Sunday night, on national television, in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" with no less than Mike Wallace, Roger Clemens laid out his defense strategy for Mitchell Report claims that he used performance-enhancing drugs.
His is not a new strategy. It is frequently used by teenagers when cornered by their parents.
It is called "shout loudly in protest, look offended and talk a lot about things not related to what you are accused of."
You wonder how much Clemens is paying the lawyers who came up with this. Perhaps they are the same lawyers who advised him not to talk to the Mitchell Commission when given the chance.
You wonder whether they devised this strategy because there is no other, unless he can be convinced to just tell the truth and minimize the damage.
Let's talk about another strategy. Let's put ourselves in the shoes of Clemens, one of the greatest pitchers ever to play major league baseball.
You have had a wonderful career, made lots of money, have lots of fame and are thinking about pitching maybe one more year and then preparing your Hall of Fame induction speech.
On Dec. 13, along comes this Mitchell Report. You are named, you are innocent and you are furious. So this is what you do:
* You don't wait three weeks. You call a news conference the next day, or maybe the day after. You need only enough time to read the report and prepare to respond to each and every accusation. You are innocent, after all, so you want everybody to come and ask their questions. You want it open, free-wheeling, immediate. Not sanitized in some TV studio with only one questioner. Not used for a network ratings bonanza and edited for time.
* You jot down all the specifics in the Mitchell Report: Times, places, names, details. If Brian McNamee said he was shooting steroids and HGH into your butt on March 1, 2003, in Houston, you say you were with your wife's Aunt Bertha in Tucson, visiting family and having dinner. Picked up the check. Have the receipt.
You also saw Bertha's friends, Tom Smith and Joe Jones, that day. Talked about the World Series. You haven't called them to ask them to alibi. Call them yourselves. Here are their phone numbers. Here's Bertha's.
* Announce that you will take a polygraph test. No maybes. No fears that it won't work. Ask for a couple of media people to tag along, kind of as pool reporters, and tell them they can stay there while the technician reads the result.
