Roger Clemens has gone from baseball great (11-time All-Star, 354 wins, 4,672 strikeouts, certain Hall of Fame inductee) to sleazy drug-taking cheat in near record time:
More than two years after Roger Clemens told Congress that he had never taken steroids or human growth hormone, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner reaffirmed his denial Monday as he pleaded not guilty in federal court to charges that he lied to a congressional panel about the alleged doping.
The indictment does not offer specific proof that Clemens ever used the banned drugs, but alleges that he lied to Congress when he rejected the claims of others who said he had used the substances. Those claims grew from a 2007 report on doping in baseball that alleged that Clemens had "used anabolic steroids on multiple occasions in 1998, 2000 and 2001, and HGH on multiple occasions in 2000."
I don't know enough about Clemens to care that much about the issue, and it will all come down to a boring he-said-he said legal confrontation. We can either believe Clemens that he didn't take the stuff or his trainer that he did.
But the whole "performance-enhancing" drug controversy is pretty interesting. I've never been quite as outraged by the whole thing as others seem to think we all should be. I'm not quite in the "What's the big deal?" category, but close. What's the difference between an athlete who impermissably enhances his performance and one who does so in a way that doesn't cross the line? And where is that line anyway between trying hard to perform at peak and cheating? What's the difference between taking a hormone and doing body building for eight hours a day? Why don't we ban cortisone, since that "artificially" relieves joint pain? Shouldn't Bobby Knight face arrest or at least censure for having his players pack up on carbs the day before a game? What about students who cheat by taking No Doz so they can stay awake for a test?
That's just the soft skepticism of idle thought, however; I could probably be moved by a good argument. I reserve my hard line for Congress, lying to which is the only criminal charge Clemens is facing. With all the godawful mess members of Congress make of everything they touch, why in the world are they messing with performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports? How dare they haul American citizens before a committee of posturing fools and threaten them with contempt charges. I have trouble even writing "truth" and "member of Congress" in the same sentence without having a seizure.
Maybe a little decimation would straighten them out. Just kidding. Once in a while I just feel like playing the Brad Pitt card.
