Clemens Joins Sugar Land Skeeters

Hours after Roger Clemens agreed to join the Sugar Land Skeeters, he was back on the field playing in an over-50 softball league.

And the ultracompetitive Clemens, now a half-century old, was quick to point out just how well he did against that group of geezers.

"I hit two homers, by the way," he said.

Things will be a bit tougher on Saturday, when Clemens is scheduled to start for the independent Atlantic League team at home against Bridgeport (Conn.). The right-hander agreed to play for the Skeeters on Monday and was introduced on Tuesday.

Whether this all leads to Clemens pitching in the major leagues -- the seven-time Cy Young Award winner played that down, conceding he's nowhere near big league pitching shape.

"I'm 50 years old. We're just going to go out and have fun with this and make it fun for the fans," said Clemens, who has a touch of gray stubble on his chin but still sports a shock of blond highlights in his hair.

Clemens didn't understand all the rules of his old-man softball league at first. When he hit his first home run and dashed to first base, his teammates told him to stop. He thought it was because home runs weren't allowed. It turned out that the over-50 set doesn't see the need to run all of the bases on a homer.

"I really play in that league for the exercise and the fun," he said.

He laughed off questions about playing professionally at an age when he qualifies for an AARP card.

"I hope nothing breaks, and I hope I don't pull anything," a still fit-looking Clemens said.

Some believe his return to the minor leagues is the first step to another comeback in the major leagues, where he last pitched for the New York Yankees in 2007 at age 45.

“

I'm 50 years old. We're just going to go out and have fun with this and make it fun for the fans.”-- Roger Clemens

Clemens dismissed the theory that the minor league appearance was a step on the path to a big league return.

"I've been to the major leagues and back a couple of times," he said. "I've retired and unretired, so I wouldn't consider thinking that far ahead. I'm just going to try to get through Saturday. I think I can compete a little bit."

A return at his age wouldn't be all that outlandish, considering that Jamie Moyer returned from elbow ligament replacement surgery to start for the Colorado Rockies this season. Clemens chuckled when asked about Moyer.

"People are trying to ingrain that in my mind that 50 is now the new 40," he said. "But I'm not buying it because I'm still having to pack myself in a lot of ice."

He says he talks to new Houston Astros owner Jim Crane often but that he has not talked about pitching for the Astros and that he doesn't see that happening. However, general manager Jeff Luhnow said Tuesday the Astros sent a scout to look at Clemens and left-hander Scott Kazmir, who also plays for the Skeeters.

Clemens' agent said the right-hander has been clocked at 87 mph, but Luhnow discounted that talk because he hasn't pitched in a game yet.

"So, I think it's hard to evaluate," Luhnow said. "We did send a scout yesterday to look at him, since it's right there. There's a bunch of guys that have been in that league that have big-league time and Roger is still associated with our organization."

Luhnow said he wasn't sure whether Clemens was trying to make it back to the big leagues or just wanted to keep doing something he was very good at for a long time.

"I don't know what he's trying to do," Luhnow said. "I think he just wants to get back on the mound and see how it goes.

"You've got to see how you feel and how you respond, so there's a long way to go."

Clemens isn't committing to playing more than one game for the Skeeters, who play in a Houston suburb, saying he wants to see how Saturday goes first.

Clemens is set to appear on the Hall of Fame ballot going to voters late this year. If he plays in a major league game this year, his Hall consideration would be pushed back five years.

He isn't sure how he'll be perceived by voters when his name appears on the ballot.

"Sure, the Hall of Fame is great, I've told people that. But it's not going to change my life either way," he said. "But if there's something there that somebody feels like they have a grudge or want to hold something against you, I can't control that one bit."

Clemens was accused by former personal trainer Brian McNamee in the Mitchell report on drugs in baseball of using steroids and HGH, allegations Clemens denied before Congress. The Justice Department began an investigation concerning whether Clemens had lied under oath, and in 2010 a grand jury indicted him on two counts of perjury, three counts of making false statements and one count of obstructing Congress.

He was acquitted of all the charges on June 19 after a 10-week trial and has largely stayed out of the public spotlight until now.

Clemens is glad to be talking about baseball again instead of that difficult chapter in his life.

"Everybody has their own opinion and they dwell on that so much," he said. "In between all of that, handling that business up there and doing what was right for me and my family and taking that head-on, I was still doing the work that I've always done. So it wasn't gloomy or depressing."

