O, by the Way: Cummings calls Clemens one of his heroes but ... - A blog about sports by The Baltimore Sun's Bill Ordine

« Waxman drops bomb | Main | Bonds, Clemens, Spygate -- do you care? »

Cummings calls Clemens one of his heroes but ...

We're more than four hours into the hearing and one of the most dramatic comments of the day so far was just uttered by Baltimore Rep. Elijah Cummings.

Cummings, talking to Roger Clemens, said, "The guy I believe most is Mr. Pettitte."

And that, Cummings said, tips the scales in favor of Brian McNamee's version of events. Pettitte's story was that McNamee referred to Clemens' use of PEDs several years ago. Pettitte has also told the congressional staff of two conversations with Clemens in 1999 or 2000 and again in 2005. In the first conversation, Pettitte said Clemens admitted to PED use. But Clemens said Pettitte misunderstood the conversation.

In the end, Cummings said to Clemens: "It's hard to believe, you. You're one of my heroes. But it's hard to believe you."

Posted by Bill Ordine on February 13, 2008 2:26 PM | Permalink

Comments

It's not just hard to believe Clemens -I don't believe him at all!

Posted by: Tom C | February 13, 2008 4:04 PM

Rep. Cummings made great points that were probably on the mark. However, Mr. Cummings you also made an admitted cheater who cheated with the help of his family, the beacon of honor and truth. Your Andy is nothing more than another Gravano.

Posted by: David C. Laffin | February 14, 2008 8:18 AM

Hey O,

If you ever write a column about Roger Clemens, could you point out that 94% of
people on the Orioles Baltimore Sun forum think that he is lying, and that he used PEDs.

http://www.baltimoresun2.com/talk/showthread.php?t=135278

Shows that a vast amount of people think he is lying.

Posted by: John | February 14, 2008 6:11 PM

I heart Elijah E. Cummings, and I live about as far away from the 7th District as you can possibly get.

He stood tall, figuratively speaking, in that hearing room, a lot taller than the hulking man who swore to tell the truth in front of him and the other Committee members.

Posted by: KarenJ | February 15, 2008 3:50 PM

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

Please enter the letter "n" in the field below:

About the blogger

Bill Ordine has been a reporter and editor for more than 25 years and during that time has covered Super Bowls, major murder trials, township zoning board meetings and bat mitzvahs. In his time with The Baltimore Sun, he has been an assistant city editor, pro football writer, poker columnist, enterprise sports reporter and now blogger -- which may indicate his editors have yet to find a job he can get right.