May 19 2008
Right or Wrong, Roger Clemens Equals Trash
I admit it, I like Roger Clemens. I like the results he brought to the field and the attitude he produced in to the Astros; an attitude that took them all the way to the World Series. I would be a hypocrite if I said I was not thrilled when he came “home” to Houston with the promise of doing something special. Yea sure, I heard the stories about how he wasn’t always the nicest of guys and that the public Roger could be different than the private Roger, but who could blame the man? After all, 5 days in New York can make someone crazy, imagine living in that spotlight day after day after day…
In 2006, we all held our breath and watched Roger play the fans the media and the Astros to get his magical contract, $22,000,022. He even started back with the team on June 22 after propping-up the minor league teams and playing a game with Kody. How perfect was that? To celebrate the event, the Astros produced a movie-size poster called, “The Return of the Rocket” and gave it to all the fans who attended his first game back. The poster was very cool so I framed it and hung it in my office.
Then it started. Roger went back to New York. OK, could we really expect him to stay on a team that couldn’t produce any runs? No worries, my poster stays as a reminder of our glory years.
Next came the Mitchell Report. Roger and HGH, Roger and steroids, Roger and Andy injecting each other! Hmmm, that’s not good, but you are innocent until proven guilty in the country. Since this is America, I leave my poster right where it is.
Then the biggie, multiple affairs and the possibility of relations with a minor. The accusations are from less then trustworthy sources and celebrity affairs are as common as traffic in Houston, but the cumulative total has finally reached the point of no-return. Roger Clemens, meet the trash can.
I can’t help but feel a bit sad at the falling of a star. In the end, Roger could be the most wrongly-accused individual in sports or be proven to be a major scum-bag. Either way, as a responsible professional, I cannot have his picture displayed on my wall anymore. He has just become too big of a liability for me and the association is not a good one.
I guess that is the message in all of this mess. When you create the persona of the athlete “good guy,” you create the image of the ideal person. When reality creeps in, that image can be shattered and leave you feeling betrayed and angry. When will we learn, even athletes are human.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:22 am
[...] Kotto wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptRoger Clemens, meet the trash can. I can’t help but feel a bit sad at the falling of a star. In the end, Roger could be the most wrongly-accused individual in sports or be proven to be a major scum-bag. Either way, as a responsible … [...]