They include a excellent Venn diagram.

Here's why Andy Pettitte wouldn't talk about Roger Clemens at his Monday news conference:

McNamee attorney Richard Emery said Pettitte will be a central witness in the defamation suit Clemens filed last month against his former trainer. Pettitte may be required to sit for depositions and meet with his own attorneys - even as the Yankees prepare for spring training and the 2008 season.

"If I were Andy Pettitte, I would be furious at Roger for filing this case, because Clemens is now pursuing a frivolous defamation case against Brian, who will be forced to have his lawyers grill Pettitte much more thoroughly and painfully than Congress did," libel specialist Emery told the Daily News. "He will be dragged out of the middle of the season, out of the rotation, because of Roger Clemens."

WasWatching praises Hank Steinbrenner for deflecting attention away from Andy Pettitte:

It's a page right out of Big Stein's playbook. Say or do something that will direct the attention towards you and away from the team or a player. Andy Pettitte is getting his share of press today. But, thanks to Hank, it's not all on Andy.

On the surface, Steinbrenner railing at football for having a bigger problem just seems like sour grapes. WasWatching may be giving Hank too much credit here, although the outcome is likely a good one. It reminds me of my favorite Toby quote from The Office:

Toby: [talking to the camera while Ryan and Kelly make out in through the window] I don't think Michael intended to punish me by putting Ryan back here with Kelly, but if he did intend that? Wow...genius.

An excellent Young Frankenstein reference at The Soxaholix.

Maybe what really happened is Gagne sent his imbecile personal assistant, Igor, to go get him Human Growth Hormone but what Igor actually got Gagne was Human Loath Hormone.

Miguel Tejada's lawyers take the right approach:

Miguel Tejada said he's been advised by attorneys not to comment on the Mitchell Report or an FBI investigation looking into his alleged link to steroids.

"I can't really talk about that situation," Tejada said Tuesday morning upon arriving at Houston Astros training camp. "Right now, I just want to talk about baseball, because that's really my focus."

That's why you pay lawyers, so they can do the talking.

Why do players always do this?

Eric Gagne, identified as a user of human growth hormone in the Mitchell Report, apologized today to his new Milwaukee Brewers teammates for "a distraction that shouldn't be taking place."

Pettitte took his time apologizing for taking HGH, starting off with an apology for the embarrassment. Tell these people no one is embarrassed but them. No one is distracted but them. Apologize for what you did wrong.

Peter Abraham's take on the news conference is right on the money.

Andy Pettitte handled himself well in his press conference. He didn't duck any questions or hide behind his lawyers. He made a mistake and he admitted it. America loves giving second chances.

It's hard to buy his excuse, however. Using HGH to get back on the mound (as was his hope) is cheating. It's getting an edge on other players on the DL who are not using. It's getting an edge on the pitcher who took his place on the roster. Getting back in two weeks is getting an edge as opposed to three weeks.

This will blow over for Andy. The only thing that will keep him in the news on this issue is if the Clemens saga continues.

Update: Deadspin has a similar take to Abraham.

The Andy Pettitte news conference is just getting underway. Cashman and Girardi are sitting on either side of Pettitte. His attorneys are going to be available after the conference.

Update: Pettitte thanks the Yankees for giving him more time. He apologizes to the Yankees, Astros, their fans, baseball fans, and his own fans for the embarrassment. He's sorry for the mistakes he's made, but did it to get off the disabled list, not get an edge.

Update: He hates being between Clemens and McNamee, since both are friends. He's sorry he didn't tell the whole truth at the beginning, but was trying to protect his father.

Update: Jeter, Rivera and Posada are there in support. Andy says he hasn't talked to Roger Clemens.

Update: Pettitte is refusing to answer questions of the type, "Did you misremember what Clemens told you?"

Update: A reporter just asked Pettitte if he thought about not pitching. Andy said it crossed his mind. Pettitte said it wouldn't be honorable to do that.

Update: George Vescey asks about how Pettitte's religious beliefs weighed on the decision. Pettitte says in 2002 he felt it was the right thing to do. He says having this press conference will help him sleep at night.

Update: Pettitte is asked about breaking a ballplayer's code by talking. He says when you're put under oath you have no choice, and that sitting there in front of the committee was intimidating.

Update: Pettitte was just asked if he knew about the Mitchell report before he signed the contract. He had to be reminded of the dates of the contract and the report, then he says he did know, but he didn't feel he misled the Yankees.

Update: Andy is asked if he's a cheater. He doesn't think so because he didn't use it to get stronger. He understands, however, that people may think he's lying and they probably think he's a cheater.

Update: Peter Abraham asks if Andy ever used PEDs at any other time. Pettitte says no. Someone else asks if HGH helped him. Pettitte says no, he probably didn't use it long enough.

Update: They just asked Pettitte how he can concentrate on the season if Roger is indited and Andy is asked to testify. I'm always amazed at these questions. He's a professional athlete! He gets on the field and competes.

Andy says he hopes it doesn't come to that.

Update: I'd say so far the questions and answers haven't been too adversarial. Pettitte is keeping calm, and doing his best to answer the questions he can. If he doesn't understand a question, he asks the reporter to rephrase it.

He just asked why McNamee wouldn't be truthful. Andy says that as far as his use is concerned, McNamee was truthful.

