Much will be made of Clemens using steroids when he was in Toronto.  I think I can speak, speculatively, to the beginning of his ride with PEDs.  In the year of our Lord, 1996, the Boston Red Sox were scuffling through the baseball season.  It was August.  Life sucked for the Fenway Faithful, and a painful descent was beginning.  Their title defense was not going as planned.  Kevin Kennedy was roundly criticized.  And then there was Clemens.  In 24 starts, Roger was not the Rocket, but the on pad fizzle.  His record a dreadful 4-11, ERA of 4.36 (league ERA was 5.05 so he wasn’t terrible, but the run support was lacking).  He was not bad, but he wasn’t the immortal Clemens from earlier in his career.  His age 27 season in 1990 was the gold standard posting a microscopic 1.93 ERA and allowing just seven HR in 228.1 innings pitched.  Compared to the 1996 Clemens, 15 HR in 165 IP to that point, it was a lifetime before.  But 33 year old pitchers are not 27 year old pitchers.

Clemens missed a start between that August 1st loss to the Royals.  He came back on August 11th a different pitcher than the one from before.  He was back, we assumed.  A 6-2 record in his last 10 starts and a 2.09 ERA, and only 0.46 HR/9 (compared to 0.81 HR/9 in the first 24 starts.)  And then on September 18th, he threw a five hit shutout against the Tigers.  A game that was notable for the 20 strikeouts recorded by the rejuvenated Red Sox ace.

Suddenly, Clemens impending free agency was a concern.  Will Roger come back to Boston stories  dominated the local press, and when Clemens left to join the Blue Jays, the fans of the Sox consoled themselves in the bitter cold of winter with the thoughts that, he’s over the hill.  He had a good last two months of the season.

Clemens only won another four Cy Young Awards and 162 games over the rest of his career.  Dan Duquette’s comment that Clemens was entering the twilight of his career lingers as a favorite punchline among Red Sox fans to this day.

Guess who was Boston’s DH in 1996.

Yeah, but I bet you already guessed that, didn’t you?