According to a story in this morning's New York Times, Roger Clemens did not test positive for any banned substances in the 2003 round of testing that led to the present PED policies. Clemen's lawyer Rusty Hardin obtained the test results by waiving the player's right to privacy regarding the results. These results have been passed on to Congress which has been investigating the claims against Clemens.“The results show Roger was negative in every respect, performance-enhancing drugs and masking agents,” Hardin said. “The only reason why I mention it now is because Roger is being mentioned with Sosa and Rodriguez, who have been tied to 2003 tests, and Roger didn’t test positive.”This is huge for Clemens who has struggled to clear his name in face of accusations from his former trainer and statements from former teammate Andy Pettitte. While this is far from the end of the investigation it must give Clemens a bit of a boost. It is much more difficult to disprove a claim than to provide evidence in favor of one. This is a sample of the dis-proving evidence that Clemens needs.
Unfortunately it won't be enough for anyone convinced of Clemen's guilt in the matter. His former trainer, Brian McNamee's statements in the Mitchell Report made claims about use from 1998 to 2001. He provided needles and used gauze that he insists he saved for nearly a decade as evidence to support his claims. No matter how ridiculous that sounds, it is being taken seriously by Congress.
If you need something supporting the claims that Congress is after a PR win more than the truth look no further than their release of medical records showing that Clemens was treated for a possibly drug-related abscess in 1998. An abscess is a localized collection of pus that generally develops in response to infection. An abscess is typically painful, and it appears as a swollen area that is warm to the touch. The skin surrounding an abscess typically appears pink or red. But they could just as easily released the negative tests at the same time but they chose to keep the non-damning evidence to themselves.
“The medical records were in the same stuff that we sent with the testing results,” Hardin said. “And it’s strange to me that they chose to make the stuff that made Roger look bad from the medical records public and not the drug-testing information.”I have said it more than once that as someone that has been falsely accused I feel I have to give Roger Clemens and the other accused the benefit of the doubt until conclusive evidence is revealed. On the Fourth of July it should be easy to remember one of the tenets of American Society used to be Innocent Until Proven Guilty.
