Roger Clemens: Avoiding Scrutiny in the Face of Accomplishment

This afternoon, on ESPN’s “Around the Horn” Jay Mariotti (by all accounts a wimpy anti-analyst looking for the easy way out) remarked that Clemens has avoided scrutiny in the ongoing MLB steriods controversy. The national media has not dared dig deep here to figure out the unbelievable success of this 40+ year old pitcher. Clemens’ physical features and performance are as stark as those of Barry Bonds. 7 MVP awards, 7 Cy Young awards. These are interesting times, but the media is reluctant to dig deeper. It’s curious, but then again, the media didn’t care in 1998 when there were rumors about Mark McGwire. It is possible that the media simply did not want to ask the logical questions of how the “Bash Brothers” and the rest of the biggest lineup in recent baseball memory did get to be so huge – and how was it that Tony LaRussa knew so little about this after managing McGwire in Oakland and St. Louis. Oh, whatever, baseball journalism isn’t about asking tough questions…it’s about press passes, cold beer and hot dogs. Back to Roger and the visuals:

Not-so-big-head Roger Clemens (Boston Red Sox):

Big Head Roger Clemens (Houston Astros):

(with a little ‘Roid Rage for the Road)

From 2005:

clipped from www.post-gazette.com Virtually no one is surprised because Bonds long has been under such suspicion. After all, he went from being a Hall-of-Fame caliber player to an all-time great, whose hitting prowess matched and often surpassed the likes of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. Baseball fans and the media were skeptical of such accomplishments. It was believed such prodigious feats could not be achieved without chemical assistance. So why aren’t people saying the same thing about Roger Clemens? Why hasn’t this bulked-up, overperforming baseball senior citizen received the same treatment as Bonds? Unlike Bonds, whose career never faltered, Clemens had a four-year period, beginning when he was 30, when many people believed he was in decline. Included in that group were the Boston Red Sox, the team he played for during the first 13 years of his career. After the 1997 season, the Red Sox did not re-sign Clemens, who was eligible for free agency. It seemed like the right move.

While ESPN’s robo-racist Eric Kuselias has compared Bonds to O.J. Simpson (presumably as an unredeemable and unconvicted “killer” of the great blond game), Clemens continues to dodge the introspection of ESPN, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Houston Chronicle, the Miami Herald and others who’ve dedicated so much column-space to this issue. Roger is just living the dream and your favorite sportswriters are drinking the Kool-Aid. Seems like only bloggers can keep their lips closed long enough to avoid ingesting poison and bullshit.