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The Front Row with Jason Elliott Aug. 21, 2010

| August 22, 2010 9:00 PM

After years of saying that major league baseball has been cleaned of the steroid scandal, another claim could be leaving fans with another black eye when it comes to their favorite players.

ON THURSDAY afternoon, Roger Clemens was indicted for allegedly lying to Congress when he testified on the accusations of him taking steroids while a player for the Houston Astros.

Whether he's guilty or not, his chances of getting into the Hall of Fame aren't likely to improve anytime soon.

It's more likely that Brett Favre will get into a Hall of Fame somewhere before Clemens - and that's saying something considering he'll actually have to retire at some point and finally mean it.

But Clemens, who led baseball in strikeouts countless times and pitched in some big-time games in his career, will have to do some work on his legacy in the eyes of most voters before he'll get any consideration for Cooperstown.

He'll also have to be able to talk his way out of prison - which could be a lot harder than pitching any Game 7 of a playoff series.

THERE COMES a time when those players that had a cloud over their careers will finally have to answer for what they've done.

It's possible that some of those players were telling the truth, but when you're caught on live television with cork in your bat like Sammy Sosa, you'd be hard-pressed to believe he played without stretching the rules just a bit.

Once that incident happened, Sosa's numbers faded for the Cubs and he was eventually traded to Baltimore before finishing his career with Texas in 2007.

Rafael Palmeiro, just as quickly, denied those same rumors of never taking steroids, tested positive after becoming injured and then was out of the league following the season.

Mark McGwire, who denied the same claims for years after he retired from baseball, has admitted he was wrong and has since began working in baseball again - this time as a hitting instructor for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Not saying that either Sosa or Palmeiro will ever admit to what they were really doing - but if they're interested in being inducted into the Hall of Fame any time soon, they might want to come clean now.

AS FAR as Bonds goes, questions arose long before he broke the home run record.

After playing the first part of his career as a doubles hitter with power for Pittsburgh, he developed into a power hitter by the time his career concluded for the Giants.

When it comes to the past decade of baseball, there seems to be more questions than definite answers as it comes to the home run records.

No matter what is found from the Clemens hearing, expect it to be a long time before America's pastime is completely clean again.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020, or via e-mail at jelliott@cdapress.com.