Hey folks.
I've just spent the last hour or so watching the career of Roger Clemens sink like a brick in the Hudson River. It hurts me deeply to see the greatest pitcher of my lifetime be reduced to fighting for his credibility in front of Congress, but it hurts me even more that he is so clearly guilty.
Here is what would have to be true for Roger Clemens to be innocent of steroid abuse:
Brian McNamee and Andy Petite would have to have been coerced into bringing down Roger Clemens. As far as I can tell, they have no personal motive in lying to Congress, so there would have to be some esoteric agenda behind it all. The congress would have to be conspiring to end steroid abuse by bringing down the most legendary player of a generation with fabricated evidence. Even though I am sure Congress is capable of such a conspiracy, it requires a major suspension of disbelief when the surface explanation is so straightforward. Bottom line: Why would Congress need to frame an innocent man if steroids is such a problem? If steroids really are as pervasive as the Mitchel Report suggests, Congress should have plenty of other options of guilty players to bring down.
I guess the point is that we may never know the truth from a legal standpoint. In the opening statements of the Clemens Congressional Hearing it was clear that this was a case of Roger Clemens' word versus those of Brian McNamee and Andy Petite. Regardless of whether there are punitive measures taken against Roger Clemens, his career has already been marred by the accusation and his complete inability to prove his innocence with anything other than hearsay. A verdict of "not guilty" would translate into "there isn't enough direct evidence to show that Roger Clemens is guilty." The Rocket has spent his career in orbit and is burning up upon reentry.
Why it hurts:
Roger Clemens is an icon. I remember seeing an article years ago that detailed the legendary Clemens workout. I remember seeing the interviews with much younger players who went down to Houston to Rocket's gym and tried to keep up with him and unanimously declared that it was the hardest workout they've ever participated in. That was a different Roger Clemens. In the eyes of the world, that was the Roger Clemens that accepted no excuses, that exemplified what hard work could accomplish in a sport that was beginning to strike down its heroes (Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, etc.).
It wasn't real.
I feel like I've just been told that there's no Santa Clause. Sean, there isn't a man who can magically make every child on earth happy in one night. Also, Sean, there's no way that a 40+ year-old pitcher who has been throwing fastballs for twenty years can still be magically dominant in the twilight of his career. Not without cheating.
It makes my stomach turn to think that when I visit Cooperstown with my father when he is getting old, and we walk together down the hall of gilded plaques that show the players whose careers require no asterisks, Roger Clemens will be conspicuously absent. If Barry Bonds is there and Roger Clemens isn't, I'm not sure if my heart will be able to take it.
Why it helps:
However unfortunate it may be, this is what baseball needs in order to get past steroids. Roger Clemens must be made into an example. Steroids, like every other drug, lift you high enough so that you shatter when you fall. Young players should be made to watch how Roger Clemens tumbles just at the insinuation of his guilt. In the end, the Rocket will retain nothing. No one can deny that Roger Clemens had a certain amount of natural power, perhaps more than any pitcher in history other than Nolan Ryan, but in the end he will be given credit for no piece of it. The reward for steroid abuse at any point is to be embarrassed in front of Congress and in front of every person who ever held you up above themselves. Baseball must undergo this type of painful surgery until its cancer cannot redevelop. Break the game down so that it can be built back up stronger than it was before.
What I hope for:
When I go to Cooperstown on that beautiful summer day in the future, perhaps with my father on one side and my son on the other, I hope the truth is there to be seen. I hope that Major League Baseball will not purge this chapter of their history from view to save face, but instead will openly document and showcase it. I hope there will be an Asterisk Room. Perhaps they could place in that room an iron plaque for each of the players who played the game with skill but without dignity. There I could show my son the faces of The Black Sox, Pete Rose, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Barry Bonds and, sadly enough, Roger Clemens. This would be the room for players who represent baseball's missteps; players who exhibit the fact that our national pastime is just as morally fragile and subject to temptation as the nation that created it. That is the lesson that I want Major League Baseball to embrace. That is what I want my children to see when they are learning what cheating really means.
