FORT MYERS, Fla. – Bruce Hurst was Roger Clemens teammate for five years in Boston in the 1980s. The two remain friends and with Clemens engulfed in a steroid and HGH storm, Hurst is trying to make sense of what has happened.
“I feel so bad for Roger, he’s one of the greatest teammates I’ve ever had, if not the greatest,” Hurst said yesterday at Red Sox camp, where he is a special instructor. “He made me a better pitcher. He made all our pitchers better.
“I’m watching everything unfold on TV . . . and after 25 years, a great career, arguably the greatest right-hander ever, how does he get to that point? What happened? I hope with all my heart that he is telling us the truth, that he didn’t do it. It just makes me so sad. The whole thing is not pretty.”
Hurst, who retired after the 1994 season, said steroids were just starting to become part of the culture of the game then. He recently sent Clemens an e-mail.
“I just wanted to let him know that a lot of people care about him,” said Hurst, 49. “Nobody likes to see him have to go through this. Roger has meant a lot to a lot of people. I just hope whatever the truth is, he needs to move forward. I just hope he can find his rightful place in the game, that he can be who he should be.”
Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon also spoke of the situation.
“The one thing that I hope comes out of all this is that even if you have somebody like a Roger Clemens going through this, hopefully this will help us clean the game up,” Papelbon said.
“Regardless if he did it or didn’t do it, the whole goal is to clean the game up. Hopefully we can get through that process.”
Papelbon said he is careful with his associates.
“If somebody is (giving me a shot), I’m going to know what’s going in me,” he said. “You know these drugs can help you out, but at the same time does the risk equal the reward? To me, it doesn’t.”