June 2, 2006 as Roger Clemens returns to the Astros--Jeff Pearlman, Slate

(Last part of article) "...When I look at Roger Clemens, I wonder: Where's the investigative digging? Like Bonds, Clemens is a larger-than-life athletic specimen. Like Bonds, Clemens is producing at an age when most of his peers are knitting. Unlike Bonds, Clemens does not have journalists breathing down his neck.

• Instead, the hometown Houston Chronicle has covered his recent re-signing with the Astros as a time for unmitigated celebration.

Forget combing through his garbage for vials—***

• I just want the Chronicle to ask Clemens whether he's used. Is the Rocket cheating? Again, I don't know. But doesn't someone have to at least try and find out?

"A lot of baseball writers are drunks or cheat on their wives," says Jose de Jesus Ortiz, the Chronicle's Astros beat writer.

• "I would never question anybody unless I have evidence. It's unfair to feel that just because of Bonds now we're required to question everyone about their methods."

(Mr. Pearlman also wonders if Dominican Republic pharmacies have been checked out).

• (If they weren't on the Radomski/McNamee client list, fat chance. Have another cocktail). sm

From Slate article by Jeff Pearlman, 6/2/06, "Sportswriters Pretend Baseball's Steroid Era is Over."

• ***Someone actually did think of this.....

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