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Today, Roger Clemens made his last start regular season start at Fenway Park. As a member of the New York Yankees. A few months ago, I had this conversation with a friend of mine, who is a Yankees fan.

Greg: Clemens is pitching against the Red Sox today.
Me: I know. I can’t stand him.
Greg: Why? He’s a great pitcher.
Me: Look at it this way. In college you start dating this great girl from Texas. She’s smart, funny and attractive. After you have been seeing each other for a while, then you realize that all your friends think she’s great too. For a few years, you realize you have the perfect girl for you and you propose. You get married, with a spectacular wedding. Right after you get married, some chinks start to show in the armor. She stops laughing at your jokes, she starts to nag more. She quits her job for a year, and puts on alot of weight. You come to the conclusion that she might be borderline insane. She picks fights over nothing, and starts to act more and more bizarrely. To top it all off, she won’t even give you the time of day in bed. So you tell her that you can’t deal anymore, and if she doesn’t go back to the way she was, then the marriage was over. She said fine, but she could only date you or a guy from home. Meanwhile, shes getting back into shape, as the marriage ends. She starts to work hard again, and she dates the strange Canadian in the same apartment. No matter, you move on to the incredibly hot Dominican girl, that is superior then the ex, and you are happy. All of a sudden, your ex-wife dumps the Canadian dude, and starts dating the loud, obnoxious rich guy that lives above you, and always steals your parking spaces. She is now in better shape then she was in college, and every time you see her, all she talks about is how happy she is with the new guy. Now, you are married to this Dominican girl, but every time you see the ex, she brags about how good the new guy is in bed, and how even we you guys were dating, she really wanted the Rich guy. And she says your dick is small. Suddenly all your friends are telling you how awesome the ex is, and how you should have never let her go. Thats how alot of Red Sox fans feel about Clemens.

I felt that way until the game today. As you can probably tell about my last post, I hated today’s game. I was never more pissed off watching a Sox game then I was when I saw the Red Sox fans giving Roger Clemens a standing ovation as he was taken out of the game. Then a funny thing happened. acknowledged the Boston fans for the first time since 1996.

Then an even funnier thing happend. I didn’t hate Clemens anymore. I didn’t really feel anything at all. Hatred softened into ambivalence. I feel like I grew a little bit just watching that moment.

Before, I said that Clemens should wear a dollar sign cap on his Hall of Fame plaque. One thing I didn’t want him to wear was the Red Sox ‘B’ on it. Now, I’m not so sure. All I can say about Clemens now was that he was a great player, and one of the best pitchers of all time. What I can’t say is that I hate him anymore.

Tomorrow, Boston travels to Philadelphia to face the Phillies. Jeff Suppan faces off against Bret Myers.