Personal trainers don't get to give injections, either of pain killer or of B12. You normally need to be at least a nurse to do this. While the thought of Roger Clemens' trainer siddling up to the lad in the showers of Yankee Stadium with a needle while wearing a white dress, support hose and a funny hat is troublingly amusing, probably didn't happen that way. Now, Vitamin shots have been common in baseball for decades; I seem to recall that one of Mickey Mantle's trips to the disabled list had to do with an abscess on his hip caused by Vitamin shots. The Mick didn't do steroids -- mainly because during his day, they were the stuff of Bulgarian and East German women's synchronized swimmers and figure skaters. The thought of Katarina Witt siddling up to Roger in the figure skating version of a nurses uniform, on skates, in the shower at Yankee Stadium is not quite so troubling, but still amusing.
This sort of half lie is more deadly than the full lie. Clemens has no reason to say anything now except deny. This half-assed, I smoked but I didn't inhale nonsense is as silly as Bill's discussion back in 1992. Unlike Barry Bonds who had an exceptionally strong cased before the Clear for Cooperstown, Roger was a strong but borderline case for the Hall when he went off to Toronto in a huff. And, he got better and won 40% of his games after leaving the Red Sox. Yeah, he "learned how to pitch better because he was no longer a power pitcher." Bullshit. The guy is in his late 30s, early 40s and still tossing it up there at 90 MPH plus. This is based on running and twisting his arm in barrels of rice. Yeah, I believe it. His "new" delivery as shown above is muscle-bound. Compare the left forearms, for the love of Biff. Nobody ever said he was twisting the glove arm in the barrels of sand and rice after a five mile run and a weight routine. This is HGH and androylzolitzhellwhatever to the max.
Back in the Reggie Jackson/Angels day, the Angels had a catcher turned designated hitter and outfielder named Brian Downing who suddenly turned into a home run threat based supposedly on working out with Nautilus. Anyone who ever worked with Nautilus knows that it doesn't get those kinds of results. High intensity workouts -- the classic Nautilus workout -- doesn't add tons of beef. Totally absurd.
Clemens, although a arrogant maniac and an egotistical bastard, was an excellent pitcher. If he'd retired for real after leaving the Yankees instead of going off to Houston, we'd probably have no clue. As it is, he looks like a juicer to me. And, probably to just about anyone else that follows sports and has watched juicers grow in gyms. Certainly makes some of his crappy behavior on the field seem more explicable if not rational.
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