Is Roger Clemens widely viewed as a steroid scofflaw? The Chicago Tribune asked an expert on scofflaws, former big league hurler Denny McLain, for his take on the matter.

Who better to talk malfeasance than McLain, arguably the greatest pitcher ever to do hard time?

“I haven’t run into very many people, or anyone, who thinks he was telling the truth,” McLain told the
Tribune. “I mean, why would [Andy] Pettitte and some of the other guys go out of their way to nail Roger Clemens? Do you think baseball wanted to suspend Pete Rose? Do you think they would want to do something to Roger Clemens, or at least embarrass him?

“My personal feeling after seeing him and watching him come out of the box so harshly is that the Hall of Fame is what it’s all about. That’s what it was all about with Pete. All Pete wanted was the Hall of Fame. And that’s what Roger wants. If these guys would sit down and be honest with you— Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro and some of these other guys—they would tell you that.

“You know, McGwire will never get in the Hall. I don’t think Roger ever will now. I don’t know if you just draw a line in the sand and move on. But [Commissioner] Bud Selig is the one who opened it up [with the Mitchell report]. Now what’s he going to do about it?

“Sooner or later, what I think will happen is it will be the same thing that implicated [Olympic track star] Marion Jones. I believe that anybody who used that juice should have the same thing done to them. Marion Jones lost all her medals and everything. I think Roger feels he is bigger than the game. And Roger just believed that, bottom line, if I scream loud enough and long enough, people will believe me. The reverse is happening, unfortunately.

“It would take Roger to stand up and be a Superman now, and say: ‘Damn it, I am sorry.’ But I don’t think it’s in his character.”

And if anybody would know about character issues, it is McLain.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering whatever became of Dennis Miller’s show on Versus:

• Should the Astros worry about outfielder Hunter Pence, who suffered multiple injuries while walking through a glass door at his spring training residence? Does this man need to install a warning track along the back of that house?
• Now that the IndyCar and Champ Car series have merged, will Americans find a reason to care about open-wheel racing again?
• So what does Kelvin Sampson do next? Become a spokesperson for Sprint?

POINT, COUNTERPOINT

During a radio interview following Duke’s loss at Wake Forest, Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski noted that freshman Nolan Smith had been playing through a knee injury. It hadn’t come, he added, because “unlike other schools we don’t release our injuries.”

North Carolina coach Roy Williams took that as a personal swipe, since the Tar Heels had suffered a spate of well-publicized injuries this season.

“Regardless of what somebody else says about they have injuries too, which is a bunch of bunk, so I don’t give a crap what somebody else says, but coach their own damn team, I’ll coach my team — in case anybody has heard some statements about that,” he said.

So there!

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Bill Simmons, ESPN.com: “The NFL has considerably more thugs, Major League Baseball has a steroids scandal that basically has tainted the last 15 years of games, and somehow, the NBA is still perceived as the league with an image problem? For God’s sake, if the NBA can’t put that tag to rest this year, of all years, then it’s never happening, and we’ll have to accept there are deeper issues at work here. (Well, one deeper issue. And you know what it is.)”

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “(Bud) Selig, on why MLB can’t turn its drug testing over to an outside agency: ‘Every sport has different nuances.’ Makes sense. There could be confusion if an outside lab tried to test Barry Bonds, whose blood type is RBI-positive.”

Mark Kriegel, FoxSports.com: “Memo to Cubs fans: Don’t let the haters keep you from dreaming big dreams. Kerry Wood’s season-ending injury is still months away.”

Dan Daly, Washington Times: “News item: A typo in court papers filed last week by federal prosecutors caused a brief fuss, creating the erroneous impression that Barry Bonds had failed a drug test a month after breaking the single-season home run record in ‘01. Comment: If only the 762 was a typo, too.”

Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel: “Dick Vitale has encouraged South Carolina to pursue none other than Bob Knight to replace the outgoing Dave Odom as its basketball coach. Good Lord, I know Dickie V. had surgery to remove some polyps in his throat, but did doctors remove his brain, too?”

Jeff Schultz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The Falcons will flip a coin this week to determine whether they pick third, fourth or fifth in the NFL draft. It will be a big change for the organization, which normally doesn’t flip a coin until draft day.”

Jay Mariotti, Chicago Sun-Times, crushing White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen again: “If he were a rapper, he’d be Vanilla Ice. If he were a trashy figure skater, he’d be Tonya Harding. If he were dead, he’d be Anna Nicole Smith. As a major-league baseball manager, he is no better at the moment than Terry Bevington, who at least produced 85 and 80 wins in his two full seasons as a much-ridiculed Sox skipper. Last season, Guillen finished 72-90 with a $100 million-plus payroll and few major injuries. While Cubs counterpart Lou Piniella was a candidate for Manager of the Year, he was the clearcut Underachiever of the Year.”

Jerry Crowe, Los Angeles Times: “The Busch Push from teammate Kurt Busch sending Ryan Newman to victory at the Daytona 500 was reminiscent of the Bush Push from teammate Reggie Bush landing Matt Leinart in the end zone at Notre Dame. Only this one was within the rules.”

MEGAPHONE

“Since 2004, Major League Baseball has done everything in their power to clean up the game. And I think they’ve done a great job. Right now I just want to go forward. I think Major League Baseball is ready to go forward. And hopefully all the fans are ready to do that.”

Brewers reliever Eric Gagne, pulling a McGwire when asked about past juicing.