Posts tagged BrianMcNamee at FanHouse

Last night's marathon All-Star Game -- woe to the livebloggers charged with chronicling that nonsense -- served several functions. One of them: to prove to casual baseball fans just how long and boring baseball can be. Another: to mask new Roger Clemens revelations.

According to the New York Daily News, steroid dealer Kirk Radomski -- not to be confused with Brian McNamee, Clemens' personal lackey-turned-snitch -- provided receipts to the government which prove he sent steroids to the Clemens household in late 2002 or 2003.

The official line from the Clemens camp is, as usual, denial, but the receipts are timed to corroborate the government's claim that the Rocket was responsible for his wife's use of HGH as she got ready to look sort of scary in her now-infamous Sports Illustrated pictorial. The timing works out, and the circumstantial evidence is almost overwhelming.

In other words, everyone in the world is now convinced that Roger Clemens (and his wife!) took some mixture of steroids and HGH at several stages of his Hall of Fame baseball career. This is nearly a foregone conclusion. McNamee and his lawyers don't need to convince anyone now; each new piece of evidence is just another nail in a coffin that was built in front of the House Oversight Committee.

Nothing particularly new to report on the Brian McNamee-Roger Clemens end of things, other than what Watson covered yesterday (Pettitte may have to come into court). It is interesting though, that McNamee's lawyers have ramped up their talk about the DNA tests on the syringes they presented to the court and how said tests will prove that Clemens is fibbing.

Of course, none of that is as interesting as finding out that a) Roger Clemens stinks at spelling, and b) his email address is Rocket something-something at something dot com. My guess is "Rocketman22 at aol dot com". From the Smoking Gun (who, naturally has copies of the emails, which were attached to a brief filed yesterday):

The e-mails ... were sent in October 2006, following the publication of a Los Angeles Times story reporting that Clemens and teammate Andy Pettitte were identified as steroid users in a confidential federal affidavit (the Times story proved to be erroneous). In the first e-mail, Clemens tells McNamee that, "Pet and I talk about the BS coming out. What a crock of sh*t!"

The third-place Yankees are in no position to deal with yet another distraction (Hank said what?! A-Rod is sleeping with who?!), but it's possible that Andy Pettitte, the team's best and most reliable pitcher this year, may be called in to testify in the defamation suit brought against Brian McNamee by Roger Clemens.

According to the New York Daily News, one of the claims Clemens is making against McNamee is that McNamee defamed Clemens by telling Pettitte Clemens used PEDs. McNamee's lawyer, Richard Emery, wants the judge to determine if the statute of limitations on that claim has passed, and doing so may require a hearing in which Pettitte will be forced to leave the Yankees and testify.

Sounds bad for the Yankees, right? It could get even worse. Emery has also requested that the defamation suit be moved from Houston to New York, which would allow Emery to subpeona a long list of witnesses, which includes Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, Mariano Rivera, as well as team trainers and doctors.

All of a sudden, dealing with paparrazi on the A-Rod/Madonna beat doesn't seem too bad.

Here at FanHouse, we're long on sports opinion but, with one notable exception, a little lighter when it comes to the rules of evidence for litigation. We're a sports blog, so that's okay, but when things like the Roger Clemens defamation suit come around it does leave us a bit exposed. Around these parts, we've made a lot of reference to how the numerous allegations of infidelity reflect on Clemens's character and, by extension, his chances of succeeding in said suit.

According to Howard Wasserman at the Sports Law Blog, the two things don't have anything to do with one another.

First, any effect on Clemens' reputation from these statements came after McNamee's statements and the Mitchell Report and damage to reputation must be measured from the time of the libelous statements. Second, McNamee's statements damaged Clemens's professional reputation--his status as the greatest pitcher of his generation--and his reputation for marital fidelity has nothing to do with that professional reputation. Third, character is not the same thing as reputation.

In short, the stories about affairs might serve to cement Clemens as a creep in the court of public opinion but they don't hold much weight in a court of law. The one exception Wasserman notes is if Clemens lied about the affair when asked but his statement admitting he made mistakes seems to close that door.

Yesterday's news about Roger Clemens' alleged affair with musician Mindy McCready (I never heard of her before yesterday, so I refuse to call her a "star") was so far out of left field that absolutely nobody could have expected it. Was it too strange to be true? Was a Cy Young pitcher really lovestruck by a 15-year-old girl he met in a karaoke bar?

Clemens lawyer Rusty Hardin came out swinging with a strong denial, telling the Houston Chronicle:

"There's no question in my mind that this is a really filthy smear campaign orchestrated by [Brian] McNamee's lawyers clearly intended to do anything they can to ruin Roger's reputation. ... I'll let Roger speak for himself on the matter, but it is clear that the Daily News throughout this entire episode has been the house mouthpiece for McNamee's lawyers, and this is just one more example."

Um, Rusty, perhaps you should have talked to your client. While Clemens has yet to officially address the issue, McCready did, admitting it was all true.

Nothing like a slew of spicy allegations to really rev up the Monday morning, especially when they pertain to Roger Clemens. We've got everything from envelopes of cash to partying with Monica Lewinsky. But how do these allegations sort out in the sordid spectrum of celebrity society? Ranking the Rank finds out.

5. FedEx envelopes full of cash -- Nothing really illegal about this one, although the immoral factor is pretty high if the money is being shipped to a mistress - celebrity type. Still, Rocket. You're ridiculously rich, man. Hire a real courier. Or write a check. It's just as traceable as that FedEx insurance slip you're filling out while shipping American currency.

