30 Days of Truth - Day 14: A hero that has let you down. (letter)

Here we are, a hero that has let you down. Though I no longer HAVE heroes, I used to. In fact, there were a few that I idolized as a kid.

And they were all baseball players.

Because that? Was the first thing that I ever wanted to be. Being firstborn, my dad had a baseball glove in my hand from the time I was two. I? Was BORN a Red Sox fan. There IS NO other team. Watching Sox games go way back in my memory. I can remember being under the age of 5, sitting with my dad on the couch in the apartment, watching the Red Sox play on our little black and white tv before we had a house - and cable - and a color tv.

Pete Rose let me down for gambling on the game while playing and managing. Jose Canseco let me down with his use of anabolic steriods. And then, there's Roger Clemens... the worst offender of all in my book.

I know this says to write a letter, but I can't. He doesn't deserve a letter from me. And besides, how can you write a letter if someone is dead to you anyway?

I was about 7 maybe when he started playing for the Red Sox. Two years later he made history by striking out 20 batters in a game against the Mariners. And he did it AGAIN 10 years later against the Tigers. It was because of HIM that I would dream of being the first girl in major league baseball. Because of HIM (and my dad) that I played Little League with the boys. Because of HIM that I pitched. 3 games after he struck out 20 batters for the second time? He was done in Boston.

He left the Red Sox at the end of the 1996 season. I was 19. My whole entire childhood had been Roger Clemens and the Red Sox, the Red Sox and Roger Clemens. I had moved on from playing baseball, still pitching, playing softball for my high school team. After my 1st year of college he went to the Toronto Blue Jays and I? Was not happy. But it was in no way a relationship ender. That is, until 2 years later when he was 'traded' to the New York Yankees.

Traded? Like that makes it ok for you to go?! You spent HOW many years in Boston, and then someone says go play for the Yankees - and YOU GO?! Where is the loyalty? The integrity? Roger Clemens, was now dead to me. If he truly loved the sport, and the Red Sox, he would Never become a Yankee. And then, there are the steroids rumors. (Paging Jose Canseco!) I could never look at him the same again. Seeing him in that Yankee uniform was crushing. I never understood how he could put it on.