It's Hard to Believe you Mr. Clemens

Yesterday morning was the first of the congressional hearings with Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee. As I look at it, both of these guys looked nervous when being questioned under oath. Neither of them could handle the truth or the pressure. But I would have to say I believe McNamee more than I do Clemens.

Andy Pettitie said under oath that Roger Clemens told him about using HGH, but Clemens still denies it. He claims Pettite "misremembers". How could Pettite "missremember" something like this? This is a big deal, steroids is a big deal. Something is just fishy here. After being questioned several times especially by Elijah Cummings (House of Rep. D-MD), Clemens looked nervous, he had a look in his face that made him look guilty. Clemens' stories are going to come back and hurt him because everything isn't matching up. I can't believe Mr. Clemens, I just can't.

Hey Congress, Stay Out Of Sport's Problems

Now before I get started on this little rant I just want to say I really could care less about politics and the whole big brother concept it has with other countries. But when it comes to problems in sports and sports figures, Congress needs to keep their big nose out of sport's business. I really am sick and tired of turning on ESPN and now that football is done and over with it seems like the only two things on ESPN anymore are steroids in baseball and the spygate and how congress is "interested in getting to the bottom of this". On Wednesday Roger Clemens and a handful of baseball players, trainers, and representatives are heading to Capital hill to discuss the findings of steroids in baseball. It is a day I am simply going to call "Black Wednesday". This is something that is baseballs problem not the governments. So there is controversy in sports, there are more pressing issues in my mind then worrying about who did and who didn't take steroids in the last 90's and early 2000's. I know Bud Selig hired good old Senator George Mitchell to figure out who was taking what in baseball, but this is taking things a bit far if you ask me. Congress worry about getting us out of Iraq or stopping George Bush from making anymore idiotic decisions with our tax money. In the mean time let me tell you how I would go about fixing the steroids problem in baseball and the problem with spygate.

Steroids in Baseball
It a problem that Bud Selig should of dealt with many years ago. Instead he had Senator Mitchell do the investigation he should have been doing and now thanks to the Mitchell report baseball is now seen under a bad light. Look Selig made a big mistake and we know a bunch of players had at least tried steroids during the past 10 to 15 years, but do we really need to recover what happened in the past? You can't fully prove who took steroids or performance enhancing drugs from 5 to 10 years ago. How can prove it is credible? Instead of worrying about the past just let it go and focus on cleaning up the game for this season and seasons to come. Instead of random testing test everyone in the league for steroids. Because honestly how can you really make a test like steroids random? Now label the past 15 years as "The Steroid Era" and move on. Baseball is already a mess you don't need to make it worse by bringing congress into it.

Spygate
Now since this has come out and I have heard more rumors about the Patriots using it in the Super Bowl and other games I think it is time to really crack down on this. I think the fine and the forfeit their first round pick was a good punishment but now there needs to be more of a punishment. Now I think you should forfeit games and maybe even more than that for being caught video taping now. Who knows if the footage they got of the Rams running their plays helped them in the Super Bowl against the Rams. Roger Goodell needs to enforce some type of punishment system for this. Maybe something like this. First offense: Forfeit of the game and a fine. Second Offense: Forfeit game plus some additional games on top of that. Third Offense: Forfeit entire season. It is at least something the league has to look into.

Congress is there to help punish people for doing real crimes like murders and other serious offenses. They should be more worried about terrorists attacks, how to fix this economic recession, and stop George Bush from cutting taxes on health care. They shouldn't be worried about Baseballs problems, they shouldn't be worried about the NFL's problems, they should be worried about any sports related problems period.

Nate Gonner is a guest writer for The Sports Flow. He writes his columns every Monday and Thursday for Gonners View. Check his site out here

Atleast I Can Blog When I Have the Wind Knocked Out of Me

I wonder if The Babe knew. Everytime he rubbed his face, he was stabbing the game that he (Ruth) loved and protected in the back.

A punch in the gut is the only way that I can describe my feeling for Roger Clemens association with steroids. I hate steroids and cheating and love the game of baseball. I was very excited for the Mitchell investigation to come out because I felt like it was a necessary step to protecting the integrity of the game that we all love.

I was expecting a lot of names to be mentioned. There were a handful of names that I, in fact, really wanted to be mentioned. Roger Clemens was definitely not one of them. There were also names that I wasn't expecting at all, like Chuck Knoblach. I guess this explains his inability to throw from 2nd to 1st, and is almost humorous.

I always liked Roger Clemens. The only thing I ever had against him was the fact that he played(S) for the Yankees. I always admired his talent and renown work-ethic. This changes everything. How sad is it that the best hitter and pitcher of our generation (who could both be argued as the best all-time respectively) have both been named as users of performance-enhancing drugs? I just can't get over it. I knew Bonds would be on there and all you readers know how I feel about him and his steroid use. Now, I assume these accusations and findings are going to have to be proved in court for anything significant to happen, but just the fact that Roger Clemens has 9 pages of the report dedicated to him, including personal testaments to injecting him.

Where can baseball and baseball fans go from here? Well as a fan this certainly changes my perspective on a lot of players out there, especially Mr. Clemens. I've always felt like a large part of the blame should be pinned on Mr. Selig and MLB officials who, in the 90's, knew this was happening, but let it slide. It is true that they harbored this mess but the players chose to cheat. Whether you are a Chuck Knoblach or a Roger Clemens, you chose to cheat and to associate yourself with cheating. As a fan I'm a little upset about Mitchell's findings but I'm also very anxious to see what Mr. Selig and MLB will do about this report.

I hope that this is what turns the game around. While I am shocked and disappointed I am, in a sense, a bit relieved. This was the right thing and this was what needed to happen to protect the integrity of the game. I hope that every move from here on out is a step in the right direction.

Rocket Adds a Boost, but not Enough to Take the Yanks to the Moon (Playoffs)

Roger Clemens made his long awaited debut tonight and picked up the win against the Pirates 9-3. He gave up 3R, 3ER, 2 BB, and had 7K's in 6 innings. Congratulations Yankees fans but I have news for you: IT'S GOING TO TAKE A LOT MORE THAN ROGER CLEMENS FOR YOU GUYS TO CATCH THE RED SOX. I'm glad that you're excited and everything but let's not get ahead of ourselves. He just beat the Pirates.

If anybody (Yankees' fans especially) think that a 40+ yr. old legend who is starting to show his age can come in, throw 6 maybe 7 innings every 5th day and help you make up your 10 game deficit you are terribly mistaken. Yes, he is an all-time great and I have great respect for him, but he's not "The Rocket" he used to be and the Yankees have far more problems than even the old Rocket could have fixed.

For obvious starters your pitching sucks. Rocket can start every game. Hell, he may not be able to start every 5th game! Also, you don't really have a 1st baseman right now. Your OF is getting a little old with Matsui and Abreu. Abreau is nothing special defensively by any means and could probably be the DH and let Melky Cabrera play in the field. Anyways, Matsui and Abreu are getting old -not Rocket old...but old- and neither of them are having stellar years by any means. You (Yanks) should be embarassed about wasting Arod's historic month of April.

The Yankees are old, have no pitching, problems at 1B, problems off the field (Giambi) and are worse than the Red Sox. Rocket helps but he's not the answer and in my mind there is no way that the Yanks can catch the Red Sox. Maybe if they make a few moves they'll be able to make a run for the wild card later. However, I'm going to go ahead and call it. In my opinion THE YANKEES ARE DEAD.