Seth Mnookin takes a tentative stab at what I've been saying for years - Roger Clemens is a steroid user, and no one seems to care.It's easy to laugh when Barry Bonds claims he's the victim of unfair media treatment, but because of Roger Clemens, I always felt Bonds sort of had a point. I'm not a fan of Barry Bonds, and yes he uses steroids, and he's clearly a douchebag. But so is Clemens - in my mind, Bonds and Clemens are one and the same, but their media coverage most definitely is not. The circumstantial evidence against Clemens is overwhelming. After going 40-39 from '93 to '96, Clemens mysteriously got a lot bigger and stronger, and experienced a career resurgence that has lasted until the age of 44, literally unheard of for a power pitcher. Clemens' personal strength coach, Brian McNamee, is a known supplier of anabolic steroids and HGH. Clemens has experienced public outbursts of roid rage, most notably his attempt to throw a broken bat at Mike Piazza in the World Series. Oh, and Jason Grimsley named Clemens as a user in his federal affidavit. Motive, means, opportunity, an eyewitness and a boatload of supporting circumstantial evidence and common sense. If this were a trial, a prosecutor would be fired for losing this case. To believe Clemens is not a steroid user is in roughly the same vicinity as believing in the tooth fairy. I've said before that I don't care too much about steroids, and that is true of Clemens as well. But if you do care about such things - well, you should think about Roger Clemens.
One could chalk up the difference in media coverage to Bonds being an asshole, but Clemens doesn't fare too well there either. Clemens has led the league in hit batsmen and been in the top 10 several other times, playing almost exclusively in a league where he never had to bat himself. Brushbacks are part of the game - Clemens is a headhunter. His knockdown of Alex Rodriguez (who doesn't have a Mo Vaughn-Barry Bonds like hunch over the plate) in the 2000 ALCS comes to mind. And I don't mean to resort to namecalling, but he's just a douchebag in general. He's complained publicly about having, at times, to carry his own luggage. He named his 4 children Koby, Kory, Kacy and Kody (since he gets "Ks" in baseball for strikeouts), which is preposterously self-absorbed and idiotic, analogous to an investment banker naming his children $teve, $ally, and Jame$. When asked about the devotion of Asian baseball fans at the WBC, he responded with "None of the dry cleaners were open, they were all at the game, Japan and Korea."I don’t hate Barry Bonds, and I don't hate Roger Clemens. But most people hate Barry Bonds - I've never understood why most people don't hate Roger Clemens.
3 comments:
i wasn't lying when i said that your blog was my bible. i have read this most recent entry ;)
Hmmm, I don't know whether you are a coward for not mentioning race, or whether you should be applauded for not turning it into an issue about race. Or did you make it about race without explicitly making it about race? Interesting...
I was curious how many people felt this was an issue of race, but chose not to say it explicitly. I happen to believe it is not entirely an issue of race - the record Bonds is chasing belongs to a black man, one of the most prominent anti-Bonds writers, Jeff Pearlman, is the same guy who wrote the John Rocker story, etc. Bonds is legitimately a really unpleasant guy and that it comes through in media coverage of him, I think, has little to do with his race. I'll concede, though, that Clemens may represent some great American ideal to some people. A corn-fed, fastball-hurling, I-take-no-bullshit and sometimes don't shave and won't drink imported beers man that the sports media seems to love regardless of other flaws (see: Brett Favre, Nolan Ryan). And the image of that "man" is most definitely white. I'm not decided on this, so I'm curious to hear other feedback, but you're right, the worship of Clemens may indeed have everything to do with race.
Post a Comment