Vid Cast 1

Clemens - Round 2

Round 1 came on 60 Minutes, where Clemens looked uncomfortable and shifty. Round 2 came at yesterday's news conference.

I don't know what Roger Clemens was trying to prove with the news conference, but I don't think it came out his way. Even the sports pundits are having a hard time getting behind him. The Globe and Mail's Stephen Brunt tries to kiss a player's ass no matter what, but on this one even he is stammering.

During the news conference, Clemens released a taped phone call that he had with former trainer Brian McNamee. It was meant to help exonerate Clemens from allegations of steroid use, but all it did was raise more questions. For his part, McNamee didn't know that the conversation was being taped, though he did mention during the call that he was on a cell phone and playing things close to the vest.

The phone call does nothing to persuade me that Clemens didn't get injected with steroids, as McNamee contends. During the almost twenty minute phone call, McNamee repeats over and over, "What do you want me to do?" Close to the end of the call, McNamee sounds close to tears. He tells Clemens that he tried to keep the Rocket's name out of things as long as he could. He goes on to say that he's lost his wife and kids, and that the cameras are all over him. And, again, he asks: "What do you want me to do?"

To which Clemens responds with a very long pause, and then says that he just needs someone to tell the truth.

The tape does not leave one feeling that Clemens is on the level. If someone defamed me and asked me repeatedly, "What do you want me to do?" I would reply, "Tell them you didn't shoot me up with 'roids. In fact, tell me right now: did you ever shoot me up with 'roids?"

After all, Clemens knew the call was being taped. He had every chance to trap McNamee into a confession, but he didn't do it. Instead, he keeps rambling about how upset his family is, and how he wants "truth." But what truth?

My hypothesis is this: McNamee is a man who adores Clemens, and the lifestyle that Clemens provided him. The money. The elbow-rubbing with All Stars. The chance to get on TV. But now it's all down the drain, and as McNamee said in the phone call, "I just didn't want to go to jail." So he gave up Clemens' name to prosecutors. And now he's truly sorry about it. But not sorry enough to say that he lied, because chances are, he didn't. He's simply sorry that he had to rat out a friend.

I'm not sure what Clemens' game is with the 'go on the offensive' routine. The media isn't buying any of his explanations thus far. The taped phone call was too vague, and in some way, shows Clemens to be an underhanded sneak. The phone call was taped without McNamee's knowledge, and aired on live TV 48 hours later. That would be fine, if the phone call provided evidence that McNamee lied.

It didn't, and so nothing is solved. The next round comes before Congress, where Clemens is due to testify next week. I hope he does a better job there than he has on the news programs, or the Hall of Fame and his legacy are down the drain.

Photo: 1010wins.com

Juiced

Former Senator George Mitchell's drugs-in-baseball report has hit the streets, and the names come as no great surprise to me. ESPN and other sports writers are treating the mention of Roger Clemens's name with distaste. Not, of course, for Clemens, but for George Mitchell. Surely Clemens, an old man with a bionic arm and a bull's neck, can never have juiced in his lifetime.

ESPN couldn't wait to trot their legal analyst onto the set to say that Mitchell's 20-month investigation contains no real proof, and that the word of former team trainers is questionable. After interviewing the legal analyst, ESPN went on to a football story, and an NBA story. They ended their newscast with a hokey sequence about funny news conferences from head coaches. In other words, they buried it.

Sportscasters never fail to make me laugh. ESPN tops the list as the biggest sycophants, and all other sportscaster and writers take their cue from the network.

The sports writers should be ashamed of themselves. Are they trying to tell us that there is no proof whatsoever of drug use in baseball, and that they never heard whispers of it while they covered teams around the country? What a joke. Jose Canseco came out two years ago with his tattle-tales, Jason Grimsley was busted by the FBI for purchasing HGH, Troy Glaus was caught with drug receipts, Barry Bonds has been indicted by the Feds, and Jason Giambi admitted juicing and apologized for it.

You have to ask yourself, how is it that sports writers have not been unearthing these stories for the past ten years? The answer is simple: sports writers kiss the ass of every athlete they come across, because if they do not, they won't get 'access.' Gaining access also means keeping mum about the dirty laundry that they might trip over in the locker room.

The players that have been juicing should be ashamed to be on this list, but the sports writers should be equally embarrassed. Once again they have proven to be the most cynical people to ever hold a pen. I place no value in anything they say regarding sports. One minute they're defending Marion Jones to the hilt, the next minute they're holding the Kleenex while she cries in shame on the courthouse steps.

Egotistical to the hilt, shameless liars, incompetent reporters. Anything they say about the Mitchell report must be taken with a massive grain of salt, because all of them are in The Club of big league sports. They hob nob with players past and present. Indeed, many sports "analysts" on the tube are themselves former players. ESPN's John Kruk has come out as saying that he wished baseball had kept this quiet and dealt with it internally. I'll bet you do, Kruk. Half the guys on the list are your pals (not that we would ever know it; it should strike fans as remarkable that sports analysts never admit a full disclosure statement when defending a former teammate).

The rest of the baseball off season will be a wash, as the sports reporters desperately try to bury this story. Their line will be that the fans don't care because attendance is up and the game is doing well. So what? This house of liars and cheats needs to be cleaned up, and the sooner the better. Besides, I'm not sure if I buy the argument that the fans don't care. Last night, Roger Clemens would have been a shoo-in for the hall of fame. Today, an ESPN poll has 46% or fans saying he shouldn't get in.

Another analyst on ESPN has said that many more players than the ones in the report are probably juicing, so what are you going to do, get rid of them all? I say, "Sure."

