On 2nd Thought: Roger Clemens…
February 10, 2008
Better & bigger with ageAndrew Eggers
I think people who truly pay attention to baseball expected that Roger Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs at one point in his career. If you followed him over the years like I have, you probably have noticed that he has gotten better and bigger with age, just like Barry Bonds. I bet Bonds is smiling, somewhere, knowing that he is not the only poster child for the steroid era in baseball now that seven-time Cy Young Award winner Clemens has joined him in the scandal.
Now that arguably the greatest pitcher and hitter of all-time have both been accused in the performance-enhancing witch hunt, what are baseball fans supposed to think? Well, I know that I have been looking extra hard into the fact that more and more superstars used that trash in their bodies trying to get an edge on their competition.
Do I think Clemens and Bonds did it? Yeah, they probably did it and their intentions were probably to stay at the top of their game for as long as possible. Both wanted to be a part of baseball history by being the best at their position, but they have severely damaged the game as a whole. You know it is not a good look when Congress steps in and has to regulate a situation in a professional sport.
The worst thing about this whole scandal is the fact that Clemens and Bonds are role models for millions of younger baseball players everywhere and their actions might rub off on them. High school and college baseball players may accept the fact that they too need to use performance-enhancing drugs to compete with players at the next level. Thanks to Clemens, Bonds, Canseco, McGwire and Palmeiro, the sport may be filled with undercover juicers who cheat to gain an advantage.
For example, I play adult Sunday league baseball here in Sacramento during the summer and I knew of at least three players in the league last season that were using performance-enhancing drugs because they thought it would make them better players. What is next? Co-ed slow pitch softball leagues littered with 40-year-olds taking steroid shots in porta-poties before games?
That is why I believe Babe Ruth was the greatest baseball player ever; who, by the way was a great pitcher before he became a great hitter. His only performance-enhancing drugs were alcohol, tobacco and the occasional loose lady.
Admit it alreadyJustin Tejada
You’d think baseball players today should know a few things about coming clean. The media’s spotlight has been focused on the rampant allegations of steroid abuse for more than a few years now.
It would be a lot better for everyone involved, and even more so for the fans, if everyone who took steroids just admitted it all in one go so we can at least TRY to bring the Steroid Era of baseball to a close.
The coverage of each event is like a mirror of the previous one that it’s almost down to a science by now. The player in question denies the allegations for months on end, despite mounting evidence, until they get ratted out by some inside source and they step forth with their hands up in the air saying, “Oh? well, yeah, me too.” In more recent times, the spotlight has fallen on Roger Clemens. It’s bad enough to appear on a list that mentions your name multiple times about the alleged use of various steroids and growth hormones. And I’m sure it just stings even more when you find out that the person who leaked out that info was your former training coach, Brian McNamee. But it’s just in bad taste to go on 60 Minutes and answer a question about what he could possibly gain if he was lying with, “Well, I think he’s been buying and moving steroids.” No Clemens. You do know he was in the practice of buying and moving steroids. And I’m sure that by moving, you mean injecting. After all, McNamee admitted it himself. Clemens should act like a man and admit his faults so he can save himself and the rest of us a headache in the long run. He can protest his innocence all he wants for now but it’s only a matter of time.
The ‘Roidet’Jordan Guinn
I have been saying it for years. I never wrote it because I did not want to get sued, but I always wondered aloud how Roger Clemens’ jaw line could expand in his late thirties. The answer is obvious. Clemens has been a pincushion for a decade or so, and now all the people that denounced Barry Bonds’ accomplishments have to backpedal to defend the ‘Roidet.
If you meet anyone who tries to use the 18,000-word dissertation that Hendricks Sports Management recently released to defend Clemens, be sure to compliment his or her rose-colored reading glasses. All that proves is that massaging numbers is not just for financial books anymore.
We all know the allegations and innuendo. There is more than sufficient circumstantial evidence to convict him in the court of public opinion, so Clemens has an uphill battle. Seeing numerous athletes named in the Mitchell Report concede the report’s findings as accurate does not help No. 2 on the all-time strikeout list, either.
