And Now, Batting For #21, Roger Clemens...

I agree with my blog mate's assessment of Shank's recent softball interview with Roger Clemens, but I believe there's an additional reason Shank's going easy on Clemens the past few years (sharply contrasted with many previous attacks on Clemens, acknowledged by Shank himself here in the second paragraph):

Let me tell you the story of Clementine.

Clementine is a 6-foot-tall white teddy bear that sits in a shed behind my house. Clementine is 16 years old and a little worn around the edges. The big bear is dirty, moth-ridden, and has duct tape covering holes where stuffing would come out.

Clementine came to our house in a giant cardboard box delivered in a UPS truck in the winter of 1993-94. When the driver and I discovered that the return address was “Katy, Texas,’’ we checked to see if the thing was ticking. Roger Clemens was no friend of mine, and I was concerned the box might contain a Trojan Horse or some other mayhem maker.

No. It contained a get-well gift for 8-year-old Kate Shaughnessy, who’d just been diagnosed with leukemia. There was an autographed baseball from Clemens and the big white bear. Kate smiled and named him/her Clementine. And Clementine stayed in her room until she graduated from college.

It's pretty clear that Clemens knows how to work the media, or at least certain members of the media.

This column is Shank paraphrasing John Kerry - "I was against Roger Clemens, before I was for him!"