U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton also said the defense could imply Congress acted improperly in holding a hearing with Clemens in 2008.

Do I need a Court order to imply this?

Federal Rules of Evidence Thread!

BBref shows two major leaguers named Daubert.

Harry Daubert struck out in his single career at bat for the 1915 Pirates.

Jake Daubert had a more successful career. As a first baseman for Brooklyn (Dodgers/Robins/Superbas) and Cincinnati, he played over 2000 games, won the 1913 MVP, and accumulated over 2300 career hits.

There were also two players named Frye.

Charlie Frye threw 50 innings for the 1940 Phillies. He walked more than he struck out, and was never heard from again.

Astute primates may remember Jeff Frye, who had a nice little career as an all around 2B/outfielder for the Rangers, Red Sox, Rockies, and Blue Jays. He debuted in 1992 and played in 8 different seasons. Primarily as a 2B, he got 442 PAs for the '97 Red Sox.

While Daubert was well represented, nobody named Kuhmo ever appeared in MLB.

Bivens, also on point, potentially, on the other hand yields some interesting obscure results of a handful of minor leaguers.

My wife and I were discussing the Clemens trial and my six year old was listening in and said, "Why does congress care if someone cheated at Baseball?! That's none of their business."

Awesome Sean. From the mouths of babes....

Sean, your son is a bright kid, as he could see that there was no useful or legislative purpose to the Clemens-McNamee sham hearing.

Now you just have to teach him what the word "grandstanding" means.

I almost wonder if this actually helps the prosecution. Couldn't be that hard to make Pettitte seem unreliable under cross-examination.

#7 -- The judge did not rule that all of Pettitte's testimony is out. He will still be expected to testify that Clemens told him that he used PEDs. This ruling only eliminates testimony from Pettitte about his own source for hGH.

I almost wonder if this actually helps the prosecution. Couldn't be that hard to make Pettitte seem unreliable under cross-examination.

If I were on Clemens's legal team, I wouldn't try to make Pettitte sound unreliable at all; I'd take Pettitte at his absolute word, as testified in his deposition.

The thing is that Pettitte's testimony is fairly easily handled; it doesn't hurt Clemens nearly as much as has been pretended by the media. And I think, as I explain below, that Pettitte's overall testimony _helps_ Clemens, if done the right way.

In his deposition, Pettitte testified that he came away from a 1999/2000 conversation with Clemens thinking that Clemens had told him Clemens used HGH, but that Pettitte came away from a conversation years later accepting that Pettitte may have misunderstood the 1999/2000 conversation; and while Pettitte didn't _think_ he had misunderstood the 1999/2000 conversation, he accepted that he may have, and he left that open as a possibility during his deposition.

I'd get Pettitte to tell that same story on the stand, and if he started deviating from accepting that he may have misunderstood Clemens, I'd read his deposition back to him.

I'd then ask Pettitte:

* In all of your years as Clemens's teammate and friend, being on the same team as him, training with him, did you ever witness Clemens using steroids or HGH? (No.)

* Did you ever hear Clemens tell you he had used steroids? (No.)

* Did you ever hear Clemens tell you he had used HGH, aside from a single conversation in 1999/2000 that you accept you may have misunderstood? (No.)

Etc.

I think Pettitte's testimony overall can be a very powerful tool in _helping_ Clemens. Here was the one teammate with the most access to Clemens, who had spent the most time with him, over years and years. And what did Pettitte witness? Nothing. What did Pettitte know? Next to nothing.

That the media has proclaimed victory in light of Pettitte's testimony is beyond laughable; virtually everyone in the media expected a lot more out of Pettitte. They didn't get nearly what they expected, but that didn't stop them from pretending that they had.

#7 -- The judge did not rule that all of Pettitte's testimony is out. He will still be expected to testify that Clemens told him that he used PEDs. This ruling only eliminates testimony from Pettitte about his own source for hGH.

Yes.

The stupid ending of the Bonds trial satisfied neither side and vindicated nobody. It should remind us to go easy on the predictions regarding the even less exciting sequel.

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From today:

Hardin said that the defense will not contest that a needle with steroids that McNamee provided to authorities also contains Clemens' DNA. But he said his side will contend that McNamee put the steroids in the needle after injecting Clemens, and that the coach in fact had used the needle to inject Clemens with vitamin B12. Clemens has maintained for years that he received B12 shots and the local anesthetic lidocaine, but not performance-enhancing drugs.

Chemists.... Is there any way to verify this one way or the other? Is it possible show when the steroids were put in? Is it possible to remove lidocaine or B12 from the needle while still having Clemens's DNA there, and then put steroids in?