Jason Whitlock should run for president!

I mean, seriously!

Jason Whitlock is perhaps the soundest thinker I've ever read. His latest column on Fox Sports.com has to do with "Teflon" Roger Clemens and the predicament he finds himself in with the steroid allegations of the Mitchell report. Frankly, his analysis is flawless, but I don't think I agree with the conclusion. For years, people have said of Pete Rose, "If only he'd have told the truth from the beginning! Americans are a forgiving people; his indiscretions would have been forgiven and he'd have been in the hall of fame by now!" Now, they're saying the same thing about Roger; just tell the truth! If you did steroids at the time that they say you did, they weren't even banned by baseball at that time! Just come clean and stress that there was no banned substance used, and all will be forgiven! Uhhh.....what?

One thing that troubled me in Whitlock's article was this line:

"Clemens is Mike Lupica's Mark McGwire mulligan, the pawn Lupica can use to detract attention from the fawning book he wrote about Big Mac's magical summer of '98 when no one — and I mean no one — had ever heard of steroids."

Uhhh....what? Never heard of steroids? Anyone remember Lyle Alzado? What about Brian Bosworth? Maybe the transition from football to baseball was outside the bounds of most people's thought processes, but steroids were a well-known commodity in the athletic community as far back as the early '70s. Alzado became the poster child for steroid abuse since he died at an early age from a brain tumor that he claimed had been caused by the drugs. Alzado admitted to using steroids since his college days. Since he was drafted in '71, that would indicate that steroids have been around for a very long time; much longer than the 8 years claimed by Whitlock!

In any case, what to do about Roger? How can we even feign shock when we've watched this guy for so long and watched as he changed from a skinny fireball throwing prodigy into a hulking split-finger throwing magician? I'm sorry, but people don't normally change their body style without help. One's head doesn't expand two sizes without aid of some kind! Oh, and people don't normally pitch into their forties without some form of assistance. Oh, there's guys like Hoyt Wilhelm, who pitched well into his forties, but he was a knuckleball pitcher. Those guys throw at the speed of dust, not the speed of sound! Should Roger just come out and admit that he did it and move on? Frankly, I have to disagree with Whitlock again, which is unusual. ABSOLUTELY Roger needs to come clean. He should admit that he did it, admit WHY he did it, apologize for misleading all of those Clemens-jersey-wearing kids out there who idolized him, promise to cooperate with MLB in every way possible, and lead the effort to permanently ban the substance from organized athletics forever. You know, everyone stands up and applauds when an alcoholic admits to his addiction and then proclaims his "clean" status for however many days its been. People love it when other people overcome the demons that haunt them and help others to do the same. How many "Livestrong" bracelets did Lance Armstrong sell? People will support someone who's turned things around and fights for good instead of evil.

Roger, here's your chance. Come clean. Admit that you did it, tell us why you did it, apologize to all of your fans for letting them down, and do what you can to clean baseball up. Baseball's done an awful lot for you. Maybe you should return the favor. - Dan