When I was a kid my parents took us to Pawtucket to see the Red Sox versus the Paw Sox. It's sort of a "Now versus the Future" thing that the Red Sox like to do. A popular thing to do at the time was to tie a baseball to a string, attach a pen and lower it into the dugouts. The players would then sign the ball and everyone would go home happy. Well Clemens would only sign the ball if you lowered some money with the ball. I, at the age of 10 or so, was unaware of this. Mo Vaughn had signed it, after all and the Hit Dog was way cooler than Clemens. Anyways Clemens had my ball in his hand, took the pen... and didn't sign it cause there was no money attached. Then the bastard walked off with my pen, too, preventing me from getting other autographs.
It's not that I was crushed I didn't get his autograph, hell, I don't even know where that Mo Vaughn ball is now. It was that he had done 70% of what goes into an autograph but wouldn't go the rest of the way for free. Like he needed my 20 bucks. It was at that point that I began to hate Roger Clemens (that's the Irish side of me... I'll take personal slights to the grave). While everyone else was pining for the Sox to re-sign him a few years later I couldn't wait for him to leave. So, it is with great joy that I have watched him flame out from Hall of Flame lock to steroid pariah.
And finally, Cito Gaston, Roger's former manager with the Blue Jays, is telling the world what I already knew:
"He's an asshole... When he's pitching, everyone's in the dugout pulling for him, but when he's not pitching he's not in the dugout," Gaston said. "I didn't feel like he supported his teammates as much as he wanted support."
So you see, it's karma. Let this serve as a lesson to all the baseball stars out there: don't take a kid's pen if you're not going to sign his baseball.
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