Projo Sports Blog

By Arthur Staple
Newsday

NEW YORK - David Wells and Roger Clemens never were the best of friends, so Wells isn't exactly shedding tears over his former Yankees teammate's legal troubles stemming from steroid allegations.

"You don't want to criticize too quick, but the facts you have in hand, it doesn't look too good for him," Wells said. "You hope, because of what he did for the game of baseball, it was pretty overwhelming. But was it clean or was it dirty?"

Wells was at Yankee Stadium Sunday working as a broadcaster for TBS, but also to commemorate the 11th anniversary of his perfect game against the Twins, one of the high points of his time with the Yankees.

He and Clemens, who were traded for each other when Clemens became a Yankee before the 1999 season, were Yankees teammates in 2002 and 2003 after Wells was re-signed.

They were two of the most successful pitchers of their era, but their differences were stark: Wells, the portly, beer-loving lefthander whose most frequent workout was the "12-ounce curl," as he put it Sunday, and Clemens, the workout fanatic who won championships and Cy Young Awards after he allegedly was past his prime but has been accused of doing so through the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Wells just smiled as a reporter asked him about those differences, and how Wells, the bad boy when he played, now looks like an angel compared to Clemens, who is battling to preserve his reputation.

"I saw Roger last year at a Toby Keith charity golf tournament in Oklahoma," said Wells, who will turn 46 Wednesday. "I started yelling, 'E-lie!' He always used to call me 'E-lie' - as in, whatever comes out of Boomer's mouth, he lies.

"I got payback. It was great. Actually, it was great. Roger didn't like it very much, but he came over, said hello.

"The stuff he's going through, do I feel for him? Yeah, but how much is fictional, how much is for real? We don't know. He's denying. There's cases out there that are pretty strong against him. Until it all comes out, I don't want to be quick to judge, but he's in a mess, he really is."

Wells said the recent steroid admission of Alex Rodriguez and the 50-game suspension for Manny Ramirez prove that baseball needs a new approach to performance-enhancing drugs.

"Those home runs he hit off me in Texas, should those count? I don't know," Wells said of A-Rod. "Or just ban 'em right out of the get-go - no 50-game suspension, just ban 'em. That would stop it in a heartbeat. It would be incredible if they did that."

Asked about Wells' comments, Rodriguez said only, "Baseball." Then he walked away.

"I didn't see what he said, so I don't have any comment on it," Derek Jeter said.

Wells, who once pitched while wearing an authentic Babe Ruth cap before Joe Torre made him take it off, is a great lover of Yankees history, so he didn't have much to say about the new stadium this time in. "It's a beautiful stadium," he said, but he was quick to add that the mystique didn't travel across the street.

"The opposing teams that came in in '97 and '98, they were already beat, and they didn't even know it," Wells said. "How ruthless the fans can be. That's the advantage we had at that stadium, and it's the disadvantage they have here.

"Yeah, they've got a good product. But it's going to be a long road."

 Tags  David Wells New York Yankees Roger Clemens steroids

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