Keepin' it in perspective

I am not sure when our country strayed away from its deepest legal value, or when we decided as a society that everybody has to be the bad guy. Why do we, as citizens, even pretend to associate our thought process with "innocent until proven guilty" when that is clearly not the case? It is a good thing that our legal system sticks to its word and doesn't equivocate, because my god, there would be a lot of innocent people convicted.

Baseball has been caught up in this steroid era for some years now, and we are finally coming to the culmination of the age that stained baseball in the wake of the Mitchell report. There is much clutter surrounding who did what and why. Nobody knows all of the names out there, and we will never have perfect clarity. But why is it that we can't be sensible whatsoever towards a player who is trying to prove that the allegations he faces are false?

Roger Clemens has been trashed since his name appeared in the Mitchell report. First he issued a statement through his agent, and that was not accepted by the public to any extent. And rightfully so. Statements made through agents are ridiculous.

But after being criticized for making his voice heard in the wrong way, Clemens granted "60 Minutes" an interview and went on national television to clear his name. He vehemently argued that he has never used steroids and that his former trainer, Brian McNamee, did not inject him with human growth hormone.

Still, the national interview was not enough in the minds of critics. So Clemens proceeds to do a public interview, on national television, on Monday to answer any other questions that people may have. The problem is that nobody wants to believe Roger Clemens. It is apparent that many folks have made their mind up, and they will probably never be swayed. This press conference was doomed before it started. Pointless to a certain extent.

Clemens has agreed to go before Congress and tell his side of the story under oath. I was one of the people who took a funny look towards Clemens in the last five years due to the size of his body and how he was able to perform at such a high level, given his age. Today, I fully stand behind Roger Clemens and I believe that he is clean. Other than him being found guilty in a court of law, or making a complete about-face and admitting using steroids, there is nothing that will change my mind and get me to think that he is lying.

I am not sure why what Roger Clemens has done isn't enough for all people to accept and move forward with the belief that he did not use steroids and simply wait until he testifies in front of Congress. There are some who are calling for Clemens to take a lie detector test. Why? Since when is someone's word not good enough? What did people do one hundred years ago without advanced technology? Automatically lynch someone for being accused? Sure, the lie detector test may sway some people towards his corner, but do you really believe that everyone will finally believe him even if he did pass a that test? I don't, that is for sure. And that is the problem with our society, and some of the people who cover sports or are involved in sports.

Unfortunately, negative sells these days and that is the single-biggest thing I hate about the media today. No sports fan watches sports to see somebody fail or to hear about how an athlete struggles with off-the-field problems. If you do, then you are crazy and I feel sorry for you. We, as sports fans, watch games to see great athletes accomplish feats that, lets be honest, we could never accomplish in our lifetime. The reason hitting a 95 mph fastball 450 feet seems so amazing is because the majoity of adults who played baseball as a child were terrified of that "hard-throwing" 12 year old who pumped 60 mph fastballs over the plate.

It is plain and simple what many fans and members of the media want today. They want to see people fail. Especially the biggest of stars. It is sickening that we can't appreciate what someone is able to bring to an arena of competition, to the extent that we do our best to convince ourselves that there is no way an athlete can be so great on his own.

People are crying out for Clemens to come clean, when all the man has tried to do is come clean. But much of the public wants this huge story of Clemens being guilty so they can have something with magnitude to talk about, even if that simply isn't true. There is a lot of hate, jealousy, and envy out in the world today and it is spilling over into the sports world. "Sports" is suppossed to be an area of fairy tale, where dreams come true and the impossible does actually happen. Why this effort to taint that?

So many stories are written about how Clemens has used steroids because he was accused by a flaky trainer. The problem is I could say America is a communist country and my statement would have just as much merit as the arguments from those who want to bury Clemens. A rebuttal of, "how do you know he didn't use them", isn't sufficient either.

How do i know? Because Clemens has said he hasn't in the public eye multiple times now. If you can't believe someone's word, then I guess you will never believe anything in life. At this point, there shouldn't be any doubters of Roger Clemens. If he someway is proven to be lying, alright then fry him until your heart is content, because he will have deserved it.

But until then, act like a sports fan, and act like an American. If you are not, that is fine, but stop kidding yourself. This nonsense of covering sports for the gratification of producing a story line, even if it is simply allegations and crushes a man's reputation, needs to stop. It never will though, because we have too many people who like to play spoiler. If you want a negative story or want to accuse somebody with no proof, then go conceal yourself and your soul in politics where those actions are acceptable. This is about sports and athletes and a great player who has tried to clear his name in any way possible. As of today, Roger Clemens is innocent of any charges and is a first-ballot Hall Of Famer due to his achievements on the field. If you wish to refut that, then get out of here because sports doesn't need you, since your ego has gotten the better part of your rational thinking.