|
|
|
|
Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Well...that wraps that up. Now, who’s he gonna pitch for!?
In his first comments since a tabloid linked him to extramarital affairs last week, Roger Clemens on Sunday acknowledged making ‘’mistakes’’ in his personal life. For those mistakes, he apologized to his family and the public, but the seven-time Cy Young Award winner remained steadfast in his denials that he has used steroids or human growth hormone.
‘’I know that many people want to know what I have to say about the recent articles in the media,’’ Clemens, who has raised his four children with his wife, Debbie, in the Katy and Memorial areas, said in a statement to the Chronicle. ‘’Even though these articles contain many false accusations and mistakes, I need to say that I have made mistakes in my personal life for which I am sorry. I have apologized to my family and apologize to my fans. Like everyone, I have flaws. I have sometimes made choices which have not been right.’’
While not admitting to any specific mistakes he has made, Clemens did remain adamant that he never used steroids or HGH. He has been fighting to clear his name since Dec. 13, when he was implicated in the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the report former Sen. George Mitchell prepared for Major League Baseball.
‘’I believe my personal life has nothing to do with the accusations of steroid and HGH use,’’ he said in the statement. ‘’I have already made clear that I did not use them.’’
Repoz
Posted: May 04, 2008 at 11:24 PM | 50 comment(s)
Related News: General, NY Yankees, Steroids
|
My Bookmarks
You must be logged in to view your Bookmarks.
Hot Topics
|
|
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
Either that or he is preparing to run for public office.
Clemens:McNamee :: Britney Spears:Justin Timberlake?
While this is undeniably true, he himself chose to wrap the accusations up with his personal life by filing the defamation suit. As such, and given that my hatred of Clemens is only outweighed by my hatred of Chris Simms (funny how these things work), and even though a part of me would like to see him "exonerated" just to shut up the Union (most of whom I like much more than Clemens), a greater (at least larger) part of me says "Neener neener, you ############."
Ahh, good. Comparing somebody who might have taken drugs to improve his performance in a game, and who like many pro athletes (and non athletes) might have been sexually promiscuous, to a serial killer. Good sense of proportion. You've been studying under Kevin, I take it.
Which is unfair. Ted Bundy held out a long time, under much more pressure than Clemens has had, before confessing anything at all.
Well, at least we finally have that out of the way.
How long before Clemens carves a swastika into his forehead?
Maybe Roger will jump out of the second story window at the courthouse.
http://sportslocker.blogspot.com/
Never that egregious, Akrasian. I would use the hitler comparison. Didn't he start tappin' Eva Braun when she was 15?
My gosh people, a pro athlete with a problem of promiscuity. And other than his wife, he did he harm? At least he didn't leave a bunch of fatherless little Clemens out there (I assume, since we haven't heard of any yet), which would have been the real lasting negative aspect.
We might be able to do that, Roger, if you didn't insist on keeping th whole matter public.
You forgot the part about where he complains how painful this whole ordeal has been for he and his family, and that he's bearing up under it as best he can.
You mean Klemens out there.
Edit: wait a second:
Are we sure he was referencing strikeouts with the k-for-kids things?
Whoever it was that called this guy the Texas Con Man all those years ago sure had him pegged.
That be Will McDonough, Joey.
And he certainly did.
For the longest time what we heard about Pete Rose was "if only he'd admit he bet on baseball, then we can move past it, and he can get reinstated, etc." Eventually, yeah, he admitted it - but by then it was too late. He lost the people who'd believed him all those years (or at least gave him the benefit of the doubt); and he failed to win people over with his delayed contrition.
I honestly don't know at which point the switch flipped on Rose - from "if only he'd admit it he could be forgiven" to "too little too late, pal" - but I suspect it was pretty early on. I think in his case, a lot of the people saying "if only he would admit it" really meant "if only he had admitted it back when he got caught". The more/longer he denied it, the deeper the hole he dug, to the point where his only recourse would be to turn back time.
I admit it's possible Clemens could be innocent of the steroid accusations; but assuming he used, he's been digging a lot faster than I recall Rose ever doing. Were he to admit it now, who would support him? Anyone loyal to him throughout his denials would turn away after having trusted him; any of his detractors would stick with "I told you so". The only people he might gain are those few who have not formed an opinion yet, but even those wouldn't be impressed by his one step of honesty on a long trail of lies. I seriously think that, were he to admit it now, it would do him very little good.
Well, I can think of a few Primates who would probably find a way to stand by their man, but other than that I think you're right. It's too late for a steroids mea culpa now.
