Marc Perlman has read the latest entry from Curt Schilling’s 38 Pitches (“Shut the fuck up Curt. Just shut up”), and while I can’t really endorse the author’s genuflecting towards George Mitchell (“I would argue that most of the people calling his character into question are doing so because they can™t relate to someone possessing integrity and an unbiased opinion in his position”) nor repeated pot shots at Jose Canseco (“he never belonged in the big leagues and anything he ever did in the major leagues is a hoax”), Schilling’s comments regarding Kirk Radomski, Brian McNamee and Roger Clemens are worth consideration.

The two men that fingered multiple players, from my understanding, both testified with immunity, but only if they told the truth. So these guys had every reason in the world to NOT lie. That doesn™t mean they didn™t, but there is an immense amount of incentive for them to NOT lie when they gave their depositions because lying would have seen them open to legal actions beyond what they are already facing. So the question to me then becomes this. It™s no mystery that Roger and Andy are as close as any two teammates I know of. Andy makes no bones about Rogers influence in his career. Their personal trainer, the trainer Roger took to Toronto, then to NY, has admitted to administering PED™s to both men. Andy has admitted he did, and that it was a mistake and he never did it again. Roger has denied every allegation brought to the table. So as a fan my thought is that Roger will find a way in short order to organize a legal team to guarantee a retraction of the allegations made, a public apology is made, and his name is completely cleared. If he doesn™t do that then there aren™t many options as a fan for me other than to believe his career 192 wins and 3 Cy Youngs he won prior to 1997 were the end. From that point on the numbers were attained through using PED™s. Just like I stated about Jose, if that is the case with Roger, the 4 Cy Youngs should go to the rightful winners and the numbers should go away if he cannot refute the accusations.

Whatever happens now though, can you separate what Barry Bonds is accused of from what Roger is accused of?