STILL UNSURE

I just don't know who to believe.

I'm back into the swing of school today, and I kind of lose touch with the sports world during most of the school day. I left at 5:20, and the car radio was on ESPN Radio. I thought the station was getting poor reception, because it seemed like I was picking up someone's phone call. Then a voice sounded like Roger Clemens...and I realized what I was listening to. But I don't know what to make of it.

I'll say this - Roger Clemens is fighting a battle he's not going to win - because he's still being evasive. How can we believe that Clemens is the one to believe when he's refusing to answer certain questions?

I almost turned around on him and believed him after I heard the tape of the phone call, and his vehement denials one more time. Then someone asked him about the B12 and the Lydocaine for the umpteenth time. And he said, "I never supplied anyone with anything I've ever been injected with." And the question was rephrased, and he answered the same way.

Almost as though he is setting us up for a situation where later, if it turns out there were steroids in his system (if his tendons do turn to dust, as he says, or he does get a third ear out of his forehead), he can say, "Well, I never provided that stuff. I had no idea what they were injecting into me. I thought it was B12." And we'll be expected to believe him then.

Then someone asked him if he thought people who used performance enhancers were cheaters, and drove that point home. Clemens dodged the question like batters dodged the pitches he used to throw at their heads.

And again, he was asked about Andy Pettitte. And that's flat-out unbelievable that he had no idea about this guy, with whom he did everything, doing something like injecting himself with HGH. And he said again, their situations are separate. No, they're actually quite related.

Just still sounds like Clemens is hiding something. And that he feels if he tough guys it enough, and denies loud and angrily enough, people will just say, OK, and back off. But it's not going to happen. Oh, by the way, bad idea taking it out on the media, Roger. Long after you storm out of the 20-minute media session, and long after your 5-7 minutes are up on '60 Minutes', and long after your appearance before Congress, they'll still be writing about you. And you're not giving them much that's positive to say.

I don't like writing about this stuff. I hate it. Justin from NYC is right when he writes about the fact that there are many bigger problems in the world than whether or not Roger Clemens took steroids. Tomorrow I'll post my 'Mets connections - Part II', and then hopefully we can leave this subject alone for a while.