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All right, who’s going to be the first finger-pointer to publicly apologize to Roger Clemens?
How about you, George Mitchell? Thought you could throw a bunch of names out there, collect seven figures and add to your legacy, eh? The Mitchell Report just turned into $20 million of birdcage liner.
Or you, Bud Selig? You figured you could scapegoat Clemens, get Congress off your back and keep pounding your chest about cleaning up baseball? Looks like you learned a lesson about due process.
Or how about our United States government, which has spent untold fortunes on trying to prove that — GASP! — professional athletes sometimes cheat and has embarrassingly little to show for its efforts?
WON’T WHIFF MY 1ST BALLOT: VACCARO
ROGER AND OUT! CLEMENS CLEARED
Tough day for all of them. Tough day for everyone who rushed to judgment.
A jury of Clemens’ peers acquitted him yesterday of all six counts of perjury, false statements and obstruction of Congress, giving the seven-time Cy Young Award winner a last, hearty laugh in the 4 1/2-year witch hunt against him.
The opinion that Clemens used illegal performance-enhancing drugs has no value. You can’t lodge that accusation in even a quasi-legal setting, as was the case with the Mitchell Report, and think it won’t be subject to extreme scrutiny that includes cross-examination.
To be more specific, you can’t try to make a fall guy out of Clemens — a man with an immense bank account — and not expect a fight.
Innocent until proven guilty. The burden of proof falls upon the prosecution. They are core tenets in our country. They must be respected.
Clemens fought only for himself. He wasn’t particularly interested in any greater cause. Yet he unwittingly carried the torch for all workers who don’t want themselves smeared by their employers.
Mitchell and Selig surely hoped Clemens, his reputation shattered, would enjoy a life of seclusion and golf in Houston. That’s not who Clemens is, though.
Describe it as courage, craziness or the perfect combination of the two. Regardless, when critics said, “OK, tough guy, if you really didn’t use illegal PEDs, then say it under oath in Congress,” Clemens responded with an “OK!” and put his posterior on the line.
By calling everyone’s bluff in February 2008, repeating his denials to our nation’s lawmakers, Clemens sparked the chain reaction that finally concluded yesterday when the jury said, essentially, “Sorry, government, you’re gonna have to do better than this.”
Yes, Clemens will be on my Hall of Fame ballot this December, although he would have regardless of this verdict. His alleged transgressions occurred before Major League Baseball began enforcing bona fide rules against illegal PED usage. His career speaks for itself. If his numbers are illegally enhanced, well … he can get in the back of the line.
Today, though, Clemens stands out less for his mound greatness and more for his rewarded chutzpah. He’s a walking, talking reminder that we all have rights. That, sure, cheating in sports shouldn’t happen, but you don’t get to steamroll people, no matter what they did, without giving them their day in court.
At least you don’t get to steamroll very rich people.
The jury made the right call. The government simply didn’t have the goods, which became fully evident during last week’s closing arguments when Assistant U.S. Attorney Gil Guerrero asked jurors to use their “common sense” to throw an American citizen in jail.
Whatever you believe in your hearts, Roger Clemens can now stand with pride and say, accurately, he has done everything humanly possible to clear his name. There’s nothing more for him to do besides point to the scoreboard reading “NOT GUILTY.”
It’s a great day for the United States, a great day for baseball. And rather than wait for a Clemens confession that isn’t coming, let’s see if those apologies start rolling in. Clemens deserves them.
kdavidoff@nypost.com