Clemens had two great seasons with the Astros after he turned 40, going 18-4 with a 2.98 ERA in 2004 to win his record seventh Cy Young Award. He was 13-8 with a career-low 1.87 ERA in 2005.

Tal Smith, a longtime former Astros executive who is now a special adviser to the Skeeters, is one person who wouldn't be surprised if Clemens made a comeback in the majors.

"Knowing Roger and how competitive he is and what great shape he is in, and the fact that Jamie Moyer pitched close to 50 and Nolan Ryan pitched well into his late 40s, if anybody can do it, Roger Clemens can do it," he said.

Former teammate Andy Pettitte was also supportive of Clemens.

"It kind of surprised me, but I guess it doesn't with him, he's just the ultimate competitor," Pettitte said. "I know he loves to compete and I wish him nothing but the best."

Asked if Clemens might be angling for another shot at the majors, Pettitte said:

"If he's trying to, if anybody can do it, he's someone that can pull it off probably."

Clemens earned about $160 million and won 354 games in a 24-year career with the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Yankees and Astros. His 4,672 strikeouts are third-most, and he was named to 11 All-Star Games.

Now Clemens will see what he has left for the Skeeters, who have a roster which also includes former major league pitchers Tim Redding and Jason Lane, a teammate of Clemens on Houston's 2005 World Series team.

Smith believes this is a great opportunity for Clemens, and he thinks it could change some opinions as a possible Hall of Fame vote approaches.

"I hope this helps," Smith said. "I think voters should remember that he's been acquitted of all charges and that he never tested positive. I hope this story dies down in future years."

Clemens and Skeeters manager Gary Gaetti have been talking about this since April. But he received another push toward the field early this summer when he visited Dr. James Andrews in Florida for a checkup.

"He said: 'The MRI looked great. Your shoulder looks like you're 30. You should go pitch -- just kidding,'" Clemens said Andrews told him.

It was then that he started thinking he could actually play for the Skeeters. After throwing for the team on Monday, the multimillionaire got himself a new gig.

"We're going to have fun with this and see if I can get through a few innings without Gary having to go to the bullpen, and we'll see where it goes from there," Clemens said.

Smith takes issue with those who think this is simply a media stunt. He said that the Skeeters regularly sell out Saturday night games and that there were only 500 tickets available for this Saturday's game before Clemens was signed.

"I can understand why he's doing it," Smith said. "He loves baseball. He loves the competition. Baseball has been his life, and there's no reason he shouldn't try to continue it. If he's successful, it just adds to his legend, and if he's not, it was fun."

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Mattingly Considers Clemens Trial Waste

Don Mattingly considers the five-year federal investigation into pitcher Roger Clemens a complete waste of resources and money.

The 49-year-old Clemens was acquitted Monday on all six counts that he lied to Congress when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

"What a waste. I was thinking about it after all this time, what a waste of resources," Mattingly, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, said Tuesday before his team began a three-game interleague series with the Athletics. "Then you hear about teachers and stuff who don't have paper and pencils for kids, and it seems like what a waste. What a waste of money. Really, I don't think anybody cares. At this point nobody cares, it's like, 'So long.'"

Mattingly played against Clemens for more than a decade while with the Yankees early in the 354-game winner and seven-time Cy Young Award winner's career with the rival Boston Red Sox. Mattingly -- a .311 career hitter (23 for 74) with eight RBIs and three doubles against the right-hander -- also served as bench coach of the Yankees in 2007 during Clemens' final big league season in the Bronx.

Mattingly figures the government has much better ways to spend money than investigating superstar athletes such as Clemens, Barry Bonds and cyclist Lance Armstrong.

"What a waste of money," Mattingly said.

Mattingly hopes Major League Baseball is finally beginning to move forward from the Steroids Era thanks to improved testing and stiffer penalties for those who fail drug tests. He sees positive strides toward a reliable solution.

"I don't know. It seems like something always pops up, you know? It always creeps back a little bit," Mattingly said. "It's definitely getting behind us, I think, as we go. I think the biggest thing is better testing and thorough testing. You start getting HGH testing and you're getting better testing, it just kind of reinforces to guys that you can't get away with it, and it's going to be an equal playing field. That's what I like.

"It kind of protects players from the players, it protects organisations, it protects fans, it protects everybody. I think the testing protects everybody."

