One thing is for certain: it’s a very good thing for The Boston Red Sox and their fans that the preliminary report floating around Bloomberg yesterday morning was false. That list did seem a bit too earth-shattering to be true, but I’d be lying if I claimed that it didn’t have me sweating.

Looking over the actual report, it appears that certain teams were impacted a bit more heavily than others. However, despite the predictable whining you might hear from conspiracy theorists, and despite the unabated celebrating you may see from Red Sox fans themselves, the franchise did not exactly walk away from this fiasco unscathed.

Let’s take a look at the most severe Sox-related damage after the storm.

1) Roger Clemens
While the reports indicate that The Rocket received PEDs while playing for other teams {cough cough}, we are talking about the guy who is arguably the greatest pitcher of all time, and a guy who spent his greatest years as a member of the Boston Red Sox. This is a superstar who will be going into the Hall of Fame with a “B” on his bronze plaque. And let me be even more frank: he was greatest piece of ass I ever had, and I’ve had them all over the world!…whoops, sorry. (I watched The Godfather DVD yesterday). What I meant to say was: he was my favorite player during the majority of my childhood. While I’m not one to buy into the whole “athletes are role models” myth, I can’t help but feel a pang of sadness.

If his career progressed naturally after Dan Duquette’s ill-fated “Twilight of His Career” comments, he’d still be a Hall of Famer. For right or wrong, Roger’s perception in baseball history is going to suffer badly.

2) Mo Vaughn
A similar situation to Roger, as the report indicates that Mo received PEDs late in his career, years after his tenure with the Red Sox came to an end. Unlike Roger, Mo still has strong ties to the local community, and was known as a leader and a “class act” during his Red Sox career. Vaughn was baseball’s answer to Drew Bledsoe: a promising beacon of hope on some pretty mediocre 1990’s teams, before the franchise rose to the elite status they currently enjoy. He might be closing in on Cooperstown right now if he took better care of himself.

The bottom line is: in the eyes of the fans and casual observers, Mo was likable. To many, the people who take the steroid/HGH issue very seriously when evaluating a player’s career and character, Vaughn will no longer possess that quality, and it’s a shame.

3) Eric Gagne
The question some people might be asking themselves is this: would Red Sox management knowingly acquire someone who had a history of PED abuse? To take it a step further: would they knowingly trade away prospects for a half-season rental of someone who had this type of history?

This report isn’t the first time Gagne has been implicated; some might say that the writing was on the proverbial wall with our favorite curly-haired French Canadian reliever. If management did catch wind of his problem, it makes what turned out to be a bad trade appear to be a downright horrible one.

I will say this: the Milwaukee Brewers must be kicking themselves for not waiting a few days before drafting that $10,000,000 contract.