While the American tenet that you are innocent until proven guilty should provide Roger Clemens with the benefit of the doubt, and while anything he may or may not have done with Brian McNamee certainly wouldn't make him the only player of the last 20 years to do such things, I see nothing wrong with the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center removing Clemens' jersey from a display on the Yankees' World Series run of the late 90s.
The museum director's explanation that "we have a lot of kids coming through here who are asking questions we’re not prepared to answer" really says it all. Education and children's programs have always been the focus of the museum's -- and Learning Center's -- mission, and if the young visitors are asking questions about Clemens while touring the small exhibition space, it's better to remove that which is prompting the queries. The staff and volunteers at the museum aren't necessarily in a position to answer those questions, so why risk providing an incomplete answer when the safest thing is to try to avoid the issue in the first place? I think it's pretty similar to a visit I took to Kennedy Space Center in 2003 only weeks after Columbia broke up over Texas. Our tour guide said at the beginning of our visit that she could not answer any questions about the accident because she did not have enough information. That's essentially what the Yogi Berra Museum is doing.
Besides, as the director points out, having Clemens' jersey there with those of Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera in an exhibit about the Yankees' four World Series titles from 1996 to 2000 was inaccurate because Clemens was only a Yankee for two of them. Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada would be better choices.Labels: New Jersey, Roger Clemens, Yankees, Yogi Berra Museum