Sunday, January 06, 2008

Roger Clemens

The big interview on "60 Minutes" will be on tonight after the football game. I'll watch -- even though I don't think my mind will be changed. I truly believe that Roger Clemens took performing-enhancing drugs -- and not B-12 shots from his trainer. I thought it before the Mitchell Report came out and I still think it.

The fact that a lot of the people named in the Report have come forward to say it's true and offer their apologies and excuses only cements my belief. No professional athlete gets better in their 30s and 40s than they were in their 20s -- no matter how amazingly sick and disciplined they are with their workout regimes and conditioning.

I was listening to ESPN Radio the other day at work, and he host made an excellent point. Who is the greatest basketball player of our time? Are you telling me that Michael Jordan wasn't disciplined, wasn't serious about his workouts? And still....Michael Jordan in his 30s, compared to Michael Jordan in his 20s, sucked. He was still good, still able to compete on the professional level, but he was not the same caliber player he was with the Bulls. Not even close.

And so for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens to say make us all think that they've legitimately (and drug-free) gotten better on their own, I just have to shake my head. I may have been born at night, but I wasn't born last night.

But what does it all mean? Can baseball fix itself? I think it can. It has in the past and it will again. Just as Babe Ruth saved baseball after the Black Sox scandal, just as Cal Ripken saved baseball after the 1994 strike, I think there will be someone else. Perhaps, Alex Rodriguez's chase to the top of the home run list, perhaps someone we haven't even heard of yet.

And hopefully whatever it is, it will be a drug-free celebration.

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