Roger Clemens Trial: Courtroom Drama Will Destroy Former MLB Star's Legacy

Roger Clemens may never get into the baseball Hall of Fame because of his alleged steroid use, but the latest round of jury selections in his perjury trial are going to end up burying him even deeper than baseball fans already have. 

According to a report from T.J. Quinn of ESPN, one big line of defense for Clemens' team is to potentially challenge Congress' power to call for a trial because it's a waste of time and taxpayer money. 

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Clemens lawyer Rusty Hardin even hinted that perhaps the defense might challenge Congress' authority to call the hearing in the first place...The judge reminded lawyers again that some of the jurors from the first trial felt a retrial would be a waste of taxpayer money, adding that one of the hurdles in the case is that some people think "we have some significant problems in this country that are not being addressed by this Congress."

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Perhaps the Clemens' camp has some grand plan for this trial, but in the eyes of fans and analysts, all that sounds like is they aren't addressing the reason at hand and are there just to get Clemens off. 

There is nothing wrong with that. It's what Clemens is paying Hardin to do.

But, if they try and avoid the performance-enhancing drug issue altogether, it would only feed into the perception that people have about Clemens. 

Even if Clemens does escape this trial without being found guilty of anything, the court of public opinion will always be lined up to persecute him. Right or wrong, that's just the way things work if there's even a whiff of a baseball player and performance-enhancing drugs. 

Clemens' legacy on the field may have already been irreparably damaged even before the second jury selection, but at least there was the chance time could have healed some of those wounds. 

Now, with all the drama coming back to the forefront, Clemens is going to be left wondering how everything fell apart so fast after he walked away from the game he dominated for 24 years. 

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