Clemens met trainer Brian McNamee in Toronto when ‘Roidet was pitching for the Blue Jays in 1998. Since hitting it off in their first season together, in which Clemens went on a remarkable 14-game winning streak en route to his fourth Cy Young, Clemens and McNamee developed a strong work relationship. Not only did McNamee train Clemens all year long, but McNamee also followed Clemens to the Yankees and Astros over the years.
Clemens’ credibility doesn’t help his cause either. He proved himself to be a horrible liar in 2000 when he threw half a broken bat at Mike Piazza, a player he had beaned and given a concussion earlier that season, during the World Series. Clemens said he thought the broken bat was the baseball. In Clemens’ defense, shattered wood and stitched leather do feel remarkably alike.
For the record, let me again state that the federal government should have more to worry about than steroids in baseball. As much as I want to see Clemens crucified in the same manner Bonds was, there is no justice in wasting taxpayer time and money on another soap opera. Not while violent criminals and sexual predators breeze through our revolving-door prisons and social security melts away like the polar icecaps.
He did it… but so did everyone elseDavid Green
Of course Roger Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs, it is the newtrend in Major League Baseball. Can we really blame him? All of the athletes in professional sports that break these records are taking the needle! Barry Bonds broke the home run record and he was on the juice. In track, world record-holders Marion Jones and her ex-husband TimMontgomery were taking steroids when they were in their prime. Steroids are circulating all through professional sports. It will be wild to see a professional row team indicted for using performance-enhancing drugs, but I digress. Who really cares if Clemens did use steroids? I would rather see my tax dollars used for something a little more meaningful than all these athletes being taken to trial for taking drugs to getstronger. Sure, old players like Hank Aaron are pissed to see their records being broken by cheaters, but the game is more exciting now with all those home runs. That is, after all, what the fan wants. With all the money that athletes make and all the people that worship them, they have to live up to their hype. The fans are also the ones to blame here because of all the stress they put on pro athletes to be the best. The media bashes hitters and pitchers for being in a slump and basically demands them to be more than human and be perfect all the time. In professional sports you need to be strong, and now a day’s strength means you need to takesteroids. Only for baseball though because it is already boring enough as it is, it needs some excitement. Being all juiced up in pro sports is the ‘it’ thing to do, and Clemens just wanted to be cool. However, the kids in high school sports see it and think that is how they get the upper hand on theiropponents. Of course, there are young ball players that want to be the next Barry Bonds or Mark McGuire, and they probably think being on performance-enhancing drugs will be their ticket to be like their idols. So yes, Clemens is getting buff and recovering faster than most players because he is taking steroids, but we can’t bash him because more than likely more than half of the MLB is on some performance-enhancing treatment, and I am not talking about the good old fashion weight lifting.
Come clean, RogerCameron Ross
Rogers Clemens hasn’t learned a thing from Barry Bonds. One may think he’d avoid the approach that’s made Bonds a controversial public figure.
Clemens is one of the most listed athletes in the Mitchell Report and while others have admitted use of performance-enhancing substances, Clemens and Bonds refuse admittance.
In order to see the awkwardness of Clemens’ situation, one must look at the big picture.
Clemens is a power pitcher who relies on a heavy fastball to be successful, so therefore his strength and fitness are vital in order to stay healthy enough to fire fastballs in the mid 90s.
How can a pitcher nearly 40-years-old have a 20-3 season? Very few pitchers have been as dominant as Clemens at his age in their careers.
Clemens won the Cy Young award when he was 42, pitching against an entire league of the best players in the world. He had excellent stats but how can a 42-year-old out-pitch dozens of others who are in their physical prime and also 10 to 20 years younger?
When the time comes to elect Clemens into the Hall of Fame, it is likely that his earlier career accomplishments will be enough to garner him an adequate number of votes.
So why won’t Clemens admit to whatever he did, like all the other players who have put the HGH and steroid saga behind them? He insists on the same stance as Barry Bonds: denial.
