Fans make their pitch on innocence of Clemens

Our readers have their say…

He is innocent until proven guilty

In this country, you are always innocent until proven guilty. Period.

Roger Clemens has not had a drastic change in size like Barry Bonds did, and Clemens is doing anything humanly possible to clear his name from the list.

I will always believe a man until firm, sturdy evidence is put against him.

So what if his former trainer said he was guilty. If you can assume Clemens can't be trusted, this man certainly can't. In my mind, this man is simply scum for being a source that a player could get steroids from. Also, he seemed very apologetic in that phone conversation. It appears to me that he was lying.

Bailey Armstrong

Hoffman Estates

Clemens doesn't deserve spot in Hall

Roger Clemens, like a lot of top athletes, believes he is above the rules of the game. The fact he has won 354 games means nothing. Either you took steroids or you didn't. He did!

He does not deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, regardless of what he did prior to the allegations. His image and career are forever tarnished.

Please make him go away.

Tony Mariano

Lake in the Hills

Time for Clemens to reveal the truth

I believe that Roger Clemens' trainer told the truth about injecting him with steroids.

Why? After listening to the recent news conference and the phone call from his trainer, apparently these guys had a very close relationship -- a friendship with each other's families.

The trainer felt very bad about what he said to the authorities because of this friendship. That is why he was so emotional on the phone. Because of this friendship, the trainer would have more incentive to not tell authorities about injecting Roger. He actually had incentives to protect this relationship, not destroy it.

I believe he told on everyone just the same, and many of them have confirmed his accusations.

Come clean, Roger.

Larry Wagener

Austin, Texas

Hard to believe story from Clemens

Does anyone really believe Roger Clemens?

He needs to have the "testosterone" to at least sit back and do what Mark McGwire did -- take the Fifth with the committee and make no comment after that.

After the zealous ol' Roger went after Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes," he sure was a lamb in his phone conversation with Brian McNamee.

I'm surprised Roger gave McNamee a "mile" on the phone instead of just the "one inch" Roger wanted from the media/general public. You would have thought Roger would have said on the phone on with Brian, "Why did you lie?" and "Please tell the truth!" and who knows what other verbal aggression.

Plan B, if Roger was credible, would have been to forget the meek phone call to Brian and destroy him when he goes in front of the committee, followed by a successful lie detector test and the biggest, successful defamation lawsuit in baseball history.

There may not be the smoking gun in this case that some people may want, but Roger is blowing the smoke for now.

William Lunzer

Little Canada, Minn.

'60 Minutes' chat didn't help Clemens

Roger Clemens did it. You could tell he was lying during the Mike Wallace "60 Minutes" interview. The fact that he dismissed the validity of lie-detector tests, and his body language said it all.

David Ladouceur,

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Hall of Fame system needs some revision

It's time the Baseball Hall of Fame changes its flawed tradition, blows up the current system of voting for new members, and gets rid of the opportunity for some voters to choose not to vote, or vote for players unworthy of the honor (for example, Chuck Finley, Todd Stottlemyre, and Shawon Dunston) -- in essence wasting their votes.

Why not just write in Tawny Kitaen's name to upset people?

Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven, and Andre Dawson had long and productive careers in the majors, and it's a crime their chances of election were hurt by voters with personal agendas or grudges.

I believe it's time the HOF lets people with better attitudes and perspectives vote for players deserving of the honor -- and not have people holding other players responsible for the actions of a few "altered" players, current problems in baseball and grudges.

Walter Brzeski

Chicago

A lesson to learn from the BCS game

Ohio State University and Louisiana State University played for the college football national championship. They have a combined total of 104 percent of their football players receiving a college degree. Ohio State awards 53 percent of its football players a degree, and 51 percent of LSU football players earn a degree.

It is so generous of those schools, through scholarships, to finance a farm system for the NFL.

Richard J. Piagari

Des Plaines