If you were talking to the person who sullied your 20+ year pitching career for the first time, how many swear words could you hold yourself to? In the most awkward phone conversation aired since Nixon’s Watergate tapes, Mitchell Reportee Roger Clemens played a tape of him confronting his accuser Brian McNamee in an exchange in which no one swore or threatened bodily harm to the other. Clemens restraint here makes us respect him more than this did.

Perhaps the most notable remark McNamee made during the phone call with Clemens came when he referred to that arrangement: “All I did was what I thought was right,” McNamee said. “I never thought it was right, but I thought I had no choice.” McNamee did not indicate if his actions were not “right” because they were untruthful or because they implicated a friend. Clemens did not ask.

Seemingly seeking forgiveness from his longtime friend and employer, and anguished over his own legal troubles and what he described as his “dying” 10-year-old son, McNamee pleaded eight times, “What do you want me to do?” Clemens rarely responded by confronting McNamee, leaving the question of which side is telling the truth to linger, probably until the two appear before a Congressional committee Jan. 16.

Why does a big part of the biggest MLB story in ages sound like a Lifetime movie. Frayed friendship? Check. Wronged person seeking retribution? Check. Dying son?!? Check. Apparently, a soap opera setting fits this circus perfectly.

Recording Reveals Frayed Remains Of a Friendship [NY Times]
Image [boston.com]