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February 13, 2008

Bloomberg: Clemens' word is enough for many fellow Texans

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- A man's word is important in Texas, especially when that man is Roger Clemens.

The pitcher, who is accused of using steroids to help build a record-setting baseball career, has plenty of believers back home in Houston when he says he's clean.

Clemens' name is a fixture in the city, from a sports medicine institute to a statue of him awarded each year to the nation's best college pitcher. Clemens also has fans in Washington: U.S. Representative Edolphus Towns, a New York Democrat who will hear the pitcher's testimony today, last week posed for photographs with him. Texans continue backing Clemens, while a poll conducted by Turnkey Sports & Entertainment in January showed most in the sports industry didn't believe him.

"People that are in Roger's corner are going to stay in his corner, no matter what happens," David Sitton, president of the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association, said in an interview.

The 45-year-old pitcher is testifying about steroid use before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He was among the players listed as users in former Senator George Mitchell's report on steroids in baseball.

McNamee Testimony

The former trainer who implicated him, Brian McNamee, also is testifying. He has a deal with the federal government to avoid prosecution unless he provides false information. McNamee's allegations in Mitchell's report include injecting Clemens when he played for Toronto in 1998 and for the New York Yankees in 2000 and 2001.

Clemens denied the charges through attorney Rusty Hardin when the Mitchell report was released Dec. 13. He issued a statement Dec. 18, released a video on his Web site Dec. 23 and taped an interview with CBS Corp.'s "60 Minutes" television show Dec. 28.

He has denied the charges in a news conference and met individually last week with members of Congress.

"I did not use steroids, human growth hormone, and I've never done so," Clemens said in his Web video.

He denied it again in his opening statement today. McNamee said in his opening statement that he injected Clemens more than he said previously.

New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte said in a sworn affidavit to Congress that Clemens admitted 10 years ago to using HGH.

Backtracked

Pettitte, who was excused from publicly testifying, also told the congressional committee that Clemens backtracked when they talked about HGH again in 2005, the same year Congress held its first hearing on steroids in baseball.

McNamee gave a deposition in Washington about syringes he says he kept for as long as seven years after using them on Clemens. McNamee's lawyers said they turned the needles over to investigators.

Clemens played baseball in Texas from high school through college. He won a record seven Cy Young Awards as his league's best pitcher during his 24-year career, which included stints with Boston, Toronto, the Yankees and Houston Astros.

He joined the Astros in 2004 and helped lead the franchise to its first World Series appearance the following year.

"It is harder for many Texans to cast him aside," said Bob Hulsey, curator of the Web site AstrosDaily.com.

`Wonderful'

The Roger Clemens Award for college pitchers has no plans to alter its title, said Ray Mitchell, a chairman of the award. The Greater Houston Baseball Association administers the honor, which has been given annually since 2004 with a Clemens statue going to the winner.

"He's been nothing but wonderful to us so there's no reason for us to think about anything else at this point," Mitchell said.

The Roger Clemens Institute at Memorial Hermann, which formed in 2006 and opened last year in Houston, doesn't plan on going anywhere.

The institute is "deeply committed to realizing" its vision through sports medicine, rehabilitation, orthopedic care and medically based research, spokeswoman Alex Rodriguez said in an e-mail.

Clemens and his wife also pledged $3 million to Memorial Hermann for its children's hospital.
The pitcher is grateful to his backers, Hardin said in an e-mail.

"Roger has been deeply touched by the number of friends across Texas and across the country who have reached out to offer their support," Hardin said.

Industry Poll

Turnkey Sports & Entertainment of Haddonfield, New Jersey, said its poll found that 69 percent of respondents didn't believe Clemens's denials that he used substances such as human growth hormone.

Houston-based Tristar Productions Inc., which has an agreement with Clemens, still lists a Clemens autographed ball for $399 on its Web site.

It's too early to tell how sales might be affected by the Mitchell report, said Jeffrey Rosenberg, Tristar's chief executive officer. Rosenberg said he expects Tristar's relationship with Clemens to continue.

"He's worked so hard to achieve the things he has," Rosenberg said.

Some Skepticism

Some Houston fans are skeptical of Clemens, who left the Astros to rejoin the Yankees in 2007. The perception exists that baseball has a widespread drug problem, said Charlie Pallilo, who has a sports talk show on Houston radio station KBME-AM.

"I don't think that any step he's taken since the release of the report has played well in Peoria, or more importantly, Houston," said Pallilo, who grew up on Long Island, New York.

Yet he looks for Clemens to receive a warm welcome the next time he's introduced at an Astros game.

Clemens was supported in Washington by U.S. Representative Ted Poe, a Texas Republican and former prosecutor and judge in the Houston area.

"If Roger Clemens told me that it was raining in my living room, I'd go home and start pulling plastic over all the furniture," Poe told reporters.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 11:31 AM | Permalink

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