The Unchanged Among the Changed

The Unchanged Among the Changed

On December 13th 2007, the most shocking incident in entire Major League Baseball history happened. A study about the performance-enhancing drug usage of many Major Leaguers, “Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance-Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball” by a U.S. senator George J. Mitchell was exposed to the public. This report, so called the “Mitchell Report,” contained names of many ex-, and current star Major Leaguers such as Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, and Mike Piazza, but the most startling name was Roger Clemens.
It was not surprising to see people’s astonishment. Indeed, Roger Clemens achieved a marvelous career that overwhelmed many former legendary pitchers in the Major League. He is a 7-time Cy Young Award winner who played for 24 years winning 354 games. Since Clemens dominated the Major League, he was symbolized as a true American baseball hero. Before the exposal of the Mitchell Report, every baseball fans predicted that he would be an inductee of the Hall of Fame, a place for the baseball legends. Because Clemens had the most outstanding career out of the players who were enlisted in the Mitchell Report, he was politicized the most when the report was publicized.
Most of the players who were accused for using performance-enhancing drugs soon confessed that they have used those drugs in the past. Yet, only Roger Clemens, the most influential player from the Mitchell Report, pleaded not guilty. According to the Washington Post, Clemens was charged for six crimes: obstruction of Congress, making false statements about usage of Human Growth Hormone, Steroids and Vitamin B12, and perjury about using Human Growth Hormone and Steroids. Finally, after 5 years of long legal battle, on June 18th of 2012, The New York Times reported that Roger Clemens was acquitted of all 6 charges in the trial by the federal court....