King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Roger Clemens comes out swinging, but he's right: He's guilty until proved innocent. Plus: NFL playoffs.

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Jan. 7, 2008 | Roger Clemens told Mike Wallace that he's angry he isn't getting the benefit of the doubt in the wake of accusations in the Mitchell Report that Clemens used steroids and human growth hormone.

"Twenty-four, 25 years, Mike," Clemens said in a "60 Minutes" interview taped late last month and aired Sunday night, "you'd think I'd get an inch of respect. An inch. How can you prove your innocence?"

You can't. That's the answer. I feel for Clemens on that point. I really do. I'm also not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I don't really care whether he used performance-enhancing drugs. I believe the suddenly tireless inquiry into who juiced is tiresome and pointless. If Roger Clemens used PEDs, he was solidly in the mainstream of his work culture.

The real contribution of the Mitchell Report isn't the gotcha headline fodder about who shot what into whose tush, it's the methodical illustration of the way drug use was at least benevolently ignored and at most actively encouraged throughout baseball for years, with only some medical and training personnel sounding notes of warning.

The parties involved -- owners, players, media, fans -- should each accept a share of the blame and move on to more productive things than endless accusations and denials. That was the main recommendation of former Sen. George Mitchell, and it was a good one. It's being ignored.

"Guilty before innocent," an exasperated Clemens said to Wallace. "That's the way our country works now."

That's the way our country works all right. Probably always has. The Salem witch trials happened 270 years before Clemens was born, though only about 20 miles from the ballpark where he made his bones. That presumption of innocence stuff is just for the courtroom -- and good luck really getting it there. But on the street corner, yeah, there's usually a presumption of guilt if the accusation passes the sniff test, which this one absolutely does.

While the Mitchell Report is filled with hearsay, it's also just the latest volley in what has become a steady drumbeat of reports and revelations that have shown that drug use has been rampant in major league baseball for more than a decade. Why should we assume that Roger Clemens, who pitched effectively at an unusually late age after having appeared to enter his decline phase almost a decade earlier, bucked the trend?

Next page: Clemens doesn't seem to treat his body like a temple. Plus: NFL playoffs