Roger Clemens. Before the beginning of last year, that name stood for one of the greatest pitchers ever in the history of baseball. He is among the all-time leaders in career wins, strikeouts and earned run average (E.R.A), as well as winning more Cy Young awards for being the top pitcher in baseball than anyone in history with seven. Just a couple of years ago, rumors began circulating about Clemens possibly using performance enhancing drugs to give him the upper advantage when pitching.
Steroids in baseball have become a continuing problem in the sport and multiple books and reports have been published throwing star after star under the bus all to make a quick buck.
Clemens has since faced a hell-storm of questions and accusations, while firmly denying his use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs. The problem is this, Hall of Fame voters have already come out and publicly stated that because of the allegations brought forth against Clemens, that they will never vote him into the Hall of Fame, despite no positive tests and no concrete evidence that can be used to find Roger Clemens guilty.
The public backlash against this man for denying his use has been unbelievable and shocking to the point of what seems to be a steroid witch hunt for anyone even suspected of taking these drugs.
Now, let’s bring American sweetheart and sports darling Lance Armstrong into the picture. Armstrong, for those that don’t remember, is the owner of seven consecutive Tour de France titles, more than any other bicycle rider in the history of the competition. Most everyone knows him for his courageous battle with cancer, overcoming it and the odds to not only race in the most grueling event in cycling, but win it seven times in a row.
What most everyone has forgotten is that during his stretch of titles, Armstrong was accused of taking EPO, a hormone enhancing drug popular with cyclists. Also during that time, Armstrong was connected to a crooked doctor suspected of supplying this EPO and there were also reports that he was throwing away trash bags full of syringes. Even more shocking than that is that Armstrong actually had a urine sample test positive for EPO, but because the sample was more than five years old and the French lab conducting the tests didn’t properly handle it, it became invalid. It still doesn’t take away from the fact that, indeed, Lance Armstrong tested positive for EPO.
But it seems as though Armstrong, being a cancer survivor and world-renowned charity fundraiser, has this halo over his head that allows him to obtain a pass, a “get out of jail free” card. The fact that he has overcome these odds and that he gives back so much to the world is great and should be acknowledged, but it shouldn’t be an excuse for an athlete to get away with steroid accusations. If we as a media are going to label one athlete a social pariah for the allegations against him or her, then it must be one uniform sentencing.
Roger Clemens should make it into the Hall of Fame despite these steroid accusations, simply because nothing has been proven and nothing has been cemented as concrete evidence to use against him. The motto in the country is that you are “innocent until proven guilty”, but no more. If we as a society are going to sentence athletes before anything can be proven, then it must be the same for every athlete. It is time for Americans, public and media, to realize when they don’t know as much as they think they do about a situation. We’re not saying whether Clemens or any other baseball star did or did not take steroids, we simply do not know, but when all is said and done, neither do you.
No comments:
Post a Comment