No, those who support him will most likely continue to support him. If he ever admits to using steroids, or it's proven that he used steroids, the new defense would be "He didn't benefit from them". We'll have the stat heads who tend to support steroid cheats argue that his teams defense or his splitfinger was the real reason for his success, while all of the steroids and HGH was just a big fat placebo.
For the longest time what we heard about Pete Rose was "if only he'd admit he bet on baseball, then we can move past it, and he can get reinstated, etc." Eventually, yeah, he admitted it - but by then it was too late. He lost the people who'd believed him all those years (or at least gave him the benefit of the doubt); and he failed to win people over with his delayed contrition.
Nah - the problem Pete had was that the admission of guilt was just another angle, in that case to sell books. If Roger calls a press conference, admits his guilt without wearing a "Hit King" hat or a visor pimping a casino, and is truly contrite, he'll be forgiven.
what drove me insane in the rose mess was how many people wanted to keep giving the guy a break. thank god he wrote that egregious book. of course, even then there were those who were willing to look the other way, but they've slid into a small minority. i hope.
Yeah, except he's not really apologizing because he's not actually admitting what he did wrong. What Americans really want, as much as an apology, are all the sordid details. Now, I don't care because I don't think he owes me an apology. But then again, I never liked him in the first place.
He should have his Ks taken away.
I'm starting to wonder just how badly he might've been addicted to those greenies.
That's because these people realized that Rose had played them for fools, to the point where they ignored a mountain of evidence in favor of his empty proclamations of innocence. There was plenty of evidence on Rose; that's not the case for Clemens.
The "new" defense?
That's one of the biggest reasons why I don't care who used steroids in the first place; I've stated that plenty of times. It's pretty clear to me, from everything we know at this point, that steroids don't have a significant effect on baseball performance.
He didn't deny having an affair (or affairs).
Sure he did. This was the the quote from the NYDN a week ago:
Contacted by the Daily News Sunday through his lawyer Rusty Hardin, Clemens confirmed a long-term relationship but denied that it was of a sexual nature.
"He flatly denies having had any kind of an inappropriate relationship with her," Hardin said. "He's considered her a close family friend. ... He has never had a sexual relationship with her."
Yes, I mentioned this in my post #77 of the other thread. But that quote doesn't deny having an affair; it denies having a specific affair, with McCready, insofar as there was a sexual relationship.
As I said in the other thread, it appears to me that Clemens, through Hardin, may have lied on this point (since it does appear that Clemens did have an affair with McCready), assuming Hardin did not misspeak. But this does not negate my post #35, which is 100% accurate: Clemens didn't say "I never had an affair."
Now, does this mean that he did have an affair? No. But it does mean that he denied having an affair, which is in direct opposition to the reasonable reading of your post.
No. Clemens did not deny having an affair. He denied having a specific affair. I really don't see what's so hard about this. Clemens (through Hardin) only denied having the specific affair that they asked him about.
And I've already said that, from what we know, it looks like he lied in denying having a sexual relationship with McCready (*). So I really don't see why you think I won't concede something negative with respect to him.
(*) I conclude from what we know that there was a sexual relationship with McCready. Of course, it would help if she would say something clear about it, instead of the retarded "I cannot refute" verbiage.
I hear you. But I'm a lawyer.
The funny part of this for me is that Clemens seems to be of the mind that "hey, I was banging a 15-year-old, I mean when she turned 18... whatever... maybe other broads... but STEROIDS? Hell no!"
i'm not on clemens side or anything. he's a scary sort of blustery weasel. but his weird statement this weekend is to the effect that 'i might have been running around with some chicks during my playing days and i'm sorry for that but i didn't take steroids and i didn't bang a 15-yr-old.'
mcready's mealymouthed confirmation is her way of mining the controversy for whatever publicity it will inject (get it?!?) into her declining career. she won't be as much of a tabloid commodity if she outright denies it.
Well, if he had affairs with women over the age of 18 and he didn't use steroids, I'm not sure what else he could say. Is he supposed to admit to steroid use when it's not true because that's a lesser crime compared to having affairs?
No. The moral is that he was never asked if he'd ever had an affair, Crazy Joe. He was asked if he had an affair with McCready. Sheesh. Here:
That comment from Hardin has nothing at all to do with any woman other than McCready.
Clemens is the moron, not you, Ray. You're just a weasel-like lawyer. ;-)
and really, i'm not sure i care much anymore.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main