The indictment of Roger Clemens on Thursday for lying to Congress about alleged steroid use isn't the end of this saga. It's just another sad chapter.
Every few weeks, it seems, baseball is embarrassed yet again by news that a superstar cheated the game and lied about cheating the game. The news emerges in different ways: Alex Rodriguez, who recently became the seventh player in major-league history to hit 600 home runs, was outed in a book in the winter of 2009, then went on television to explain. Mark McGwire, the first player to hit 70 home runs in a season, tearfully admitted his drug use this past winter because he wanted to work again in Major League Baseball (as the St. Louis Cardinals hitting instructor). Pitcher Andy Pettitte, winner of 240 games in the major leagues, fessed up before spring training in 2008 after being named in the Mitchell Report on steroid use.
And so the list goes on.
Click here for the rest of the column: Roger Clemens: Another fallen giant
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4 comments:
Coincidentally,
Former Hammer Throw champion, Harold Connolly, died the day before Clemens was indicted. Harold admitted to using anabolic steroids, before they were illegal.
Selig's biggest mistake in a career riddled with mistakes was not taking every single player in the Mitchell Report and banning them all from baseball. That players basically admitted they were doping - and baseball would not really do anything about it - has created this slow-motion train wreck that will unfortunately continue for decades. The damage from his non-decision is incalculable.
i just don't see the difference between yogi berra scuffing the ball on his shin guards and throwing it back to whitey ford, mickey mantle taking greenies just so he's awake enough to play and players taking ped's....
also: rose IS in the hall of fame, there's even a room for him and mcguire, sosa and others have their balls and bats there... the only difference is that they don't have a plaque in a small side room near the entrance.
just an opinion.
sittenfeld
As "Cardinal fans in exile," last week my family and I made our annual weekend pilgrimage to Busch Stadium to see our Cardinals play a weekend series with the hated Cubs. My nineteen year old son and I have been making trips there, or to Wrigley Field, to see the Cards since he was old enough to understand about baseball. In the early years, he idolized Mark McGuire, and cheered for him. This week, Albert Pujols became the first player in the history of baseball to begin his career with ten consecutive seasons of .300/30HRs/100RBIs. My son and I would desperately love to believe King Albert has achieved these marvelous feats without the help of chemical assistance; but because of the era in which they were achieved, I suppose we will always wonder. If indeed Albert is "clean," as he repeatedly claims, what a shame that his records will always be viewed as "suspect." Do you suppose that there might be the slightest bit of resentment in that Cardinal clubhouse because of that, as we may mistakenly paint him with the same brush as his hitting coach? I don't know, but the whole issue is painful for my son and I to discuss.
Lastly, you mentioned that you read these responses fairly regularly. Well, I don't often yank your chain like some of the respondents, as I mostly find myself in agreement, or at least in appreciation of your insight. I must once again though ask that you reconsider your stand on a Dean Smith book. With all of your books dealing with aspects of ACC basketball, with what must be a humongous "Dean Smith file" of quotes and antecdotes, and with several generations of former players that would love to share their recollections, I can't for the life of me understand why you wouldn't proceed with this story.
There.... I've vented. Go write the book!!
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