The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal filed by Roger Clemens. The former fastballer and his lawyers had filed their case in friendly Texas despite the fact former trainer Brian McNamee was accused of uttering slanderous statements in New York. First the appellate court ruled that Clemen’s case couldn’t be brought to Texas federal court and now the Supreme Court has refused to listen to Clemens’ case.

On the other end of the battle, McNamee still has a live case against Clemens for defamation and is expected to be the nail in the pitcher’s coffin in an upcoming trial that is focused on alleged false statements Clemens made while under oath several years ago.

Bad news for Clemens, shown in his mugshot here, is not unusual since his ill-fated appearance in that 2008 hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee when he denied ever being injected with HGH by McNamee. Clemens was not credible in the eyes of members of the committee so federal prosecutors were asked to investigate to see if perjury or obstruction of justice charges were justified.

Two years after that debacle, a grand jury indicted him and suddenly one of the most dominating hurlers to ever take the mound in MLB will go to trial next week in Washington, D.C.

Refresher: Clemens indicted, where did he go wrong?

Expected to testify against Clemens will be McNamee and Andy Pettite whose testimony was determined to be critical to McNamee’s believability. Refresher: Pettite could be nail in Clemens coffin.

It was Pettite’s statements when read to Roger that elicited the now famous utterance that Pettite must have “misremembered” when he implicated Clemens. Pettite also admitted being injected by McNamee.

Clemens caused much of his mess when he went on the offensive after the Mitchell Report named him as a user of performance enhancing drugs; a charge supported by multiple credible witnesses who cooperated with the report.

After appearing on the national magazine show “60 Minutes” and telling his side of the story, he demanded to be heard and welcomed being a witness in Congress.

Looks like he got that wish and more.

Visit Sports Climax and my national column at Examiner.com to stay updated on Clemens’ upcoming trial.

Used with permission of the author.
Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles.
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