McNamee selling Clemens items instead of tossing them

[BTO]

rian McNamee is selling between 50 and 60 pieces of signed Roger Clemens memorabilia through a Boston-area dealer.

McNamee, who faces a defamation lawsuit from Clemens after testifying to Mitchell report investigators and Congress that he injected the seven-time Cy Young Award-winner with steroids and human growth hormone, has turned the items over to sports memorabilia dealer Phil Castinetti of Sportsworld in Saugus, Mass.

The story was first reported by the Boston Herald.

Items signed by Jose Canseco, Andy Pettitte and Jason Grimsley are also part of the sale.

Castinetti believes the items, including signed hats, jerseys, photographs and baseballs, could fetch as much as $75,000. He has already starting listing them on the Internet auction site eBay.

"He was going to throw this stuff away," Castinetti told the New York Daily News. "Because of the hard feelings between him and Clemens, he wanted nothing to do with it."

The Daily News reported neither Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, nor his agents, Randy and Alan Hendricks, returned calls seeking comment.

Steve Cardillo, a mutual friend of McNamee and Castinetti, said he convinced McNamee to sell the items rather than discard them and possibly donate the proceeds for juvenile diabetes research, the Daily News reported.

"You might as well make something good out of a bad situation," Cardillo said, according to the Daily News.

At Castinetti's suggestion, McNamee added his signature to many of the items.

"There are millions of Roger Clemens autographs out there," Castinetti told the Daily News. "There are maybe 30 or 40 of Clemens and McNamee together. That's the whole thing with this hobby now -- the limited editions are really where it's at. Hard-core collectors are going to want something like this."

Castinetti told the Herald and the Daily News that on one photo being offered. Clemens wrote, "Cy 6" next to his name, in honor of his sixth Cy Young award. Beneath it, McNamee signed his name and added "Ly 0" -- as in "telling zero lies," Castinetti said.

Castinetti said McNamee will receive 80 percent of the proceeds, according to the Daily News.