New York Sports

By STEVE FINK, WCBSTV.COM
NEW YORK (CBS) ― If it was up to the lawyer for Brian McNamee, the former trainer who claims to have injected Roger Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs, the seven-time Cy Young award winner would be wearing pinstripes again soon.

No, not those pinstripes.

Instead, McNamee's attorney, Earl Ward, says Clemens could be donning the black and white stripes of a prison uniform for comments made during his interview with Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes" and on his own video he released onto YouTube.

"I gotta say, [Clemens' lawyer] Rusty Hardin is walking his client into jail because he should not have allowed him to go on '60 Minutes,' he should not have allowed him to do the YouTube interview," Ward told CBS 2's Ducis Rodgers on CBS 2's Sports Sunday show.

"He's walking his client into jail, and I think unfortunately the only pinstripes we're gonna see Roger Clemens in is prison pinstripes," Ward added.

Clemens, however, firmly stands by his claims that during his storied career he's only been injected with vitamin B-12 and the painkiller lidocaine. He called the allegations that he'd been injected with steroids in 1998, 2000, and 2001 "totally false.

"If he's doing that to me, I should have a third ear coming out of my forehead. I should be pulling tractors with my teeth," Clemens told Wallace.

Clemens filed a defamation lawsuit against McNamee on Sunday night, listing 15 alleged statements from his former friend and trainer as "untrue and defamatory."

Ward told CBS 2 that he would wait to see what Clemens told reporters during a news conference Monday along with any testimony before Congress before deciding whether or not McNamee would file his own lawsuit.

Clemens along with McNamee and Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, who admitted to being injected with the human growth hormone by McNamee, were invited to testify under oath before Congress during a Jan. 16 hearing.

"Andy Pettitte will be the star witness because when Andy Pettitte stepped up and said it's true … I think it gave Brian enormous credibility and I think Andy Pettitte is in a position to know because he's such good friends with Roger Clemens," Ward said.

Former Mets general manager Jim Duquette, who was also the former Vice President of Baseball Operations for the Baltimore Orioles, also appeared on Sports Sunday with Ward, and agreed that Pettitte's confession could give McNamee the upper hand in the case.

"I think at the very beginning it was gonna be a he-said versus a he-said. But I think because Andy came out, I think it did give Brian more credibility for sure," Duquette said.

Duquette also said that being injected with B-12 was not a common practice in the Mets or Orioles organizations, especially when administered by a trainer. "It would only have been given at the advice of and prescription by the doctor, and most time, if not all the time, would never be administered by an athletic trainer. It would be administered by the team doctor or internist," he said.

Lawyers for both Clemens and McNamee have said each would be willing to testify before Congress, but Hardin wouldn't commit to a date.

Ward said at this point, with the road that Clemens is taking in the controversy, he could wind up behind bars after testifying.

"I'm quite sure there are federal investigators who will be paying close attention to his testimony before Congress and I wouldn't be surprised if after he testifies that he doesn't get hit with a perjury charge," Ward said.

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