Clemens Acquitted on all Charges

Roger Clemens was acquitted Monday on all charges that he obstructed and lied to Congress in denying he used performance-enhancing drugs to extend his long career as one of the greatest and most-decorated pitchers in baseball history.

Fierce on the pitching mound in his playing days, Clemens was quietly emotional after the verdict was announced. "I'm very thankful," he said, choking up as he spoke. "It's been a hard five years," said the pitcher, who was retried after an earlier prosecution ended in a mistrial.

This case was lengthy, but the deliberations were relatively brief. Jurors returned their verdict after less than 10 hours over several days. The outcome ended a 10-week trial that capped the government's investigation of the pitcher known as "The Rocket" for the fastball that he retained into his 40s. He won seven Cy Young Awards, emblematic of the league's best pitcher each year in a 24-year career with the Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays and Astros.

The verdict was the latest blow to the government's legal pursuit of athletes accused of illicit drug use.

A seven-year investigation into home run king Barry Bonds yielded a guilty verdict on only one count of obstruction of justice in a San Francisco court last year, with the jury deadlocked on whether Bonds lied to a grand jury when he denied knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs.

A two-year, multi-continent investigation of cyclist Lance Armstrong was recently closed with no charges brought, though the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency filed formal accusations last week that could strip the seven-time Tour de France winner of his victories in that storied race. Armstrong denies any doping.

In a non-drug-related case, the Clemens outcome also comes on the heels of the Department of Justice's failure to gain a conviction in the high-profile corruption trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards

Late Monday, as the jury foreman read the acquittal on the final count, Clemens bit his lower lip and rubbed a tear from his eye.

Clemens, family members and his lawyers took turns exchanging hugs. At one point, Clemens and his four sons gathered in the middle of the courtroom, arms interlocked like football players in a huddle, and sobbing could be heard. Debbie Clemens dabbed her husband's eyes with a tissue.

Accused of cheating to achieve and extend his success -- and then facing felony charges that he lied about it -- Clemens declared outside the courthouse, "I put a lot of hard work into that career."

His chief lawyer, Rusty Hardin, walked up to a bank of microphones and exclaimed: "Wow!"

Hardin said Clemens had to hustle to get to court in time to hear the verdict. "All of us had told Roger there wouldn't be a verdict for two, three or four days, so he was actually working out with his sons almost at the Washington Monument when he got the call that there was a verdict."

Prosecutors declined to comment as they left the courthouse. But the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a written statement, "The jury has spoken in this matter, and we thank them for their service. We respect the judicial process and the jury's verdict."

Clemens, 49, was charged with two counts of perjury, three counts of making false statements and one count of obstructing Congress when he testified at a deposition and at a nationally televised hearing in February 2008. The charges centred on his repeated denials that he used steroids and human growth hormone during a 24-year career that produced 354 victories.

The first attempt to try Clemens last year ended in a mistrial when prosecutors played a snippet of video evidence that had previously been ruled inadmissible.

Still, Monday's verdict is unlikely to settle the matter in sports circles as to whether Clemens cheated in the latter stages of a remarkable career that extended into a period in which performance-enhancing drug use in baseball was thought to be prevalent. Clemens himself told Congress at the 2008 hearing that "no matter what we discuss here today, I'm never going to have my name restored."

A crucial barometer comes this fall, when Clemens' name appears on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. His statistics would normally make him a shoo-in for baseball's greatest honour, but voters have been reluctant to induct premier players -- such as Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro -- whose careers were tainted by allegations of drug use.

Clemens capped his career with age-defying performances. He went 18-4 and won his seventh Cy Young Award at the age of 41, and the next year posted a career-best 1.87 ERA. His 4,672 strikeouts ranked third in baseball history.

The government's case relied heavily on the testimony of Clemens' longtime strength coach, Brian McNamee, who testified he injected Clemens with steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001 and with HGH in 2000. McNamee produced a needle and other materials he said were from a steroids injection of Clemens in 2001, items that McNamee said he stored in and around a Miller Lite beer can inside a FedEx box for some six years.

But McNamee was the only person to claim firsthand knowledge of Clemens using steroids and HGH, and even prosecutors conceded their star witness was a "flawed man." Clemens' lawyers relentlessly attacked McNamee's credibility and integrity. They pointed out that his story had changed over the years and implied that he conjured up the allegations against Clemens to placate federal investigators.

