National Pastime Radio

August 23, 2010 · 2 comments

The Brian Lehrer Show ran this segment on Aug. 20 following the news of Roger Clemens’ indictment.

The two guests on the show were Michael O’Keeffe of the New York Daily News, who collaborated on American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime, and William C. Rhoden of the New York Times and author of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete and Third and a Mile: From Fritz Pollard to Michael Vick–an Oral History of the Trials, Tears and Triumphs of the Black Quarterback.

One of the questions Lehrer posed was how the sportswriters thought Clemens would be received by the public, compared with Andy Pettitte, who admitted his transgression for using HGH and was embraced once again. I’m of a mind that fans have tunnel vision when it comes to their teams. Yankee fans will castigate a Barry Bonds or a Mark McGwire, but defend Clemens, while a more objective person would judge on a case by case basis, based on the facts.

Lehrer and company discuss Clemens’ bulldog persona, which made it nigh impossible for the pitcher to admit he’d ever juiced. I also found it amusing that O’Keefe would complain that the added years Clemens, Bonds, and others gained because of their drug use took jobs away from players who had to find other avenues of employment, such as working in a bank. That one gob-stopped Rhoden, as you will hear.

You can listen to the segment here:

Be Sociable, Share!

Tagged as: Brian Lehrer, NPR, PED, Roger Clemens, steroids, WYNC

  • Anonymous

    From Lisa Swan via Facebook:

    “I disagree with this, “Yankee fans will castigate a Barry Bonds or a Mark McGwire, but defend Clemens, while a more objective person would judge on a case by case basis, based on the facts.” Most Yankee fans I know despise Clemens now. He really is a player without a team — he’s managed to tick off all his possible fan bases. And steroids is only part of it. “

  • Anonymous

    Thanks, Lisa. I should have narrowed it down to that brand of rabid fan who’s team can do no wrong. Like Red Sox nation complaining when the Yankees spend gazillions of dollars for a free agent, but when they shell out the big bucks for Dice-K, that’s a different story. There’s no reasoning with that kind of philosophy.

Previous post:

Next post:

script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-5496371-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();