The taciturn New York Yankee lefty threw Clemens a curveball on Monday, when it was revealed that Congress had accepted his request to be excused from testifying in public. But according to several reports, he may have already damaged his long-time friend behind closed doors. Representative Tom Davis, the Virginia Republican who is the ranking minority member of the House oversight committee, told Newsday that Pettitte, in a sworn deposition to Congressional investigators, helped corroborate McNamee's claims against Clemens. On Tuesday, a source close to Davis told ESPN.com that Newsday had misquoted and misunderstood his statements about Pettitte, though the source did not elaborate. The Rocket has already fired back at the reports, claiming in an affidavit that Pettitte mistakenly thought any conversations about medications were referring to steroids or HGH. Clemens will have to respond to Pettitte's claims at the hearings; since Pettitte has already admitted that McNamee injected him with HGH, he will be viewed as a credible witness. Clemens can only hope that since it doesn't appear Pettitte actually witnessed any injections, his friend's evidence against him may have some holes.
— by Sean Gregory