Some items associated with the beer can were found to have Clemens' DNA and steroids, but the defense called the evidence "garbage" and claimed it had been contaminated or manipulated by McNamee.

Other evidence offered tenuous links between Clemens and performance-enhancing drugs. Former teammate Andy Pettitte recalled a conversation in which Clemens supposedly admitted using HGH, but Pettitte said under cross-examination that there was a "50-50" chance that he had misheard.

Convicted drug dealer Kirk Radomski testified that he supplied McNamee with HGH for a starting pitcher and even sent a shipment to Clemens' house under McNamee's name, but Radomski had no way of knowing if any of the HGH was specifically used on Clemens. The pitcher's wife, Debbie, admitted receiving an HGH shot from McNamee, but she and McNamee differed over when the injection occurred and whether Clemens was present.

Clemens' lawyers contended that the pitcher's success resulted from a second-to-none work ethic and an intense workout regimen dating to his high school days. They said that Clemens was indeed injected by McNamee -- but that the needles contained the vitamin B12 and the anaesthetic lidocaine and not performance-enhancing drugs.

Clemens was invited to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in 2008 after he publicly denied accusations made in the Mitchell Report on drugs in baseball that he had used steroids and HGH. He first appeared at a congressional deposition, where he said: "I never used steroids. Never performance-enhancing steroids." He made a similarly categorical denial at a hearing about a week later, appearing alongside McNamee, who stuck to his story.

Soon after, committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and ranking member Tom Davis, R-Va., asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Clemens had lied under oath. In 2010, a grand jury indicted him on the six counts. Clemens lawyer Hardin revealed at the time that federal prosecutors made Clemens a plea offer but the former pitcher rejected it.

Both Waxman and Davis accepted the verdict while defending their decision to send the case to the Justice Department.

"The committee referred Mr. Clemens to the Justice Department because we had significant doubts about the truthfulness of his testimony in 2008," Waxman said. "The decision whether Mr. Clemens committed perjury is a decision the jury had to make and I respect its decision."

Davis said, "I think he's gone through enough. We did the appropriate thing in referring it over to Justice. But hopefully this will put it behind him. He's a good citizen."

Clemens Lawyers Let Rip at McNamee

Roger Clemens' lawyers tore into the prosecutors' case against the former pitching great during closing arguments Tuesday, attacking the government for bringing the matter to court in the first place and mounting one last assault against Clemens' chief accuser.

"This is outrageous!" said attorney Rusty Hardin, his face reddening as he pounded the podium three times.

Both sides received two hours to sum up their arguments before a jury of eight women and four men that will decide whether Clemens lied to Congress in 2008 about performance-enhancing drugs and several related matters.

"He chose to lie, he chose to mislead, he chose to provide false statements, to impede Congress' legitimate investigation," prosecutor Gil Guerrero said. "Now it's your turn to hold him accountable on every single count. You are the final umpires here."

Clemens is charged with perjury, making false statements and obstructing Congress. The heart of the charges centre on his repeated denials that he used steroids or human growth hormone. Jurors were expected to begin deliberations later Tuesday, following 26 days of testimony over more than eight weeks.

"When you take that oath, you've got to tell the truth," Guerrero said in a packed courtroom that included Clemens' wife and four sons.

Guerrero accused Clemens of coming up with a "cover story" about the injections received from his former strength coach, Brian McNamee. Clemens told Congress the injections were for vitamin B12 and the local anesthetic lidocaine, but McNamee testified that he injected the pitcher with steroids and HGH.

Guerrero said Clemens, one of the most successful pitchers of his generation and a winner of an unprecedented seven Cy Young Awards, told the lies "so as not to tarnish his name."

Clemens' lawyers spent much of the trial attacking McNamee's credibility, and even McNamee acknowledged that details of his story evolved over time. During closing, Hardin produced a chart titled: "Brian McNamee's testimony is admittedly not credible." The chart included more than two dozen times in which Hardin said McNamee either lied outright or said something that resulted from a "mistake" or "bad memory."

"Saying that Brian McNamee lies zero times," Hardin said, "is kind of like calling the Grand Canyon a ditch."

Guerrero conceded that McNamee is a "flawed man."

"We're not asking you to even like him," Guerrero said. "Brian McNamee did a lot of things that aren't nice, and we know that."

