The former Yankee ace, now awaiting word from Congress on his steroid scandal, has sold his Bentley to “Rock of Love” star Bret Michaels. “Bret is a big fan of Roger’s and the car is fabulous,” said an insider. “Clemens is apparently selling his lavish goods to pay his legal fees.” Michaels was overheard gushing about his new ride Friday at the House of Blues in Atlantic City. Clemens’ agent did not return calls.
(source)
Barricaded behind tightly drawn blinds at her Nashville home Monday, country singer Mindy McCready confirmed a long-term affair with embattled pitcher Roger Clemens.
“I cannot refute anything in the story,” a tearful but resolute McCready told the Daily News, which broke the story at midnight Sunday.
The News reported that the two met in a Florida karaoke bar when McCready was a 15-year-old aspiring singer and Clemens was a 28-year-old ace for the Red Sox and a married father of two.
“Yes, I have known Roger Clemens for a long time,” McCready said, reading from a prepared statement. “He’s a kind and caring man. He’s also a legendary athlete. The central topic in the debate, however, regards his professional life, not his personal life.
“There are legal matters working their way through the system that have nothing to do with me. From my point of view, that is where the focus should remain.”
After the teenage McCready met Clemens at a Fort Myers bar called The Hired Hand, she returned with the Rocket to his hotel room, but there was no sex that night, sources told The News.
It wasn’t until later, after McCready had moved to Nashville and become a country singing star, that the relationship turned intimate.
Clemens is under FBI investigation for perjury after denying, under oath, accusations by his former personal trainer Brian McNamee that the seven-time Cy Young Award winner used performance-enhancing drugs.
The Rocket filed a defamation suit against McNamee on Jan. 6. McNamee’s lawyer Richard Emery said revelations of the affair would have a big impact on that case because they influence Clemens’ claim that his reputation was damaged.
“If the case heads to trial and is not dismissed, as we feel it should be, we will be calling [McCready] as a witness,” Emery said.
“The point is whether he was damaged by the allegations that he used steroids – he claims he was hurt. But if there are other women – and there’s not just one case, but many – and he holds himself out as a family man and an American paradigm, it’s relevant.
“None of this would have been revealed but for his lawsuit and sanctimonious testimony before Congress.”
In a statement Monday, Clemens’ lawyer Rusty Hardin confirmed McCready was a longtime friend of Clemens and his family, but said the relationship was not sexual.
“At no time did Roger engage in any kind of inappropriate or improper relationship with her,” he said. But sources with knowledge of the relationship between the singer and Clemens say McCready has never met Roger’s wife, Debbie Clemens.
Debbie Clemens had already emerged as a character in the Mitchell Report saga in February, when The News first reported that McNamee had injected the former cheerleader with human growth hormone before she posed for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
Clemens later confirmed the tale in his congressional testimony.
The News also reported Monday that Clemens sent bundles of cash to McCready in FedEx packages to help her out financially.
She suffered some legal troubles, which included a 2004 arrest for prescription fraud and jail time last year for violating probation.
Sources told The News McCready also received hefty checks courtesy of Clemens – some in the amount of $25,000 – that were channeled to the singer through an intermediary.
Such an arrangement raises questions as to why Clemens would go through a third party to give money to McCready if she and the Rocket were just friends.
“It’s suspicious conduct, and it’s something that we will question Clemens about in a deposition,” McNamee lawyer Earl Ward said. “Every avenue will be explored at the deposition [in Clemens' defamation suit].”
McCready did her part to put some positive light on Clemens and his legal morass.
“I have no doubt that Roger has excellent legal representation and he will emerge from this a strong person and a revered athlete,” she said. “I wish him and his family the best.”
Details of the relationship could also emerge in several media projects that McCready is involved in, including a documentary film, which is to begin filming soon, a new album and a reality show.
(source)
Roger Clemens had a decade-long relationship with country star Mindy McCready that began when she was a 15-year-old aspiring singer and the pitcher was a Boston Red Sox ace, the Daily News reported. Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin, confirmed a long-term relationship but told the newspaper it was not sexual.
“Mindy McCready is a longtime family friend of Roger Clemens and the Clemens family,” Hardin said in a statement Monday. “At no time did Roger engage in any kind of inappropriate or improper relationship with her. It is unfortunate that the Daily News has chosen to report anonymous allegations that are completely unfounded, have no basis in fact, and have nothing to do with Roger’s baseball career or the issue of steroid use in baseball.”
The story, which appeared on the newspaper’s Web site Sunday night and in editions Monday, quoted several people who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.
McCready’s lawyer, Lee Ofman, said he did not have any comment on the Daily News story.
Clemens was 28 and a married father of two when he first met McCready, the newspaper reported.
The story could undermine Clemens’ reputation, which is central to the defamation suit the former pitcher has filed against former personal trainer Brian McNamee. McNamee contends Clemens used performance-enhancing substances during his major league career.
“If true, it’s just another example of Roger’s pervasive prevarications which will be at the core of any defamation case,” said McNamee’s attorney, Richard Emery, in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
The newspaper said Clemens sent cash to McCready to help her with legal issues and reached out to her when she was in jail last year in Tennessee.
The 32-year-old McCready was sentenced last September for violating probation from a 2004 drug arrest and was released from jail last Dec. 30. The violation occurred in July when McCready was accused of scuffling with her mother and resisting arrest at her mother’s home in Fort Myers, Fla. She still must serve two years’ probation.
McCready had a No. 1 single in 1996 with “Guys Do It All the Time.”
