Jobu goes on a good, old fashioned, rant about the Roger Clemens trial.

I was reading some headlines on ESPN.com today looking for some inspiration, and I came across two Roger Clemens trial related headlines. One had to do with Andy Pettite’s testimony being restricted. The other had to do with Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin (great porn name) saying that the steroids evidence in the trial had been manipulated. Seems interesting, right? I wouldn’t know. I didn’t click on them. Because I don’t give a crap.

I mean really? We’re still on this thing? Still talking about Old Man Clemens and his steroids? Still talking about his best friend Andy testifying against him? Does anyone not named Clemens, Pettitte or Rusty Hardin (hee hee!) still care? Why are we talking about this? Send clemens to jail already! Or don’t! I don’t care.

Did he do steroids? The evidence is pretty overwhelmingly in the affirmative. Did it extend his career and maybe win him a couple of Cy Young Awards? It’s hard to say, but probably. If he did it, was he the only guy of his era to do that? Certainly not. Is it really that big a deal that he lied about his steroids use (if he did, indeed do steroids)? I guess? I mean you don’t want people going around lying to Congress or whatever, but he didn’t kill anyone. He didn’t abandon a baby in a public bathroom. He didn’t do a bunch of coke, drive around and hit a pedestrian. He didn’t even shoplift! It’s not that serious.

When he got caught, he said “nope! I’m innocent!” This is something millions of people do probably every day. Did you eat the last donut? Nope! Did you use my last bit of shampoo? Nope! Did you hit my back-right bumper with your navy blue saturn because you were pulling through a parking space next to mine and then just move your car five spots down because no one saw you do it and you didn’t want to get in trouble? Certainly not! All of those are theoretical situations (especially the last one… heh heh… sigh, I was like 18. Leave me alone!), but they’re probably all more harmful than what Clemens lied about doing.

I’m not saying they shouldn’t try him for lying to Congress, but come on man. Why do we care? He’s a scumbag for sure, but he’s just being used as a scapegoat for an entire era of the sport that was really caused by the upper management of the league. It was caused by a commissioner who looked the other way because people dig home runs and strikeouts, and steroids made both of those more prevalent. Guys like Clemens were allowed to run rampant because the league profited from steroids use, and then persecuted when the league started getting negative backlash it.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like Roger Clemens. He’s a liar, a cheat and a bit of a jerk to boot. But he retired. Like  five years ago! He’s almost 50 years old. Is putting him in jail going to help anything? The steroids era in Major League baseball seems to be on its way out the door. Testing programs are in place and have begun weeding out the cheaters (except Ryan Braun). I really don’t see why we are still wasting energy talking, writing and reading about this issue (I’m aware of the irony of saying that in an article about the very thing I think is idiotic to talk about).

Send Clemens to jail. Send Clemens home. Just get him off my computer screen. Ok… Rant over.

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