But, Guerrero argued, that made McNamee the perfect partner for Clemens' alleged use of steroids and HGH, substances that Clemens wouldn't be able to receive from, say, a team doctor or head athletic trainer.

"Brian McNamee would do whatever Roger Clemens wanted," Guerrero said. Later, Guerrero said, Clemens tossed McNamee "by the wayside."

Guerrero honed in on one defense witness, Clemens' wife, Debbie. She testified that she had received a shot of HGH from McNamee without Clemens' knowledge -- contradicting McNamee's version that the pitcher was present for the shot. Guerrero said it stretched credibility to believe that Debbie Clemens allowed McNamee to come into their master bathroom without her husband's knowing about it. One of the false allegations Clemens is charged with is that his wife was injected with HGH without his prior knowledge.

The prosecutor said that Clemens should have told McNamee, "What are you doing in my master bathroom with my wife?!"

The reason he didn't, Guerrero said, was that "he was there that day."

The prosecutor also said that another false statement to Congress, about whether Clemens was at a pool party hosted by then-teammate Jose Canseco on June 9, 1998, was important because it occurred near the time the government alleges Clemens began taking steroids.

He noted that Debbie Clemens admitted during her testimony that the family stayed at the Canseco house the night before.

"It's not just the party, folks," Guerrero said. "He was there the whole time!"

Prosecutors have connected Clemens' alleged attendance at the party to steroids use in vague terms: McNamee testified he saw Clemens talking at the party to Canseco, identified to the jury as a steroids user, and a third man, just days before Clemens allegedly asked McNamee for a first injection of steroids.

Hardin was indignant that the government would even ask for a felony conviction centered around whether Clemens was at someone's house on a particular day. He said some of Clemens' wayward statements to Congress simply came from a man trying his best to remember.

"He's a Cy Young baseball player," Hardin said. "Not a Cy Young witness. ... He's a human being just like everyone else in here."

Hardin again produced a map showing that the government conducted 235 interviews with 179 people involving 93 federal agents or officers -- all in the name of trying to find more evidence that Clemens used steroids and HGH.

"Not one single blankety-blank piece of evidence after all of this effort. ... Not one single bit of evidence for 4½ years of anybody other than Brian McNamee connecting Roger Clemens to steroids and HGH," Hardin said. "My God, if you're going to go to this kind of effort to prove this man lied to Congress, you'd better come home with some kind of bacon. Not a zilch!"

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said he would allow jurors to consider the alleged false statement about Clemens' alleged presence at Canseco's house, although the judge indicated he might reconsider the matter if there's a guilty verdict because of questions as to its relevance.

"I will permit it to go the jury, although I have some concerns," Walton said before jurors entered the room.

Guerrero also tried to bolster the testimony of former Clemens teammate Andy Pettitte, who testified that Clemens said he had used HGH -- but then agreed under cross-examination it was fair to say there was a "50/50" chance he misunderstood Clemens.

"He didn't want to testify against his friend," Guerrero said. "No way. He played with him ... They were almost brothers." The prosecutor said that Pettitte "was jumping at the opportunity under cross examination to say maybe 50/50."

Clemens' other lawyer, Michael Attanasio, told the jury that Pettitte's "50/50" memory "is not evidence of anything" and shouldn't be considered.

Attanasio also attacked the physical evidence produced by McNamee, who said he saved the needle and other waste from a 2001 steroids injection of Clemens and stored it in and around a beer can for some six years. Some of the waste was shown to have Clemens' DNA.

"There's no doubt," Attanasio said, "the medical garbage is garbage."

Argued Guerrero: "If McNamee was trying to fabricate this evidence, don't you think he would have done a better job of it?"

After Hardin's presentation, the court recessed for lunch, and Clemens and Hardin embraced for several seconds, with Clemens patting the lawyer's back four times. Attanasio hugged Debbie Clemens a few feet away.

Clemens walked down the hallway with his four sons in tow, with one of the sons draping his arm around his father.

Clemens Testimony Done

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McNamee's Clemens Accounts Differ

Brian McNamee's estranged wife gave a different account Wednesday from her husband's about how he started collecting alleged medical waste from injecting Roger Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs.

McNamee, Clemens' former strength coach, testified last month that because of his wife's nagging, he brought medical waste from a steroids injection of Clemens home in 2001. He said he showed it to her, and she said, "all right," and he said he stored it in a FedEx box.

