Democrats, Inspired by Obama, Take First Congressional Baseball Game Since 2000

On Wednesday night Republican and Democratic congressmen faced off against one another at Nationals Park in the 48th annual Congressional Baseball Game. The Democrats won the game 15-10 in seven innings.

Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.), who said he started warming up his arm months ago for this game, pitched all seven innings for the Democrats. The Democrats won the game for the first time since 2000. Baca stated after the game that the team was inspired by the election of President Obama this year, and that it was time for change both on and off the field.

The home-team Democrats started off the scoring with a six-run second inning against GOP starter Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), but the Republicans quickly answered in the top of the third inning with six runs themselves.

The Democrats, aided by several fielding errors and walks, then scored nine runs in the bottom of the third off of reliever Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.). The Republicans mounted a small comeback in the top of the seventh and final inning, but their three runs were not enough to win the game.

Major League Baseball Pitcher Roger Clemens Faces House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Regarding Steriod Allegations

During this morning's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the illegal use of steroids in Major League Baseball, all-star pitcher Roger Clemens took the mound against Congress, repeatedly denying allegations made by former trainer Brian McNamee that he indeed abused steroids.

Clemens, winner of a record seven Cy Young Award's, opened his testimony by discussing not his gaudy statistics, but instead the grueling work-out regiment and hard work he had used to achieve success. Nicknamed "The Rocket" by fans and analysts, Clemens discussed his community involvement, love for his family, and how "shortcuts were never an option" along his road to superstardom.

McNamee, a former Clemens confidant and a man the pitcher said he used to treat like "family," pressed hard with the bold accusations he made against the hurler. Acknowledging he was, "part of the problem" baseball faced during the late-1990's with steroid use, McNamee cited the fact each of the other two players he claimed to have provided with steroids, former and current New York Yankee's Chuck Knoblauch and Andy Pettite, had admitted his troubling accusations about them were true.

"I have no reason to lie, and every reason not to," said McNamee, with Clemens' legal team convinced otherwise. At one juncture in the hearing, Clemens' attorneys, citing discrepancies in McNamee's argument, actually began yelling from their seats at Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) in defense of Clemens. Clemens claimed he took vitamin B-12 regularly, actually at his mother's advice, while McNamee maintained he injected Clemens illegally with drugs such as winstrol, testosterone, and HGH.

The allegations, which included an affidavit of admitted steroid user Jose Canseco saying he had, "no reason to believe," that Clemens has, "ever used steroids, human growth hormone, or any other performance enhancing drugs," carry heavy legal implications for both Clemens and McNamee. If found guilty of lying under oath, either can be convicted of perjury charges, while the sheer use and distribution of illegal steroids can subject either party to legal penalties as well.