A Texas Ranger who was on to Bartolo Colon long before he got popped for PEDs

In the spring of 2002, the steroid issue in Major League Baseball was just beginning to really open up when the likes of former Texas Rangers third baseman Ken Caminiti openly admitted in a Sports Illustrated article that he used steroids during his career.

Click here for that story.

Caminiti was speaking specifically about his time with the Padres, when he was named the National League MVP in 1996.

But by 2002 it was widely assumed countless other players were using steroids, but the focus was on primarily the batters. 

I was covering the Texas Rangers that season when a veteran Rangers pitcher told me that not enough people were focusing on the pitchers themselves, and he specifically mentioned Bartolo Colon. He did not believe that Colon's build was just genetics, or a weight program.

Today, the now veteran Colon was suspended 50 games by the MLB after he tested positive for testosterone. Colon, 39, is 10-9 with a 3.43 ERA with the Oakland A's this season.

Colon said in a statement: "I apologize to the fans, to my teammates and to the Oakland A’s,” he said in a statement released by the players’ association. I accept responsibility for my actions and I will serve my suspension as required by the Joint Drug Program."

When this Rangers player said this to me in 2002, Colon was in the midst of a run of 10 consecutive 10-win seasons. He went 20-8 with a 2.93 ERA in 2002.

 

 

 

 

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Roger Clemens signs with a baseball team. To pitch. Again. Seriously.

Proving once again that nothing can defeat an ex-jock like boredom, former MLB star pitcher Roger Clemens is going to play baseball again. Seriously. Not making this up. FOX 26 in Houston broke this story.

Clemens, 50, has signed a deal with the minor league and very unaffiliated Sugar Land Skeeters to pitch.

According to the Skeeters' website, he is scheduled to make his first start on Saturday. The Skeeters play in the Atlantic Baseball League. When I think of Sugar Land, Texas I usually think of the Atlantic Ocean.

Could be a big pickup for the Skeeters, who are 18-19 and in third place in the Freedom Divsion. They are 5.5 games behind first-place Lancaster.

Clemens' 873-year career ended in 2007 when he pitched for the Yankees, when he was 44. He was 6-6 with a 4.18 ERA that season. His last start came on Sept. 16, 2007 in Boston, a 4-3 loss.

This is not the first time an aging player hooked up with an unaffiliated club to keep playing the game that gave them so much, and they obviously love. The one that comes to mind is Rickey Henderson, who played with the Newark Bears and San Diego Surf Dawgs after his MLB career was over.

But unlike Clemens, Henderson did not play the game - and leave the game - with a giant steroid cloud hanging over his head.

Even though Clemens was cleared of lying to Congress for using PEDs, the accusations made by his former trainer - and teammate Andy Petite - cloud this man's future not necessarily with the game but certainly his legacy. In fairness, it was cloudy before the accusations.

Either way, if he is willing to do this it's hard to deny Roger Clemens loves baseball.

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U.S. govt. drops record to 0-343,524,023 in cases against pro jocks after Clemens is acquitted

In an effort to emulate the French Army's modern era record, the U.S. government dropped yet another decision in cases against high profile athletes for cheating.

Barry Bonds. Lance Armstrong. And now Roger Clemens.

In a decision that surprised approximately no one, today in Washington D.C. Mr. Clemens, now 49, was acquitted of perjury charges. Congress felt he lied about using 'roids. He said he didn't.

Now a jury of his sleepy, bored and disinterested peers decided that he either didn't use, or that the case against him was so flimsy they couldn't possibly say he did. Or they didn't care. I'm thinking the latter is a very good possibility.

Because most pitchers when they turn 41 go 18-4, and then when they are 42 post a 1.87 ERA. I buy that. Noooooo problem.

Now, will he be voted into Baseball's Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible next year? 

Back in January of this year I posed this question to Susan Slusser, who covers baseball for the San Francisco Chronicle and now is the president of the Baseball Writers Association of America, and has been voting on the HOF for five years.

Her response was a no on anyone she felt she had good knowledge used PEDs.

She also said this was a fluid situation.

Me? Vote him in, eventually. Make him wait for a few years just to sweat it out.

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Washington D.C. still cares about Roger Clemens while the rest of us have moved on

Between the NFL draft coming up, the end of the NBA's regular season, the NHL playoffs, baseball season starting, and your own lives the second trial involving former pitching great Roger Clemens seems to be generating giant pile of indifference.

Clemens is currently back in D.C. where he is being tried for having lied to Congress about using steroids during his career. Because one of the things professional liars are simply not going to stand for is being lied to.

It would seem that the baseball public has moved on from this episode, and generally feels that to prosecute this man is a giant waste of tax payer money. Did Clemens use PEDs in an era where everyone but the team's radio play by play man had a syringe in his man purse? Probably. Do we care? It feels that for a long time we did because to use PEDs clearly ruined the perception of being able to compare statistics from one generation of players to another. Now, however, we have accepted that this happened and just hope that maybe baseball's new anti-PED policy deters guys from using.

What we cared about were the numbers. Unlike any other sport baseball had the ability to be able to suggest that its numbers from one era could be compared to another. It was always a fallacy because things such as expansion, size of parks, increased teams, specialization, better technology, etc., always affected the overall performance.

Those changes affected numbers fractionally. A PED gave a player a stastical boost that was almost PlayStation-ish.

We have now accepted that players from the 'roid era just had numbers that were often cartoonish, most notably Barry Bonds' 73 home run season.

Congress and Clemens can do their dog and pony show while the vast majority of us have moved on and applied our own internal asterisk to his achievements.

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