Recording Reveals Frayed Remains of a Friendship
By ALAN SCHWARZ
Published: January 8, 2008
In a bizarre news conference in which reporters in Houston and fans on television listened in suspense to a crackling 17-minute telephone call between Roger Clemens and his accusatory former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, no eureka moment emerged from the dissonance.
As Clemens repeatedly asked for “someone to tell the truth” about McNamee’s claims to federal and baseball investigators that he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs from 1998 through 2001, McNamee neither insisted he had been truthful nor indicated he had lied.
Seemingly seeking forgiveness from his longtime friend and employer, and anguished over his own legal troubles and what he described as his “dying” 10-year-old son, McNamee pleaded eight times, “What do you want me to do?” Clemens rarely responded by confronting McNamee, leaving the question of which side is telling the truth to linger, probably until the two appear before a Congressional committee Jan. 16.
The unlikely telephone conversation between the friends-turned-adversaries took place Friday because McNamee had text-messaged Clemens last week and indicated his son Brian was seriously ill, according to Clemens’s lawyer, Rusty Hardin. Clemens responded, opened the door for McNamee to call him and recorded the conversation on Hardin’s advice. The news conference Monday, which had been scheduled for more than a week to present Clemens’s response to McNamee’s allegations and their fallout, was largely centered on the playing of that tape.
It is not clear if McNamee was aware he was being recorded. Hardin explained that Texas and New York state laws require only one party to have knowledge that a conversation is being taped, indicating his belief that McNamee was in New York during the phone call. Efforts to reach McNamee’s lead lawyer, Earl Ward, for comment Monday were not successful.
Clemens said to McNamee at one juncture, “For the life of me, I’m trying to figure out why you told guys I did steroids.”
“I understand that,” McNamee replied.
n a news conference afterward, Clemens was asked why he did not press McNamee further after such exchanges. He mentioned McNamee’s despair over the health of his son, whom McNamee had mentioned as having celiac disease, a digestive disorder that damages the small intestine.
“I thought I was very clear with him,” Clemens told reporters. “I let him go on. I didn’t know what state he was in.”
McNamee told the team of investigators hired by Major League Baseball and directed by George J. Mitchell that he had injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone at least 16 times. He made those statements under a deal with prosecutors that he would avoid drug charges only if he told the truth.
Perhaps the most notable remark McNamee made during the phone call with Clemens came when he referred to that arrangement: “All I did was what I thought was right,” McNamee said. “I never thought it was right, but I thought I had no choice.” McNamee did not indicate if his actions were not “right” because they were untruthful or because they implicated a friend. Clemens did not ask.
McNamee also contradicted himself when he said at one point, “I didn’t want this to happen — I’d also like to not go to jail,” but later said: “Tell me what you want me to do. I’ll go to jail. I’ll do whatever you want.”
McNamee’s allegations regarding Clemens have been his most newsworthy since they were made public last month in Mitchell’s report. In the weeks since, each side has assembled a team of attorneys to assert its view of the truth; while McNamee has remained comparatively silent, Clemens released a video on the Web, recorded an interview with “60 Minutes” that was aired Sunday night, filed a defamation lawsuit within hours of the broadcast, then held a news conference.
As the phone call played and little information was revealed, the audience was left mostly listening to a friendship fracturing in real time.
“I don’t know why you did it,” Clemens said at one point. Soon afterward, McNamee replied, “You treated me like family. From Day 1, I was family to you. I’m glad to hear your voice.”
With no true bombshell for the news media and fans to dissect, the lasting legacy of the phone call became not what was said, but what was not.
“I didn’t do this, Mac,” Clemens told McNamee.
“Fine,” McNamee replied.
Later, McNamee said, “I can’t open up to you the way I want to — and I know you can’t.”
News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/sports/baseball/08phone.html?ref=baseball
In a bizarre news conference in which reporters in Houston and fans on television listened in suspense to a crackling 17-minute telephone call between Roger Clemens and his accusatory former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, no eureka moment emerged from the dissonance.
As Clemens repeatedly asked for “someone to tell the truth” about McNamee’s claims to federal and baseball investigators that he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs from 1998 through 2001, McNamee neither insisted he had been truthful nor indicated he had lied.
Seemingly seeking forgiveness from his longtime friend and employer, and anguished over his own legal troubles and what he described as his “dying” 10-year-old son, McNamee pleaded eight times, “What do you want me to do?” Clemens rarely responded by confronting McNamee, leaving the question of which side is telling the truth to linger, probably until the two appear before a Congressional committee Jan. 16.
The unlikely telephone conversation between the friends-turned-adversaries took place Friday because McNamee had text-messaged Clemens last week and indicated his son Brian was seriously ill, according to Clemens’s lawyer, Rusty Hardin. Clemens responded, opened the door for McNamee to call him and recorded the conversation on Hardin’s advice. The news conference Monday, which had been scheduled for more than a week to present Clemens’s response to McNamee’s allegations and their fallout, was largely centered on the playing of that tape.
It is not clear if McNamee was aware he was being recorded. Hardin explained that Texas and New York state laws require only one party to have knowledge that a conversation is being taped, indicating his belief that McNamee was in New York during the phone call. Efforts to reach McNamee’s lead lawyer, Earl Ward, for comment Monday were not successful.
Clemens said to McNamee at one juncture, “For the life of me, I’m trying to figure out why you told guys I did steroids.”
“I understand that,” McNamee replied.
n a news conference afterward, Clemens was asked why he did not press McNamee further after such exchanges. He mentioned McNamee’s despair over the health of his son, whom McNamee had mentioned as having celiac disease, a digestive disorder that damages the small intestine.
“I thought I was very clear with him,” Clemens told reporters. “I let him go on. I didn’t know what state he was in.”
McNamee told the team of investigators hired by Major League Baseball and directed by George J. Mitchell that he had injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone at least 16 times. He made those statements under a deal with prosecutors that he would avoid drug charges only if he told the truth.
Perhaps the most notable remark McNamee made during the phone call with Clemens came when he referred to that arrangement: “All I did was what I thought was right,” McNamee said. “I never thought it was right, but I thought I had no choice.” McNamee did not indicate if his actions were not “right” because they were untruthful or because they implicated a friend. Clemens did not ask.
McNamee also contradicted himself when he said at one point, “I didn’t want this to happen — I’d also like to not go to jail,” but later said: “Tell me what you want me to do. I’ll go to jail. I’ll do whatever you want.”
McNamee’s allegations regarding Clemens have been his most newsworthy since they were made public last month in Mitchell’s report. In the weeks since, each side has assembled a team of attorneys to assert its view of the truth; while McNamee has remained comparatively silent, Clemens released a video on the Web, recorded an interview with “60 Minutes” that was aired Sunday night, filed a defamation lawsuit within hours of the broadcast, then held a news conference.
As the phone call played and little information was revealed, the audience was left mostly listening to a friendship fracturing in real time.
“I don’t know why you did it,” Clemens said at one point. Soon afterward, McNamee replied, “You treated me like family. From Day 1, I was family to you. I’m glad to hear your voice.”
With no true bombshell for the news media and fans to dissect, the lasting legacy of the phone call became not what was said, but what was not.
“I didn’t do this, Mac,” Clemens told McNamee.
“Fine,” McNamee replied.
Later, McNamee said, “I can’t open up to you the way I want to — and I know you can’t.”
News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/sports/baseball/08phone.html?ref=baseball
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