Friday, December 21, 2007

Yankees Close Ranks Around Clemens And Pettitte

No surprise here and I hold presumably clean players like Jeter just as culpable for the steroids era (in a different way) as the actual cheats. All the clean players and managers and owners and agents and trainers looked the other way, thinking it was manly to just back up your guy and not break the code of silence. Virtually none of them even condemned cheating in general. So no surprise Jeter says Pettitte is great and it was wonderful to see Andy be see honest and come forward (he didn't come forward; he was outed as a cheat and did some damage control). And Jeter says Clemens is a great teammate and we shouldn't rush to judgment -- as if a 20 month investigation is a rush to judgment. And Joba says Clemens is the man and has nothing to prove to him -- look at all those intense workouts -- to stupid perhaps to realize that steroids help you indulge in those intense workouts and get results faster. Too stupid or he just doesn't care. Nothing will change because the players don't care, the fans don't care and certainly the owners don't care. Meanwhile, the Texas High School Basketball Coaches Assocation is trying to go slow while deciding about Clemens, who was scheduled to speak at their annual convention about those same vigorous workouts. You'd think Clemens would give them an easy out and say he appreciates the offer but wants to devote himself to clearing his name and hopes they'll make the offer again down the road. But why should he? They're deluged with phone calls from people who rush to judgment -- the judgment that Clemens MUST be innocent despite the evidence. And Dan Hooton, whose baseball-playing son committed suicide while on steroids (one lovely side effect of abusing them is depression) and has devoted his life to warning kids about steroids? He's never been asked to speak at the convention and tells USA Today "Many of the [Texas] coaches have distanced themselves from me. Many don't want me talking at their events." Who thinks its perverse that high school football coaches might want to have a player immersed in a steroids scandal give a pep talk to their kids while they want nothing to do with a dad warning those same kids about the dangers of steroids?

4 comments:

Jason Page said...

Do you honestly expect Jeter and Joba to go out and hammer Pettitte when they has to go on the field with this guy for 8 months out of a year??

Please tell me you aren't that insane.

Michael in New York said...

Nope.

Michael in New York said...

But that's not the same as them going out and actively defending them and saying the same knucklehead things ballplayers always say. They could have stopped at "I've worked with Clemens and always liked him and have to believe him when he says it's not true." But defending them and arguing how great Pettitte was to do damage control, that's not necessary. A no comment would have been better, but then they would have been accused of abandoning their friends and not getting their back cause that's what atheletes do no matter what they're teammate has done.

Michael in New York said...

And how telling is the final issue -- people flooding the phones to Texas to defend him and insist he's the perfect guy to lecture teens on hard work (talk about a rush to judgment) but cold shoulder the dad whose son HAS DIED in part because of steroids and wants to get out the message that steroids are dangerous. That is sad. And so apt.