McNamee Wants To Help

Former Major League Baseball player Roger Clemens held a 5 o'clock press conference which was viewed on ESPN 2. Clemens attorney Rusty Hardin played a taped telephone conversation between Clemens and former trainer Brian McNamee which happened on Friday.

"What do you want me to do?," was said by McNamee 21 times in the conversation. Clemens never answered McNamee pacifically, but wanted him to tell the truth.

"I need somebody to tell the truth, Mac," Clemens told McNamee. McNamee was willing to do anything for Clemens, and he made it known in his conversation. "What do you want me to do? I'll go to jail, I'll do whatever you want," McNamee said.

McNamee claims his son wasn't healthy, and that caused Clemens to call him. McNamee said he left his house, because lots of reporters were going to his house. He's living in a apartment in New York, and says his family wasn't doing great.

"He said his son was sick and dying. That's why I reached out," Clemens said.

Clemens stayed quiet when McNamee asked "what do you want me to do?" 21 times. "The last thing Roger wanted, just as we did, was any suggestion that we were trying to interfere or coerce a federal witness. So, yeah, all he kept saying (was) nothing. Except you hear him throughout saying, `Tell the truth."'

Clemens has filed a defamation lawsuit against McNamee, because he claims McNamee wasn't truthful with Senator George Mitchell during the investigation when said he injected Clemens with human growth hormones and steroids. Mitchell told McNamee he couldn't give false information, because he'll be charged. McNamee had also told Mitchell he injected Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte with human growth hormones in 2002.

Pettitte admitted he used human growth hormones during an elbow injury with the Houston Astros. "I had heard that human growth hormone could promote faster healing for my elbow," Pettitte said. "I felt an obligation to get back to my team as soon as possible. For this reason, and only this reason, for two days I tried human growth hormone."

Clemens claims is never used performance enhancing drugs, and says McNamee is giving false information. According to Clemens, McNamee only injected him with painkillers and vitamin B-12, but never performance enhancing drugs.

Clemens wasn't happy, and continued by saying he wasn't concern about his Hall of Fame status. "Do you think I played my career because I'm worried about the damn Hall of Fame?" Clemens said during the press conference. "You keep your vote. I don't need the Hall of Fame to justify that I put my butt on the line and I worked my tail off, and I defy anybody to say I did it by cheating or taking any shortcuts, OK?"

Clemens said he'll attend the Congress hearing, and he'll tell the truth. On "60 minutes" Clemens believes he's being treated wrong, and said it's like being "guilty until proven innocent." He doesn't know what he'll need to do to prove his innocence. "I'm going to Congress and I'm going to tell the truth," Clemens said. "I'm going to tell everything that I know about the situations and steroids and anything else that I have knowledge about, which isn't a lot."

McNamee told Clemens he wanted to help, and was willing to do anything. He doesn't have money, and was offered 7,000 dollars to speak on television, but McNamee refuse to take the offer. He reminded Clemens he was sorry for the attention this was brought on his family, and said he didn't want this to happen.

"I'm in your corner. I don't want this to happen. But I'd also like not to go to jail, too. I don't have any money. I have nothing," McNamee said. "I'm not doing a book deal. I got offered seven figures to go on TV. I didn't do it. I didn't take it. I didn't do anything. All I did was what I thought was right -- I never thought it was right, but I thought that I had no other choice, put it that way."

On Sunday, McNamee told Sports Illustrated, Clemens didn't abuse steroids but he used them. "He took them in late July, August, and never for more than four to six weeks max," he was quoted as saying. "Within the culture of what was going on, he was just a small part of it. A lot of guys did it. You can't take away the work Roger did. You can't take away the fact that he worked out as hard as anybody."

McNamee's attorney Richard D Emery wasn't pleased with his clients conversation with Clemens, and said it was "outrageous" and "disgusting." "It's outrageous and disgusting for them to for their own cynical purposes, to perpetuate a continuing lie, to use this child and splay his disease and disability all over the press for the world to know," Emery said. "It just shows they'll go to any lengths."