Will they call him “’Roider” Clemens now?

Surprise, surprise. The sportswriters’ golden boy Roger Clemens is reported to be prominently featured in retired Sen. George Mitchell’s forthcoming report on baseball’s steroids mess.

Actually, this is not much of a surprise to those of us who have observed Clemens doing the very same things that have repeatedly been used as evidence of Barry Bond’s steroids use, e.g. bulking up and maintaining strength in his late 30s and early 40s.

Oh sure, but in Roger’s case it must have been those legendary workouts. You know why? Because he doesn’t trash-talk reporters, that’s why.

I’m an advocate of the Golden Rule and Barry Bonds has dished out plenty of the scorn the media has thrown back at him these past two years. But if all those angry sportswriters are really going to claim that they consistently maintained their professionalism, that they never lost their objectivity, that they never made it personal, then I expect to see a rash of columns in the next few days raining approbation down on Clemens’ head, calling for asterisks on all his records, pledging not to vote him into the Hall of Fame, and generally holding him up as the new poster boy for all that is wrong in the land of baseball.

Waiting.