Baseball Notebook | Physical evidence on Clemens alleged

NEW YORK — Brian McNamee has given federal investigators bloody gauze pads, syringes and vials he said he used to inject Roger Clemens with steroids and human-growth hormone in 2000 and 2001, a lawyer familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

McNamee, Clemens' former personal trainer, hopes that DNA and chemical tests on the materials will support his contention that he injected Clemens with those drugs and prove that Clemens lied in a sworn deposition to congressional investigators Tuesday, the lawyer said.

Clemens' lawyer, Lanny A. Breuer, responded that McNamee "apparently has manufactured evidence" and was "a troubled man who is obsessed with doing everything possible to destroy Roger Clemens."

Federal authorities have sent the gauze pads and syringes for testing by a laboratory. If they show blood, the authorities may consider asking Clemens for a DNA sample.

If members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform conclude that Clemens did not tell the truth in his deposition — and make the same conclusion about his statements at a committee hearing set for next Wednesday — he could face charges of lying to federal officials, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.

The lawyer, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the case, said McNamee had injected Clemens at Clemens' apartment and then took the syringes and pads to his home in Queens, where he had a medical waste-disposal box.

However, McNamee, a former police officer, saved the evidence rather than discard it, the lawyer said.

"He was always concerned that if he ever got caught, he would be the most vulnerable and people would throw him under the bus," the lawyer said.

McNamee never told federal investigators about the physical evidence while he talked to them last year. And he never talked about such evidence to investigators for former Sen. George J. Mitchell as Mitchell was compiling his report on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

The lawyer said McNamee kept quiet about the evidence out of loyalty to Clemens, a winner of seven Cy Young Awards, even though he had already created tremendous problems for Clemens. McNamee told federal authorities and Mitchell's investigators that he repeatedly injected Clemens with steroids and HGH.

"There's no question it raises issues," a second lawyer familiar with McNamee's situation said of his initial reluctance to cite the physical evidence. "But at the same time, the issue is what the evidence says. If the evidence says what we think it does, then it's all over."

McNamee's sentiments toward Clemens — including some feelings of guilt — apparently changed after Clemens played a tape of a telephone conversation he had secretly recorded with McNamee on Jan. 4.

"It's war," one of McNamee's lawyers said after the tape was played at a news conference held by Clemens on Jan. 7.

Later that same week, Jeff Novitzky, the Internal Revenue Service special agent who has led the criminal investigations into steroid distribution in sports, and two assistant U.S. attorneys from California traveled to New York for Marion Jones' sentencing. They also met with McNamee and his lawyers on Jan. 10. And it was at that meeting that they were given the gauze pads, syringes and vials, the lawyer said.

Breuer, Clemens' lawyer, said the notion that McNamee had saved gauze pads and syringes for seven years "defies all sensibility."

Clemens returns to Capitol Hill today in hopes of rebutting the accusations. McNamee also will be there to give his deposition to congressional investigators.

Clemens, who gave a deposition Tuesday, is scheduled to hold one-on-one meetings with members of the house committee.

For McNamee's lawyers, Clemens' deposition was apparently the moment they had waited for. They wanted Clemens to testify under oath before the previously undisclosed evidence was revealed.

Ryan hired as Rangers president

ARLINGTON, Texas — Twenty years later, Nolan Ryan's job again is to revitalize the Texas Rangers.

The Rangers introduced the Hall of Fame pitcher as team president with the fanfare of a major free-agent pickup, just as Ryan was in 1988 when Texas signed the right-hander to help fill seats and bring wins to the struggling franchise.

Only now, the 61-year-old career strikeout leader who set many of his milestones in a Rangers jersey is tasked with doing the same from the front office.

"Another thing in my career that I never anticipated," Ryan said. "You really wonder where baseball and life is going to take you."

Ryan will be in charge of baseball operations, a role previous president Jeff Cogen didn't have.

Notes

• David Cone, the former pitcher who was on the union's negotiating team during the 1994-95 strike when management proposed drug testing and the union fought it off, takes some blame for the steroids era. "It's something I'm not proud of. It's humbling. It's embarrassing," Cone said.

• A video of New York Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez and Hall of Famer Juan Marichal at a cockfight in the Dominican Republic was posted this week on YouTube. Cockfighting is legal and popular in the Dominican Republic.

• The New York Yankees got back the results of Robinson Cano's physical and were likely to finalize the second baseman's $30 million, four-year contract today.

• LHP Trever Miller agreed to a $2 million, one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Rays.

• The Arizona Diamondbacks promoted RHP Brandon Lyon from setup man to closer, replacing Jose Valverde.

• RHP Kelvim Escobar, an 18-game winner for the Los Angeles Angels last season, has a sore shoulder that will limit him at the beginning of spring training.

• Reserve outfielder Bobby Kielty, who homered for Boston in the clinching game of last year's World Series, agreed to a minor-league contract with the Red Sox.

• RHP Vinnie Chulk and the San Francisco Giants agreed to an $837,500 contract for this season, avoiding salary arbitration.

• RHP Dave Bush and the Milwaukee Brewers agreed to a $2.55 million, one-year contract, avoiding an arbitration hearing.

• RHP Brendan Donnelly, alleged in the Mitchell Report to have purchased steroids, agreed to a minor-league contract with the Cleveland Indians. He is still recovering from Tommy John elbow surgery in August.