Radomski Backs McNamee, not Clemens

Jan. 20, 2009— -- EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on ESPN.com

There is no pause, no doubt in Kirk Radomski's voice when asked who he believes: his friend, Brian McNamee, or pitching icon Roger Clemens.

"I don't believe him [Clemens] at all," Radomski said. "I believe my friend."

That's his story and he's sticking to it. That's what Radomski, an admitted steroids dealer, presumably told a federal grand jury in Washington last week considering perjury charges against Clemens. That's definitely the theme in "Bases Loaded" (Hudson Street Press), a book scheduled for release next week chronicling his decade of dealing performance-enhancing drugs to baseball players.

McNamee, a former personal trainer to Clemens, testified before a congressional hearing last February -- as well as telling the baseball-commissioned investigation led by former Sen. George Mitchell -- that he injected Clemens more than a dozen times with steroids and human growth hormone.

Kirk Radomski sits down with ESPN's Outside The Lines for an interview to be aired Sunday, 9 a.m. ET. There will also be an online story, including an interview with Radomski, by ESPN.com's Mike Fish.

Clemens has steadfastly refuted McNamee's testimony and the two have filed defamation suits against the other.

"Brian didn't throw him under the bus," Radomski told ESPN.com. "What people don't understand is how far he went to protect Clemens. He almost screwed up his own case and got charged with stuff. This is a guy who told Clemens' agent -- gave him fair warning to get a hold of Mitchell. And they did absolutely nothing.

"Brian didn't initially tell Mitchell everything," he said. "He didn't tell the government because he was protecting his friend. And then Clemens records a phone conversation with him and throws Brian's [ill] son under the bus. And you expect him to sit back?

"If Brian was such a bad person why did Andy Pettitte back him?" Radomski aid. "Why did Chuck Knoblauch back him? You let a guy you don't trust and you don't respect stay in your house, and be around your family. And be around your kids.

"He admits his wife got a shot [of human growth hormone] in the bedroom. Think about this, he let someone go in a bedroom with his wife and inject his wife. And you didn't trust the guy? If he didn't trust the guy, he would have knocked the guy out. That would have been it. But he let him do it. What does that tell you?"

Radomski said that he educated McNamee about growth hormone. He also said he was the source of the performance-enhancers McNamee used with his baseball clients. Radomski said he shipped HGH directly to Clemens' house in Houston when McNamee went out to train him.

"I just feel bad that my friend is involved in it," Radomski said. "I feel responsible because [federal investigators] came to me and then they got Brian and then they got Clemens. They didn't get me, they don't have Brian. They don't have Clemens. They don't have anything in this Mitchell report. They got nothing."

The New York Times, which said it has looked at the 256-page book, wrote in Tuesday's editions that, in Radomski's book, he writes that he was asked by Mitchell investigators about players who were not his customers and were not named in the report. Radomski writes that he had no first-hand knowledge of possible drug use among these players, who are named in his book.

John Clarke, a spokesman for Mitchell, disputed Radomski's account. He wrote in an e-mailed message to the Times that "At no time did we raise the names of specific players who had not previously been identified to us by Mr. Radomski."