Even a broken clock is right twice a year...

Sally Jenkins actually wrote a good article in the Washington Post again!  What are we to make of this second good article in a year?  Is the the beginning of a trend?  Okay, so maybe I'm being a bit harsh: Jenkins tends to write very well as long as she isn't focusing on DC-area teams and issues.  I've said it before: she should stick to national issues like this one. 

To play devil's advocate, I've read at least three columns where the authors have lowered Roger Clemens to the same level as Barry Bonds thanks to The Mitchell Report.  An admittedly-biased Bill Simmons went even further:

"You aren't even playing the race card if you point out the differences in how Barry Bonds and Clemens were "covered" by the media from 2000 to 2007: Other than Bonds' expanding head, we had just as much circumstantial evidence that Clemens' second prime was extremely fishy, only most people chalked it up to his "legendary" workout regimen. Well, why? Why weren't more people suspicious? Much to my delight, I was always suspicious and even have various parts in my book that prove this. I couldn't be prouder. You never had me fooled, Clemens! Never!"

Clemens never had me fooled, either.  Why did almost nobody in the media or federal government point the finger at Clemens - yet they went whole hog after Bonds?  Doesn't that seem just a tad bit...unfair?  Maybe...oh, I dunno...racist?

Thomas Boswell, one of my favorite columnists, was shocked:  "...the report's predictable functions -- a punch in the nose to the union, a slap in the face to MLB, a predictable recitation of the usual (already revealed) steroid suspects and a T-bone steak to placate congressional watchdogs --were all obliterated by the discovery nobody expected. In the end, the Mitchell report will forever be the Clemens indictment."

"Nobody expected?"  When a guy who is one the decline in his late 30s grows several cap sizes, puts on pounds of muscle, and posts his best seasons EVER past the age of 40, we're supposed to be "shocked" he was using PEDs?  Well, maybe we're supposed to be shocked because he isn't surly like Bonds was.  Oh wait...Clemens IS kind of a dick.  Hmmm...then I wonder why so many smart people were so surprised?

You've also got to love these guys like Brian Roberts and Andy Pettite admitting that they used HGH and/or steroids 'once or twice'.  Are you fucking kidding me?  And the worst part?  People are believing them!  Is this all Bonds had to do -- admit he used a couple of times?  Somehow I doubt it.  Roberts had one phenomenal season a couple of years ago, hadn't done anything before then, and hasn't done anything since.  Pettite, like Clemens, has put up amazing numbers despite his advanced age.  And we are supposed to believe they only used a couple of times? 

Riiiiiiiiiight.  The worst part was hearing Wilbon say he believed Pettite's explanation, but that it still didn't make it right. You believe him?  At his age, with his performance level?  Why the hell would anyone believe anything an athlete says about PED use at this point?  Too many of them have been caught lying to regard these "admissions" and half-assed apologies with anything other than cynicism. 

Well, unless they are likeable...and maybe unless they are white.

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit