Wednesday, April 30, 2008

More Clemens Bimbo Erruptions

The Daily News is obviously going to try and track down every woman Clemens ever glanced at. As this continues on, let me be clear about something: the McCready stuff bothers me tremendously because of her age at the time the relationship -- whether it was sexual or not -- began. In contrast, to the extent Roger couldn't keep his rocket in his pants with other consenting adults, well, that's not something I care all that much about.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm assuming what you mean by not caring about Clemens other alleged infidelities is that they are immoral but aren't a potential crime like having sex with a 15 year old?

I don't care about any of this much like I really don't care for a guy I've never met (Roger Clemens). Its his business but he brought this on himself. I'm stunned however that so many people are so quick to write these "alleged" affairs of as, "So what? All athletes cheat on their wives, blah, blah, blah". As a father of two and someone who considers himself a good family man I can't fathom cheating on my wife. Not that I don't look at other women but its just wrong. Obviously a lot of people don't feel that way and that's too bad.

What we are finding out, and what we've all more or less known all along, is that Clemens seems to have made quite a few mistakes in his life and isn't quite the great person he would love for us to believe he is. He actually seems to be quite a despicable human being. One who seemingly will do anything to succeed at his profession, will throw his wife under a bus to protect his good name, will lie with impunity, cheat on his wife multiple times and who knows what else.

He should drop this lawsuit and drop out of sight for a while for his own good. I wonder what is going on in his house right now with all of these allegations. Does his wife already know? Suspect? Not care?

Craig Calcaterra said...

It's kinda like that, but I tend not to be too comfortable throwing the word "immoral" around so much because, while I have morals of my own, people tend not to be able to agree on those sorts of things.

That said: it's not so much the illegality of the McCready thing that matters to me per se. If you believe the story to date (which I don't, but let's pretend I do) there was no sex until she was 18. If so, that wasn't illegal, but the legality of it doesn't change my opinion. She was young when they met and they built on an unseemly pairing for a couple of years before actually gettin' busy. That's still wrong, he was still an older guy taking advantage of a young, damaged, and impressionable girl, and the results have not been pretty. So I care about the McCready thing regardless of whether a crime was committed.

At the same time, my not caring about his other infidelities doesn't constitute that casual indifference you describe. If required to make a moral judgment on Clemens with respect to those things I'd have say I don't approve (I'm married too) and that his status as an athlete doesn't make any difference.

But even though I disapprove, I don't know how much that matters in the grand scheme. Opinions are my stock and trade around here, but I don't know that anythig really requires me to have one when it comes to relationships he has with consenting adults. I can comment and opine on what it means to the legal case and everything, but on some level it's really not my business.

I don't think this is an inconsistency on my part (maybe it is?) but it just comes down to visceral responses. I have one with respect to the McCready thing. I don't have one with respect to cocktail waitresses.

Unknown said...

What kind of a parent allows their 15 year old child to sing at a karaoke bar? Seriously.

I mean, obviously it was a fairly upscale place, being that establish MLB players were there (i.e. it wasn't a 'dive'). But still...

I can only think of one answer...a parent who is attempting to push their kid into a lucrative career that will provide a nice gravy train for them to ride (or have them meet someone who 'takes her under their wing' so they can exploit the situation for personal gain).
This doesn't even get into the question of the parent that then allows said 15 year old girl to go to someone's hotel room...

Ron Rollins said...

Doesn't a lot of this stuff going on now in sports just kind of prove that maybe Charles Barkley was right.

That athletes really aren't role models.

My daughter will be athletic and play sports when she is old enough. But I sure don't want her thinking somebody is a role model just because they play a game.

Anonymous said...

I don't think this is an inconsistency on my part (maybe it is?) but it just comes down to visceral responses.

I didn't mean to imply you were being inconsistent. I just wanted clarification on what you meant is all. Since a lot of what you write here is of a legal opinion sometimes its good to separate that from what your personal thoughts may be of a subject. So I didn't know if you were talking strictly from a legal standpoint on why you don't care about his other alleged affairs.

I agree with you on the whole McCready thing and how creepy it all is. As I said, Clemens needs to go away.

If you had to put odds on Clemens now dropping this suite, what would they be?

Craig Calcaterra said...

If he's operating with even a sliver of a brain he drops it ASAP. Given that the whole sliver of a brain thing is in doubt in his case, however, I'd say it's about 70-30 that he does.

Unknown said...

Part of the problem with Clemens' lawsuit is that, in his mind, he probably feels like he did what he had to do. Remember that there were a LOT of articles that attacked his steroid denials, and stated that if he was really innocent, he'd sue.

That was like a triple dog dare, and when it came up in the Wallace interview, he went and stuck his tongue on the cold flagpole.

At this point, I hope he will drop the lawsuit (though that will make a lot of people assume that he's 'guilty'), just so we can stop hearing/reading about a lot of this. However, he is nothing if not a competitor...and NOBODY ever accused him of being a quitter...so I just don't see him backing down. It's in his character to bear down and fight harder, so I think this is going to get a lot worse before it goes away.