Swings and misses for Clemens

And so, in what was likely the final appearance of his career, the greatest pitcher in baseball history was shelled.

He was rocked. He was ripped. He was pounded.

Roger Clemens was lit up like, well, a rocket.

The great intimidator strutted to a different sort of hill this morning – a Capitol Hill full of power hitters – and never made it out of the first inning.

His claims that former trainer Brian McNamee lied about his steroid use in baseball’s Mitchell Report were knocked out of the park by teammates, friends, and even his former nanny.

Congressmen swung at every fat pitch. Contradictions surrounded him like base runners. Credibility was tattered by incessant line drives.

For more than four hours in a congressional hearing that essentially pitted his integrity against the integrity of an admitted drug pusher, the drug pusher won.

Both Clemens and McNamee came across as unsavory but, on this day, under this oath, it appeared the only one lying was the future Hall of Famer.

Well, the former future Hall of Famer.

Clemens.

“You’re one of my heroes,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. “But it’s hard to believe you.”

In the end, Clemens’ final desperate words were slammed shut by the gavel of committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills).

“Excuse me, this is not your time to argue with me,” Waxman said, shortly before closing the hearings.

In the end, the same combination of cockiness and surliness that led Clemens to pitching glory ultimately carried him to personal shame.

The hearing was held to determine the legitimacy of the Mitchell Report, which the government considers an important tool in ridding baseball of performance-enhancing drugs.

In that report, McNamee claimed that he administered steroids to Clemens and former teammates Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch.

Clemens denied those claims, leading the government to question the entire report, thus calling for today’s unusual hearing to determine whether Clemens or McNamee was lying.

Even before Clemens had a chance to begin his defense, he was knocked silly.

In Waxman’s opening statement, he revealed that, in earlier closed-door testimony, both Pettitte and Knoblauch confirmed McNamee’s assertions about their personal steroid use.

Clemens was asked why McNamee would not lie about them, but lie about him?

He had no good answer.

“If I am guilty of anything, it is being too trusting of others,” Clemens said.

Also in the opening statement, it was revealed that Pettitte confirmed a conversation in which Clemens admitted to using human growth hormone.

Again, Clemens was asked, why would your good friend – honest enough to admit to his own use – lie about this?

He had no good answer.

“I think Andy had misheard,” he said, inventing words. “I think he misremembers.”

Clemens was also dogged by inconsistencies in his own sworn testimony given before the hearing.

On one page he testified that he didn’t know anything about HGH. On another page, he admitted that McNamee injected the drug into his wife and she suffered a reaction.

On one page, he testified that he was unaware that he had an opportunity to give answers, in advance, to the authors of the Mitchell Report. On another page, he said he was advised not to give answers.

“We have found conflicts and inconsistencies in Mr. Clemens’ account,” Waxman said. “During his deposition, he made statements that we know are untrue.”

McNamee, meanwhile, came across as more truthful because he acknowledged earlier lies, and admitted that he had initially downplayed the number of injections given to players because he wanted to protect the players.

“I have helped taint our national pastime,” McNamee said. “Make no mistake: When I told Sen. Mitchell that I injected Roger Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs, I told the truth.”

In the beginning of the hearing, Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) attacked McNamee for apparently lying about Clemens’ presence at a party given by then-teammate Jose Canseco in Toronto.

It was at the party that Clemens allegedly discussed HGH..

Several pieces of sworn testimony, including one from Canseco, claimed that Clemens was never at the party.

Yet later in the hearing, Waxman produced surprise testimony from Clemens’ former nanny that completely supported McNamee’s story of his presence there.

This revelation brought Clemens’ panicked lawyers to their feet, their hands on his back, as if wanting to pull him from the worst start of his career.

It was too late. Clemens was forced to remain seated while the last shred of his reputation disappeared.

“No matter what we discuss here today, I am never going to have my name restored,” Clemens said.

Finally, the truth.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.