Thursday, February 14, 2008

Say It Ain't So

Behind the truth around Mr. Clemens' having or not having used steroids and/or HGH remains the learned, polarizing biases that many of us, unknowingly or deliberately, embrace.

One bias is the hero-worship that surrounds our sports and entertainment stars. How many others called to testify in a Congressional hearing spend a few days visiting with legislators and signing autographs before giving their testimony? Another bias is just the opposite--here's another case of a mega-rich superstar (in this case, sports, but the bias works with entertainers and corporate officers just as well) who thinks he or she is above the law, and who walks through life with an arrogance based on professional success.

The most disturbing aspect of this case from my perspective is not the alleged use of performance-enhancing substances. This is a problem, has been for years--in professional, collegiate and high school sports--and it's not going away soon. The cultural (i.e. American rugged individualist, win-at-all-costs whether in sport, business or war) forces at work here are immense, need to be addressed, and are not the focus of this posting.


The most disturbing aspect of this case is that the disagreement between McNamee and Clemens is not a nuanced, self-serving interpretation of different points of view on a given set of facts. Beyond questions of how much or when, is did they or didn't they. One of these two men is lying. Period. For whatever reasons, either the trainer is making this all up or the pitcher is denying behavior in which he engaged--which brings us to another bias: conventional wisdom says that the pitcher has more to lose and therefore, reason to lie. What's a more-or-less honest person to do?

If McNamee is telling the truth, he is in far over his head financially and in terms of public status, and will be hated by many (and respected by some) for bringing Clemens down. If Clemens is telling the truth, to the extent that he is vindicated, he will still always have that asterisk next to his name in many people's minds. Again, one of these two men is lying.

While it's not my intention here to place a higher-than-normal standard for honesty and trust on a former-police-officer-turned-athletic-trainer or on an athlete-turned-star-role-model-philanthropist, I would like them to qualify for at least the normal standard.

I am reminded of the character, Red, played by Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption, who reminds us that in prison, everyone is innocent--nobody did what he was sent away for. Every inmate has been wrongfully accused and convicted, framed, unjustly prosecuted.


If the trainer's accusatons are true, Clemens and McNamee are inmates in a prison that they built together: winning at all costs, preserving what they already have--including reputation, shifting blame, and denying accountability. If Clemens' denials are true, he's sharing a cell in a prison he didn't build.

And finally, the architects of this prison are Major League Baseball, led by Bud Selig's hands-off approach, all of the owners, and every player, trainer and supplier who played a role in dispensing performance-enhancing drugs.

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