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Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Clemens the biggest loser of Steroidgate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
There were a couple of winners after baseball’s latest trip to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for Steroidgate. None was named Roger Clemens, by the way, whose arrogance at the end of the hearing resulted in the committee chairman gaveling the desperate pitcher into silence.
And those winners?
Bud Selig and Barry Bonds, in no particular order.
Let’s start with Selig, the frequently blasted commissioner, who ignored public giggling to hire former Senator George Mitchell to investigate the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball and issue recommendations for the future. Mitchell’s findings weren’t definitive, which they weren’t meant to be, but they were impressive, especially since he had no subpoena power and zero cooperation from baseball’s players association.
Consider, too, that after Wednesday’s four hours and 41 minutes of testimony between often warring Republicans and Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, both sides came to a consensus: Selig, through the release of the Mitchell Report, provided exactly what Congress wanted when it summoned baseball officials and players to Washington for the first time three years ago to turn their steroid crisis around.
The Mitchell Report gave examples of baseball’s issues with performance-enhancing drugs, offered ways to solve them and watched the owners join the usually defiant players in accepting the report’s suggestions.
As for Bonds, he wins, because he suddenly is invisible. Nobody is talking these days about how he surged past Hank Aaron last summer for most home runs in a career by using juice more than adrenaline during his latter years. That’s because everybody is talking about the guy who has replaced Bonds as the poster child for the steroids era, and that’s Clemens.
It’s about time. While Bonds was doing all sorts of unnatural things in the batter’s box after reaching 40, Clemens was doing the same on the mound. It’s just that while Bonds had critics in stereo when it came to his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs, Clemens’ critics were in mono. The contradiction was unfair, and it also was unseemly, but committee member Elijah E. Cummings spoke for many over the past few months when he said to Clemens during the hearing, “You’re one of my heroes, but it’s hard to believe [you].”
Actually, it’s impossible to believe Clemens, and this goes beyond the testimony of Brian McNamee, Clemens’ former trainer who joined Clemens at the hearings as the congressmen’s primary guests. Backed by syringes and other medical paraphernalia, supposedly saved from his days with Clemens, McNamee said calmly and strongly that he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs on several occasions. Clemens denied as much, and he was bolstered by McNamee’s shaky reputation with the truth. “I view you as a [former] police officer who was a drug dealer,” committee member Christopher Shays told McNamee.
Shays mostly is correct about McNamee, but Andy Pettitte is among Clemens’ closest pals. He’s also a former teammate and noted straight shooter. He supported many of McNamee’s claims in a deposition. So did Chuck Knoblauch, another former Clemens teammate. There was even a deposition from Clemens’ former nanny who suggested that McNamee is more believable than Clemens on a crucial matter surrounding Clemens’ possible appearance at an event hosted by Jose Canseco, among the kings of steroids users during that time.
In response to Pettitte’s deposition, in which Pettitte also said under oath that Clemens admitted to HGH usage in conversations, Clemens said of Pettitte that he either “misheard” or “misremembered.”
Those are the clever words of the guilty. In fact, it was apparent early into Clemens’ frequently bumbling testimony that he should have pulled his version of a Mark McGwire or of a Sammy Sosa. In March 2005, McGwire kept telling this same committee that, “I’m not here to talk about the past,” and Sosa kept pretending that he couldn’t speak English.
Said an irritated Henry Waxman, who banged that gavel after Clemens kept interrupting the committee chairman’s closing speech, “The only reason we held this hearing today was because Roger Clemens insisted on it.”
Looks like this accomplished but tainted pitcher just flung a fastball over the backstop. You know, by showing up.
Permalink | Comments (74) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Put Dooley statue at Sanford Stdium
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
You can’t honor Vince Dooley enough at the University of Georgia.
That said, this is enough.
For now.
Those in charge of such things will place Dooley’s name over the portion of the UGA campus that features most of the school’s athletic facilities. They’ll also unveil a fancy statue that depicts Dooley being carried on the shoulders of two Georgia players after their national championship game following the 1980 season.
First, this is a wonderful start for somebody who coached the Bulldogs for 25 years and served as a productive athletics director at the university from 1979 to 2004. Second, more accolades for Dooley will automatically happen.
Over time, Dooley will evolve into Georgia’s Ronald Reagan, with this and that named in his honor around Athens faster than a Herschel Walker burst against Tennessee or Florida.
Here’s the only thing that should change for the moment: Put the Dooley statue at Sanford Stadium, not at the proposed Vince Dooley Athletic Complex.
Other than that, members of Georgia’s Board of Regents deserve a complimentary bark or three for their efforts.
Permalink | Comments (38) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
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