The congressional hearings involving Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee ended after almost five hours of testimony.
The afternoon portion of the hearings saw some shots taken at the Mitchell Report, both from Roger Clemens, as well as members of Congress. The major dispute about the Report was how hard former Sen. George Mitchell and his staff tried to track down Clemens. Though Clemens said he never heard from Mitchell and his team, and that heâs an easy person to find, Charles Scheeler, the Mitchell Report investigator testifying today, spelled out the several instances they, in fact, tried to track down Clemens.
Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.) went so far as to say Mitchell and his staff may have rushed the release of the Report before all of its facts were verified.
âSeems to me that there may have been some people a little too anxious to get this report out and get all the publicity attendant thereto,â Duncan said.
A damaging shot at Clemensâ credibility came from Rep. Elijah Cummings, who used Clemensâ close friend Andy Pettitteâs testimony to state that he made it hard to believe Clemensâ denials of what took place.
âIf it was even-steven between you and Mr. McNamee, I have to believe Mr. Pettitte,â Cummings said.
He then went on to read some of Pettitteâs testimony about McNamee telling him Clemens had used performance-enhancing drugs. When investigators asked Pettitte, âDid you have any reason to think Mr. McNamee wasnât being straight with you about that?â Pettitte answered, âNo, I had no reason to think that.â
Some of the committee members came to Clemensâ defense.
In criticizing the report, Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut said, âThere is one player here, and heâs here because we all know heâs the icon of baseball.â
Clemens also came to the defense of his wife Debbie at one point during the proceedings, reading a statement she wrote addressing McNamee giving her HGH.
âShe feels like a pawn in this game,â Clemens said.
The one thing McNamee and Clemens seemed to agree on throughout the hearing was that baseball did the right thing in commissioning the Mitchell Report, and that the sport was taking the right steps toward cleaning up the game.
âI believe baseball is going in the right direction,â Clemens said.
McNamee added, âI believe the report is good.â
Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) ending the hearing with a major shot at Clemens, while coming to the defense of McNamee â apologizing to McNamee for some of the words and actions of his fellow representatives.