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May 06, 2008 11:14 am
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Photos
THE HERALD BULLETIN
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Clemens needs to apologize in person, not in print
Having watched Clemens the player all those years, I expected him
to hold a press conference inside a very, very large room, stand
before the cameras and microphones and spill his guts.
By Mike Beas
CNHI News Service
ANDERSON, Ind. — There are professional athletes who become
superstars, and others who maximize their dismal decision-making
skills to become fallen stars.
Allow me to take this time to present Roger Clemens, a
fallen-and-I-can’t-get up star.
Clemens’ fall from baseball icon to Letterman punchline, if put in
front of a radar gun, would blow away any fastball ever delivered by
The Rocket. We’re talking triple digits here. Bob Feller, J.R. Richard
and Nolan Ryan in their prime all rolled into one.
Sunday, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner used a printed
statement to The Houston Chronicle to apologize to family members
and to the public for mistakes he’s made away from the baseball
diamond.
OK, one problem. Well, several, actually.
Does typing a statement and e-mailing it to one’s hometown
newspaper qualify as an actual apology? For someone who played
the game with a guy’s guy machismo, a pitcher who would have
gone high and tight with Ghandi in the batter’s box, it leans toward
cowardly.
Having watched Clemens the player all those years, I expected him
to hold a press conference inside a very, very large room, stand
before the cameras and microphones and spill his guts. You know,
show a human side. Be a man.
That’s not to say Clemens still couldn’t take this route because he
could, and I hope he does.
You see, as someone in his mid-40s who is 3 1/2 months older
than Clemens, it’s been easy for me to marvel from afar at the way
Clemens kept himself in peak condition so that he could continue
mowing down batters two decades his junior. Some even younger
than that.
Whether or not you liked Clemens or the team he represented, once
he reached his mid- and late-30s, every personal triumph became a
victory for a whole bunch of us. Hard work, wisdom and what we
thought was clean living were prevailing over youth, much like years
ago in the NBA when a skyhook from an aging Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar still couldn’t be stopped.
Now we come to find that Clemens, a married father of four boys
who in recent weeks has been accused of extramarital affairs, isn’t
perfect. Sadly, all signs point to him cheating off the field, but what
about on it?
The aforementioned statement to The Houston Chronicle also
served as Clemens’ platform to firmly deny use of
performance-enhancing drugs during what was once thought to be
a first-ballot Hall of Fame career.
Again, the words came via e-mail, unless Clemens actually took the
time to go old-school and write the statement himself, drop it in an
envelope and spring for the necessary postage.
Either way, it’s the easy way out, and I expected more from one of the
few sports idols I have.
Make that had.
Mike Beas writes for The Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Ind. He can
be reached at mike.beas@heraldbulletin.com.
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