Leave Roger Clemens Alone
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Everyone has been coming down on Roger Clemens since his name was linked to steroids. I have four words for those people: Leave Roger Clemens Alone!
Even if the allegations are true that Clemens was juiced up on ‘roids, it shouldn’t take away much of what he accomplished. He was a great pitcher in a time when steroids ran rampant. If Clemens was taking steroids, he was only leveling the playing field.
Besides, since the beginning of time, pitchers have used everything at their disposal to get batters out. Show me an honest pitcher and I’ll show you a losing pitcher. Pitchers have always stretched the rules – from throwing Vaseline-laced curveballs to using a piece of cardboard to throw a better slider.
The use of steroids isn’t a subject to laugh at and baseball and the rest of the sporting world is right to crack down on the usage. However, it’s wrong to try to go back and alter history. We will never know which baseball players took steroids and whether or not those steroids helped or hurt the players in question. The only responsible thing to do is find a way to end steroids in baseball and move on. You can’t go back and fix the last 20 years of steroid use.
And for all the effort and hard work Clemens put into the game of baseball, you would think baseball fans would be appreciative. Here’s a guy who pitched from age 21 to age 44. During that time, he was undoubtedly the best pitcher in the game. And while a small percentage of his success might be attributed to steroids, the overwhelming reason for Clemens having success is he’s a damn good pitcher. Steroids aren’t going to turn a bad pitcher into the best pitcher in the game.
If Clemens has pitched his final game, the only thing you can do is tip your hat and thank him for the entertainment he provided during his time in the game of baseball. Clemens was far from the only player in the game to be juiced up, so leave him alone and let’s move on.