He could end all of the controversy and constant questioning and probably still end up in the Hall of Fame if he would stop being so stubborn.
The obstinacy is probably because Clemens and Bonds have the most prestigious and accomplished careers of all the athletes mentioned in the Mitchell Report.
There is evidence that Clemens was given injections, yet he denies he knew that he was using performance-enhancing drugs.
Being best friends with Andy Pettitte is also bad for Clemens because Pettitte admitted to using HGH in the past to heal from injuries.
Too bored to careAlexander Villanueva
I’m speaking as someone who isn’t a Major League Baseball fan or a baseball fan in general because I get easily bored with games that are too long and way too slow. So when I heard the news about Roger Clemens that he may or may not have taken a form of steroids, I didn’t care so much because I could care less about the sport itself.
Yes, baseball is the “All-American” sport, but I think that it’s just plain boring. But I do have a soft spot for the pitchers because there is so much technique and stamina involved for them. They throw pitch after pitch and throw at a constant high speed without their arm getting sore. But even when I heard about the stories on Roger Clemens that there may be a possibility that he took steroids, I just didn’t care.
To me Roger Clemens can snort cocaine, smoke marijuana, take shots of heroin, horse tranquilizers and every single steroid available, and I still wouldn’t care as long as I can see some great hits. Instead I have to watch lousy bunts, crappy hits that barely allow players to get past first base and one too many foul balls to count.
And on the subject of steroids: Who cares?! Its not like the steroids are doing any harm to me, just the players that sacrifice their bodies to entertain the millions and millions of people watching.
And as someone who gets easily bored at baseball games, I want to see crap loads of home runs to counteract the boredom. Just watching or reading about baseball as it currently is puts me to sleep. So to spite many, many people (including my friends), I will cheer for Barry Bonds.
And people who are baseball fans are probably, if not most likely, going to be mad by the time they finish reading this, so you can send me your hate mail.
Not looking good for ClemensJose Martinez
Steroids are no longer just for the guys who can “hit the long ball.” Now they’ve surfaced on guys who can pitch the fast ball. Of the two teammates Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, who were both named in the Mitchell Report for allegedly using steroids, Clemens has decided to take a stand against the claims made against him. Brian McNamee stated in the Mitchell Report that he had injected Clemens 16 times with steroids or HGH in a four-year span. He also added that he injected Pettitte with HGH multiple times. If that weren’t enough, a few days after the report was released Pettitte admitted he had used HGH in the years stated in the report. Now Pettitte will discuss with the congressional committee in charge of the Mitchell Report that he had discussed steroids with Clemens on multiple occasions.
There is no problem with Clemens saying he didn’t use steroids, but when your trainer and your good friend sell you out it becomes hard to deem your repeated statements truthful.
Clemens has two strikes on him before he even gets a chance to step up to the plate and discuss his situation in a meeting with a congressional committee. After repeated statements of denial and interviews with all different types of television programs saying that he didn’t use any performance-enhancing drugs, how much longer can Clemens keep a straight face? I guess he will have to keep a really good poker face as he heads into his congressional meeting on Feb. 5. Yeah, people can say that steroids don’t influence one’s work ethic, but yes they can. They can keep your body in better shape and help you recover from injuries quicker, which leads to more time in the weight room and more time with a personal trainer. In Clemens’ case, apparently more time with a personal trainer meant more time with a syringe as well. A big circus is being made in the baseball world about an 18,000-word statistical report released by Clemens’ agent that defends all of the stats accumulated by Clemens, after the “alleged” steroid-use took place. His agent goes into detail about how it wasn’t performance-enhancing drugs that allowed Clemens to pitch at such a high magnitude at his age but how Clemens changed his style of pitching. I mean, is this guy serious? It’s your job to defend your client. That’s what agents do when their player is under the knife: They get paid to defend him. If it acts like a fish, smells like a fish and looks like a fish? chances are it’s a fish. So a few words of wisdom for Clemens: you’d better hope you’re right, because if you’re not, say bye-bye to what we all thought was a sure-fire seat in the hall.
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