OPINION: Baseball also to blame in Clemens case
Roger Clemens pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges related to his testimony in a 2008 congressional hearing on steroid use. The final nail may well be ready to be driven into the coffin of his tarnished legacy. It's important to remember how we got here.
Major League Baseball, as part of a greedy effort to increase gate and TV revenue, turned a blind eye for a decade while the use of illegal steroids poisoned the game and its record books. Commissioner Bud Selig, team owners and the players union embraced power, however corruptly created: power to blast home runs by the dozen, power to hurl the ball faster and farther, and power to play through the injuries and aging process that would have hobbled players of an earlier era.
Even though everyone surely knew that this power surge was built on false premises, baseball did nothing to stop it. The steroid-fueled excitement produced a rising tide of riches that raised all boats.
In the middle of all this were players who seemed to be among the game's greatest of all time: Newly crowned home-run champions, Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire; perhaps the most talented player ever - who will supplant Bonds but not cleanse the game - Alex Rodriguez; and Clemens, one of the best pitchers of his generation, if not in history. Admitted or alleged steroid users all, their greatness is now tainted.
When any industry, company or entity fails to police itself, it risks forfeiting control to outside authorities. Here, by abdicating this responsibility, baseball created a void that was filled first by Congress and now by criminal prosecutors. Though the hearing at which Clemens testified was focused on measuring the accuracy of the George J. Mitchell report (released at Selig's behest), that report was commissioned on the heels of a decade of baseball's inaction and pressure from Congress.
Since Clemens faced no discipline and no consequences from his employers or the game's overseers, it fell to publicity-seeking elected officials to get him to confess in the spotlight of public, media and re-election attention. He didn't.
His back against the wall, he stiffened his resolve and denied it all. And now, a couple years later, he stands charged by authorities with lying when he made those denials. If convicted, he may ultimately go to prison.
But Clemens never should have set foot in Congress in the first place. Led by a stronger commissioner, the owners and players union should've banded together and investigated, banning performance-enhancing drugs before their plague infected the game. They should've agreed to testing, and banned players who tested positive. They should've done so without being forced by the circus of congressional and criminal investigations.
If Clemens actually lied to Congress, he disgraced himself, his reputation and his game, and he faced the prospect of criminal charges just like anyone else. No matter who a person is, lying under oath is a crime, and no matter how great a pitcher Clemens was, he is not above the law.
The United States government decided not to turn a blind eye to alleged misconduct in its own backyard. But the government was only put into that situation because that's what Major League Baseball did.
We shouldn't have reached this point. It's not just Roger Clemens or particular players who should be indicted. All of Major League Baseball should be as well. Not in a criminal proceeding, but in the history books, and in our collective memory.
