Baseball been berry, berry good to me.

So went the line from an old Saturday Night Live routine starring Garrett Morris as “Chico Escuela”, the lavishly paid immigrant ballplayer from some island country in the Caribbean.

Doubtless if you are handling the PR for an athlete summoned to testify before Congress on the use of steroids, you may shortly find out whether baseball will continue to be berry, berry good to your client – or not.

It helps, of course, if your client is telling the truth. The common assessment of those who saw the televised hearings with New York Yankee superstar Roger Clemens and Yankee trainer Brian MacNamee was that one of the two looked the assembled congressmen in the eye and, well, lied. Flat out.

Now what? Short of getting into some long form version of that classic sibling repartee when hauled up short by an angry Mom – “did so!” “did not!” – you have a real problem on your hands.

Our point here is not to pick sides. We have no idea who did what or didn’t. But the dilemma posed goes well beyond baseball. What do you do if your client suddenly finds they are in the middle of a very public moment – and they’re charged in some fashion with not telling the truth?

Obviously, telling the truth is not only the morally right thing to do, it’s critical for your client’s brand. Forbes.com has already suggested that whatever is the case with Clemens, his marketability has been destroyed by his involvement in the steroids controversy. While this episode comes sufficiently late in Clemens’ career that he presumably doesn’t need endorsements to feed his family, surely he is not pleased at the situation in which he finds himself.

Protecting the brand is the primary concern as firms represent clients to the public. Anything that takes the public’s attention from the fact that a client is in the business of selling the best burgers or beer or widgets is something that detracts. While there are surely cases that confirm the old wisdom about not caring what someone in the media says about a client as long as they spell the client’s name right, this is of little use if your client’s product is being fatally damaged.

The brand, the brand, the brand. Keeping your eye on that all important ball – first, last and always – can be berry, berry good for your client.