Rocket is Grounded

Forgetting for a moment that George Mitchell, former lapdog of the Clinton Administration, was perhaps the least original thinker ever to serve under the constitution (I'd still like to know what happened to Louis Sullivan's health care proposal in 1991), and left a series of disparities in his report (which, in full disclosure, I have not read), the allegations against Roger Clemens are nonetheless pretty serious.

Dan Shaughnessy writes about it here.

As I've noted previously in this space (not that any of you read it), true Red Sox fans were somewhat disgruntled that Clemens "mailed in" his last four seasons in Boston, then burned up the league in 1997-1998 while with Toronto. I had previously attributed his success there to a combination of Dan Duquette's misjudgement and Clemens' personal motivation to prove he wasn't done yet. His success later in Houston could easily be attributed to pitching in a pitcher-friendly park against National League lineups that run 5- or 6-deep. On top of that, Clemens' teammates through the years have always attested to his intense work ethic and drive to keep himself in shape.

But his Yankee years are somewhat intriging. I hadn't forgotten that Clemens was a little better than ordinary during his first year in New York (1999), before having strong years in 2000 and 2001.

Now, with steroids et al in the mix, one can't help but see a pattern there. Maybe Dan Duquette was right after all. Stay tuned...