Scott Cordischi On Sports: Clemens Innocent?  Not!

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Thursday, June 21, 2012

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

Not guilty.

Former Red Sox ace Roger Clemens was found not guilty by a jury of his peers on lying to Congress in regard to his alleged involvement of taking performance enhancing drugs.

The news is obviously great news for Clemens who avoided possible jail time for perjury. However, much of the damage that has already been done cannot be repaired.

Like it or not, Clemens is still guilty in the court of public opinion which will stay with him for the rest of his life.

Furthermore, Clemens’ candidacy for the Baseball Hall of Fame has been severely damaged to the point where he will likely be on the outside looking in.

Whether or not he deserves to be in the Hall is an interesting debate.

Ultimately, it is the Baseball Writers Association of America which will decide Clemens’ fate in regards to admission to the Hall of Fame. They are the ones who vote annually on candidates for induction. And as we have seen in recent years, the voters can have many different opinions when it comes to each individual candidate.

The overwhelming majority of the BBWAA seems to be very clear in their convictions that anyone known or believed to have taken PED’s should NOT get voted into Hall of Fame.

The flip side of that coin is the idea that many of the players in the game in the 80’s and 90’s were believed to be on some type of steroid or performance enhancing drug which meant that there was a “level playing field” so-to-speak. Hitters on steroids were facing pitchers on steroids so, in theory, no one had the advantage. Therefore, everyone should be considered.

Those two diametrically opposing points of view very much represent the black and white of the situation. But there are also some shades of gray involved here.

Some members of the BBWAA look at each player individually and ask the following question: would that player have been Hall of Fame worthy without having ever taken PED’s?

In the case of a pitcher like Roger Clemens and even a hitter like Barry Bonds, most would answer “yes” to that question. Does that then mean that they should be voted in? Good question.

Conversely, many believe that the likes of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmiero would have been nothing without the juice. Therefore, many baseball writers feel that they are not worthy of induction.

It’s an interesting dilemma and one that only the voting member of the BBWAA will ultimately have to wrestle with.

And all that Roger Clemens can do is wonder and wait.

-After hearing the testimony of some other former Penn State assistant football coaches earlier this week, I’m beginning to wonder if anyone in State College is smart enough to figure out that it is probably not a good idea for adults to shower with children.

-Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin should contact the security guards at the restaurant Above The Salt in Aspen, Colorado because they apparently do a much better job of tackling the Patriots’ Wes Welker than Dolphin defenders do.

-And all you need to know about the Dolphins’ offense is that the recently signed Chad Ocho Cinco may be their best wide receiver.

-Winning an NBA championship will get a 10,000 pound gorilla off of LeBron James’ back.

-ESPN’s Buster Olney suggesting that there’s quite a bit of dysfunction in the Red Sox clubhouse isn’t exactly breaking news if you’ve followed this team over the last 10 months.

-Then again, to listen to Josh Beckett refute that assertion by telling us how close this team is, I’m almost expecting to enter the clubhouse seeing Red Sox players singing “Kumbaya.”

-Leave it to the Red Sox front office to respond publicly to Theo Epstein’s assertion that “big business” pressured him into making certain personnel moves. They always have to spin things their way and, of course, have the last word.

-Kudos to Brad Faxon, Billy Andrade and the organizers of the CVS/Caremark Charity Classic for putting on another terrific event this year.

-Break up the New York Yankees!

-After the spring we had, most golf courses in southern New England are in fantastic shape.

-Some people may complain when it gets real hot each summer. Not me. Give me the three H’s – hazy, hot and humid every day and all day and you can keep the bitter cold winter days for yourself.

-LaDanian Tomlinson was one heck of a running back in his prime, but he was also one heck of a whiner off the field.

-Major League Baseball probably would have been much better off if they continued to look the other way instead of exposing the dirty little secret that is performance enhancing drugs in their sport.

-Speaking of that, give some of what Big Papi is drinking because he has clearly discovered the Fountain of Youth.

-The Red Sox are now 2 games above .500 at (35-33) and no longer in the basement of the American League East. I’m going out on a limb here and predicting that they will not go below .500 again for the remainder of the season.

-Then again, I have been wrong many times before!

-The late, great Will McDonough of the Boston Globe once labeled Clemens “The Texas Con Man.”

-Narragansett Town Beach and North Conway, New Hampshire are two of my favorite New England summer spots. What are yours?

-We’re only a little more than a month away from the opening of NFL training camps.

-New URI men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley will be a guest of ours Saturday morning on the “Go Local Sports Show” on 103.7 FM.

-While he may turn out to be a great head coach, Michael Jordan’s decision to hire former St. John’s assistant Mike Dunlap to be the Charlotte Bobcats new head coach seems like a risky move to me.

-It’s amazing to see some of today’s best amateur golfers making a mockery of such a great and difficult golf course like Wannamoisett. Anyone who has played the course knows that it is, by far, the best challenge of golf Rhode Island has to offer, yet these youngsters seem to just overpower the course.

-In this world of so-called “tainted” statistics and championships, do we know look back at the UConn men’s basketball championship 2 years ago as somewhat tainted?

-Then again, as the old saying in sports goes, “if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying!”

-Congrats to the Boston Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron who took home the Selke Trophy for being voted the league’s best defensive forward. He also happens to be the league’s best face-off man as well.

-If a 4-team playoff for college football’s national championship is “the right things to do,” why do we have to wait until the 2014 season to implement it?

-First it was OJ that walked, then Roger Clemens. If Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky is acquitted of all of the charges he is facing I will have lost complete faith in our judicial system.

-No matter where Billy Baron ends up, I wish him well.

 

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