Happy anniversary

The other day in the mall, Christine spotted a family - the father had a Chase Utley shirt on while his boys wore Red Sox hats. "They're just as screwed up as our family," she said.

"Nah," I replied. "They're just products of '04."

I smiled, thinking these two young boys were like the legions who became Bulls fans in the 1980s. My seminal Red Sox moment occurred 22 years ago today. Here's the story.

Although he's turned out to be the biggest ass in baseball, I can never forget that without Roger Clemens striking out 20 on my ninth birthday, I would be rooting for some other team like the Blue Jays, and then Christine and I would really have problems.

I know, I have to finish this series and induct the roider into my Hall of Fame of antiquated Red Sox garb, but it's hard to find the time and right mix of emotion.

Another roider!?!

I can't take it anymore.

Another day, another report of someone else taking the juice. This time there's an admission.

OK, it's not a real admission, and Booker T isn't the name of the day in the world of steriod scandal. The latest revelation is that Debbie Clemens did the juice to prepare for a bikini shot in the 2003 SI swimsuit edition.

This week we've seen bloody gauze, syringes, beer cans and now this. The worst part is we probably won't ever get a straight answer. Who can you really trust: the egomaniac who's been full of it for his 20-year career or the guy who saves other people's medical-type waste for years?

I also keep going back to an idea Bill Simmons proposed recently: What if Clemens started juicing when he was still a Red Sox?

With all the craziness swirling around this story, it seems more likely that Clemens' Boston finish was tainted by more than just being out-of-shape and unmotivated.

Here's my memory of his ending:

On Sept. 18, 1996, I was in my dorm room doing whatever a college sophomore does on a random weekday night, when across the ticker comes news that Roger Clemens is pitching a great game.

Being the ancient times when the Internet was still dawning, I waited for ESPN to interrupt its regularly scheduled programming to see if Clemens could match the 20 K game he had 10 years earlier. He did.

I took it as a sign that Clemens - who besides the strike-shortened 1994 hadn't had a good year since 1992 - was back and would have a respectable ending to his career. It was such a deep moment I popped my favorite mix tape in my Walkman (remember, ancient times of 1996) and headed for a courtyard where I could think alone.

Also fresh in my mind was one of my best in-park experiences a month earlier when Clemens shut out the Angels in what proved to be his last home shutout in Boston.

On Aug. 1, after a drubbing by the Royals, Clemens stood at 4-11 with a 4.36 ERA, 9.16 K/9 and a 1.42 WHIP, averaging 6.8 innings per start. In his last 10 Red Sox starts, he averaged 7.7 innings and went 6-2 with a 2.08 ERA, striking out 11.24 per 9 and a posting a 1.12 WHIP.

Was Aug. 1 the end of the Rocket and the start of the Roider? Could be, but thankfully, even if it were, it didn't affect championships.