Clemens 'grateful' for chance to speak

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- All-Star pitcher Roger Clemens said he hopes to return to Washington for reasons other than to answer allegations he used performance-enhancing drugs.

Clemens emerged from a four-hour House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Wednesday focusing on testimony by Brian McNamee, Clemens' former trainer, who said he injected Clemens. McNamee testified before Congress and was part of the report by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, on performance-enhancing drug use in baseball.

"I'm grateful for this day to have come," Clemens said. "I hope I get ... to come to Washington again for different terms."

Committee Chairman Harry Waxman, D-Calif., said the disagreement between Clemens and McNamee went deeper than "one meeting."

"They disagree whether ... Mr. McNamee repeatedly injected Mr. Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone," Waxman said in his opening statement. "Someone isn't telling the truth."

Clemens denied using any performance-enhancing drugs, despite McNamee's testimony and an affidavit in which former teammate Andy Pettitte said Clemens told him he used human growth hormone.

"Good people can make mistakes. Andy heard one thing," Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, said. Clemens said Pettitte "misremembered."

"We will let the American people decide for themselves" about Clemens' veracity, Hardin said.