Clemens: The Saga Continues?

Acquitted of all charges, "Rocket"
Roger Clemens speaks to the media
Tuesday (Maine News Daily).

After being cleared of perjury charges on Tuesday, former baseball star and suspected performance-enhancing drug user Roger Clemens stepped into the Washington streets with family in tow a free man. According to Canadian sports radio hosts Jeff Blair and Stephen Brunt that afternoon, Clemens was found "not guilty" of committing perjury to a grand jury about taking performance enhancing drugs, yet he was not found "not guilty" of taking performance enhancing drugs by his former trainer Brian McNamee.

When the Boston Red Sox said goodbye to the "Rocket" in the mid 90s, many thought the game past him by. However, with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1997, Roger Clemens responded to his critics by leading the American League in wins, lowest ERA, and strikeouts: The first real "Triple Crown" winner of the Cy Young Award that year. It was during that time in Toronto McNamee claimed Clemens used steroids to return to his old 80s form, when he fanned an MLB record twenty Mariner batters for the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park in 1986.

McNamee's reputation and character came into question when poor medical procedures and testimony from his former wife at that time came into light, thus throwing the Clemens case into limbo. With no credible leg for the prosecution to stand on, the judge could only acquit Clemens of all six perjury charges.

What this does for Roger Clemens in the future is uncertain. His chances of getting into the Baseball Hall-of-Fame are slim, but he won 354 games, threw 4672 strikeouts over his career with the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, and Houston Astros (Don't forget a pair of World Series championships with the Yankees in 1999 and 2000).

There is one other statistic that you will not find in any record book: When Roger Clemens flirted with retirement, he returned to Fenway Park for the last time, and left the game with another quality start and a standing ovation from the Fenway Faithful of Boston. FOX broadcasters stopped the game, and even held an on-field interview with Clemens, even broadcasting it over the speakers in the stadium. The most notable and odd thing about the interview is that Clemens was wearing a New York Yankees jersey at the time.

If you get in, Mr. Clemens, which team will you sport on your hat?

I can count on one hand the number of Yankees players honoured with standing ovations by Red Sox fans.

I don't think Clemens would make the Hall-of-Fame on the first ballot, or even in his first year of eligibility. I believe fans already moved past the witch hunt, and want to return to watching baseball games instead of sitting through baseball players testifying to grand juries, which is sad because entertainment and "safety" became more important than the values we cling to as individuals. Clemens like other players suspected of taking HGH, steroids, and other performance enhancing drugs might get into the Hall-of-Fame, but will it be under clouds of indifference and politics, or under blue skies?