Quote:
Originally Posted by KC_Connection
You might be right that they wouldn't be held in such high regard if they never turned to PEDs, but they did. And in doing so, they were by far the best players in an era in which their peers were doing the same thing. That does count for something.
It's also really hard to say these things definitively about their careers when you don't really know when they started using or what exactly the effect of the PEDs on their numbers was. It wouldn't surprise me at all, for example, if Clemens started using PEDs before his Toronto days but improved his level for some other reason (it's not like pitchers haven't improved in their 30s before, heck look at another all-time SP great in RJ whose best years all came in his mid to late 30s). There are just a lot of questions and guesswork when you get into this stuff that can't be fully answered and never will be.
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I was not in the industry yet when that change happened, but I talked to several of our guys about it for a story idea at SN (that ultimately was killed).
Every scout I talked to said they started seeing different stuff from Clemens late in that season in Boston and really in Toronto. That it seemed like he had found the fountain of youth, that the "Rocket" was back after being gone for a few years, etc. If you look at the way his K totals skyrocketed and his velo charts jumped up in that time period (the first you can look at ... the second I'd need to get back into the SN vault for), it matches up.
I don't hate him for it or anything, but it does change his perception, for me.