Say It Ain't So, Roger!

Finally, this blog is not just for girls, and bellies. I am making my blogging debut with a subject that has dashed my childhood beliefs.

The first baseball card pack I ever opened up in the summer of 1987 had one baseball card sitting on top. It was a Roger Clemens record breaker, commemorating his 20 strikeout game in 1986. From that moment the Rocket has been the one player that I have always loved. His ability to dominate games, his intensity, his discipline, his desire have all been things I have admired. Even when he was on the Red Sox, Blue Jays, my beloved Yankees, or the Astros, I always followed his every start and made a point of watching games he pitched, whether I was in Florida, New Jersey, England, or Afghanistan. The above picture is of Roger celebrating his 300th victory against the Cardinals in 2003, a game which I was at with Mike Syvertsen.

So obviously the news from the Mitchell Report, and what some pundits are dubbing the "Clemens Report" has caused much heartache. I find myself not wanting to believe that Clemens was involved in any steroid use. How can the word of one trainer be taken as the gospel truth? But the evidence is there. At least one time that McNamee claims to have injected Clemens with steroids corresponds directly with a drastic turnaround in performance. Also Clemens name is cited 82 times in the Mitchell Report, more than any other player.

What now? If the first time Roger ever used steroids was 1998, which was at least the first time that the Mitchell Report cites, then he was already Hall of Fame bound, and a 14 year veteran. But the next 9 years of his career are where he becomes truly great. Winning two world championships, and having dominating seasons in his 40's as a member of the Houston Astros. He reached 354 victories and now is second all time in strikeouts. All these accomplishments in the past 9 years are the capstone to his career that made people talk about Clemens as being one of the best to ever play the game. But it is impossible to know when he started steroid use, for it definitely could have been before 1998. Therefore how do we judge his record? Has he so tarnished his image that he will go on the growing list of Cooperstown shutouts with Joe Jackson, Pete Rose, and Mark McGwire?

Perhaps Kate did have supreme wisdom 7 months ago when she rejected the name Roger Clemens Van Yperen for our son. But I still want to return to my childhood belief in Clemens, for some reason I can't let his greatness go, even in the face of the evidence. I feel exactly what the child felt that confronted Shoeless Joe: Say it ain't so, Roger! Say it ain't so.