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| Is Clemens really telling the truth? |
The Roger Clemens perjury trial has been going on for weeks now and has been a couple of years in the making. This all started on August 19, 2001 when a federal grand jury in the Washington, D.C U.S. District Court indicted Clemens on six felony counts involving perjury, false statements and obstruction of Congress. Clemens was one of many people who went infront of Congress to talk about steroids along with Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmerio, Curt Schilling and Jose Canseco. This was all started in 2005 when Canseco wrote his book Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big. He mentions
Mark McGwire, Juan González, Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez, and Jason Giambi in the book as steroid users. Many of these players will never be in the hall of fame due to these allegations and findings. A lot of people accused Canseco of lying about all of this because he was blackballed by baseball as being the first one to be caught using steroids.
Clemens problems started when his former trainer Brian McNamee testified that he supplied and helped Clemens take steroids along with Clemens former Yankee teammate Andy Pettitte. Pettitte has testified in Clemens trial but his testimony has been thrown out because it’s misleading and conflicting. McNamee and Clemens have been going back and forth for two years now and I have a couple of questions on this whole trial.
The first question I have is why isn’t Brian McNamee on trial? He supplied and injected multiple players with steroids. His crime is just as bad, if not worst the Clemens. Why aren’t McGwire and Palmeiro under the same trial? They lied under oath the same time Clemens did. Why even have a trial? That question brings me to my next point.
Why didn’t the government learn from the Barry Bonds trial? Nobody cares that athletes lied about steroid use. This has been proven because Bonds was only convicted of one charge and it was a minor one. Not even the jurors of the Clemens trial care because two of them have been kicked out for falling asleep. The Federal government is wasting millions of dollars on nothing. They need to focus on real criminals and not athletes who lie to protect their ego. All together their have been over 100 players linked to use of steroids in terms of implications, admittance, Mitchell Report and suspensions by baseball. To view this list go to
http://www.baseballssteroidera.com/bse-list-steroid-hgh-users-baseball.html
Roger Clemens like many others didn’t need to use steroids because they were already naturally gifted athletes. Steroids do not improve pitch speed, bat speed or increase power. They don’t make you perform better but if it’s illegal, it’s illegal. Roger Clemens has a record of 354–184 with 4,672 strikeouts and a lifetime era of 3.12. He won two World Series, a seven time CY Young winner, and AL MVP winner. The question you have to ask is, did steroids help Clemens accomplish all of this? My answer is most definitely not. Clemens was naturally gifted from the start but because of steroids he along with others will more then likely not make the Hall of Fame because baseball traditionalists will not vote for them.
Finally, if the government is going conduct a trial for Clemens and waste money then why not conduct a trial with all the steroid users at the same time. The government should be using this money on the poor, the economy, lowering gas prices, and helping the country survive. I am not a believer in steroids and I dont support the use of them but they wasted millions on trying to convict Barry Bonds and now they are doing the same to Clemens. It’s a simple of waste of money just to pay the employees of the Federal government.
Clemens is great, and will always be great in the eyes of his fans. Clemens is one of the greatest pitchers of all time and his accomplishments will not be totally forgotten even if he did take steroids. Keep checking back for more on this trial and the outcome. Will Clemens be the first athlete to be convicted of lying about steroid use or will he get off like Barry Bonds did? Stay tuned to find out.
