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David Thomas 
Fans' Insider: It's tough not to be cynical with Clemens
I think I just might be becoming cynical.
I reached that conclusion when I heard Roger Clemens apologize for mistakes he has made.
Now, I don't mean to pick on Clemens here. (I say that in the same manner as someone who prefaces a disrespectful comment by saying, "No disrespect intended, but..." as if it makes the statement remotely respectful.)
It's just that Clemens is the name in the headlines at the moment, and it's his case that has made me see signs pointing to the possibility that I just might be becoming cynical. And I don't want that.
Clemens went Jason Giambi in a Bill Clinton sort of way and apologized for unspecified "mistakes in my personal life" through a carefully worded statement. Until a follow-up statement is released or 60 Minutes comes calling again, we won't know what Clemens meant by "mistakes."
Did he, as reported by the New York Daily News, cheat on his wife? Or did he unknowingly drive around Houston for a couple of hours with his right brake light out? Who knows? Maybe even both. Clemens left all possible mistakes in play.
Except for the use of steroids or HGH. Faced with reports of cheating in his marital relationship, Clemens did get specific enough for a moment to say that he didn't cheat in baseball.
Baseball has a Hall of Fame. Husbandry doesn't.
I said earlier that Clemens' statement was carefully worded. That's where I picked up on my emerging cynicism.
Let's consider these two sentences from the statement, in which Clemens addressed the Daily News'report that he had a lengthy affair with country music singer Mindy McCready: "Now, I have been accused of having an improper relationship with a 15-year-old girl. Nothing could be further from the truth."
About a thousand athlete apologies/denials that turned out to be disingenuous ago, I would have read that and thought, "OK." But sports fans have been burned by such apologies/denials more than... you'll have to insert your own Roy Williams joke here because I'm not that cynical yet.
I immediately zeroed in on two parts of Clemens' statement: "improper" and "15." Perhaps he didn't consider the relationship improper, I thought. Perhaps she wasn't 15. Maybe she was 16.
So if he didn't consider the relationship improper or if she wasn't 15, then he's correct in saying the accusation wasn't true. I wouldn't go so far as to say, "Nothing could be further from the truth," because I guess technically if she had been, say, 18 years old, that would have been a little further from the truth than 15.
However, if there was a relationship that most decent people would consider improper and if she was 15 at the time... yikes. Clemens' reputation would take another hit if it turned out the Cy Young Award wasn't the only Young thing he was chasing.
Clemens' reputation, really, is what this is all about. That's why he filed that defamation lawsuit against former trainer Brian McNamee, and that's why all this mess makes headlines.
To summarize, now that Clemens has apologized for his mistakes, we still basically know nothing. Except that his reputation is nowhere near what it used to be.
The problem is, Clemens is suing the wrong person for ruining his reputation. But he can't sue himself.
I know, I know. I'm being cynical.
David Thomas' sports humor column appears Wednesdays and Sundays.
David Thomas, 817-390-7760
