The Further Fall of Roger Clemens

If Roger Clemens can take back his civil suit against former trainer Brian McNamee, he'd be well advised to do so.

It was alleged this week that Clemens had a long term affair with country singer Mindy McCready. It isn't proven yet that McNamee is the source of the allegation. The New York Daily News initially broke the story, and some are saying that McReady herself is attempting a career comeback with the juicy gossip.

I don't see an affair with a tainted star helping anyone's comeback bid. It certainly didn't help the Yankees last year, and they have a better personal assistant than McCready. Still, it's an interesting theory and one that would jive well with today's standards: in the past, adultery was shameful; today, it's just part of doing business, whether in Nashville, Hollywood, or sports.

Everyone in this Clemens saga seems to have a screwed up past. There's no one to root for. Even the mistress is tainted. McCready's career headed south after she plead guilty to illegally obtaining the painkiller OxyCotin, then got busted for DUI a couple of days later. Her ex-boyfriend beat her up and was charged with attempted murder, and she's been hospitalized for attempted suicide. Of all the women in the world to have an affair with, Clemens picked a real winner.

I've been reading some opinion pieces from the sports guys, and they're pretty much sticking together on the idea that the McReady issue is a non-story as it relates to Clemens' baseball troubles.

I'm not so sure. As soon as Clemens went before Congress and told them he bleeds apple pie, he made his character and reputation an issue. But what makes character and reputation? Your past. So now everything and anything in Clemens' past is on the table, and McNamee's lawyers will be looking for dirt to discredit him. They'll be looking for anyone that had some alone time with Clemens, searching for someone that heard him whisper the words, "human growth," though perhaps not in the way that Mindy McCready would mean it.

It's probably not the way it should be, but it's the way it is. US law is pretty clear on this point: if you open litigation against someone, you open your whole life to the scrutiny of lawyers and, if you're a hotshot, the press.

No one seems to be talking much about Clemens' wife, Debbie, who's been lost in the shuffle. There she was, standing by her man. She talked to Congress, her name was in the papers, and she was exposed as an HGH user herself. Little did she know that she was playing the perfect politician's wife. If Clemens' marital affair turns out to be a fact, then Debbie is going to have a lot of egg on her face. Even if she knew about the affair beforehand, it won't matter. She's been embarrassed, and she knows that there's worse to come: once McNamee's civil trial starts, all of the skeletons could fall out of the closet.

As for McNamee, I'm neither here nor there. If he's telling the truth, fine, and if he throws mud at Roger Clemens, who can blame him? Clemens recorded a half-hour conversation with McNamee over the telephone, but failed to mention the recording to McNamee. A couple of days later, Clemens and his lawyers played the tape on national TV. After that bit of theater, McNamee must have thought, "All bets are off, old friend."

It's a sordid end to an allegedly sordid career in a sordid era of baseball.