I’m pretty confident that this is the real reason. He thinks that in 5 years things will have mostly blown over and he can be a first ballot HOF’er. I think he’s wrong, but it’s his best shot.
/slight hijack
How in the hell did he win his lawsuit?
Did bonds win his too?
/end hijack
Honestly, IMO he’s getting his name back in the wind exactly for HOF consideration. If he’s been acquitted, he’ll want to get that public fan support to build.
If he gets into the hall, I’ll be stunned, but Clemens beat a lawsuit I never believed he could, so what do I know?
Still, I don’t believe any of the 'roid boys will get into the hall in my lifetime. Once the first one goes in, the floodgates will open. I just don’t see how you can let one guy in without letting the rest. The stats are so great, the records so unbreakable, how do you ignore some but let one slide?
it will be interesting.
Personally, I don’t believe he will play in the majors again. Not even in Houston.
Perhaps he misses pitching? I mean it is really all he has ever done. There doesn’t have to be an ulterior motive.
And for the Astros why not. They are a boring terrible team with very few players who have major league futures. At some point you just need warm bodies. Their number 5 starter right now is A Galaragga, known only for pitching a perfectish game. He has been cut multiple times this year, isn’t young, and has been terrible for the Astros. They keep pitching him because you need five starters and they have nothing else. The number 3 and 4 starters aren’t much better. Clemens would generate some interest and would be hard pressed to be a downgrade.
I don’t think it’s as much that he wants to be a “first-ballot” HOFer, but that if he is on the ballot now, he runs the risk of getting votes on fewer than 5% of the ballots, which would make him ineligible until something like 2027 when the Veterans Committee can get him in.
Who’s he going to find to put the icy-hot on his balls?
Stink Fish Pot:
He won his lawsuit because the evidence presented against him was very badly handled.
Did Bonds even have a lawsuit? As far as I recall, the only court in which he was brought to trial was the court of public opinion, by way of a journalist’s investigation. Not by any law-enforcement body.
Clemens was recently acquitted on six felony counts of perjury, one count of obstructing Congress and one count of making false statements. Pretty serious stuff; he probably would have spent some time in prison had he been found guilty. The charges were all related to his testimony in at Congressional hearings about performance-enhancing drug use in MLB.
Bonds was convicted on a single count of obstruction of justice for his evasive answers during his testimony at one of the BALCO trials. The jury dead-locked on the three perjury charges: lying about steroid use, lying about HGH use and lying about receiving injections from someone other than his doctor. For now he is a convicted felon but I believe that is still on appeal and I don’t know if he is going to be re-tried on the perjury charges.
The government’s case against Clemens was based on the testimony of Brian McNamee, the guy who procured steroids for Clemens and injected him. Not surprisingly (and everybody knew this already) McNamee was a sleaze in his own right, so the jury didn’t find him credible enough to convict Clemens. In the Bonds case there just wasn’t a lot of evidence. It’s hard to prosecute cases like this based on stuff that happened years ago. Evidence gets lost, people forget stuff. In Bonds’ case his former trainer repeatedly refused to testify and went to jail for contempt of court.
I have to object, as a Reds fan. “Used to be famous”? He still IS!
OK, I acknowledge that he’s a douchebag, an asshole and his autograph signing campaign is pretty sad and all…but…but…
Thanks for the info, guys. Now that I see it, I DO remember the Bomds verdict. I must have vlocked the verdict from my brain.
I thought the Clemens conviction was a no-brainer. If that case wasn’t a slam dunk, they should have never pursued it. But since I watched that testimony on TV and found him to be as credible that he never used PEDs the same as him saying that he thought the barrel end of Piazzas broken bat was the ball (which didn’t explain why he’d throw the “ball” at Piazza running to first instead of directly AT Piazza… Maybe he thought it was a wiffle ball game). I thought it was a good thing Piazza was going under for lying to congress.
The fact that he didn’t get convicted must mean that the ability to prove a case of perjury mist be extremely difficult. I think if I ever had the misfortune of being grilled in front of congress, I would have to think lying is much better than the truth, under just about any circumstances. No matter what you thought of McNamee, I don’t recall any of his testimony was proven to be Incorrect… On any of the major stuff anyway.
Clearly, I missed something. Oh well.
What does a Pete Rose autograph go for thee days?
Or a Bonds?
Or a Clemens?
I saw all of these guys play in person, so I’d buy one, I’d go as high as $5..
Just kidding. As much as I hate Bonds as a person, as a player, he was second only to Roberto Clemente as the best pure player I ever saw. I’d give $10 for his.
I wonder what “Rocket the Blue Jay” Beanie Babies go for these days?
There’s a former Senator from Idaho who happens to need a gig.
But would his icy-hot ball application be legitimate?