Roger Clemens Thinks You're An Idiot

Ever since Roger Clemens' name was mentioned in the Mitchell Report, he's gone out of his way to say that everything his former trainer, Brian McNamee, said about him is a lie. He even went and put a video up on YouTube to deny the allegations.

See?

Of course, I never believed any of it. I've been saying for years that Clemens was on steroids because there's just no way a pitcher can actually get better once he hits his 40's. It's not possible. If it were, it wouldn't have taken over 100 years of baseball for it to happen.

As I'm sure you're aware, Roger did an interview with his good buddy, and Yankees fan, Mike Wallace that will air this Sunday on 60 Minutes. The interview has caused quite a fuss because Brian McNamee's lawyers have come out and said that if Clemens denies the allegations in the Mitchell report, and says that McNamee was lying, they're going to sue his steroid injected ass.

Now I've no doubt that when the interview airs on Sunday, Clemens will say that McNamee is lying, but we'll have to wait and see. What we no longer have to wait for though is Roger recycling the same bullshit excuse baseball players who've been caught have been using for a while now.

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

When asked by Wallace if McNamee had ever injected him with any drugs, Clemens responds: "Lidocaine and B-12. It’s for my joints, and B-12 I still take today."

Clemens calls the accusation "ridiculous" and says he "never" used any banned substances.

"Swear?" asks Wallace.

"[I] swear," says Clemens.

Well, I believe him!

While I'll give Roger credit for busting out the Lidocaine, I don't recall anyone using that yet, how dumb does he have to be to pull out the B-12 reference? Hasn't he paid any attention to this whole steroids scandal?

You may remember Rafael Palmeiro a few years ago in Congress telling everybody he never used steroids, only to get busted for it later. What did Palmeiro say about the allegations at the time?

He claimed he didn't knowingly take any steroids, but that he thought he had been taking some other substance. What was it again?

Oh yeah! It was B-12.

It's also the same excuse other players have used when their names surfaced in steroid allegations, like another Oriole, Miguel Tejada.

How fucking dumb do baseball players think we are? They either expect us to believe that they're letting doctors and trainers inject them with unknown substances, not caring how it may affect their careers and multi-million dollar paychecks, or that they're having vitamins injected into their ass when they can just as easily buy them at a local drug store.

Why can't they just do what Andy Pettite did? Admit you made a mistake, apologize, and move on. That's all I want. I don't have a problem with Clemens for using steroids, just like I don't have a problem with Barry Bonds using them.

What I have a problem with is being lied to repeatedly. You can put a plate full of bullshit in front of me if you want to, but don't expect me to eat it.

Well, unless it will help me be a better blogger. If that's the case, sign me up!


Foul Balls

More on The Nick Swisher Trade - While I made it known yesterday that I was pleased with the trade the White Sox made acquiring Nick Swisher, I've read a lot of different places about how the Sox have mortgaged their entire future for this deal.

"How can you sell out your future for a career .250 hitter that strikes out all the time?"

They're partly right, because the trade has left the Sox farm system quite bare. At the same time though, this trade does not kill the White Sox' future. Nick Swisher is a part of that future.

He brings a lot of things to the table that are exactly what this team lacked last season. Yes he strikes out a lot, and has a low average. So what? He also walks over 100 times a year, works deep into counts, and had a higher OBP (.381) last year than anybody on the White Sox roster other than Jim Thome.

Oh, and then there's the fact he has power to all fields and in a place like US Cellular he's going to hit over 35 home runs a season. There's also the fact that Swisher is only 27 years old and entering the prime of his career. On top of that, he's locked up for 4 more years at an extremely affordable salary.

Listen, folks, guys like Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, and Jermaine Dye aren't getting any younger. Those dips in the numbers we saw from them last season? Expect that kind of trend to continue in 2008, maybe not as drastically as last season, but they're not going to go up.

Yes the White Sox gave up a couple of pitchers that could possibly come back to haunt them in a few years, but with Swisher they've locked up somebody who can hold a spot in the middle of their lineup for years to come.