Former All-Star MLB pitcher Roger Clemens and trainer Brian McNamee have been mired in a longstanding legal battle, and the saga took another turn on Monday that should expedite the final outcome.
Clemens filed a motion for a stay in a defamation suit against McNamee but was denied by U.S. District Court Judge Sterling Johnson. The New York Daily News' sports investigative team reported Judge Johnson's comments on the matter on Monday:
Jim Baumbach of Newsday provided further details and analysis on what the situation means moving forward:
In February of this year, it was ruled that Clemens' private communication with agent Randy Hendricks and PR strategist Joe Householder was fair game for McNamee's legal team to explore. The information was not protected by client-attorney confidentiality.
When the landmark Mitchell Report was released in December 2007, Clemens' name came up time and again, linking him to steroid use. McNamee, his former trainer, admitted to injecting Clemens with steroids, which the pitcher denied and then responded to by filing a lawsuit in January 2008.
A Congressional hearing was held that year on Capitol Hill in which Clemens gave testimony, and McNamee was accusing him of perjury. In June 2012, Clemens was found not guilty on all six counts of perjury, putting an apparent end to the legal clash.
However, McNamee filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn federal court in 2009. In it, he asserted that Clemens slandered him by accusing him of manufacturing evidence and saying that he lied about witnessing Clemens use steroids, some of which were allegedly administered by McNamee himself.
Speculation has surrounded Clemens constantly about his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs, though nothing has ever been proven. His former New York Yankees teammate Andy Pettitte used to train with McNamee alongside Clemens and admitted to using human growth hormone.
Both sides have been relentless in their pursuit of apparent justice and their efforts to clear their names. Although McNamee has come out on the wrong end thus far, he appears far from done in his bid to out the ex-pitcher as a performance-enhancing drug user.
While there's no tangible evidence to suggest Clemens did use steroids or HGH, he did enjoy an incredibly productive career from 1984 through 2007, which included seven Cy Young awards. That longevity is the genesis for some speculation regarding him and PEDs, but until anything is proven, it's going to be difficult to figure out where to place Clemens in terms of his MLB legacy.
One of the best pitchers of all time in his prime, the fact that Clemens has been implicated so heavily in steroid use for years and has not been able to outrun the accusations completely will always leave doubt about his later accomplishments.
No matter how this drawn-out tangle with McNamee in court finally plays out, Clemens' reputation will likely precede him even if there's still no hard proof of wrongdoing or giving false testimony.
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