Clemens takes the Hill today

WASHINGTON -- The sun is always shining, or so it seems, when baseball teams gather in Florida and Arizona to begin spring training, as they're doing this week. Everyone is undefeated; hope abounds.

And sometime today, a player here or there might just flip on a TV and tune in to see the spotlight shine on the sport's seamy side, to watch while celebrated pitcher Roger Clemens and the man who accused him of using steroids sit in a wood-paneled hearing room in the cold nation's capital to testify to Congress.

"It's disappointing for everyone that plays baseball -- not just the players, but management, ownership, commissioner," New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter, a past teammate of Clemens, said Tuesday after working out at the team's minor league complex in Tampa, Fla.

Speaking generally about what has been called baseball's Steroids Era, Jeter added: "It's a bad time for the game."

For many months, the symbolic figure of that "bad time" was viewed as home run king Barry Bonds, who was indicted on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for telling a grand jury in 2003 that he never knowingly took illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Now Bonds, owner of a record seven Most Valuable Player honors and a record 762 homers, has ceded much of the attention to Clemens, owner of a record seven Cy Young Awards and the eighth-most pitching wins in major league history, 354. Both were among the more than 80 players mentioned in former Senate majority leader George Mitchell's report on drugs in baseball, released in December.

The claims about Clemens made by his former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, resonated the loudest. McNamee, the other chief witness at today's hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told federal prosecutors and then Mitchell that he injected Clemens at least 16 times with steroids and human growth hormone from 1998 to 2001.

Lawmakers' ears perked up when Clemens began vigorously and repeatedly denying allegations published by their past colleague, Mitchell.

"There's this big hole, and an asterisk, because Mr. Clemens had those concerns," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

Hence today's hearing, which originally was scheduled to also include former Clemens teammates Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, along with convicted steroids distributor and former New York Mets employee Kirk Radomski. That trio, though, was recused Monday, when a new witness was added -- a lawyer who worked with Mitchell on his investigation. McNamee also told Mitchell that Pettitte used HGH, and the pitcher acknowledged two days after the report was released that he did. Pettitte's deposition to committee lawyers may be read from at the hearing.

"Things don't ever work out exactly the way you'd like, and I know there will be a lot of attention tomorrow, obviously," commissioner Bud Selig, who testified before the committee last month, said Tuesday, prior to speaking at a Notre Dame baseball banquet. "But pitchers and catchers report this week, and the interest in our sport is enormous."

Clemens lobbies

While McNamee has kept a low profile, letting his lawyers do most of the public speaking, Clemens has been telling everyone who will listen that he did not use steroids or HGH -- including in a "60 Minutes" interview, a news conference in his home state of Texas, and, he says, under oath during a closed-door deposition with congressional lawyers last week.

McNamee also provided sworn testimony privately last week and showed the committee color photos of what his side says is evidence -- used syringes, for example, saved for several years in a crumpled beer can -- turned over to federal prosecutors last month. McNamee's lawyers say that, if tested, the items would prove Clemens used performance enhancers. Clemens' camp dismissed the items as "manufactured."

Clemens has been putting in considerable face time with members of Congress, spending three days on Capitol Hill to meet with more than half of the committee. It's the same House panel that convened a hearing in March 2005, when Mark McGwire repeatedly said, "I'm not here to talk about the past," and another slugger, Rafael Palmeiro, jabbed a finger for emphasis while declaring he never used steroids -- months before he was suspended for failing a test.

"One thing we were trying to make clear in all these meetings was that it wasn't going to be a repeat of 2005. He wasn't going to sort of parse his words and be careful about what he said. He'd answer any question they had," said Clemens' lead lawyer, Rusty Hardin.

"He IS here to talk about the past."

And so it is that today, in Mesa, Ariz., the Chicago Cubs' pitchers and catchers will begin reporting to camp ahead of their first spring workout, certain that this really is the season they will end a World Series title drought that has reached a full century. And in Fort Myers, Fla., a handful of pitchers who helped the Boston Red Sox win last year's championship will throw off a bullpen mound a few days ahead of the team's formal workouts.

And in Washington, where the real action is, Roger Clemens will be asked about steroids.

"The start of spring training, and with it, a new season, is always hopeful, refreshing and highly anticipated, even though it may be accompanied from time to time with injuries, issues, and other distractions," Red Sox president Larry Lucchino wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "This joyful anticipation does not preclude us from also recognizing that the hearings are important to bringing closure to the period identified in the Mitchell Report."

If the committee thinks either Clemens or McNamee gave false statements in their depositions or do so during the public hearing, Congress could ask the Justice Department to investigate. This committee did exactly that after the Mitchell Report came out, and the FBI opened a preliminary inquiry into whether 2002 American League MVP Miguel Tejada lied when he told committee investigators in 2005 that he never took performance enhancers and had no knowledge of other players using or talking about steroids.

Trying to close a chapter

"The thing that I hope comes out of tomorrow's hearings is the truth," Cummings said outside the hearing room during Tuesday's session that focused in part on the effects of HGH. "Basically what we are trying to do is close the book on the Mitchell Report."

And, baseball surely hopes, an era.

"It's almost like all this is a conclusion to all the gloomy and dark stuff that happened a while ago. Maybe we can put that behind us now and look at all the good things happening in baseball," said Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who has been in Florida more than a month to prepare for spring training. "For the younger guys, we didn't go through those times. But we definitely pay attention. I'll probably watch the hearing. If I don't, I'm sure they'll play it a million times on 'SportsCenter.'"