By Dylan Butler
In an interview on “60 Minutes” Sunday and in a Houston news conference Monday, Clemens lashed out at his former trainer and defended himself against the allegations. The seven-time Cy Young award winner also filed a defamation lawsuit against McNamee in Harris County District Court in Texas Sunday night.”I haven't read the entire Mitchell Report, I read what's been said about me in there,” Clemens told the news conference. “That's what I'm concerned about and I know what's untrue in that entire deal.”Clemens played a tape of a 17-minute phone call between himself and McNamee that occurred Friday. On the recording, McNamee, a former catcher at Archbishop Molloy and St. John's University, pleaded with Clemens.”Tell me what you want me to do,” McNamee said repeatedly.”I need somebody to tell the truth,” Clemens shot back. During the phone conversation, McNamee never said he lied to Mitchell's investigators but did say he was sympathetic toward Clemens.”I'm with you,” he said. “I'm in your corner, but I'd also like to not go to jail.”A morose McNamee made the initial contact with Clemens via a text message because he said that his 10-year-old son, Brian McNamee Jr., who suffers from celiac disease, which damages the small intestine and affects the absorption of food, was upset about the situation.”My son is dying!” McNamee said in the taped phone call.With his lawyers in the room, Clemens called McNamee to reply to the text message when he returned to Houston. It is unclear whether McNamee had knowledge that the call was being recorded, but Texas and New York law requires that only one party needs to give consent to a taped conversation.McNamee, who told Mitchell's investigators that he personally injected Clemens with steroids and human-growth hormone in 1998 when Clemens pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays and again in the 2000 and 2001 seasons with the Yankees, also said he is living alone in a one-bedroom apartment and has no money.”I'm not doing a book deal,” he said in the phone conversation. “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.”In the “60 Minutes” interview, Clemens denied ever taking steroids, but did say McNamee injected Clemens with the vitamin B-12 and the painkiller lodocaine.After the tape of the phone call was played at the news conference, Clemens was asked his feeling about his former trainer. “I was angry,” Clemens said. “I would love for him to come down here, but I would be afraid for him. My family is very upset and I'm trying to keep my composure together though all this.”Clemens also said he plans to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Jan 16.”I'm going to Congress,” Clemens said before storming out of the news conference. “And I'm going to tell the truth.”Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
