Every other blogger and pundit on the net seems to have pipped up about Roger Clemens recent federal indictment on charge of perjury for lying to congress. So here’s my take:
What a mess. Others have stated it the same way that I would. The hubris of an athlete assuming that he is above even congress is really amazing. In some ways I hope Bonds and Clemens go to jail to pay for their crimes.
In other ways, I wish that the syndrome of “middle aged white sportswriters eviscorating baseball players for destroying the records of their boyhood heros” would just pass. Yes, every home run record from the mid 90s to the early 2000s is a joke. Yes, the career record now held by Bonds is tainted. McGwire is getting tepid HoF support despite being a significant hitter *before* the advent of Steroids. Sammy Sosa‘s records now look just shameful (especially when combining steroid usage with his corked bat suspension). And you know what? There’s nothing we can do about it.
Alex Rodriguez probably will go down as the greatest hitter to ever play the game. And a serious candidate to overtake Willie Mays as the greatest 5-tool player of all time. Yet his admission of steroids use will taint his legacy just like every other player who comes up for Hall of Fame voting over the next 5 years.
I tried to think of a comparison. Swimming records that fell with regularity with the use of (now banned) body suits. Perhaps track and field records which still stand from systematic drug usage in the 80s by eastern bloc athletes? How about Baseball pitching records before/after the deadball era. Or how about pitching records from 1968, the year before the mound was lowered and Bob Gibson posted a 1.12 era (and somehow had NINE losses??). Aren’t these records still in play, with the discussion topic that immediately follows? How about the infamous “astericks” homer record by Roger Maris, put in place to protect the legacy of Babe Ruth by somehow discounting the amazing accomplishments of Maris. Nobody talks about that now.
But it will never go away. We are baseball fans, and iconic “numbers” now are ruined. 755. 61. Nobody knows what the most touchdown passes thrown in a season is and nobody remembers that “number” like you know 61 homers or 755. And we’ll continue to talk about it for the rest of our lives.