Brian McNamee, the onetime personal strength and conditioning coach for former Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Astros pitcher Roger Clemens, is self-publishing a book that will reveal his perspective on Clemens’s steroids controversy. Death, Taxes, and Mac: Brian McNamee in His Own Words, written with Marc Zappulla, drops February 17, 2010, the same day Yankee pitchers and catchers report for spring training in Tampa, Fla.
McNamee is self-publishing the book under the name Sports Improper Publications, LLC; Book Masters will distribute. The $26.95 hardcover is embargoed, and McNamee is not currently doing any interviews. Planned TV Arts is handling publicity. Brian Feinblum of Planned TV said McNamee was approached by several traditional publishers but they “could not guarantee that the story would be written exactly how Mac wanted it to be written. It was important to Mac that the story be told from his vantage point,” Feinblum told PW.
The book purports to tell McNamee’s life story, including how he joined the Yankees in the mid-1990s as a batting practice pitcher and bullpen catcher, which led to him becoming head strength and conditioning coach for the Toronto Blue Jays—where he met Clemens. Death, Taxes, and Mac presents “scores of stories... with the humor and insight only afforded an insider. Brian offers a rare glimpse from the clubhouse with a vantage point hardly heard from: the training room.”
