Well, kinda. Article in the New York Post about Salem Avalanche's Koby Clemens, son of you-know-who, and his struggles because of unnamed father. The Post was here on Monday to interview Clemens as Salem has been playing the Blue Rocks. Full text below:
May 7, 2008 -- WILMINGTON, Del. - As Koby Clemens travels to Carolina League stadiums from Delaware to South Carolina, he hears the hecklers. As he walks past the clubhouse TVs tuned to ESPN, he hears the commentators joking about his family. He tries to tune it out, but sometimes he'd like to yell back.
"I just want people to look themselves in the mirror before they judge," Koby said. "People make mistakes. I'm not perfect. I'm sure you're not perfect. Nobody's perfect."
Switching from third base to catcher should have been the most difficult part of this season for Koby Clemens. Instead he's spent bus rides from Delaware to Myrtle Beach thinking of his family back home in Texas, trying to tune out TV talking heads screaming about what his father may or may not have done. The 21-year-old is Roger ClemensRoger Clemens ' oldest son and is in his fourth year in the Astros farm system, currently playing for the Salem (Va.) Avalanche.
His father's inclusion in the Mitchell Report and the subsequent fallout overturned his life. Since then, he's watched his father get beat up in the media, the latest round dealing with whether his father was faithful to his mother.
He sat down with The Post last night before his team faced Wilmington and acknowledged the last few months have been difficult, but the recent storm has not fractured his family.
"We're strong and closer than ever," Clemens said. "No matter what anybody can write, no matter what anybody can say, you'll never break our family. That's how I feel about it. I'm not even going to give him a name because I'm not as low as that guy."
That guy is, of course, Brian McNamee, his father's former trainer and the man who has accused his father of using steroids.
"There's a lot of people that you think are your real friends. As it's gone further and further there aren't that many people pulling for my dad anymore, which really hurts. There's a lot of people that have done tons and tons of worse stuff, including the man that is against him."
Koby Clemens has thrown himself into baseball. He was batting .292 with one home run and 12 RBIs before last night, but the harder part has been adjusting to his new position. Koby has leaned on his father for advice on how to call games and how to communicate with pitchers.
"I can say that there is no person that could say that they could possibly ever have a better dad than I've had," he said. "My dad's always been there for me. My dad's done so much for other people. That's what really fires me up and (ticks) me off."
2 comments:
I feel bad for this kid. He's obviously in complete denial about his dad but I think about how close I am to my dad and I would probably be the same way in a similar situation. He seems like he's just a kid trying to make it in baseball. Hopefully he's not taking the path of his father and he's trying to make it honestly. Its too bad he has to deal with all the harrassment because of his name.
This guy should not be doing interviews. All that this accomplishes is to make people talk about his cheater father (a cheater as a husband and ball player-dispicable) more.
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