The Roger Clemens Award

The embarrassment that is Roger Clemens makes me have to point out a big problem with NCAA baseball once again.

Currently the Roger Clemens Award is given to the best pitcher in college baseball. The award was originally called the Rotary Smith Award but was renamed the Roger Clemens Award in 2004. The award is considered the college equivalent of the Cy Young Award.

The NCAA may want to rethink the name of this award or at least their support. Never mind the risk associated with naming an award after a player who was still active at the time - the NCAA should have had issues naming an award after a player who did not complete his degree. The student part of student athlete was clearly missing in Roger Clemens makeup. If that is a message the NCAA really wants to send then they should go right ahead and start paying the athletes.

I know that not every player who wins the Heisman Trophy, for instance, goes on to complete their degree or is a paragon of the NCAA supposed ideals. John Heisman at least was a man worthy of an award named after him.

I suggest re-naming the award after Smokey Joe Wood who was one of the greatest professional pitchers in history (until injury cut his career short in his prime). More importantly, however, Joe Wood served as the head baseball coach at Yale for 20-years. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has said anything negative about Joe Wood and players should be honored to receive an award named after such a man.

Roger Clemens was no Smokey Joe Wood as a person.