Bill Maddon, one of my colleagues here at the Daily News, and I wound up doing some detective work and helping the FBI locate these balls. The FBI got these balls back and returned them to Cooperstown, and they did a ceremony with Walter Johnson’s family at Yankee Stadium, and I got to stand in the dugout before the game started.
Clemens actually came out, and we wound up having a long talk about it. I thought he was a really interesting guy; he knew all about baseball history, and we had a great conversation about it.
Do you think the book unfairly pinpoints on one player? Or was it necessary to pinpoint on Clemens because of his status as one of the best ever?
Well, the story develops when Clemens filed his lawsuit, and Clemens took his denials to the press and the public, and that’s what the book is about. Why not focus on Clemens? If there are wounds here, aren’t they self-inflicted?
In a previous interview you compared Roger Clemens to George Bush. Can you elaborate on that?
I think they’re both iconic figures. They’re both guys who were born in other parts of the country but re-invented themselves in Texas. They both took on that swagger that people associate with Texas. Obviously, that didn’t work out too well for President Bush’s Presidency. I think there are parallels there with Clemens.
Just as Bush said “I’m the decider, I make decisions whether they are right or wrong,” Clemens also made some decisions that people around him advised him against. A lot of things, in hindsight, didn’t really work out for him.
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