HOUSTON – He could have been making the start with the Red Sox, but no, it was back to the Astros on Thursday. The seven-time Cy Young Award winner was back on the mound.

It was the return of Roger Clemens. It was the third time in his retirement-defying attempts to pitch yet one more season, or in this case, a half-season for $12 million. He pitched OK.

He got beaten by youth in the name of Francisco Liriano of the Minnesota Twins. The Astros did not score a run in the five innings he pitched. Last year they didn’t score in nine games he started.

Let’s deal with the rumors, as sad as it is to have to do so, and maybe as unfair.

In baseball circles, Clemens’ name is repeatedly whispered in the same sentence as steroids. Prior to his start on Thursday, there were more rumors that he was one of the names redacted in the federal search warrant related to former major league pitcher Jason Grimsley, who has named names.

A year ago, when Congress was calling players to testify, Clemens’ name was again whispered in MLB circles as one who would be named as a juicer. He was not named.

Former and current MLB players have said to me that they thought the big question regarding Clemens’ return this year was the issue of could he be successful without performance-enhancing drugs?

Those players obviously presumed or knew that he had been a user in the past.

This is a vicious time for players, no matter how famous. It is unfair in so many ways, yet understandable in so many other ways.

Longtime baseball writer Bill Madden of New York has said baseball needs to put a big asterisk in front of all the players and all the numbers for the last 20 years. Sad, but perhaps warranted.

Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell of Maine continues his quiet investigation on behalf of MLB into the steroid/performance drug issues. Most in the game believe the usage by players was so pervasive over the last 10 to 15 years that there can never be a full accounting of who did and who did not use.

Clemens will have to answer the question of yes or no sooner rather than later. As unfair as that may be, it is necessary to at least have his direct response on record.

If he succeeds in his attempt to come back this year, the whispers will be about how he had to be juiced to do it.

If he struggles, the whispers will say that without the artificial aids, he could not succeed.

The great problem for the game is that so many will find either argument compelling. Worse yet, there seems to be a growing malaise that everybody used and who cares?

That attitude will destroy the game. It speaks to the defining point.

The attempt to name those who used and to stop further usage is not about the guilty. It is about the innocent who played the game fairly based on natural abilities. They deserve to be honored for doing it right.

If we are unwilling to demand that as fans, and if the players are unwilling to make the same demands on each other, the games are meaningless.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.