Former congressman Tom Davis says ex-Yankee Roger Clemens was in denial during congressional hearing

The Daily News I-Team is still around? I thought Tony Isabella was involved and it just sorta dissolved.

Former congressman Tom Davis, who once led the House committee that helped destroy the baseball legacies of Mark McGwire and Roger Clemens, says he applauds McGwire’s return but thinks Clemens was in denial when he testified before Congress.

“Everybody was speeding, and these are just the guys that got the tickets,” says Davis of the congressional hearings on steroids in baseball in 2005 and 2008. “If Clemens had just gone and paid his ticket, nobody would have had a problem. The difference was Andy Pettitte… What killed Clemens was Pettitte was right there, contradicting him.”

Davis, who left Congress in 2008 and is a consultant for Deloitte, told the Daily News he welcomed news of McGwire’s appointment as hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, after four years of self-imposed exile from the sport.

“I think he’s entitled to another chance,” says Davis.

...Davis says it’s fair to say that the baseball steroid hearings - and the Mitchell Report, which they helped make happen - basically “outed” a slew of baseball stars as steroid users.

“My feeling is it was a lot more widespread than that,” Davis says. “If you say McGwire can’t come back, well, you could say that about a whole generation of ballplayers.”