I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I am a Roger Clemens fan until the end.

News of a federal indictment against Clemens made the rounds Thursday morning, giving lots of people reason to bash the once-heralded Major Leaguer once again.

The first mention I saw of this was a Tweet from NBC’s Darren Rovell that suggested that Clemens’ wife, Debbie, would be dubbed “Miss Remember.”

Clever I thought, as I stood in line waiting for my Starbucks. But why Tweet that today?

No. 3: Roger Clemens

And then the floodgates opened, the news was being reported everywhere.

Admittedly, I laughed. And then I thought about all of the money I had spent on Clemens cards over the years. And while the cards are surely not “worth” what they were a half decade ago — when he was Mr. Cy Young and a first-ballot Hall of Famer — they do remind me of better times.

And it is because of what they remind me of that my Clemens personal collection will remain mine and likely will grow in the future.

Obviously the market for Clemens collectibles has all but died, save for a few holdouts such as myself.

But this also brings about a prime opportunity for Clemens collectors; more of his “rare” cards will be hitting the market soon, and more than likely at reduced prices.

Personally, I’ve wavered in my Clemens collection for the last five to seven years, but none of it has had to do with the allegations of performance enhancing drug use. This new news does make me want to return to building that collection, I’m still missing lots of singles since the early 2000s.

Did Clemens use PEDs? Probably.

Does that make me hate him? No.

Do I think he eventually gets into the hall of fame? Absolutely.

A few days ago I wrote this piece proclaiming such, while drawing some similarities to ne’er-do-wells from the early 1900s.

Bottom line is Clemens was one of the best pitchers in the history of the game, and he afforded me many great memories of the game I love.

Do I expect others to feel the same way about him? No.

You can hate Clemens all you want. You can call him a cheater. You can burn his cards in protest. None of this concerns to me. Just as my decision continue collecting his cards shouldn’t trouble you.

This entry was posted on August 19, 2010 at 11:17 am and is filed under Newspaperman with tags baseball, baseball cards, Federal Indictment, Hall of fame, performance enhancing drugs, Roger Clemens, steroid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.