But Eileen McNamee testified Wednesday that when she first saw the FedEx box and asked him about it, her husband said it wasn't of her concern. She said that McNamee said he was saving things for his "protection."

That motive, however, is consistent with McNamee's testimony that the goal, prompted by his wife's nagging, was to have evidence to prevent McNamee from becoming the sole fall guy if the purported drug abuse became known.

Clemens' lawyers hope Eileen McNamee, who has been given immunity to testify, will help discredit her husband, the government's chief witness.

Earlier, a defense expert testified that DNA from Clemens found on a syringe needle could have been placed there intentionally.

Mark Scott Taylor, a DNA expert and president of Technical Associates Inc., also said he couldn't rule out that Brian McNamee's DNA was on the needle. McNamee has said he saved the item and other medical waste after injecting Clemens with steroids.

Taylor's testimony was part of a two-day attack by Clemens' lawyers on the physical evidence against the former pitcher, who is charged with lying to Congress in 2008 when he denied using steroids or human growth hormone. The defense has been trying to show multiple reasons or theories that the physical evidence might not necessarily support McNamee's testimony that he injected Clemens.

The government's DNA witness, forensic scientist Alan Keel, testified last month that it would have been impossible to fake the evidence on the needle because the amount of biological material on it was too small.

Taylor disagreed with that.

"We're dealing with a situation -- how much DNA (was there) won't be readily understood by someone who doesn't have expertise in this area," he said.

Taylor's testimony was interrupted after the government objected to a question from Clemens lawyer Michael Attanasio about the possibility of steroids being added to two cotton balls after the pitcher's biological material was on them.

With the jury cleared, prosecutor Courtney Saleski complained that Taylor was providing a new opinion.

"I would have liked to be prepared for this," she said.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton agreed.

"It should have been provided" to prosecutors, he said. "There's no excuse for this, Mr. Attanasio."

"You all have been playing fast and loose, and I'm sick and tired of it!" he yelled. Walton said he blamed both sides, and noted that if he keeps Taylor off the stand, that would be unfair to Clemens. "Sometimes when you roll the dice, you lose!"

After a break, Saleski said she was prepared to cross-examine Taylor, and his testimony continued.

Clemens' defense may have regained the momentum the day before when a scientist testified that the government's physical evidence against Clemens could have been contaminated.

Judge Dismisses Two Clemens Charges

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A Needle and the Damage Done

A needle stored with a beer can appeared to contain an extremely tiny amount of Roger Clemens' DNA, which turned out to be good news and bad news for both sides in the perjury trial of the seven-time Cy Young Award winner.

A forensic scientist on Friday linked Clemens to cotton balls and a syringe needle saved from an alleged steroids injection 11 years ago. His testimony, laced with statistics and probabilities, was one of the last pieces of the government's case in its effort to prove that the pitcher lied to Congress in 2008 when he denied using performance-enhancing substances.

Under cross-examination, Clemens' lawyer tried to poke holes in the physical evidence. He got the expert to acknowledge there were "hundreds of thousands" of white males in the United States who could be a match for the scant amount of DNA found on the needle, and that it's "conceivable" the cotton balls could have been contaminated by beer and saliva.

Prosecutors had hoped to wrap up their case heading into the long holiday weekend as the trial reached the end of its sixth week, but the DNA expert's testimony took much longer than expected. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton then ended the session a half-hour early when one of the jurors learned that her mother had died.

The judge said he doesn't expect the juror, a woman who works in law enforcement with the local public transportation authority, to return. Two jurors have previously been dismissed for sleeping, and another departure would leave only one alternate in a trial expected to last at least two more weeks.

The government's key witness, longtime Clemens strength coach Brian McNamee, says he injected Clemens with steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001 and with human growth hormone in 2000. He said he kept the needle and other waste from a 2001 injection and stored it in and around a beer can in a FedEx box in his home for more than six years before turning it over to federal investigators.

Alan Keel of Forensic Science Associates told jurors that the DNA found on two cotton balls was "unique to one person who has ever lived on the planet" -- Clemens. He said that one of the cotton balls had a random match possibility of one in 15.4 trillion for Clemens' DNA, and the other was one in 173 trillion, when compared to the population of white people in the U.S.

But the needle was not as conclusive. Keel was able to detect only six to 12 cells for testing when he examined it. A drop of blood, by comparison, contains up to 30,000 cells.