I hope Congress gets back to fixing the country soon. Until next time.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
A Prayer for My Generation
Sunsets past my windowsill are racing
Pausing not for reason nor consent
Captive in the camps of time I’m pacing
To and fro on floors I must invent
That which I cannot explain is rising
Mounting on itself around my feet
Wakened is the age of compromising
Harken to the demagogue’s retreat!
Slowly are the mirrored clouds unfolding
My empyrean a solid shell
Heaven do I search for in beholding
Images wrought only of myself.
Fear of darkness is the inspiration
On the prowl within my sanity
Equally I fear illumination
Blinded by deciding not to see
Solving and dissolving is my fashion
Stabbing at elusive synthesis
Howling from the gallery in passion
Selfish in pursuit of selflessness.
I direct my prayer to nameless specters
Hoping not that they will answer me
Silence is my life-sustaining nectar
Solace rests in my uncertainty.
I want not to know what governs essence
Mystery to me is purity
Earth wants only earthly acquiescence
I am not divine nor want to be.
Pray I, then, into the shapeless moonlight,
Nought but sunlight from another day,
Anxious, as a player asks a playwright
For his motivation, this I pray:
May my mind be solely my dominion
Hard, impervious to gilded prose.
Suffer not the murder, rather pinion
To the floor the galvanizing crows.
May my body thrive in the evading
Of the war my spirit will not wage
With the voices of the rhetors fading
Leaving lecterns barren on the stage
May my soul in darkness be resilient
Asking nothing but for unity
Settle me upon a plane so brilliant
That my spirit needs not eyes to see.
Pausing not for reason nor consent
Captive in the camps of time I’m pacing
To and fro on floors I must invent
That which I cannot explain is rising
Mounting on itself around my feet
Wakened is the age of compromising
Harken to the demagogue’s retreat!
Slowly are the mirrored clouds unfolding
My empyrean a solid shell
Heaven do I search for in beholding
Images wrought only of myself.
Fear of darkness is the inspiration
On the prowl within my sanity
Equally I fear illumination
Blinded by deciding not to see
Solving and dissolving is my fashion
Stabbing at elusive synthesis
Howling from the gallery in passion
Selfish in pursuit of selflessness.
I direct my prayer to nameless specters
Hoping not that they will answer me
Silence is my life-sustaining nectar
Solace rests in my uncertainty.
I want not to know what governs essence
Mystery to me is purity
Earth wants only earthly acquiescence
I am not divine nor want to be.
Pray I, then, into the shapeless moonlight,
Nought but sunlight from another day,
Anxious, as a player asks a playwright
For his motivation, this I pray:
May my mind be solely my dominion
Hard, impervious to gilded prose.
Suffer not the murder, rather pinion
To the floor the galvanizing crows.
May my body thrive in the evading
Of the war my spirit will not wage
With the voices of the rhetors fading
Leaving lecterns barren on the stage
May my soul in darkness be resilient
Asking nothing but for unity
Settle me upon a plane so brilliant
That my spirit needs not eyes to see.
Friday, February 8, 2008
So it's McCain.
The next few weeks are going to be very important in McCain's rhetoric. If he plans to win the right-leaning Democrats and the center, he is going to have to find a social and domestic agenda strong enough to counteract his position on Iraq. It's amazing to me that we are even still talking about Iraq as a sustainable war, but it is also clear that the right is not going to change that position. I am concerned that if any other parts of the Middle East become unstable to the point where we feel threatened it will spread our troops so thin that the draft will be back on the table as a solution. I don't think it's beyond any of the candidates on either side to take that action, but I think McCain would do so with the least provocation.
As for the other issues, the ones that the Iraq war have continuously distracted us from, I don't even know what McCain has to say on them. It seems to me that if he is going to support the continuation of war and deem himself a conservative at the same time, he is going to have to engage in major budget changes that will destroy some of the social programs that liberals hold dear. All I know is that the spending has to stop or we are going to be undone before my generation even fully takes over. We will have no money left to throw at our domestic needs and will be quick to resort to patchwork solutions while borrowing from the world with no intention of paying up.
class time.
