Filed under: MLBFor most of this decade, Barry Bonds' cheeky face was the sole image on the poster for baseball's steroid era. Then a few others joined him, like Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa. No others could really dislodge Bonds' infamy, no matter how much his or theirs was fueled by strong speculation or teary-eyed admission.
But ever since Roger Clemens 2 1/2 years ago denied before Congress with a national television audience watching that he ever used performance-enhancing drugs, while at the same time his one-time friend and trainer Brian McNamee handed over syringes, gauze pads and empty vials of drugs he claimed belonged to Clemens, Clemens was vying to supplant Bonds place as the face of baseball's biggest cheating scandal.
On Thursday, Clemens completed his coup. He became the poster boy for baseball's drug-cheating generation.
It wasn't just that Clemens on Thursday was indicted on six counts of lying under oath in February 2008 to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, including one charge for obstruction of Congress, three charges for making false statements and two charges for perjury. It was that the indictment came as a result of his performance in a public forum no less than the pitcher's mound he starred on all those years. We all saw it unfold. We all heard it. We all read about it.
We all witnessed members of the committee react stunningly to what Clemens testified juxtaposed to what they collected in evidence and statements from others, like Clemens' longtime teammate and friend Andy Pettitte, who stated that Clemens told him all about cutting corners with illegally obtained banned substances. Clemens explained that Pettitte "misremembered."
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