Reporting on the scene from the hearing room

Editor's Note: Richard Deitsch is blogging live during today's congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., which includes testimony from Roger Clemens, Brian McNamee and Charles Scheeler, a partner with George Mitchell's law firm, DLA Piper. SI's David Epstein is at the hearing and will offer periodic first-hand accounts. Senior writers Tom Verducci and Jon Heyman will also weigh in. And you should feel free to add your observations.

2:41 p.m. ET

From left: Brian McNamee, attorney Charles Scheeler and Roger Clemens get sworn in. AP

Congressional Hearings   Latest Coverage Roberts: Clemens same on or off mound Donovan: Hits coming soon for Pettitte Verducci: Clemens' rep takes beating Rocket, McNamee hold ground in hearing McCann: Clemens stands tall on the Hill Epstein: Hearing a day to 'misremember' Survey: Winners, losers from hearing Facial expert: Clemens looked nervous Rocket hearing the talk of spring training Deitsch: Live blog from Clemens hearing React: Your observations from hearing Depositions: Pettitte | Clemens | More Pettitte admits additional HGH use in '04 Jan. 15 Hearings Verducci: Mitchell was hearing's winner McCann: Tejada could be in major trouble Selig, Fehr grilled in Tuesday's hearing Who's Who: Congress and Baseball SI: Father puts his son on steroids, HGH Heyman: Clemens' ex-trainer speaks out SI Flashback: Inside the steroid sting SI Flashback: Rocket Science | 300 Wins SI Flashback: Confessions of an MVP The Report Download the complete Mitchell Report Clemens | Pettitte | Tejada | Bonds Gallery: Mitchell Report Confessions

Waxman closes the hearing after 4 hours and 41 minutes.

2:39 p.m. ET

Waxman ended the hearing by casting a skeptical eye on Clemens. It produced a dramatic moment:

WAXMAN: "This is what I think we've learned: Chuck Knoblauch and Andy Pettitte confirmed what Brian McNamee told Senator Mitchell. We learned of conversations Andy Pettitte believed he had with Roger Clemens about HGH and even though Mr. Clemens says his relationship with Mr. Pettitte was so close that they would know and share information with each other. Evidently, Mr. Pettitte didn't believe what Mr. Clemens said in that 2005 conversation."

CLEMENS: "Doesn't mean that he was not mistaken, sir."

WAXMAN: "Doesn't mean that."

CLEMENS: "It does not mean that he was not mistaken, Sir."

WAXMAN (Angry): "Excuse me, but this is not your time to argue with me."

Waxman then apologized to McNamee for some of his colleagues' comments toward him. "You have taken a lot of hits today," Waxman told McNamee. "In my view, some were fair and some were really unwarranted." Waxman specifically thanked McNamee and then apologized to him for some of his colleagues' comments. He ended by saying, "We started this investigation on baseball to try to break that link of professional sports and the use of these drugs."

2:38 p.m. ET

From SI.com's Jon Heyman: "By the end of the hearing there still seemed to be a split of opinions: The Democrats believed McNamee, the Republicans did not. The hearing may not sway anyone to one side or the other. The most damaging evidence was gathered earlier, when Clemens' friend and former workout partner, Pettitte, and Knoblauch affirmed what McNamee said. And especially when Pettitte submitted an affidavit saying that Clemens admitted to HGH use back in 1999 or 2000. It doesn't appear that anything was proved today, which means that further investigation is needed."

2:30 p.m. ET

From SI's David Epstein: "Seems like Clemens could have contended that McNamee lied to Pettitte as well. In any event, it's a little strange to give Pettitte the seal of credibility. Presumably, he knew that using HGH was to break the rules, and now it has come to light that Pettitte, when he admitted to using HGH in the wake of the Mitchell Report, still had not admitted to the full extent of his use."

2:28 p.m. ET

From SI's Luis Fernando Llosa: "Talk about family drama: Clemens played the weeping wife card. 'She has been broken up about this,' he says. 'She feels like a pawn amongst this game.' Clemens goes on to say he is 'offended' that anyone could suggest that he told his wife Debbie to take human growth hormone. Shouldn't Clemens take more serious offense that, as he suggested to the committee, Debbie snuck into a room with McNamee to receive an HGH injection from him without the Rocket's knowledge and consent? McNamee has invoked his son when explaining his equally puzzling rationale. He claims that the only reason he told investigators about the gauze and other medical waste he preserved in a box for more than five years -- because he didn't 'fully trust' Clemens -- was because Clemens revealed private information about his son's medical condition to a national TV audience on 60 Minutes. So it was revenge?