The match: one in 449 for Clemens.

"That means that Mr. Clemens is the likely source of that biology," Keel said.

Knowing that the defense would attempt to undermine the integrity of the evidence, prosecutor Courtney Saleski asked: "Is there any way to fake this?"

"No," said Keel, shaking his head. "If this were contrived, I would expect to obtain much more biological material."

In other words, it would have been extremely difficult for anyone, including McNamee, to purposely contaminate the needle because it contained such a minute amount of human residue.

During cross-examination, Clemens lawyer Michael Attanasio attacked the findings in several ways. He pointed out that Keel was being paid by the government. He pointed out that Keel didn't test all of the items available. He pointed out that the DNA had degraded over time. He noted that 449 was a "far, far smaller number" than the other numbers in the trillions, and it therefore can't be said with uncontested certainty that the DNA on the needle belongs to Clemens.

Attanasio got Keel to agree that the Clemens blood found on one cotton ball appeared to be from the aftermath of an injection, but that the Clemens puss on the other cotton ball "is not from an immediate injection site." The lawyer also suggested the blood on the cotton ball might not have come from an injection at all: "Is it not at all uncommon for a pitcher to have a little blood blister at the end of his finger when he was pitching?"

Attanasio further implied that residue beer and saliva inside the can could have soaked the cotton balls. Keel said that was "conceivable" and "not implausible," but he added that the appearance of the cotton balls would have reflected the contamination.

"You would have a big, diffuse mess," Keel said.

Saleski picked up on that point in her follow-up questioning.

"Did you see any evidence that these cotton balls were exposed to a bunch of beer?" she asked the witness.

"Not really, no," Keel said.

Keel also re-emphasised his opinion that the minute sample of DNA on the needle could not have been manipulated or put there "by design."

"It would be virtually impossible," Keel said.

The needle naturally caught the attention of the jurors, who submitted multiple questions for the judge to ask the witness about the one-in-449 ratio.

"There's the rub," said Keel as he explained again that the results were compatible with Clemens -- but couldn't be considered a conclusive match.

Clemens' lawyers have maintained all along that a beer can is no way to store evidence. During the questioning of Keel, the government decided to emphasise that point, too, inferring that if McNamee had truly intended to keep the needle and cotton balls with the intention of implicating Clemens, he would have found a more sterile place for it. McNamee has said he kept the evidence to placate his wife, who was concerned he would take the fall if his involvement in performance-enhancing drugs ever came to light, and that he had no plans to make it public.

Keel also found a gauze pad and tissue that matched McNamee's DNA to an even greater probability than the Clemens matches. McNamee has said he would sometimes accidentally cut himself while opening small glass containers of steroids before injecting Clemens.

The gauze pad match was 1 in 1.8 quintillion people for white Americans. A quintillion has 18 zeroes in it.

McNamee Tells Wives Tales

Amid his year-by-year narrative of his complex relationship with Roger Clemens and performance-enhancing drugs, Brian McNamee weaved in a tale of two wives. 

He said it was his own wife who nagged him into keeping evidence that has become crucial in the trial of the storied pitcher, and it was a request from Clemens' wife that led to what McNamee called a "creepy" injection scene in a bathroom.

Clemens' longtime strength coach testified Tuesday for a second day in the perjury trial, pushing his running total to roughly 10 hours on the stand, including the first few moments of what portends to be a gruelling cross-examination that will continue Wednesday. The broad outline was familiar from McNamee's previous statements: He said he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone in 2000 and with steroids in 2001, and he gave Debbie Clemens a shot of HGH in 2003. That was in addition to the testimony he gave Monday, when he spoke of a series of steroids injections he said he gave Clemens in 1998, when he was pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays.

He went on to describe his marital problems, money problems and the legal mess that came about when he got entangled in the federal drugs-in-sports investigation that led him to become a reluctant but cooperating witness against one of the most successful baseball players of all time.

"It destroyed me. It killed me. ... I put myself in a situation where I had to do this," McNamee said. "I had to tell the truth."

Some details were new and fascinating, especially hearing them spoken out loud in a courtroom with Clemens sitting a few feet away. At one dramatic point, the adversaries were actually both standing, when McNamee rose from the witness stand and identified Clemens with an outstretched left arm: "He's right there with the brown tie." Clemens looked straight at McNamee, stone-faced and silent.

