Agents for Roger Clemens at Hendricks Sports Management released a detailed statistical analysis of Roger Clemens’ performance over the course of his career. In summary, the report lists various factors occurring later in his career that contributed to the maintenance of a high quality of pitching by Roger Clemens. These factors include adaptions in “style of pitching” including “mastery of the split-finger fastball,” reduced pitch count, contractually shortened seasons, and a reduction in travel.
The report also uses statistics to show that Clemens’ performance had unpredictable “ups and downs” or “peaks and valleys” over the course of his career. The report asserts that “straight trend lines in performance” simply do no exist in Major League Baseball.
It suggests that variations in Clemens’ performance were similar to other notable pitchers, including Curt Schilling, who had their best “qualitative performances” later in their career. Schilling has frequently prodded Roger Clemens to come forward and tell the truth (presumably about his steroid use).
The reports also notes that Clemens career after age 40 is not an aberration in Major League Baseball; dozens of Hall of Fame pitchers have pitched well into their 40s.
The clear intent of this report is to refute allegations of steroid use by Roger Clemens in the Mitchell Report. The Roger Clemens report does an excellent job of suggesting that their are many factors that contributed to Roger Clemens late career success. But even as much as the general public and media love single cause theories e.g. steroids were THE reason for Roger Clemens success, I find it hard to believe the public will embrace a competing single cause theory e.g. the split-finger fastball was THE reason for Roger Clemens late career success!
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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