Roger Clemens: Stained Blue Dresses and Bloody Gauze -- But What Does it Prove?

Reports are coming out today that Roger Clemens' accuser and former trainer Brian McNamee has turned physical evidence over to the federal government. What type of evidence you ask? How about used syringes and gauze containing Clemens' blood.

What kind of person would save used syringes and bloodstained gauze for half a decade? Perhaps the kind of people who know that in a he-said she-said battle, one man's story is going to get more credibility than the other's.

Perhaps the question is the same as asking why Monica saved the stained blue dress. I don't know about you guys, but most girls I know make an effort to REMOVE those stains from their dresses (after slapping me). Most trainers I know make an effort to dispose of dirty syringes and bloody gauze. But, perhaps, both were in the same situation.

Unfortunately for McNamee, the physical evidence isn't going to prove much.

Are there still traces of steroids in the syringes? So what? When did they get there?

Is Clemens' DNA on the needle? So what? Who knows what was in the syringe when McNamee injected him?

Is it Clemens' blood on the gauze? So what? McNamee would have had bloody gauze from injecting Clemens with lidocaine or whatever his other BS story is.

Is Clemens' blood on the gauze mixed with steroid residue? So what? McNamee had possession of all these things all these years. He surely could have tampered with them.

Here's the only possible rub: Can the dried, old blood on the gauze still be tested for the presence of steroids IN the blood. Not the substance itself sprinkled on the blood, but the blood itself actually indicating that steroids were in the bloodstream. (For that matter, can I borrow Schilling's bloody sock?)

Absent that, McNamee has just convinced more fans he's telling the truth, but he'll still be painted a liar by the Clemens camp and his supporters.

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[In other news, Clemens is angling to meet personally with at least two D.C.-area Congressmen - retiring Northern Virginia Republican Tom Davis and Howard County, Maryland, Democrat Elijah Cummings. I'm not really sure what they'll discuss, but Tom Davis was instrumental in failing to get MLB to move the Expos to NoVa rather than D.C.]

UPDATE: Lester Munson was on Doug Gottlieb's ESPN radio show last night around 9:15p. He reminded me of some things I had forgotten, namely that Brian McNamee is a former police officer and thus understands preservation of evidence. He also agreed that McNamee likely distrusted Clemens and assumed he would be thrown under the bus should anything ever surface. In addition, Munson made the same Lewinsky blue dress analogy I made. His point was that this is not a "beyond a reasonable doubt" situation. Even old evidence can be damning evidence if everything corroborates one side of the story.