Alaska Employment Law

Old friend Roger Clemens is in the news this week, angrily denouncing a new book, American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime. Frankly, I doubt I will read that book, though I am rather fond of the cover photo of Roger throwing the splintered barrel head of a broken bat, right in the middle of a World Series game, at the batter, Mike Piazza, who, I think it fair to say, was pretty surprised. That could just be evidence, just maybe, that Roger has a screw that is kinda very loose, or kinda very tight, somewhere in his cranium.

My reason not to read the new book is because I just read The Rocket That Fell to Earth: Roger Clemens and the Rage for Baseball Immortality, by Jeff Pearlman. Maybe you can detect a theme here. Shooting at fish in a barrel is not sport, and Pearlman is not really neutral, but why should he be? So we learn about Roger’s childhood in Ohio (um, not Texas), about his relationship with his older brother, who was the real athlete in the family until he became a drug addict, about the murder of that brother’s ex-wife by drug dealers, about Roger’s pathological lying, and about country singer and former jailbait Mindy McCready. Oh, on that point Pearlman writes, “Based on Florida Statute 794.05 which states that a person twenty-four-years of age or older who engages in sexual activity with a person sixteen or seventeen years of age commits a felony of the second degree, their assignation constituted statutory rape. Clemens could have faced up to thirty years in a state penitentiary.” You get the idea.

My favorite line in the book: “Dan Duquette was right.”

For all that, Pearlman is a good writer (he’s ex-Sports Illustrated), and the book is an enjoyable summer weekend entertainment. Then you can put Roger back in the Red Sox dumpster.