It'll never happen, but I wouldn't mind it in the least. Fire everyone in MLB over the age of 23. Bring in college kids and minor league prospects. Begin the league anew, and end this miserable baseball generation, the worst in the sport since the Black Sox scandal.

By the way. Here's the list. Strange we never saw most of these names until now. Enjoy the ride down Juice Lane.

Lenny Dykstra

David Segui

Larry Bigbie

Brian Roberts

Jack Cust

Tim Laker

Josias Manzanillo

Todd Hundley

Mark Carreon

Hal Morris

Matt Franco

Rondell White

Andy Pettitte

Roger Clemens

Chuck Knoblauch

Jason Grimsley

Gregg Zaun

David Justice

F.P. Santangelo

Glenallen Hill

Mo Vaughn

Denny Neagle

Ron Villone

Ryan Franklin

Chris Donnels

Todd Williams

Phil Hiatt

Todd Pratt

Kevin Young

Mike Lansing

Cody McKay

Kent Mercker

Adam Piatt

Miguel Tejada

Jason Christiansen

Mike Stanton

Stephen Randolph

Jerry Hairston

Paul Lo Duca

Adam Riggs

Bart Miadich

Fernando Vina

Kevin Brown

Eric Gagne

Mike Bell

Matt Herges

Gary Bennett

Jim Parque

Brendan Donnelly

Chad Allen

Jeff Williams

Exavier "Nook" Logan

Howie Clark

Paxton Crawford

Ken Caminiti

Rafael Palmeiro

Luis Perez

Derrick Turnbow

Ricky Bones

Ricky Stone

The following players were cited under "Alleged Internet Purchases of
Performance Enhancing Substances By Players in Major League Baseball."

Rick Ankiel

David Bell

Paul Byrd

Jose Canseco

Jay Gibbons

Troy Glaus

Jason Grimsley

Jose Guillen

Darren Holmes

Gary Matthews Jr.

John Rocker

Scott Schoeneweis

Ismael Valdez

Matt Williams

Steve Woodard

The following players were linked through BALCO:

Benito Santiago

Gary Sheffield

Randy Velarde

Jason Giambi

Jeremy Giambi

Bobby Estalella

Barry Bonds

Marvin Benard

Photo: AP

Big Bucks - Small Times

AP Photo/Bill Kostroun
Some random musings on a late Tuesday night got me thinking about athletes and money. Roger Clemens is back pitching for the Yankees, and they said that his contract for the rest of this year is a prorated 28 millions dollars.

That’s a lot of cash. You’d think Christ Himself had come down for the final judgement, decided instead to work on his curveball, and Steinbrenner gave him a spot on the roster.

This season is a month over. The Rocket won’t be ready to play for another few weeks. That means he won’t appear until June. That gives him a four month season. With baseball’s five-man pitching rotation, this means he’ll probably play in no more than 24 games.

Let’s be generous and say that Clemens will average 7 innings per game (he’s already stated that he won’t go more than 3 or 4 innings in the first couple of games in order to build up his arm). That makes for 168 innings of baseball. A wildly inflated number, but again, I’m being generous. Now let’s say that he averages a very good 15 pitches per inning. That comes to 2520 total pitches.

So this season, every time Roger Clemens puts his hand past his ear, he will earn roughly 9500 dollars. And change.

Imagine that. Go out in your backyard and pick up a rock. Throw it at the fence 10 times. Now pretend you just made a hundred grand.

When we pay to watch a sporting event, what we are really doing is paying to watch millionaires play a leisure activity. There’s no denying that. I love baseball, football, and hockey, but be real: they’re games. Leisure activities. And the people playing them are rich. We simply pay for the right to watch them play these games. Once in a while, we yell at them, and it feels good, or we get drunk at the bar with our buddies, and that feels good, too. But they’re games.

Not a new argument, and it’s not really my point. What struck me about the Clemens deal is that he brought up his family as part of his decision-making process. And I thought to myself, is he nuts?

Any sports star that gets married and has kids before he retires is an idiot. I really believe that. Because man, if I was making ten thousand dollars every time I threw a ball or passed a puck, the last thing I’d want to do is go home to a bunch of screaming kids.

What the hell are they thinking? Getting a five million dollar-a-year contract at the age of 25 is a license to party your ever-loving brains out. You’d own any club you walked into. You’d be the life of the party, chicks all around. Never mind the Chivas, hand me the bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue so I can bathe in it.

Presidents invite these people over to dinner. Mayors hand them keys to the city. Hell, you can walk out on that field, throw a ball, complain of “elbow stiffness” and go on the 60-day disabled list. Screw working. For the next two months you can rehab that elbow with a bottle of Heineken in one hand, and a blonde in the other for ballast.

A wife and kids when you can own Broadway? Where’s the fun in that? Besides, you’re taking one hell of a risk getting hitched. The groupie you married knows damn well what you’re up to on the road, because that’s how she met you in the first place. Whenever she feels like it she can sic a photographer on your ass and the next thing you know, your contract is chopped in half.

Where did Joe “I like my Johnnie Walker Red and my women blonde” Namath go? Where’s Mickey Mantle lying in the gutter? Sure, their biographies read all sad and sappy later on, but even when you’re reading about their ‘downfall’ you’d cut off your left ear to have the wild times they did.

Watching the baseball All-Star Game is a drag. All of the players in the dugout are holding their children by the hand, pinching their cheeks, tickling their little bellies. Boooooring. Bring on the beer bongs and the dancing girls. I’ll take Babe Ruth over Peyton Manning any day of the week. And sure, twice on Sundays, come to think of it.

I think it was Shaw that said youth is wasted on the young.

The big bucks are wasted on the morons.