Update: My Baseball Bias is also live blogging the conference.

Update: Andy is asked if the game is clean now, or what MLB should do to clean it up. He says after seeing what he's gone through, players are going to clean up quick.

Update: Pettitte says he hasn't heard from MLB, but he doesn't think he'll be suspended. Asked if he's ready for spring training, Pettitte says his arm is fine, but his legs aren't quite there yet.

Update: Andy says he's not worried about what people will think of his career in historical terms. He's very humble about his pitching. He says he's not a great pitcher, but he battles and plays for a great team.

Update: At the end of the conference, Andy's lawyer says the contract was signed a week before the Mitchell report came out. So it's not clear if he knew about the Mitchell report before he signed the contract.

Update: I thought that went well for Andy. There was no confrontational questions, and Andy tried to be as cooperative as possible. He wouldn't answer the one question most people wanted answered, what does he remember of his conversations about HGH with Roger Clemens. He appears to be getting a lot of support from his teammates and the owners. I'm guessing he'll be okay.

Jerome Solomon goes after Andy Pettitte for lying:

He is a performance-enhancing-drug-using pitcher who appears to be in search of a truth that will set him free. Even if that truth is a lie.

When asked about his performance-enhancing drug use, he elected to say something other than the truth on more than one occasion.

Despite knowing this, a congressman described Andy Pettitte as "honest and forthcoming." Another Washington time-waster praised Pettitte for being a role model on and off the field because of his "consistent honesty." His likely-to-be former friend Roger Clemens even called him "a very honest fellow."

For the first time since he lied about the subject the last time they asked, Mr. Honesty is expected to talk to the media about performance-enhancing drugs today when he reports to Yankees spring training.

Few of us can truthfully say we have never told a lie, so struggling with the truth doesn't make Pettitte a horrible human being. But raise your hand if you've managed to be praised for lying.

Maybe it's that people like Andy Pettitte, so they're willing to cut him some slack. Or maybe it's that Andy told the little lie (I only did it once) instead of the big lie (I didn't do it at all). I agree that describing Pettitte as an honest person just doesn't work that well any more.

Andy Pettitte holds a news conference at 3 PM EST today. The media is already at the ballpark.

George King notes the change in testing procedures for PEDs this season:

In other years, MLB would test a handful of players during spring training. Yesterday at Legends Field, 28 YankeesNew York Yankees were required to give urine samples to testers. Every pitcher and catcher on the 40-man roster was tested.

When the remaining 12 position players arrive this week they will be subjected to tests.

Update: There are new rules on packages as well.

In the past, clubhouse attendants would either deliver packages to players or just unpack them. Now the packages must be signed for, logged in and hand delivered. After a player opens one, a team official must then see the contents and sign off on them. If a package lacks a return address, a club executive must be notified.

Prosecutors responded to Bonds's call to dismiss charges against him by making public a failed drug test:

U.S. baseball home run king Barry Bonds tested positive for steroids in November 2001, just a month after hitting his record 73rd home run of the season, U.S. prosecutors said Thursday.

The allegation came in a legal filing in his steroid perjury case that referred to Bonds' long-time trainer, Greg Anderson.

My question is, who tested him? Was this Major League Baseball on a probable cause test, or was this BALCO?

Update: As noted overnight in the comments, the prosecutors made a mistake:

U.S. attorney spokesman Josh Eaton now says that the reference in Thursday's government court filing regarding Bonds testing positive was actually referring to a November 2000 test that was previously disclosed in the indictment of Bonds and had already been reported.

That drug test was included in the indictment unsealed last year, when prosecutors said the test was for a player they called "Barry B."

I bet Bonds's lawyers will have a field day with this.

McNamee's lawyer makes a pre-emptive strike at denying Clemens a pardon:

One of Brian McNamee's lawyers predicted Roger Clemens will be pardoned by President Bush, saying some Republicans treated his client harshly because of the pitcher's friendship with the Bush family.

Lawyer Richard Emery made the claims Thursday, a day after a congressional hearing broke down along party lines. Many Democrats were skeptical of Clemens' denials he used performance-enhancing drugs and Republicans questioned the character of McNamee, the personal trainer who made the accusations against the seven-time Cy Young Award winner.

This won't happen. First of all, by the time anyone got around to indicting and trying Clemens, Bush will be out of office. I suppose he could pull a Ford and pardon Clemens before the fact, but somehow I don't think it will happen. The chances of convicting Clemens for perjury given the McNamee as a witness are slim and none.

A look back at the Black Sox scandal from the pages of the New York Times.

This is the second poll I've seen in which readers are asked a binary choice between Clemens and McNamee as to who is telling the truth. I'd like to look at it from a different perspective:

Do you believe Clemens?

What is the probability that Roger Clemens is telling the truth?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

View Resulttherapesites.com

Free Web Polls

The LoHud Yankees Blog links to all the depositions related to the Clemens hearings today.

Update: J.C. Bradbury reads Pettitte's deposition and wishes Andy had appeared before the committee today to clarify things.

Cardinals Diaspora makes fun of Clemens for using "misremembered." Turns out, it's in the dictionary. I guess the writer there just doesn't like Texans.

Nationals Journal at the Washington Post is taking a poll on your reactions to the hearings. So far, Clemens isn't doing very well.