2:26 p.m. ET

From SI's Tom Verducci: "Finally. Elijah Cummings is the MVP of the hearing. Straightforward, with no grandstanding, Cummings stepped up and finally asked the most important question to Clemens: Why would McNamee tell the truth about Pettitte and Knoblauch but lie about Clemens, especially when Pettitte, by Clemens' own testimony a honest man, backed McNamee's story? Clemens whiffed. 'Congressman, I have no idea,' he said, before devolving into a rambling discourse on Pettitte's friendship with him. Cummings came back again. 'How do you explain that?' Clemens again stumbled, asking why Pettitte didn't tell him when he used HGH, which was not important to the question at hand. Finally, Cummings slammed the door on Clemens. 'It's hard to believe you, sir,' Cummings told Clemens. 'You're one of my heroes. But it's hard to believe you.'"

2:25 p.m. ET

From SI.com's Jon Heyman: "Pettitte is the one who will sink Clemens, if anyone does. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) really got to the heart of the matter when he stated that 'the person I believe most is Mr. Pettitte.' Furthermore, Cummings asserted, Pettitte's affidavit that Clemens told him about his HGH usage 'swings the balance over to Mr. McNamee.' Cummings, in talking to Clemens, referred to Pettitte as 'your guy' and 'the guy you admire,' and drilled Clemens on the fact that McNamee was correct in what he said about Knoblauch and Clemens.

2:22 p.m. ET

From SI's David Epstein: "It actually isn't ridiculous that someone might not be clear on the legality of HGH. Unlike anabolic steroids, HGH is not a controlled substance. (Some committee members have recently expressed their desire, however, to make it a controlled substance; anabolic steroids were added to the controlled substances list in 1993, as a Schedule III controlled substance, meaning, in part, that it does have valid medical uses but that there is some potential for abuse.) It seems that professionals are now clear that HGH use is restricted by federal regulation to three uses: 1) kids with dwarfism, 2) patients with AIDS related wasting, 3) the rare occurrence when an adult's growth hormone receptors are not accepting the hormone properly. In the 1990s a peer reviewed paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association took on the question of the legality of prescribing HGH, and made it clear that there is a limited number of appropriate uses. The point is, even professionals were not entirely clear at one point."

2:17 p.m. ET

From SI's David Epstein: "Souder just started talking about that tape that was played on national television. He told me previously that he thought it was in incredibly poor taste to play that tape. He was also perturbed by Clemens' conduct at that press conference. He did not like that reporters came to Houston and then Roger stormed off, answering questions only when he wanted. He also felt that Clemens was disingenuous when he said he didn't care at all about the writers' Hall of Fame votes. He agreed that it may not be primary to Clemens' motivation, but he thought it strange that a player who dedicated his life to a craft would not care at all about the Hall.

2:16 p.m. ET

From SI.com's Jon Heyman: "Dan Duquette, the former Red Sox GM, came up at the hearing, though Clemens refused to utter his name. Duquette was the one who said he believed Clemens was in the 'twilight of his career'' when he decided not to re-sign Clemens after the 1996 season. Clemens pointed out that he led the league in strikeouts that very year. However, any attempts by him or his agents to show that anyone could have anticipated the path his career took are hardly convincing. No one could have anticipated four more Cy Young awards after Clemens reached his mid 30s.

Also...McNamee said he used the phrase 'It is what it is,' in response to Clemens asking for his help on a secretly-recorded conversation to mean that he had already told the truth when he testified that he injected Clemens with steroids and HGH. But committee members didn't take it to mean that. Or anything, really. Rep Mark Souder (R-IN) said that committee members aren't 'prototypical New Yorkers,' and that someone on the house floor during the break said that New Yorkers do use that phrase to mean something. Souder recommended more investigation of the meaning of the phrase. That is a phrase New Yorkers overuse. But McNamee would have been much better off saying, 'I told the truth already, Roger.'"

2:15 p.m. ET

From SI's Tom Verducci: "Virginia Foxx (R-NC) made it clear that she would rather not be at the hearings, that Congress shouldn't be involved in baseball matters. 'I think we've been playing gotcha games and I don't agree with that,' Foxx said. Then Foxx proceeded to prove beyond a doubt that she truly didn't belong there. She showed a poster of Clemens in four different photographs for four different teams (Boston, New York, Toronto, Houston), the exact dates of which she had no idea. 'You appear to me to be about the same size,' she said. 'It doesn't appear to me that your size has changed much.' Great. Now Foxx can tell us whether players are using PEDs just on body type in photographs. It's exactly that kind of sloppy eyeball detective work that we should have left behind a decade ago."

2:10 p.m. ET

From SI's David Epstein: "Baseball certainly is going in the right direction. however, some committee members have expressed little patience for baby steps, even when they are in the right direction. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) told me that he doesn't think the drug testing should really be an issue that needs much collective bargaining. He said that, in his view, the commissioner should just say: Here is the minimum standard, take it or leave it, and then if the players association chooses to leave it, they can go on strike. Then public opinion can help decide whether players should return to play under lower testing standards. With regard to interviews conducted by federal investigators and Mitchell investigators, McNamee has said that he exaggerated the coercion in order to please Clemens and Pettitte. His lawyer, Earl Ward, was present during all interviews, and says there was no abnormal pressure applied."

