Written By:
Associated Press
February 24th 2008
This goes back to 2004 when Leiter, yakking for Fox, was working with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. The crew was in Fenway Park, calling Yankees-Red Sox ALCS action, when Leiter anointed Clemens the greatest pitcher of all time.
As highlight video of Clemens rolled, Leiter launched Rocket into the highest stratosphere. Leiter said Clemens dominated during a time when there were smaller ballparks, better hitting technology, bigger players, lower mounds, blah, blah, blah.
Since then, Leiter, one of the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network's Bombers analysts, often has reiterated what Clemens' place in baseball history should be. He has never wavered from his opinion that Clemens is the best there ever was.
Then came the Mitchell Report, in which Brian McNamee fingered Clemens as a cheater who used steroids. And now comes the question for Leiter: What do you think of all this? Has your opinion of Clemens changed?
There was just a brief silence on the other end of the telephone line.
"Well," Leiter told me, "that's the 10,000-pound gorilla question."
Leiter started talking about still being "naive" and "gullible," that even if there was "almost enough" evidence to convict somebody of a crime he would still want to be "sure" before rendering a guilty verdict.
"With ... all the information that's come out from McNamee, I still wasn't in the room," Leiter said "I didn't see him (Clemens) do (steroids). I watched the whole (congressional) hearing on the edge of my seat. I was captivated by it. But I'm still not 100% convinced that Roger Clemens took steroids. I'm not.
"If I knew 100%, my opinion of him would change," Leiter said. "But right now there's not enough evidence for me to send Roger up the river."
Cynics in the house have every right to suggest Leiter, like many players - past and present - is protecting Clemens. But Leiter has a history of doing his own thing, a cat not prone to marching with the rest of the seamheads.
Besides, Leiter eventually will be forced to deal with an active Yankee storyline that could linger throughout the 2008 season: Andy Pettitte, who has already lied and is an admitted (HGH) cheater. At some point in the season - maybe early - Pettitte will be on the mound and Leiter will be looking down from the broadcast booth.
That question triggered a conversation about what - in areas of issue-oriented analysis - the role of a baseball analyst should be. Not to worry. We ain't about to go esoteric on you
Leave it at this: If someone opens the on-air Pettitte door, raising moral or legal issues, Leiter will walk through. "No question, if (YES play-by-play voice) Michael (Kay) brings it up, it's totally appropriate for me to discuss it," Leiter said.
Of course Pettitte could quickly become a major on-field issue. What happens if he loses his first five starts and looks like garbage? You think maybe Hankenstein (the dude is a Johan Santana groupie) might start moaning? You think the talkies and baseball scribes will wonder - loudly - if Pettitte's admission of HGH use and his relationship with Clemens have detracted from his focus?
Leiter said if that scenario ever becomes reality, he would go directly to Pettitte.
"I have to seek him out. I have to ask: 'Andy, what's up man? What's going on here? Where's your head at. Is this really playing on you?' I need this information to fortify my opinion on the air," Leiter said. "Then I can talk about how I might feel pitching with something weighing on your mind."
In February, Al Leiter sounded like he was ready for an unusual summer.
Mariners voice Dave Niehaus will be enshrined in the broadcast wing of baseball's Hall of Fame as winner of the 2008 Ford C. Frick Award. He's deserving of this honor.
Still, the 20-member electorate who selected Niehaus seems to be married to the same formula. Find a voice who has been around forever, beloved by local fans, and vote him in.
Although deserving as well, the three play-by-play men who were enshrined before Niehaus (Denny Matthews, Gene Elston, Jerry Coleman) are evidence to that fact. Groundbreakers, most notably analysts, are being ignored.
The award is presented for "major contributions to baseball broadcasting." If that were truly the case, Tony Kubek, who worked nationally on NBC as well as local gigs with the Yankees and Blue Jays, would already have been voted in.
Then again, considering the current state of baseball, those crowning the Frick winner may believe being the most honest analyst to ever work behind a mike is not a "major" contribution to the game.
Kubek was the man. Unfortunately the committee must not approve of his vocal quality. Or the fact he did not voice any signature home run calls.
Jon Heyman looks to be on the move again.
Spies say Heyman is close to a deal with SportsNet New York making him the network's baseball insider. Sports Illustrated will remain Heyman's primary gig. If the SNY deal goes down, he likely won't be invited back to be a member of YES' "Yankees Hot Stove" panel, but still will have a presence on Al Yankzeera via his role as baseball blabbermouth on WFAN's "Mike and the Mad Dog" simulcast. Heyman bolted ESPN-1050 for WFAN in November.
If Heyman does move to SNY, that likely means the suits will dump the network's current baseball snoop, the great Seth Everett, whose main gig is at MLB.com.
With Isiah Thomas' Knicks in full-quit mode against Philly Wednesday (third quarter), the subject turned to steal statistics.
MSG's Walt (Clyde) Frazier said he would have been credited with more thefts had it not been for the fact the league did not start counting the stat until 1973.
"So you missed three years," play-by-play man Gus Johnson said.
So weak. You would think Johnson, who nightly pledges allegiance to the Knicks, would have known Clyde's first season was 1967. And did Johnson forget Frazier had a little bit to do with that Knicks' 1969-70 championship season?
