Could it be that Roger Clemens is . . . not lying?
Noooo . . . I'm not saying I take Roger Clemens' B12 defense at face value.
But if for some strange reason it turns out he is telling the truth, it will be the latest example of a fan/media rush to judgment that villified a guy based on assumptions that proved false, in the recent tradition of the Duke lacrosse and Sean Taylor cases.
One thing I've learned about media behavior:
We never learn.
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Comments (7)
Methinks that B12 is the new poppy seed bagel.
I don't like poppy seed bagels. Too messy. I like them even less when my kids eat them, for that reason.
Good for Roger, getting pep shots to keep perky and competitive. When I was a kid, around the time Tricky Dick Nixon became president, pro football was racked by a drugging scandal involving speed
(methamphetamine): Players were being shot-up before games. The cover for that practice was -- lo and behold! -- that they were receiving Vitamin B-12 shots. "Vitamin B-12 shot" became a by-word for speed. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Max Jacobson, M.D., the original "Dr. Feelgood," used to inject JFK with Vitamin B-12, that is, speed (i.e., a cocktail of B-12 & methedrine). That's pep! Roger probably did take his B-12, laced with steroids.
Perhaps B 12 is the new flaxseed oil?
Ironic how the picture you chose was of B-12 in pill form. Seemingly easier to ingest than having another man inject it into your ass in a Skydome bathroom. But who are we to judge?
Seems like Roger is setting the table for the defence of "He THOUGHT" McNamee was injecting him with vitamins...
Can't wait to see Clemens' Russert-sized head when he says, "I got no idea how them steriods got mixed in with my B-12."
AND -- let's be clear here, Neil -- Mike and the Mad Dog were the ones leading the parade on the Sean Taylor case. They aren't journalists
I might be rushing to judgement, but the circumstantial evidence is pretty damning.
His training partner took them.
Macnamee testified under penalty of perjury that this happened.
According to Canseco's book "B-12" was the euphemism/joke for steroids that most pitchers kept alive, Canseco even notes that he heard Clemens use that euphemism himself.
So in his mind, he's not lying by saying he took a "B-12" shot.
Even if he was lying, people act as if this would be the first character flaw we've seen from Roger Clemens ... am I the only Yankees fan that remembers when he told the world he was retiring, and then had a film crew follow him around all that year, Steinbrenner made a big to do and gave him a car ... only to then announce he was not in fact retiring and was going to play for the Astros ... for like 3 years (then the Yanks again ugh)??