Now, Roger Clemens joins Barry Bonds in baseball's version of hell. It's a slow burn that lasts a lifetime, then, after death, lingers as long as the game is played and tongues can wag. In baseball, a man's triumphs and his sins are immortal. The pursuit of one often leads to the other. And those misdeeds are seldom as dark as their endless punishment.
Loading...
This has nothing to do with personality (Well, maybe a little). No, this has to do with baseball's ongoing attempt to con gullible followers into believing that the game is one great, seamless story of achievement, that the game and conditions under which Ned Williamson swatted 27 home runs for the 1884 Chicago White Stockings are the same as the game and conditions under which Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs for the New York Yankees in 1927, Roger Maris hit 61 home runs for the Yankees in 1961, or Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs for the San Francisco Giants in 2001. It's a splendid myth.
Just so you know, Ned Williamson took aim at a right-field fence at Lake Front Park that was 196 feet from home plate. The year before, when balls hit over that fence were ground-rule doubles, he had a record 49 two-baggers.
So when it comes to home runs, all conditions are not created equal.