2:02 p.m. ET

From Baseball Prospectus' Will Carroll: "'The "abuse of hormones' study that Rep. Braley cited has been taken down. But there's an article called "Boldenone for Barbie," by Rick Collins, that is the best thing I've read about it."

1:58 p.m. ET

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) is focusing on the telephone call between Clemens and McNamee that the Clemens camp played. He asks why McNamee did not explicitly say that he told the truth on that call. "If I had know he would air it on national TV, I would have said 'I told the truth'," McNamee said. SI's David Epstein adds that McNamee has claimed that he contacted Clemens because his son, who was 10 years old at the time, was sick and upset, and that Clemens was one of his heroes. McNamee was hoping that Clemens would call his son with some kind words.

1:57 p.m. ET

From SI's David Epstein: "A Democratic staff member suggested to me that he expected to see more people focusing on Pettitte's statements, as opposed to spending time publicly admonishing both men or asking them, incredulously, whether they think some of their own statements are believable. Clearly, they think their statements are believable."

1:55 p.m. ET

From SI.com's Jon Heyman: "Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) got a chuckle when he asked if Clemens had ever been diagnosed with Alzheimer's or dementia as a prelude to why Clemens would take B-12 shots, as he's claimed, when he doesn't have illnesses or symptoms for which B-12 would be prescribed. A second rare light moment came when Clemens admitted that he didn't know what a vegan was. Braley's overall point was that Clemens was taking shots from a person not licensed to give him shots. This policy, though, is much more common in baseball than people realize. Members of the training staff, though not doctors, have long been known in baseball circles to administer shots when the team doctor is unavailable."

1:54 p.m. ET

From SI's David Epstein: "As NATA (the National Athletic Trainers' Association) has pointed out, McNamee was never a certified athletic trainer. In talking with Rep. Cummings he expressed how little he knows about the operations of various trainers. When I talked to Cummings a bit about the difference between a personal trainer and a certified athletic trainer, he suggested that baseball might want to think about making sure it uses certified athletic trainers. It seems like a good idea.

Also, a lot of people actually take B-12, even though it is quite hard to be B-12 deficient. It isn't actually that strange for someone to take B-12, despite the fact that it probably wouldn't make a difference. You can go to GNC and swallow every herb and tree you've ever heard of, and many you haven't, most of which won't do anything interesting."

1:52 p.m. ET

From SI's Tom Verducci: "Roger Clemens, the famous competitor, finally cracked. Clemens had kept his emotions in check throughout the day, but finally gave in when he was asked again about turning his back to the Mitchell investigators. Clemens this time didn't put the blame on his agents. No, he blamed Bud Selig for not tracking him down to give him a heads up about the report. 'Bud Selig could have found me,' said Clemens, who seems to think that pitching in the World Baseball Classic and All-Star Game gives him the benefits of any doubt. 'He could have found me. I'm an easy person to find.' It was the first time Clemens showed real anger. And he is absolutely wrong. There was nothing Selig could have or should have done. A procedure was put in place, via collective bargaining, that Mitchell was obligated to go through the players association if he wanted to contact any of its members. Mitchell was to notify the union of the player he wished to talk to and the appropriate team, based on the years involved in the subject matter. Mitchell had no other avenue. And Selig, by commissioning an independent investigation, was obligated to remain outside of the process. He had no business contacting any player or interjecting himself into Mitchell's activities -- and you can darn well know that the union would have rightly hit the roof if Selig went around the back of the union and Mitchell to contact players. Clemens' anger at Selig is misplaced, and a convenient 180-degree turn from his morning testimony that his agents did him wrong."

1:51 p.m. ET

Rep John H. Duncan Jr. (R-TN) is very sympathetic to Clemens' side. He calls the evidence against Clemens "weak" and says that there were people "a little too anxious" to get the Mitchell Report out. Clemens continues to state that he was never told by any of his reps that the Mitchell team wanted to talk to him. Clemens is asked by Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) if he has ever experienced senile dementia or is a vegan. (Clemens says he does not know what a vegan is, which draws laughter from the hearing room). Rep. Braley says that he asks this because the evidence suggests that B-12 is used by those who suffer from dementia or who are vegetarians. "My mother suggested in 1988 that I take B-12," Clemens says. "I take B-12 in pill form. I look at it is something, it's healthy." Braley asks the question: Why would you trust your body to McNamee if he wasn't an accredited doctor? Clemens says that McNamee told him he had a PhD and that he is "a trusting person."

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