Clemens had relationship with Mindy McCready

Who is Malinda Gayle "Mindy" McCready (b. November 30, 1975, Fort Myers, Florida) is an American country music artist. Active since 1996, she has recorded a total of four studio albums, and has charted more than ten singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. Her highest-charting hit to date is "Guys Do It All the Time", which reached Number One for one week in September 1996. Although she has not charted a single since 2002, McCready has received significant media coverage regarding personal events in her life.


Roger Clemens had a decade-long relationship with country star Mindy McCready that began when she was a 15-year-old aspiring singer and the pitcher was a Boston Red Sox ace, the Daily News reported.

Clemens' lawyer, Rusty Hardin, confirmed a long-term relationship but told the newspaper it was not sexual.

"He flatly denies having had any kind of an inappropriate relationship with her," Hardin said. "He's considered her a close family friend. ... He has never had a sexual relationship with her."

Clemens was 28 and a married father of two when he first met McCready, the newspaper reported.

The story, which appeared on the newspaper's Web site Sunday night and in editions Monday, quoted several people who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation. It said Clemens sent cash to McCready to help her with legal issues and reached out to her when she was in jail last year in Tennessee.

The 32-year-old McCready, sentenced last September for violating probation from a 2004 drug arrest, was released from jail last Dec. 30. The violation occurred in July when McCready was accused of scuffling with her mother and resisting arrest at her mother's home in Fort Myers, Fla. She still must serve two years' probation.

McCready had a No. 1 single in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time."

The revelation could undermine Clemens' reputation, which is central to the defamation suit the former pitcher has filed against former personal trainer Brian McNamee. McNamee contends Clemens used performance-enhancing substances during his major league career.

"If true, it's just another example of Roger's pervasive prevarications which will be at the core of any defamation case," said McNamee's attorney, Richard Emery, in an e-mail to The Associated Press.