Swings and misses

On one end of the dark wood table sat baseball's ideals -- the swaggering, swarthy starting pitcher.

On the other end of the same table sat baseball's reality -- the slinking, shirking steroid pusher.

On one end of the table, Roger Clemens bragged about tough times and hard work and never taking a shortcut.

On the other end, Brian McNamee talked about syringes and abscesses and bloody pants.

Clemens said his former trainer was lying when he claimed he injected Clemens with steroids.

McNamee said his former employer was lying about those shortcuts.

In an extraordinary moment Wednesday, baseball's ideals clashed with its reality while sitting less than 15 feet apart in a congressional hearing room on Capitol Hill.

In an extraordinarily sad moment, the pusher was more believable than the pitcher.

In a 4 1/2 -hour hearing in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, McNamee's testimony was supported from the first capital letter to the last period.

Clemens' deposition was contradicted from page to page.

McNamee calmly withstood criticism of his checkered history while his testimony in baseball's Mitchell Report was supported by everyone from Clemens' teammates to Clemens' former nanny.

Clemens, meanwhile, could offer nothing but unsupported bluster and banter before finally being gaveled shut by Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills)

"Excuse me, this is not your time to argue with me," Waxman said before closing the hearings.

This was not Clemens' time to be Clemens. The same combination of cockiness and surliness that led Clemens to glory on the mound dragged him through shame in the hearing room.

In what probably was the final appearance of his career, the greatest pitcher in baseball history was shelled.

The final call being made by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)

"You're one of my heroes," he said. "But it's hard to believe you."

The same could be said of baseball after another dissection of the ruinous steroid era.

America still loves the game, but it's increasingly hard to believe it.

You thought Mark McGwire refusing to discuss steroids in a previous hearing was bad? Compared to Clemens, McGwire was downright noble.

You think Barry Bonds being indicted for perjury was bad? Clemens is just Bonds with a smaller neck and a Texas accent.