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Is Clemens Clean?
Published: 2/8/2008 10:12 AM
Last Modified: 2/8/2008 10:12 AM

There may be no evidence that would make the cut in an actual trial but the test of credibility currently underway with Roger Clemens is being decided in the court of public opinion.
In that court, there is no burden of proof.
Clemens understands and is doing all he can to discredit Brian McNamee's claims that Clemens used performance enhancing drugs.
While McNamee was in Washington to deliver alleged proof of Clemens' drug use, Clemens was walking the halls and shaking hands with legislators.
Right now it would appear Clemens is not winning the public.
Because of the history of athlete lying about performance enhancing drugs, the public is rightfully skeptical about claims of innocence.
Admission of drug use by a former teammate, who will also testify before congress, hurts Clemens' credibility.
We may never know the truth and that will cloud the legacy of Clemens.



Reader Comments 8 Total

canester2002 (5 years ago)
Clemens walking around the halls and shaking hands with legislators trying to use his stature in the game to influence things tells me he is way desperate.

The pitcher doth protest too much, methinks.
Jim J (5 years ago)
Roger Clemens works as hard as anyone to get his 'older than a normal player' body ready to throw and field. My question is, in his quest to continue to be a dominate pitcher, did he cross the line with all these substances, shots, creams, growth hormones, or what ever? Now we hear that his wife was even injected before a photo shoot for SI. Was he so comfortable with what he was allegedly doing that he enlisted his own wife to become a part of this 'athletic junkie' mania? It raises questions and eyebrows, and what of his former trainer keeping old viles and syringes from six or seven years ago, what is that about? Until we see hard evidence, let's just hope that the best righty of this time is not 'juiced'.
I am still grimacing from listening to an interview with whom I think is the best right handed pitcher of all time, Bob Gibson, say right into the camera that he wished the stuff was around when he pitched in the 60's, because he would have 'done anything he could to make himself a better pitcher'. Gibby, you didn't need anything else, you were awesome!
Lee (5 years ago)
Jim I agree. The fact the trainer or supposedly is caring around the needles that long makes me very suspicious of him. I will even go so far as to say that he could be the "narc" if you will that the law is using to gather the so called evidence in their hunt. I have seen this done in the past. Law will bring in someone from the outside and place them amongst the sheep and buddy up to them. In his case he was already there and could be some promises being made. The justice system in whatever fashion it is in this situation can and will do whatever it takes to take someone down at times no matter how crooked it is. I've seen it done and it is a shame. Like you said, till good evidence comes out he is still okay in my book. I'm not saying he didn't but so far I don't see it.
sbtulsa (5 years ago)
Thank barry bonds for a lot of this skepticism. While his numbers were prodigious, his change in body type was equally so. Pretty obvious to the fan/observer. Many people go to gyms and work out these days. a lot of those people are pretty savvy about weight lifting and its effects. They can pretty well tell that bonds was not truthfull about his increase in strength. Clemens is denying just like Bonds did. So people assume he's a user just like bonds was.

In the end, basebal may get congress in its management simply because the sport has enjoyed an anti trust exemption for so many years. These elected officials don't want to be associated with people who broke the rules in secret.

mr. pot, meet mr. kettle. You two have a lot in common.
M (5 years ago)
I'm split on whether I think he used or not. I do know that the government is wasting a lot of time and money going after these athletes. They helped get stricter rules and and harsher penalties in place which was great. However, they are not accomplishing anything by going after these athletes individually. Now they are looking into the spygate thing. Does our federal government not have more important issues to be dealing with? Come on.
JD (5 years ago)
I miss the "old" America where people were innocent until proven guilty and their trials were in courtrooms and not in the media.
d. winton (5 years ago)
Is there a method of telling the truth? Is the a test to prove a drug in usage? When is a wrong right to tell years later beyond a period to provide the evidence? If our white house boys are going to hold very one to the truth when they ( lilly white house boys) are talking, let begin on equal grounds. All congress members should be put on trial each time they almost tell the truth to the public..... Let Roger baseball.............







+
Corey (5 years ago)
As a strong supporter of Clemens and a big baseball fan I really don't care for all this steroid stuff. I am really tired of all the steroid talk. I used to play baseball in college and I never took steroids, but I did know people that did. First of all when did the Government decide to put its big nose into the MLB's business. This is a corporation problem and it needs to be done via the MLB not congress. If the government wants to play watchdog they need to make sure our children our not doing the steroids like alot of them our in high school. So stay out of it please, I'm to the point where I don't even want to know if Clemens and others are doing steroids, HGH, or whatever it is they're doing. It's ruining the game, let MLB change their drug testing policy not congress. Shouldn't the government be worrying about more important issues besides Baseball.
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Klein's Korner

Tulsa World senior sports columnist John Klein is in his fourth decade of covering sports. He started his newspaper career at The Daily Ardmoreite in 1977 and moved to the Tulsa World in 1978. He served 10 years as sports editor for the Tulsa World before being named to his current position in 2005. He also spent five years as the Southwest Conference beat writer for the Houston Post. He has won many writing awards and is a former Oklahoma Sports Writer of the Year.

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