4. Trips to Las Vegas -- Sure, what happens there stays there, but how cliche can you be? Take the alleged mistress to Vegas? Meh. Not to mention, every dood knows that you don't trot your celebrity lady-friend out in the public like that; you gotta use the private jet and roll to some secluded island.

2. Partying with Monica Lewinsky -- One would assume that these "sources" are gonna drop the biggest names possible ... and that's the best you can do, Rog? Come on. You [allegedly without cheating] won a slew of Cy Youngs. Sure, you don't have a no-hitter, but you can still pull bigger celebrity than her, right?

2. Losing your lady friend to Dean Cain -- Sure, Cain played Superman, but that doesn't excuse getting beat out by the guy. You talk about mid-90's D-list celebrities, well, this guy is definition "wheelhouse". Rocket's inability to pull Teri Hatcher on a spite move (no word yet on whether he actually tried or not) doesn't help his status either.

1. 15 Year Old Mistress -- Yeaaaah. There's nothing remotely appropriate about that.

The approach that Roger Clemens has taken to public relations aspect of the burgeoning (or is it bludgeoning?) steroids scandel is the exact opposite of Andy Pettitte. He has shown up everywhere (more places than necessary, really) he needs to be, determined to let anyone and everyone know that he is a great family man. And one hell of a model American.

The most glaring incident of this is probably his appearance with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes to announce that he was filing a defamation suit against Brian McNamee. There is one he-yuge problem with publicly announcing a defamation suit though: if you have a closet full of skeletons you're probably going to end up worse off because of it.

This morning's revelation of Roger Clemens's alleged affair with an underage Mindy McCready certainly got the week off to an entertaining start. Beyond Clemens's alleged infidelity, the fact that the couple is rumored to have spent time partying with Monica Lewinsky and Michael Jordan, two of the biggest pop cultural icons of the 1990's, is pretty interesting as well. They weren't just hanging out nearby, either.

McCready, according to a source, even bummed a cigar off His Airness to give to Clemens.

At least she didn't bum it from Lewinsky. God knows that wouldn't have been sanitary.

All of these bombshells are dropping because of Clemens's defamation suit against Brian McNamee and, as is part of any defense, the trainer and his lawyers are finding anything they can to counter arguments that Clemens possesses the pristine character he claims. We've done a little digging* and found out some other things Clemens probably doesn't want coming out about his activities in the 90's.

If you're Brian McNamee and you've alienated all of your former baseball player friends, not to mention potentially put the President in a bit of a pardoning quagmire, you have a few options to cash in on your 15 minutes / eternity of stool-pigeoning fame. You could write horribly written tell all books and hang up on national radio shows, but that seems a little contrived and most certainly desperate. Besides, it's already been done.

Or you could just take all the stuff that Roger Clemens signed for you, once upon a friendlier time, sign it yourself, and sling it on Ebay. And that's exactly what McNamee is doing.

In articles that have appeared in at least two newspapers, Brian McNamee -- let's all say it together, 'former personal trainer for Roger Clemens turned accuser' -- is selling Clemens memorabilia he collected in happier times on eBay.

A Massachusetts sports memorabilia dealer, Phil Castinetti, is handling the sales. According to the description of the items on eBay, proceeds from the sale will go to charity.

Now bear in mind that these aren't just your run of the mill Roger Clemens autographed items. Instead, they have been post-facto autographed (and almost assuredly without Clemens' permission) by McNamee himself. For instance, item number 42 (right after JFK's golf clubs), with a current bid of $4,000.00, plus seven dollars shipping, is a ball that Clemens signed earlier and that McNamee inked on March 27. We know that's true because the winner will receive a Letter of Authorization from McNamee himself regarding Clemens' signature and there are photos of B-Mac slapping down his J-Hancock in the middle of a card store.

All proceeds will go to "Brian's Buddies" which fights bacne diabetes. And no, you shouldn't even try, because it's absolutely impossible to quantify the amount of irony that this story is soaking in.

Whenever I'm having trouble getting myself into gear and I'm in need of a little guidance, I think of who we all think of in those situations: Brian Mcnamee.

The career of Clemens' now-infamous trainer has taken a few, um, detours, this year, mainly through legal-ville. He's back into trainer-mode now though, albeit not exactly in a lets-work-out-and/or-juiceify capacity. He gave a motivational speech today to a group of 25 high school athletes, coaches, and some parents with the intent of broadcasting a "don't do what I did" advisory. The tagline of the speech, in fact, was: "A lifetime of achievements can be defined by a singular monumental mistake."

I like that slogan well enough -- succinct, yet dramatic -- but it is unclear to me whether he was really saying "learn from my mistake of being an accomplice in this steroids drama" or if it was more of a veiled "don't be like my clients and make everyone question your record after I inject you with an illegal substance" assertion. Personally, I feel like the latter makes more sense. If it is the former, then we are to assume that McNamee is stating that he has amassed a lifetime of achievements, and I'm just not sure if training some athletes really constitutes an "achievement." I'm not saying it's not a lovely job, but the wording of the tagline just seems more apropos to an athlete than a trainer.

Of course, there's also the possibility that the Yankees Chick just has way too much time on her hands and is reading into things a bit much. Either way, the fact remains that McNamee is now available for speaking engagements at your local supplement shop.