4,672 strikeouts. 354 wins. Seven Cy Young awards. Three counts of making false statements, two counts of perjury and one court of obstructing U.S. Congress.
Roger Clemens, everybody!
The baseball legend was indicted on Thursday on the above charges related to lying to U.S. Congress regarding his obvious use of performance-enhancing drugs.
If convicted on all charges, he could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine. He would more likely serve somewhere between 15-21 months, but still.
This guy makes LeBron James look like the patron saint of pro sports!
UNDER OATH: Even that couldn’t make Roger Clemens come clean.
Clemens’ indictment stemmed from testimony that Roger and former trainer Brian McNamee gave under oath in February 2008 to a House of Representatives panel, contradicting each other on whether Clemens had used banned substances.
The Rocket said he never used steroids or human growth hormones and repeated this during a subsequent committee hearing. Not so much, the indictment says:
“In truth and in fact, as Clemens well knew when he gave this testimony, Clemens knowingly received injections of anabolic steroids while he was an MLB player.”
Clemens was noted for longevity, fierceness, many records and an affair with Mindy McCready during a 24-year career, but was long suspected of using steroids. His adamant, elaborate denials make this fall from grace even more shocking.
Clemens later accused McNamee of fabricating the allegations, said teammate Andy Pettitte “misremembers” the two doing steroids, claimed that HGH shipments to his house were actually for wife Debbie, and other nonsense.
Another former star, Barry Bonds, owner of the single-season and career record for home runs, faces trial in March on charges of perjury related to his testimony about performance-enhancing drugs as well. Maybe they can share a cell?