American McCarver

The day after the biggest trial since that one trial ended, another big trial begins. Well, I wouldn’t say it’s big. Maybe it’s big only to baseball fans. Or only to people who really dislike Roger Clemens. You know, the kind of person who would call Clemens a liar on twitter. Me. Certainly not Nancy Grace. 

Today in Washington, the jury selection process for the perjury trial of Roger Clemens will begin. Roger is near the end of his path of self destruction. It didn’t have to be this way. No one made Roger testify on Capitol Hill. No one but Roger forced him to take the oath and swear to things that only Roger’s version of the truth. But he did it because that’s what Roger Clemens does. The man who never knew how to take responsibility for his own actions allegedly (I guess we have to use that word until this trial is over) lied to Congress to save his own ass. He was the Greg Brady of the Mitchell Report, telling everyone those weren’t his cigarettes in his jacket pocket. Someone must have put them there. Or he was holding them for someone else. Or someone was setting him up. But no, Roger was never to blame. He never did anything wrong. Always someone else’s fault. Always an excuse. And in making congressional hearings a forum for his excuses, Roger effectively threw himself under a bus.

That bus has been dragging Clemens along for three years and will drop him off today at courthouse where he will begin the unenviable task of trying to undo the damage he did to himself in 2008. Roger has nothing going for him here. He has nothing to bring to the table but a series of lies, stretched truths and outright fantasies. When you’re going up against the word of a sleazy drug peddler once accused of rape and people are calling you the liar, you’ve got your work cut out for you. 

I’ll be honest with you. My interest in this trial has little to do with the American justice system or the sanctity of baseball or vindication of Andy Pettite’s words or even steroids. It has little to do with teaching our children that lying is bad. It has to do with a years long hatred of Roger Clemens and a huge, combined comeuppance for every time he’s done something, well, Roger-ish. Lying. Blaming. Being an arrogant jerk. 

I didn’t like Clemens before he was a Yankee. I didn’t like him when he became part of my favorite team. I hated him when he left and I hated him — and the Yankees management — when he came back. When he “retired” for the first time and talked about going into the Hall of Fame (Ha!) wearing a Yankees cap instead of a Red Sox cap I went into a frenzied rage. So perhaps my interest in this trial is a little biased. But really, is there anyone out there who actually likes this guy? Anyone who is rooting for him to come out of this alive and well and ready to play in an old-timers game as if it all never happened? I don’t think anyone is going to keep tabs on this trial thinking “Gee, I hope Roger Clemens gets away with telling tales under oath!” 

I may be in the minority of people who actually care about this perjury trial and I most certainly might be in the minority of Yankee fans who have a long-standing, personal vendetta against Clemens but I know I’m not the only one who thinks he’s a lying sack of shit. If I were, we wouldn’t be talking about this trial.

Maybe I should give Mike Piazza a call and see if he wants to watch the proceedings with me. 

[Reuters photo]