So let me get this straight. Now that Roger Clemens has been acquitted of all the federal charges against him involving lying to Congress, I am supposed to believe that Brian McNamee supplied Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch and even Debbie Clemens with the juice, but Clemens never let McNamee, the trainer whose salary he was paying, touch him with steroids or HGH? Really? C'mon now. It's all Roger's hard work that enabled him to throw a fastball into his mid-40s? Spare me.
I am unsurprised by the verdict, and expected as much ever since Andy Pettitte backtracked on his testimony -- thanks for nothing, buddy. Not to mention that when you have not one but two people thrown off the jury for falling asleep, the prosecution isn't exactly putting on a scintillating case. It also didn't help that the jurors were picked because they knew nothing about baseball.
I read and watch a lot of true crime stuff, and whenever I see a trial, I am usually aware of what the great trial lawyer Gerry Spence advises attorneys: tell a story. That means to say something understandable for the jurors to ponder. That doesn't mean spending almost two months on minutia. I was on a murder trial that took less than a week. The prosecution in the Jerry Sandusky trial managed to tell eight victims' stories in four days. Yet this Roger Clemens trial dragged on for 10 weeks, much of it due to the prosecution's inability to tell a coherent story.
But the verdict isn't really a true vindication of Clemens. The thing is, my issue with Clemens at this point is more about the lying and the sanctimony than the steroids and the HGH. I think that he and Barry Bonds were both Hall of Famers before they ever touched a needle. That being said, don't give me this garbage about how it was just that hard work that enabled Clemens to pitch through 2007. Of course he worked hard -- PEDs generally don't work unless the player works out as well. But that doesn't mean he's innocent.
And I hope this verdict doesn't mean he gets invited back into the Yankee fold. It already makes me vomit that Joe Torre got such cheers at last year's Old Timers' Day. Seeing Roger Clemens get such accolades will make me just as sick.
What do you think? Tell us about it.
4 comments:
I wrote about this in my own blog, and it boils down to this: Hall of Fame, yes; Monument Park, No.
he will never be welcomed back by Yankee Fans, he never was really liked, The best thing I can say is that he didn't F**K it up in a Yankee Uniform.
"I wrote about this in my own blog...". The blog that nobody reads? That one?
Clemens will go into the Hall of Fame with a Red Sox cap because the majority of his achievements happened there. I should say his best years were in Boston. Once he got to New York, it was all downhill. The steroids, being on a team full of steroid abusers, being on a team run by extortionists, the grossly bloated payrolls, it goes on and on. There should be a HUGE asterisk next to his HOF plaque, though, to remind people that his accomplishments in Boston were in NO WAY are connected to the cheating and steroids that happened while in New York.
"...he never was really liked..." You mean like when George was buying trophy after trophy and everyone was so glad that George was paying for the "the Rocket", and you idiots were sanctifying Clemens? George even said that "he was a great warrior for us" as he was retiring but before he decided to pitch for the Astros.
So how many roidies is this now? Clemens, A-roid, Giambi, Pettite, the list goes on and on. Oh but the Yankers are a classy organization. Yeah, okay.
"His best years" were 1999 and 2000. Not that you would know that, since you haven't won a World Series since Reagan was caught selling weapons to the Ayatollah.
"You mean like when George was buying trophy after trophy... " Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon spent more than anybody in the 1980s, and they were only able to buy ONE trophy.
"So how many roidies is this now?" Counting or NOT counting Mike Piazza? Your team cheated and failed.
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