The next few weeks are going to be very important in McCain's rhetoric. If he plans to win the right-leaning Democrats and the center, he is going to have to find a social and domestic agenda strong enough to counteract his position on Iraq. It's amazing to me that we are even still talking about Iraq as a sustainable war, but it is also clear that the right is not going to change that position. I am concerned that if any other parts of the Middle East become unstable to the point where we feel threatened it will spread our troops so thin that the draft will be back on the table as a solution. I don't think it's beyond any of the candidates on either side to take that action, but I think McCain would do so with the least provocation.
As for the other issues, the ones that the Iraq war have continuously distracted us from, I don't even know what McCain has to say on them. It seems to me that if he is going to support the continuation of war and deem himself a conservative at the same time, he is going to have to engage in major budget changes that will destroy some of the social programs that liberals hold dear. All I know is that the spending has to stop or we are going to be undone before my generation even fully takes over. We will have no money left to throw at our domestic needs and will be quick to resort to patchwork solutions while borrowing from the world with no intention of paying up.
class time.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Another day in Democracy
Super Tuesday has come and gone.
I will be voting for Obama if he wins the Democratic nomination.
I need to see how Hillary Clinton plans to unify the nation if I am going to put any support her way. I feel that it has been cliche among the right-wing populous to hate Hillary, and I need to know how she plans on overcoming that and jolting this nation out of its governmental paralysis.
Seeing Obama achieve such success in the Democratic party shows that he can speak the language of the liberals, but in order for him to win the general election he has to speak the languages of both sides of the aisle. I don't think Clinton is qualified to bring people together.
Also, I find his lack of executive experience endearing. I would rather vote for a candidate that gives me hope for the nation at large than for a candidate that gives me security that the donkey will prevail.
I have often said that I would consider voting for McCain if I didn't believe in the Democrats. I don't think that's the case any longer. I like his moderate nature, but the conservative side of him is just too strong for me. Then again, he's been trying to win Republican votes in recent speeches. Maybe he'll change his tune once he wins the primary.
Ron Paul, despite being on the opposite end of the spectrum from me by party affiliation, has given me a reason to believe that fiscal conservatism in its pure form, uncorrupted by corporate interests, can be powerful. If there's anything I know it is that we have to stop spending so much money if we are going to see such lackluster results.
I hope Obama is listening to Ron Paul like I am. They can learn from each other.
The best part is, no one knows that better than Barack Obama.
Class time. Paz.
I will be voting for Obama if he wins the Democratic nomination.
I need to see how Hillary Clinton plans to unify the nation if I am going to put any support her way. I feel that it has been cliche among the right-wing populous to hate Hillary, and I need to know how she plans on overcoming that and jolting this nation out of its governmental paralysis.
Seeing Obama achieve such success in the Democratic party shows that he can speak the language of the liberals, but in order for him to win the general election he has to speak the languages of both sides of the aisle. I don't think Clinton is qualified to bring people together.
Also, I find his lack of executive experience endearing. I would rather vote for a candidate that gives me hope for the nation at large than for a candidate that gives me security that the donkey will prevail.
I have often said that I would consider voting for McCain if I didn't believe in the Democrats. I don't think that's the case any longer. I like his moderate nature, but the conservative side of him is just too strong for me. Then again, he's been trying to win Republican votes in recent speeches. Maybe he'll change his tune once he wins the primary.
Ron Paul, despite being on the opposite end of the spectrum from me by party affiliation, has given me a reason to believe that fiscal conservatism in its pure form, uncorrupted by corporate interests, can be powerful. If there's anything I know it is that we have to stop spending so much money if we are going to see such lackluster results.
I hope Obama is listening to Ron Paul like I am. They can learn from each other.
The best part is, no one knows that better than Barack Obama.
Class time. Paz.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)