Roger Clemens belongs in the Hall of Fame

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens was acquitted on Monday of all charges stemming from a federal case which accused him obstruction of justice and lying to Congress about using performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens is eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame this year. His election to the hall of baseball's greatest players should be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, that's exactly what it will be...a no-brainer. The Baseball Writers Association of America decides who gets in and who doesn't and many of its members will not be swayed one iota by the Clemens verdict. See the ESPN video below (email subscribers click here).


Many writers have publicly stated that they will never vote for a guy from baseball's so-called "steroid era." This means the best players of my generation will not be recognized. I grew up in the 80s and 90s. If the players I idolized during this time are tainted, then it must mean my childhood as a baseball fan was tainted. And if you believe that, you probably also believe that Abraham Lincoln was a vampire hunter. But I digress. Clemens, Greg Maddux, and Doc Gooden were the dominant pitchers of my day. Rickey Henderson, Vince Coleman and Rock Raines were the resident kleptomaniacs of baseball - they ripped off bases at-will.

At 12-years-old, I saw Jose Canseco blast a home run 482 feet into the nether regions of Toronto's Skydome. He was asked how he generated so much power. Canseco said he lifted weights. I immediately hit the floor and started doing push-ups and later begged my mom to buy my first weight set. That was 1988 and 24 years later, I still lift four times a week. I know some of you are wondering how I can support guys who allegedly cheated the game. My blog is about sportsmanship and using performance-enhancing drugs is clearly cheating. What message am I sending to kids?

First, forget all you think you know about performance-enhancing drugs. Most of the public (including media) is painfully ignorant when it comes to steroids and other PEDs. Forget the after-school specials we saw as kids with the 300lb. guy in a skull cap trying to sell steroids to the10th grader at the gym. I've lifted in hardcore dungeons and upscale wellness centers and in over two decades no one has EVER offered me drugs. The message to kids is that people don't usually offer you what you're not looking for. Moreover, the argument against certain guys getting into the Hall of Fame has very little to do with kids. It's mostly about the self-righteousness of the public and the romanticizing of numbers.

No one cares if Clemens, Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa may have done damage to their kidneys, livers or hearts. No one cares if they live shorter lives or have a lesser quality of life. They care about numbers...stupid numbers. Yes, a former math teacher said stupid numbers. They care about home run numbers and strikeout numbers and junk like that. Numbers can be manipulated to make them say anything you want. For example, 67% of the people in my immediate family have an undergraduate or advanced degree. Sounds impressive, huh? Those Alexanders are smart cookies. When you look inside the numbers, you realize that there are only three people in my immediate family and one of them doesn't start fourth grade until August.

Baseball numbers are far and away the most manipulated of all numbers. The parks are all different sizes and the wall dimensions vary tremendously. Fenway Park's Green Monster is a 37-foot high left field wall. The left field wall at Dodger Stadium is about waist-high for most grown men. The pitching mound has been raised and lowered. Pitchers have used nail files, sandpaper, pocket knives and spit to change the movement of the baseball. Some hitters have used excess pine tar and corked their bats to gain a hitting advantage. Hall of Fame pitchers Phil Niekro and Gaylord Perry have admitted to cheating much of their careers. If a pitcher has 300 wins, let him in. I say if a hitter has 500 homers or 3,000 hits, let him in. Since we care about numbers more than people, let's just close our eyes and not count them as they walk into the hall. Until next time...

Be a Good Sport!

-Sol