Ten key points that were missed during the hearings

Andy Pettitte hopes to put the PED question behind him, but it will still be an issue in baseball for years to come. Robert Browman/Getty Images Sport

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Andy Pettitte deserves credit and the respect to leave alone, for now, his involvement with human growth hormone. His admission, apology, and answers to questions were detailed and apparently sincere, which cannot be said of feeble responses from the likes of Eric Gagne, Paul Lo Duca, Mike Stanton, David Justice, Fernando Vina, Lenny Dykstra, etc.

What more do you want from Pettitte? O.K., he still doesn't get the fact that by choosing to take HGH to recover from an injury he was looking for "an edge." It's an edge over the player who wants to come back just as badly but abides by the law. But from what we know Pettitte never took enough HGH to get any effect from it. Let's not make him out to be a 'roid monster.

So we move on from Pettitte but never from the PED issue. It's here to stay, people, even though many of you, including many in the media, would like to ignore it because it gets in the way of your fun.

Meanwhile, if you keep your eyes open, the reams of documents released by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the Roger Clemens-Brian McNamee matter includes some fascinating reading. The transcripts are voluminous and offer a stark look at life in the Steroid Era, from medical records to player-agent relationships to clubhouse culture to player-media relations to nanny diaries. It can be slow going to plod through the documents, so here's the short version: 10 interesting nuggets from the transcripts that you didn't hear at the hearing:

1. Clemens' memory on how the Yankees dispensed B-12 shots seems, well, shot. Clemens said the Yankees' training staff lined up syringes loaded with B-12 after games, ready to inject players. But trainer Gene Monahan, when asked about that practice, testified, "I have no knowledge of that, and I can't conceive that that could have occurred."

2. Clemens can be cold-blooded. He testified that former teammate Chuck Knoblauch, who is also from the Houston area and also was a client of Hendricks Sports, called him after the Mitchell Report was released and left a message on his phone. So what did Clemens do for a former buddy in a time of crisis? He ignored the message. "I just decided not to listen to it," Clemens said. "I pass over a lot of messages."

3. Clemens can be charming. The guy ripped off some good lines under pressure. On being erroneously named by the Los Angeles Times as connected to the Jason Grimsley affidavit: "I've got tire marks on my back from that story." On building a gym at home: "Best investment ever by the way. It's saved the house from the kids." On the nickname the players came up with for one team physician: "Dr. Kevorkian. And that's on record now. Thank you very much."

4. Clemens and Pettitte were not as close as we thought -- or what Clemens thought. Clemens claimed the two were so close that Pettitte "would have come to me" if he was thinking about HGH or if he had used it. Pettitte's take on talking to Clemens about HGH? "That never crossed my mind."

5. Clemens is way, way out of date on this steroids craze. An entire era of baseball is associated with steroids, which helped make careers and records, including that of his buddy Jose Canseco, and yet this is Clemens' take on those performance-enhancing drugs: "I think steroids only hurts [sic] you. I think they make you tight."

6. Don't invite Rusty Hardin and George Mitchell to your next party. Hardin, who tried his best to be deferential to Mitchell in public, absolutely torched him in Clemens' deposition. Hardin told the committee "the methodology is horrible" in the Mitchell Report, which he called a "horrible, disgraceful report."

7. Players often have no clue what they put in their bodies. Pettitte said the Yankees regularly gulp down some kind of protein shakes provided by the training staff. "I don't know what the stuff has in it," he admitted.

8. Players often have no clue how to think on their own. Pettitte said he never saw the letter Mitchell sent to him through the union requesting an interview. Pettitte said his agent, Randy Hendricks, told him about it but said, "You know, there's no active players talking." So what does Pettitte do with his professional reputation in the balance? Follow the flock.

"So I mean, to me, you know, that was kind of the end of it," Pettitte said, "and then I wasn't going to talk either."

9. Team Clemens, like the rest of us, seems baffled as to why McNamee would fabricate a tale about Clemens using steroids. Said Hardin, "None of us have rational explanations" for McNamee's motivations. Said Clemens, "You'll have to ask [McNamee] that."

Lanny Breuer, another Clemens lawyer, tried hardest at the motivation issue when he said, "Brian McNamee has become a celebrated figure." Celebrated?

10. Don't expect Jim Murray to remember to send you a birthday or anniversary card. The agent told congressional staffers some version of "I don't remember" a whopping 165 times, many related to his key meeting at Starbucks with McNamee. Murray also couldn't remember when he became an agent or when he moved to Hoboken. In one particularly unintended bit of levity, Murray responded, "But I don't remember what I remember about what he was going to say or --".