Good piece in The Hardball Times written by Lisa Gray who writes The Astros Dugout. I disagree with some of the the conclusions I think she’s heading toward at the end, but she nicely dissects the love that fans in Houston, and Texas, had for Clemens when he first signed with the Astros for 2004, and how the city turned on him when he left the team for this past season.

Suddenly, and for the first time ever, baseball was the sport on everyone’s lips in January, during football season, preempting Super Bowl coverage. The question :Will Roger unretire?” took over FM radio, papers and TV. Football, basketball, every other sport was barely mentioned because of the endless “Roger, we love you, Roger please play for the Astros” pleas in the paper, on the radio. Roger’s kids were on TV, on the radio, saying they wanted him to bring the Series to Houston. Roger finally caved in and signed like a guy who wanted to all along, but just needed to hear all the begging and pleading first, and he signed for basically pennies.

How could a baseball player possibly be more loved? A hometown hero, a legend, chooses to play at home and he does it for love, not money. True romance. “Oh, myyyyyyyy,” as Annie Savoy would say. Houston simply went Astros crazy and at a time of the year when the word “baseball” wasn’t even thought, let alone mentioned. Ticket sales, shals we say, rocketed. Clemens and Pettitte jerseys sold out as soon as they arrived. Houston was deeply, madly, hopelessly in the throes of a passionate love affair.

I guess I like it because I more-or-less felt the same way about Clemens. My brief interest in Clemens arose from drafting him to my fantasy baseball team (oh, I know you want to hear about that) in 2004. I marvelled at the unreal second half he had (which as it turns out was exactly when he allegedly started getting injections). I also thought it was cool he signed a 10-year personal services contract with the team.

Roger extended his usual “I don’t know if I want to retire or not” dance all winter, angering, rather than enticing many fans. He said he wanted to go to the World Baseball Classic, that he wanted to go to spring training and work with the younguns, that he wasn’t sure if he would come back, and then he waited for the usual pleading and begging. But, as my mother warned me, the very same actions that are so endearing during courtship and romance are the very ones that become irritating after marriage. Roger finally agreed to come back, signing a contract on the last day of May for $22 million, a record breaking contract for a pitcher. Fans grumbled that he was a prima donna, that he was mercenary, that he wanted to appear on June 22, swooping in to magically resuscitate the Astros lackluster season. He was, of course, a glowing mega star, and his presence kept the cameras trained on him as he worked his way through the minors and kept national media attention on the Astros.

Yeah, that’s about where he lost me. No one likes players that become bigger than the game itself and popping in at the end of May would qualify as that. I think Clemens, in taking roids, even surprised himself at the level he was able to pitch. Suddenly, a guy who’d returned home, was getting ready to ride off into the sunset, was pitching as well as anyone in the game. Or, as the case was, like a superman. I think his ego followed. I think he figured he may as well ride it out, to make as much money and feed his ego and to hell with the rest. Of course that’s just my speculation.

Toward the end Gray seems willing to give Clemens the innocent until proven guilty rope, which bugs me because people have been very reluctant to give the same to other players — like Bonds. She says Miguel Tejada, “against whom there is more and better evidence of steroid use, has been welcomed with open arms with seldom a discouraging word to be heard.”

I really hope this doesn’t become a trend with Clemens. I think it’s going to be very tempting, as time goes by, for people to give Clemens a break, just as they seemingly turned a blind eye when the idea he might be doing roids was being bandied about. He doesn’t deserve it any more than anyone else in the Mitchell Report. Unless people are ready to throw the report out entirely (which they probably should)  they ought not to start absolving certain players named in it just because they’re no video evidence of them getting shots.