I have to say I made a bad mistake. Before the Clemens-McNamee hearings started today, I reverted back to my old line that Congress should have nothing to do with these hearings. I was wrong.
This was some of the best television I've seen in a long time. Better than "American Idol," better than "One Tree Hill" (which my fiancee can't stop watching). And better than any recent game I've watched--save for Super Bowl XLII. And what that means is that this is the cheapest and best programming (on the compelling meter)--all you have to do is pay for the satellite feed--that ESPN has ever broadcast.
And the funny thing is, we thought we knew the whole plot going in. But what an awesome day of television.
We not only get Pettitte's affidavit. We find out his wife got involved with Congress. And the fact that Clemens' wife took HGH in 2003 is unbelievable bonus material. Throw in a key appearance by a nanny--and potential nanny tampering by Clemens' legal team--and this story is a complete farce.
If you wrote a script with this plot and submitted it to Paramount Pictures, it'd be rejected on the whole deal being implausible: Brian McNamee's degree from a diploma mill, the longest dispute over attendance at a barbecue in the history of man, an uncharacteristic abscess on Clemens' buttocks.
This was really amazing from an entertainment value proposition. That's why it made me sad when I heard that Rep. Henry Waxman said this was likely the final hearing on baseball and performance-enhancing drugs. Do I believe it? No. I'd have to think ESPN would have enough pull to make this thing a series.
