Pettitte disclosed the conversation to the congressional committee that will hold today’s hearings on drug use in baseball, a person familiar with the affidavit said. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the document had not been made public.
According to the person, who said it was signed Friday, Pettitte also said Clemens backtracked when the subject of HGH came up again in conversation in 2005, before the same House committee held the first hearing on steroids in baseball.
Pettitte said in the affidavit that he asked Clemens in 2005 what he would do if asked by the media about HGH, given his admission years earlier. According to the account, the affidavit said Clemens responded by saying Pettitte misunderstood the previous exchange in 1999 or 2000 and that, in fact, Clemens had been talking about HGH use by his wife in the original conversation.
Whatever Clemens and his accuser, Brian McNamee, have to say for themselves in front of Congress today, one thing seems certain: Clemens will be no Mark McGwire.
“He IS here to talk about the past,” Clemens lawyer Rusty Hardin said Tuesday as he accompanied the seven-time Cy Young Award winner through Capitol Hill office buildings.
Clemens was making the rounds one last time, squeezing face-to-face meetings into the busy schedules of the members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He met with five congressmen during a four-hour span Tuesday, on top of the 19 he saw on Thursday and Friday.
“I enjoyed talking with him,” said Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif. “It’s always good to meet the person who is in the spotlight. I told him, ‘This is not a trial.’”
But it might very well feel like one when Clemens and McNamee, his former personal trainer, sit at the witness table, and - under oath - offer what surely will be contradictory versions as to whether Clemens, 45, has used steroids and human growth hormone during his storied career.
Clemens got some help in his public relations push from an old teammate Tuesday, when The Associated Press obtained a sworn affidavit in which Jose Canseco said he has never seen Clemens “use, possess or ask for steroids or human growth hormone.”
The affidavit, dated Jan. 22, is part of the evidence gathered by the committee holding today’s hearing.
“I have never had a conversation with Clemens in which he expressed any interest in using steroids or human growth hormone,” Canseco said in the affidavit. “Clemens has never asked me to give him steroids or human growth hormone, and I have never seen Clemens use, possess or ask for steroids or human growth hormone.”
The anticipation of the hearing rivals - if not surpasses - that of the hype before March 17, 2005, when McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro testified before the same committee in the same House hearing room. McGwire avoided answering questions about steroid use that day by repeatedly saying, “I’m not here to talk about the past” - and his reputation has shown no signs of recovery.
“I think Roger’s fully prepared to testify fully and truthfully,” Hardin said. “And one thing we were trying to make clear in all these meetings was that it wasn’t going to be a repeat of 2005. He wasn’t going to sort of parse his words and be careful about what he said. He’d answer any question they had.”
In comparison to Clemens’ personal meetings with lawmakers, McNamee has kept a low profile in the buildup to the hearing. He gave a closed-door deposition under oath last week, two days after Clemens did, and has been waiting until the hearing itself to retell his story.
It’s a story that first publicly surfaced in George Mitchell’s report on drugs in baseball in December. McNamee said in the report that he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone at least 16 times in 1998, 2000 and 2001. Clemens vigorously denied the claims in an aggressive media blitz that included an appearance on “60 Minutes.”
Clemens didn’t have much to say Tuesday. He said he was getting a chance to meet some “interesting people,” and he waved appreciatively when two bystanders yelled: “We love you, Rocket!”
In a late addition to its case, Clemens’ camp planned to submit to the committee today a letter from a Baylor College of Medicine professor who examined medical records supplied by Hardin’s office. The physician, Dr. Bert O’Malley, wrote that the records, which covered Clemens’ time with four teams from April 1995 to August 2007, were “devoid of suspicious indications” of steroid use.
While some congressmen have emphasized that the hearing is not solely about Clemens or even baseball - concern about steroids and substance abuse among young people is the oft-stated mission - the focus on the 45-year-old pitcher became more apparent after several other witnesses were scratched. Former Clemens teammates Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch and convicted steroids distributor Kirk Radomski were removed Monday night from the list of those testifying.
The only scheduled witness besides Clemens and McNamee is lawyer Charles Scheeler, who helped produce the Mitchell Report.
But committee staff already had taken depositions from Pettitte, who acknowledged he did try HGH, and Knoblauch. They also have the affidavit from Canseco, who disputes several details of McNamee’s account, including a lunch party at Canseco’s house in 1998.
According to McNamee, Clemens first raised the subject of steroids not long after McNamee saw Canseco and Clemens at the party. At the time, Canseco and Clemens were teammates on the Toronto Blue Jays, and McNamee was working for the team. Canseco says in his affidavit that Clemens was not at that party.
Canseco’s book about steroids in baseball, “Juiced,” drew Congress’ attention in 2005, leading to that year’s hearing. He and Clemens were teammates on the 1996 Boston Red Sox and 2000 New York Yankees, in addition to the ’98 Blue Jays.
