Clemens On Steroid Use: Pettitte "Misremembered" And Gave Wrong Testimony

February 13, 2008 2:13 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Under oath before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday, seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens continued to vehemently deny charges that he had used performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens said in response to lawmakers assertions about previous depositions that Andy Pettitte had "misremembered" events and given wrong testimony.

"I appreciate the opportunity to tell this Committee and the public, under oath, what I have been saying all along. I have never used steroids, human growth hormone or any other type of illegal performance-enhancing drugs," Clemens first said, reading from a prepared statement. "I think these types of drugs should play no role in athletics at any level, and I fully support Sen. Mitchell's conclusions that steroids have no place in baseball. However, I take great issue with the report's allegation that I used these substances. Let me be clear again -- I did not."

The pro baseball player then said, "Andy has misheard" when he was presented with testimony previously given by Pettitte to the committee that "he had a conversation with [Clemens] in 1999 or 2000 in which [Clemens] admitted that [he]used human growth hormones."

"The conversation that I can recall that I had with Andy Pettitte was at my house in Houston, while we were working out, and I expressed to him about a TV show, something that I've heard about three older men that were using HGH and getting back their quality of life from that. Those are the conversations that I can remember," Clemens told Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD).

"My problem with what Andy says, and why I think he misremembers is that if Andy Pettitte knew that I had used HGH or I had told Andy Pettitte that I had used HGH before he would use the HGH, what have you, he would have come to me and asked me about it. That's how close our relationship was," he said.

Cummings then pressed Clemens by saying, "Would he tell the Congress that one of his close friends was taking an illegal performance-enhancing drug if there were any doubt in his mind about the truth of what he was saying?"

"Mr. Congressman, once again... I think he misremembers of our conversation," Clemens replied.

Brian McNamee, Clemens' former personal trainer, gave a different account. "When I told Sen. Mitchell that I injected Roger Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs, I told the truth," McNamee, seated at the same table as Clemens, read from a prepared statement. "I injected those drugs into the body of Roger Clemens at his direction. Unfortunately, Roger has denied this and has led a full-court attack on my credibility. And let me be clear, despite Roger Clemens' statements to the contrary, I never injected Roger Clemens -- or anyone else -- with Lidocaine or [Vitamin] B-12."

Last December, former Maine Sen. George Mitchell released a report linking Clemens, Pettitte, Barry Bonds, Miguel Tejada, Gary Sheffield and a host of other baseball stars to steroid use. The report, made at the request of baseball commissioner Bud Selig, had McNamee confessing that Clemens "showed remarkable improvement" after he injected him "with Winstrol through the end of the 1998 season."

Kirk Radomski, who used to work as a New York Mets clubhouse attendant, was the report's other primary source aside from McNamee.