Roger Clemens will now be able to tell a Congressional committee what he's been telling the world: That despite the accusations documented on pgs. 167-175 of the Mitchell Report, he has never been injected with either steroids or human growth hormone.

Clemens, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner and current active leader with 353 victories, has been called to testify on Jan. 16 in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, along with the personal trainer, Brian McNamee, who told federal investigators and former Sen. George Mitchell that he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing substances numerous times from 1998 to 2001.

Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, other players who McNamee named, were also called to testify, as well as Kirk Radomski, the former Mets clubhouse employee, who supplied McNamee with the drugs. Radomski said in the report that he supplied at least 51 players with drugs over a 10-year period.

However, Clemens’s version was immediately disputed by McNamee’s lead lawyer, Earl Ward, in a telephone interview Thursday evening. “The only injections he ever gave Clemens were for steroids and human growth hormone,” Ward said of McNamee, adding that he had spoken with his client after Clemens’s CBS comments became public earlier in the day and that McNamee had reiterated his previous allegations.

Reached by telephone late Thursday, Hardin responded to Ward’s assertions that McNamee only injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs, saying: “Mr. Ward is responding in a way that reflects that he believes his client. Hallelujah and blessings to him. However, at the end of the day, everyone is going to discover Mr. Ward is wrong.”

"I think the Twins realize our offer is the best one," Steinbrenner said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "I feel confident they're not going to trade him before checking with us one last time and I think they think we've already made the best offer."

Steinbrenner said the offer "does not include two of the three young pitchers" - Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, from a group that also includes untouchable Joba Chamberlain - "but it's still the best one. And let's face it, we're the best able to handle the kind of contract (extension) Santana will be after."

"I'm not signing Clemens," Steinbrenner, the Yankees' senior vice president, said in a telephone interview yesterday. He said the Yanks are not looking for rotation stopgaps - like they were last season - because they are so enamored of their young starting pitchers. And Steinbrenner feels the Yanks already have a strong mentor to the young arms in Andy Pettitte, whom Steinbrenner praised for his "veteran leadership.

"Andy is (signed) for one year and he's only 35 and he knows how to pitch in the big games," Steinbrenner said. "Roger does, too, but let's face it, he's going to be 46 (in August).

7. Jesus Montero (11/28/89), ETA: 2011
After signing with the New York Yankees for $2 million as an international free agent in 2006, Jesus Montero entered the 2007 campaign with such a big target on his back that only a 6-foot-4, 225-pounder could support it. And support it he did. A native of Guacara, Venezuela, Montero posted a .280/.366/.421 vital line and .350 wOBA in 123 Rookie League plate appearances last season—as a 17-year-old. While his ceiling is hard to rival, the depth of this year’s catching class—paired with the long journey he still has to overcome to reach the Majors—slides Montero to the No. 7 slot on our list.

9. Francisco Cervelli (3/6/86), ETA: 2010
Posting a .279/.383/.397 vital line in the pitcher’s paradise that is the High-A Florida State League, Francisco Cervelli becomes the second Yankee catching prospect to earn his way into our Top 10. While it could easily be overlooked given his low slugging percentage, Cervelli managed a 34.6% XBH rate a season ago—with 24 of his 28 XBH coming in the form of doubles. Like Jesus Montero, Cervelli still has a long ways to go to reach the big leagues, but certainly has the abilities to do just that in due time.

"I'm very close to Roger. When I say close to him, he was a great competitor for me. Andy the same way. And I certainly know they're two proud individuals that only like to do the right thing," Torre said. "I'd just like to leave it at that." ...

"It made it look like a lopsided report," Torre said. "Plus, don't forget, the Yankees have so many people coming through there on a year-to-year basis. We changed over quite often, whether it would be a player for the month of May, a player for the month of September. But I think the big part of it was the access, where these two people were both based in New York."

The young son of a Florida woman who cops say was killed by ex-Yankee Jim Leyritz in a car crash went to bed with tears in his eyes after his father broke the horrible news to him.
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"He asked me why Mommy wasn't going to come home; why Mommy was in the grass and who's going to take care of him," the unshaven and teary-eyed father said yesterday on the doorstep of his suburban Fort Lauderdale home. "She was a good mother and a great wife."
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A bartender at the Blue Martini confirmed Leyritz had been in the place with two women.

"He came in and had a few [mixed] drinks. I think he had two," said the bartender, who would only give his name as Ray. Ray said he has served Leyritz before, adding, "He doesn't get plastered. He'll have a few drinks and switch to water."

“If Roger Clemens continues to play fast and loose with the truth on ‘60 Minutes’ and he continues to call Brian McNamee a liar then we will proceed with a defamation suit,” [McNamee attorney Richard D.] Emery said in a telephone interview. “It is one of the only avenues Brian has to defend himself against the claims that he lied.”

To date, Clemens has disputed McNamee through statements issued through his agent, through [his attorney, Rusty] Hardin and through a video he posted on the Internet. Clemens did not call McNamee a liar in any of those statements, although in the video he specifically states that McNamee never injected him with steroids or H.G.H.

Hardin confirmed that an interview between Clemens and Wallace was taped at Clemens’s home in Katy, Tex., on Friday.

“I think I’ll let the interview speak for itself,” Hardin said in a telephone interview. “We will wait for it to air on January the 6th but my advice to Brian and his lawyers would be to stay tuned because he told Mike Wallace the truth.”

Leyritz, who turned 44 on Thursday, faces charges of DUI manslaughter and DUI property damage, said Detective Kathy Collins, Fort Lauderdale police spokeswoman.
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Fort Lauderdale authorities got a call at 3:20 a.m. that a crash had occurred in the city's entertainment district, Collins said.

She said Leyritz was driving a 2006 Ford Expedition when he collided at an intersection with a 30-year-old woman driving a 2000 Mitsubishi. The woman was ejected from the car. She was critically injured and transported to the Broward General Medical Center, where she died, Collins said. Her identity was not immediately released.