McNamee is far and away the government's key witness, the only person who will claim firsthand knowledge of Clemens taking performance-enhancing drugs. The former baseball great is accused of lying when he told Congress in 2008 that he had never used steroids or HGH.

McNamee again gave vivid and colourful details about injections. He appeared less nervous than he did on Monday, and his voice rose as he spoke of marital problems that he said developed in part because of his relationship with Clemens. The time away from home training Clemens meant McNamee didn't have time to take his wife and children to water parks and other family outings, he said, and his wife was concerned that her husband would become a fall guy at Clemens' expense.

"You're going to go down! You're going to go down! You're going to go down!" Brian McNamee said his wife, Eileen, told him in the "middle of a battle royale" argument.

McNamee said he thought "she might be right," so he kept the needle, swab and cotton ball from a steroids injection he said took place in Clemens' New York City apartment in 2001. He said he put the items in a beer can that he salvaged from the recycling bin in Clemens' kitchen -- a means of protecting the used needle from accidentally stabbing himself -- and brought the can home. It was put in a FedEx box and kept in the house, an effort to "keep the home front nice and smooth," McNamee said.

Years later, McNamee and his wife began divorce proceedings, which are ongoing.

In his 2008 congressional deposition, McNamee said he also kept the leftover waste from the injection because he distrusted Clemens "to a degree." He didn't mention that reason on the stand Tuesday.

McNamee said he kept the evidence a secret -- even when he was telling investigators about injections he gave pro baseball players -- because he was hoping he could minimise the impact on Clemens. It wasn't until 2008, after McNamee was angered by a news conference at which Clemens' lawyers played a taped phone call that contained medical details about McNamee's oldest son, that McNamee retrieved his collection of medical waste and turned it in.

It was "beyond inhuman to do that to a kid," McNamee said. "He had nothing to do with steroids in baseball, my son."

The prosecution is expected to show that the evidence contains Clemens' DNA. The defense has called the evidence "garbage" and is expected to claim it is tainted.

McNamee said Debbie Clemens, whom McNamee described as a "fitness enthusiast," started asking about HGH during one of McNamee's regular multiday visits to train Clemens at the pitcher's home in Houston in 2003. On a later visit, he said Roger Clemens summoned him to the couple's master bathroom, where McNamee said Clemens' wife lifted her shirt so she could receive an injection near the belly button.

McNamee said he felt "creepy" because of the setting and because it was his friend's wife. According to McNamee, Debbie looked at her husband, and said, "I can't believe you're going to let him do this to me," and Clemens responded, "He injects me, why can't he inject you?"

Later in 2003, Roger and Debbie Clemens appeared together in a photo for the annual swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated.

While McNamee said Clemens was present for the injection, Clemens has said he was not. One of the false charges Clemens is alleged to have made to Congress is that McNamee injected his wife without Clemens' prior knowledge or approval.

McNamee also frustrated the Clemens team by implying several times that he supplied Clemens' friend and ex-teammate Andy Pettitte with performance-enhancing drugs, a fact that the judge has ruled can't be uttered before the jurors because it might prejudice them against Clemens. While the jury was on a break, defense lawyer Michael Attanasio said McNamee's references to Pettitte were "shameful" and asked that it "stop and stop right now."

"He needs to be told again," U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said, "not to make any reference to Mr. Pettitte."

The defense is expected to attack McNamee's integrity and motives, and Clemens lawyer Rusty Hardin offered a brief taste during 10 minutes of cross-examination before the trial recessed for the day. Hardin suggested that McNamee purposefully wore a tie with a logo to a grand jury appearance in 2010 to advertise a company for financial gain. McNamee said he has no financial interest in the company and that he wore the tie because his other one was wrinkled.

"I needed a tie," McNamee said matter of factly.

Even before Hardin got his turn, the government tried to pre-empt such questions by having its witness refer to several less-than-savoury incidents. McNamee referenced false statements he gave to police during an investigation in Florida in 2001, and he spoke of financial worries resulting from a failed investment in a proposed new gym and his inability to find steady work after his name became publicly linked to steroids and HGH.

"I couldn't get a job. I have to work for myself," McNamee said. "I blame myself."

The trial is in its fifth week, and the tedium cost the proceedings another member of the jury Tuesday. Juror No. 1, a supermarket cashier, became the second member of the panel to be dismissed for sleeping. Her departure leaves 14 jurors, including two alternates.

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