Pardoning Roger Clemens

Anything that will just put the whole Clemens circus in the background I’m for, I’m just not sure a pardon would do it. Sure, legally it ends it, but then you still hear about it, and for a little while the pardon would be a mega story, especially if Bonds, and some of the other guys didn’t get it, although they are the ones facing the most legal woes.

I love the fact that the Clemens/underage ad is right below this post.

That said, honestly, I’d be okay with a pardon. His reputation’s already suffered enough, and I can’t imagine what his kids are going through.

As for this entire witchhunt, the damage has already been done, but if I were a voter, I’d still unquestionablly vote in just about all of the so called roiders who’s stats were convincing enough.

i was in grand rapids mi.. watching the game that the umps made the rocket take off his 300 club glove.. my gf was pissed but i made her watch until clemens got 300.. god i miss a WOMAN that will put up with me and the yanks..

I’ve posted some of this before but made some tweaks:

Undoubtedly For the past couple of years I have tried to ignore the steroid conversation as it has distracted too many from the simple game of baseball. Sad as it was, half of baseball’s coverage in 2007 was dedicated to the subject of steroids rather than the actual game. But now that it is subsiding, perhaps it is something that should be discussed openly and truthfully – without the knee-jerk, good guy, bad-guy mentality – and hopefully with some common sense.

From the late 80’s until 2000-whatever players where doing nothing different as they bent the rules in any way they could to their team the win. That is really the history of baseball – is it not? That is competition. There was a long day ago when the curveball was ungentlemanly. A stolen base is stolen. We’ve all seen guys try to sneak down to first when they knew they were out. To a degree cheating has always been a part of the game. You can think of scuffed balls, corked bats, spitters and Vaseline under the cap, stolen signs, and speed – the first of the PEDs to be widely used.

There are many examples in our game of players looking to get an edge even if that edge is a little dirty. So why are steroids so much worse? I’d guess it’s because steroids changed the game so much. They challenged our sense of history and what a great player was capable of. Steroids pumped up the numbers. But why, and why for so long? The reason was because there was a blind eye as most fans liked what they saw. They loved the numbers until the argument was raised that what they were seeing was a cheat. I think people were fine with the home runs, and the super play. However, in the end, their heroes were vilified. Their favorite players became bad guys and so they felt wronged.

However, we have to consider that it was not an anomaly, it was, a large part of the game. And to the rule – players have always been given leeway. And in this case, I’d say they surely were for some time.

So when do we condemn? My belief is that it happened when the commissioner’s office and the union said enough is enough. Before that, players were doing all they could for their teams, and surely for themselves. Understanding that, do you not convict the culture and what was allowed? Do you not get angry that there was no testing policy?

There is where I have a problem. There is where I find fault in stripping individuals who still rose above their era. How do you deny them for what they accomplished?

No one knows the percent of players that used drugs to enhance their ability. But everyone knows that there was a good many that did. Perhaps a majority, and undoubtedly, at the time, nobody did anything about it.

However, once the cleanup began it was easy to find examples and ultimately scapegoats – the best players of that era. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa- who probably would not have passed 61; Barry Bonds – who may have never passed Hank; Roger Clemens – who would not have finished with 354 wins.

Do we really strip them? We’ve already taken the game away from the last two. But are we so blind, not to see that it was allowed? Are we not to blame baseball? I personally will never doubt the talent of all three mentioned. But I will doubt the logic that picks and chooses history when it never had a set date.

Roger and Barry will probably see their day in court, but a blind jury is what they will truly have, but it will not be to their gain.

Pardon them both…and Tejada…. and be done with it….

Unfortunately the whole era is tainted by steroids. It was a sign of the times. Clemens, McGuire, Sosa, Canseco, Caminiti, Bonds and many others were only doing what was fairly normal for the times. Also, these substances weren’t specifically banned by baseball during the era, altho’ they were illegal, in some cases, generally. You would probably only have a handful of players in the Hall of Famer if you banned everyone who ingested illegal substances. Alcohol in the Twenties. Pot, coke and amphetemines in the Sixties thru Eighties. On top of that other eras have been tainted by the exclusion of blacks and latinos and the depletion of talent by wars. What all this adds up to, to me, is that I personally pardon all of these guys because they were a product of their times and Clemens and Bonds belong in the Hall of Fame because they were great players relative to their times. However, I would take their lifetime stats with a big grain of salt because they obviously prolonged their productive careers many years well into their Forties by their use of steroids, but they were still great players.