ON Wednesday, Roger Clemens will take the mound -- or, at least, Capitol Hill -- for the most important start of his life.
Clemens will begin the congressional hearing by raising his right arm before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and vowing, "I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth..."
Or will he?
Because if the Clemens drama has become anything, it's riveting.
Syringes and gauze kept for seven years by a former personal trainer. Accusations that Clemens' wife took human growth hormone, too. Not-so-veiled threats to federal investigators. Defiant denials by arguably the best pitcher of his generation -- perhaps of all time.
Now this: a showdown between Clemens and his accuser -- former personal trainer, cop and pack rat Brian McNamee -- where, as it stands, one of them will have to commit perjury. Because both Clemens and McNamee can't be telling the truth.
McNamee claims he injected Clemens with steroids or HGH on 16 separate occasions around the turn of the century. Clemens has aggressively disavowed the allegations with a pack of pitbull attorneys.
Further, Clemens looked the public in the eye during a defiant Jan. 7 press conference, then went on 60 Minutes and fiercely denied using drugs.
Boy, Clemens better be telling the truth. Say what you want about Mark McGwire taking the fifth, at least he didn't make matters worse by looking America in the eye and serving up a bald-faced lie.
Meanwhile, with each passing day, Clemens' team of attorneys and spin doctors seems more desperate in their denials; first when McNamee told investigators he had proof -- in syringes and blood-stained gauze -- that he injected steroids.
Now apart from the fact that's kinda creepy, remember that McNamee, a former police officer, would have known he was breaking the law in providing Clemens with steroids. And if he ever did get into a he-said, she-said battle down the road, the trainer would have no hope against a seven-time Cy Young winner with a heretofore unblemished reputation.
Someone alert Gil Grissom, it's time for an episode of CSI: Yankees.
But when allegations leaked out last week that McNamee had given steroids to Clemens' wife Debbie -- while training for a 2003 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition -- then this already fascinating plot officially entered the surreal.
And it's not just the accusation, it's the detail; how it was Clemens who suggested his reluctant wife use HGH and how she was injected in the stomach. If it's a lie, it's an intricate falsehood that so far has not been challenged by Clemens' aforementioned mouthpieces.
Yeah, McNamee is coming off as a prison stoolie. And that may be his next occupation if the trainer perjures himself before Congress Wednesday.
But Clemens will be taking the stand with everything to lose -- his reputation, his career, his virtual lock into Cooperstown. And even more valuable, his freedom. If he's proven to have lied to Congress, then Mr. Clemens might be in pinstripes for longer than he ever anticipated. And we're not talking about the Yankees, either.
Already, there's whispers that federal prosecutors may indict Clemens, based on testimony to investigators. That pressure may only intensify if those long-ago used syringes can reveal just who is now telling the truth.
That is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the Clemens affair, that there could be a smoking gun -- or a smoking syringe -- that could either vindicate the pitcher or send him to the bullpen behind bars.
If proven innocent, then Clemens will deserve a humbling apology from the skeptics -- and I'm one of them -- who believe the circumstantial evidence is fast becoming too troubling and believable to ignore.
But all his 354 career wins would mean little to baseball fans and Cooperstown voters if Clemens records a loss in this high-stakes public arena. Especially after so vocally refuting any evidence presented by McNamee, who has been painted by Clemens' attorneys as a lowlife lying vulture.
Kinda like how Jose Canseco was vilified a few years ago for claiming so many of his competitors were juiced. You know, before it was determined in the Mitchell Report that so many of his competitors were juiced.
Sure, it would be a shame if Clemens ends up disgraced by his own doing. But the irony of Clemens raising his hand to swear his oath on Wednesday can't be ignored.
Long ago, it was a given that Roger Clemens' right arm would get him into the Hall of Fame...
If it doesn't get him in jail sooner.
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