When vacation ends, Roger Clemens' fight to save legacy begins

Monday, December 31st 2007, 9:19 AM
PARADISE ISLAND, BAHAMAS - Here was Roger Clemens on this beach in the late morning, the Caribbean stretched out behind him, the water somehow blue and green at the same time in the sun, the way it is in the brochures. Clemens had his beach chair facing away from the water to get the best of the sun, a familiar Texas Longhorns visor, burnt orange, on his head. Things looked serene and normal for him and are not.

Clemens was here right before a different kind of game begins for him, the biggest of his life, the game that puts his legacy and his good name on the line. Nobody is even sure how you keep score in a game like that, so much of it based on PR and perception.

Nobody is sure how much worse things can get for Clemens after he leaves this beach and goes home to Texas. So maybe this vacation was the last good quiet time for him before he really begins his campaign to clear his name, a campaign that can only be summed up this way: I am not Barry Bonds.

For now, here Clemens was right in front of you. It happens this way sometimes. Sometimes you can take a walk on the beach, on a family vacation, and find the most famous ballplayer we have - at least right now - taking in some sun a couple of days before the New Year.

Here was Clemens on a vacation of his own before he goes on "60 Minutes" a week from Sunday with the interview he did on Friday with Mike Wallace, really goes on the attack against a former trainer of his named Brian McNamee, at one of those resorts where the highest of the high-roller suites goes for $25,000 a night, with a four-night minimum.

This is the type of resort built around stars like Roger Clemens, who has been exactly the kind of star pitching that Barry Bonds has been hitting home runs over the last decade - who now has to convince the whole world he didn't use drugs along the way. It all happens this way because of the steroid allegations made against him in Sen. Mitchell's report on drugs and baseball.

There is a kid from Jersey who spotted Clemens on the grounds of the resort the day before. The kid is a Yankee fan, of course. The kid from Jersey went up to him and said, "Hey, Rocket." Clemens said hello back to the kid, moved on. Later the kid said, "He was nice. But he had a look on his face like, 'Uh oh, I just got made.'" Just not in the way he got made by Mitchell in his report, the one that has McNamee saying that he used to regularly inject Clemens with steroids, first when he was with the Blue Jays and then after he came to the Yankees, where his legend kept growing the way his salary did. Clemens doesn't seem to be very worried about being recognized here. Or wouldn't be here in the first place. This is a big, busy place, more crowded than ever this weekend. Clemens sure wasn't hiding yesterday on the beach. He can walk through the casino in the middle of the afternoon, past the blackjack tables and the information booth.

He looks bigger than life, as usual. He looks ready to give you seven strong innings if he has to. And who says he won't come back this season if he can ride this out, come back and make one more score off a team desperate for pitching?

We know how lawyered up Clemens is, lawyered up with a Texan named Rusty Hardin, who is already turning this into a show, and has quickly become the darling of the New York Times. McNamee is now lawyered up, with a real good New York defamation lawyer named Richard Emery.

Different kind of game than Clemens has ever played before. With stakes higher than they have ever been, because this is about his reputation, his legacy. This is about his earning power once he can't throw the fastballs and splitters he's been throwing after the age of 35. For now, he is in the Bahamas, where there are these amazing water slides that go straight down, where there are other celebrities like Magic Johnson here, where there is something for everybody, fun stretching in all directions, and these yachts in the water, and people parasailing in the sky all day long, with a casino that goes all day and all night.

There is the illusion of fantasy here, the way there is at Disney World. Clemens rings out the old year here. Like he is still the old Clemens, the one before the Mitchell Report. It is hard to believe there will be nearly as much fun for him in the New Year, which officially begins next Sunday night on "60 Minutes." Always in the past, he could throw a baseball past you when he was in trouble. Or at you.

Not now.

Different game now, different rules, biggest stakes of his life, bigger than any at the casino here this weekend.

Nobody bothered Clemens on the beach Sunday, a dream day in the tropics. Only he doesn't get to stay here forever. Throwing a baseball past the world, that was the easy part for Clemens, even when he got old. Getting everybody to believe his version of things when he leaves paradise, getting people to believe he's not Bonds, that will be the hard part.

News source：http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2007/12/31/2007-12-31_when_vacation_ends_roger_clemens_fight_t.html?page=0