Posts tagged BrianMcnamee at FanHouse

Well it's about time.

In a case where it seems as though Roger Clemens has done everything humanly possible to make Brian McNamee out to be Satan reincarnate, McNamee has filed a defamation lawsuit against the former hoarder of Cy Young awards. McNamee claims -- and you can hardly blame him -- that Clemens "libeled and slandered him" in the wake of the Mitchell Report. He is seeking upwards of $10 million in damages.

To sum everything up, McNamee was forced by federal employees to tell the truth about Roger Clemens and his steroidal practices while a major league baseball player. In the aftermath, Roger Clemens has publicly called him names, tried to catch him saying something incriminating on audiotape during a phone call, and has generally just dragged McNamee through the mud -- all in a desperate attempt to maintain his reputation as one of the greatest pitchers of all-time.

It should be noted that McNamee, from everything we've seen and heard during 2008, is no saint.

It should also be noted that Clemens has done a ton more harm than good to himself, his family, and poor Mindy McCready -- who recently attempted suicide. I doubt Rocket cares, just as long as we still think he's a great pitcher.

If reading last night's news about Barry Bonds got you all nostalgic for Roger Clemens' legal nightmare, you're in luck: both the New York Times and New York Daily News have updates today on where things stand.

Remember how Brian McNamee, Clemens' former trainer turned federal informant, turned over syringes and gauze that he claimed were used to inject Clemens with steroids several years ago? It seems that the feds may have obtained a viable DNA sample off the items -- at least if you're willing to connect some dots.

While the government hasn't made any official announcement, a source confirmed that investigators requested and received DNA samples from McNamee and three of his lawyers, who took possession and photographed the items before handing them over to authorities in January. From the Daily News:

"It suggests that they found DNA on the items, they want to determine who came into contact with the material," said a source with close knowledge of the matter.

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.