One of the key factors in Roger Clemens condemnation of the Mitchell Report and the testimony of his former trainer Brian McNamee is the pitcher's assertion that he never attended a birthday at Jose Canseco's Florida home ten years ago. A photo may exist, however, that shows Clemens at that very party posing with an 11-year-old fan.
The birthday party incident was asserted as evidence that the Mitchell Report's composition was sloppy and inaccurate and McNamee was either lying, confused, or simply mistaken. Clemens' lawyer Rusty Hardin brought forward several pieces of evidence that supposedly supported his client's absence at the birthday party.
According to a news story in The Houston Chronicle, the father of a young man now playing college baseball was disturbed by McNamee's treatment during a Congressional Oversight Committee hearing (Rep. Dan Burton called McNamee a liar), because his son had a photo taken of himself and Clemens at Canseco's 1998 birthday party stuck on his wall for a decade. The photo hasn't been produced yet, because the player is worried about what impact the whole mess could have on his prospects as a professional ball player.
Clemens vehemently denied multiple times that he was at Canseco's party that day and testified the same before the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform. When news that there might be a picture of Clemens at the birthday party in question, lawyer Rusty Hardin issued a statement backtracking from the certainty that Clemens was not at the party, saying that he may have stopped off there between playing golf and going to play a baseball game.
Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP, (not including party hat)
