Ross Douthat ponders baseball’s slide into sordidness. “(New York Giants legend) Bobby Thomson died last week, and (Red Sox-turned-Yankee ace) Roger Clemens was indicted. No juxtaposition could better capture the way we used to feel about our sports heroes, and the way we feel about them now,” he writes. Clemens wants what Thomson enjoyed — to be judged only on what happened on the field. “We know too much to give him that. But though he hasn’t asked for it, maybe we also know enough about baseball history to give him our forgiveness.”
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The Decline of Baseball
Ross Douthat ponders baseball’s decline into sordidness as Roger Clemens becomes "one of the many...superstars credibly accused of using performance-enhancing drugs."
Monthly Issue
April 2026
In this monthly issue, we examine how our understanding of energy — and how we source and use it — is evolving.
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