December 14, 2007
Clemens 1998
In reading the Clemens section of the Mitchell Report, McNamee gives a pretty clear time line as to when Roger started using steroids. It was after a series at Miami. Clemens pitched in that series on 6/8/1998. Here are his stats through that series: 6-6, 3.27 ERA, 9.2 K per 9, 4.3 BB per 9, 0.32 HR/9. From that date through the end of the season: 14-0, 2.29 ERA, 11.1 K per 9, 2.8 BB per 9, 0.48 HR per 9.
Update: McNamee also talks about injecting Clemens in the second half of 2000 and late in 2001. Clemens through 6/30/2000: 4-6, 4.76 ERA, 9.0 K per 9, 4.1 BB per 9, 1.44 HR per 9. July through the end of the season: 9-2, 3.00 ERA, 7.8 K per 9, 3.4 BB per 9, 0.95 HR per 9. Let me note, however, that Clemens suffered an injury that knocked him out for the last two games of June, and his two starts before he left the game with an injury were poor.
Clemens was pretty consistent through 2001. See pages 167-176 of the Mitchell report.
Posted by David Pinto at
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Dayn Perry tracked the times Clemens and Jason Giambi used and didn't use PED's and their corresponding performances. There appears to be a correlation. That, of course, doesn't prove causation, but it makes one think.
It is also important to acknowledge the placebo effect of using these drugs. Many studies of performance-enhancers show improvements in performance in placebo groups. A colleague of mine how has conducted clinical trials of some potentially performance-enhancing substances says it is amusing that many of his subjects insist they are on the real thing because of they way their workouts are going. Then they are shattered at the moment that both the researcher and subject (these are double-blind experiments) learn that this is not the case.
I am not saying that steroids did not improve Clemens's performance. To the contrary, I think there is very strong evidence that anabolic steroids improve athletic performance.
The biggest impact the The Report will have on the superstars like Clemens is on their Hall of Fame bids.
I found that Clemens already had nine seasons with over 200 K's and eight seasons with an ERA South of 3.00 by 1998. Although steroids obviously help Clemens in the "twilight" of his career, they did not make him a Hall of Fame pitcher.
Hey, Doug
The standard, I think, was set with McGuire.
Maybe - I bet that standard is going to be more on a case by case basis
As a person who mostly wants this to go away, I'll be interested (as in, oh-look-a-twelve-car-pileup-interested) to see what happens when Bonds and Clemens come up for HoF votes.
Right now, I'd bet that Bonds won't get in and Clemens will ... and people will justifiably have screaming hissy fits over their cases.
It will be very interesting to see if Clemens, a famously self-centered guy but white, earns anything close to the enmity Bonds has aroused.
I think Clemens could possibly become as controversial in the long run as Shoeless Joe. Did he or didn't he? I'm interested to see how this plays out.
It will indeed be interesting to see how this plays out, but come on, is anyone really surprised? The real surprise would be that Clemens did not take PEDs
