Odds and Sods

Roger Clemens was on the golden road to unlimited devotion a year ago, but he will now be singing the Mexicali Blues after a ten-year affair with country singer Mindy McCready–begun when she was just fifteen–became public.

The New York Daily News, citing an anonymous source, claims that Clemens carried on a clandestine relationship with the country starlet that spanned through stints in Boston, Toronto, New York and Houston.

Clemens reportedly became infatuated with the singer–when he was 28 and married with two children–when she performed at a Fort Myers bar, throwing a shirt on stage with the autographs of himself and some of his teammates.  The two were introduced and it was “love at first sight,” according to the source.

Roger neglected to inform McCredy of his marriage, a fact she discovered after reading his bio in a game program at Fenway Park.

Clemens allegedly took McCready on party-fueled jaunts to Las Vegas and New York.  He also allegedly sent her Fed-Ex packages filled with cash to cope with her legal woes.  Former trainer Brian McNamee confirmed that he saw the two together “on many occasions” including his apartment at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

McCready also allegedly sat near the Yankees dugout during Roger’s game and jokingly donned a catcher’s mask.

In a statement as believable as previous ones, Clemens confirms that McCready is a family friend, but denies that any “inappropriate” activities occurred.

The source seems likely to have some relationship to Brian McNamee, the target of Clemens’ defamation suit regarding allegations made in the Mitchell Report.  It is unclear whether this information can be useful in a legal defense, but it is clear that the parties will not be adhering to Marquess of Queensbury rules.

Caught in a search for one more Saturday night, Clemens will hope to convince his wife to turn on her lovelight and will likely get told to keep on truckin.

Baseball and the MLB Players’ Union are trying to reach an agreement to impose some of the Mitchell Report’s recommendations.

The players are amenable to a strengthened year-round testing program, to supplant the current two test minimum.  Neither side wants testing turned over to an independent agency.

The sticking point, it seems, is punishment for players named in the report.  Retro-active punishment could only be meted out to players found guilty after 2004, which is fewer than a dozen of the eighty-plus players named in the investigation.

The Union wants players to receive no sanction, as suggested by Mitchell.  Selig wants some formal punitive measure, in the form of either counseling or fines – basically nothing.

Teams of lawyers paid thousands of dollars an hour are beating each other senselessly, with nerf bats.

And you wonder why it can cost $200+ to take a family to a game?

America’s favorite I.R.S. agent on a power trip, Jeff Novitzky, has widened his invasive probe into the shadier side of Roger Clemens.

The Feds are investigating a potential link between Clemens and the Shaun Kelly Weight Control center.

Kelley denies involvement with performance-enhancing drugs, though according to the New York Times he has both acknowledged using HGH and has advertised it on his website.

According to a former employee, Clemens introduced himself as a friend of Kelley and spent 20 minutes alone with him in his office.  Kelley, when questioned by the Times, stated that Clemens was an acquaintance said they had met “a couple of times.”  Though, he denies meeting Clemens in his store.

With Hank Steinbrenner in it, the world is a much better place.

George had spent the last few years in a downward spiral.  The suits behind the scenes appeared to have taken control.  There was a distinct chance that the Yankees would begin to act rationally.  But marital strife marred the line of succession, and on came Hank, the Steinbrenner bete noire, to save the day.

Like his infamous father, Hank loves the attention.  He revels in it.  He tailors his statements to attract it.  He saw the opportunity, with the media focusing on steroids, and could not resist the temptation to butt his bulbous beak into the fray.

“I don’t like baseball being singled out,” Steinbrenner said.  “Everybody that knows sports knows football is tailor-made for performance-enhancing drugs.  I don’t know how they managed to skate by.  It irritates me.  Don’t tell me it’s not more prevalent.  The number in football is at least twice as many.  Look at the speed and size of those players.”

Hammerin’ Hank has a point.  When it comes to steroids, there is a societal double standard.  Baseball players are hauled before Congress.  Football players get a month vacation.

However, that does not exculpate him or his team.  The Yankees have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to players explicitly linked to steroids.  Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Chuck Knoblauch, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Jason Grimsley, Kevin Brown, Jim Leyritz and David Justice all wore the pinstripes and were paid handsomely by the club to do so.

Football may have a larger problem with performance-enhancing drugs.  But, it is hard to find a sporting entity that has done more to subsidize the seedy steroid industry than the New York Yankees.

Steinbrenner Jr. has a point, but his organization does not have the moral high ground to make it.  From some his comment may be quite reasonable, but from Steinbrenner it is the words of a caught child.  As every child learns, having a partner in crime does not lessen one’s own culpability.

An Associated Press Opinion Piece? on the Clemens Debacle

Roger Clemens’ visit to Capitol Hill left a lot of people wondering the same thing: Was it really necessary?

This seems to suggest that there was some sort of debate as to whether this was necessary. Everyone not a member of the U.S. Congress, with the notable exception of salivating Jeff Novitsky, already realized it was useless before it happened. Even freaking Mike and Mike couldn’t frame this into an issue. No one is asking this.

We held the hearing because Roger Clemens wanted that hearing, because Roger Clemens wanted the chance to speak in public and make his case.

Why is the United States Congress serving at the behest of Roger Clemens? He hasn’t had enough opportunity to state his case publicly already? Couldn’t he do this during the libel case he is allegedly pursuing against Brian McNamee?

Any suggestion whatsoever that this hearing was the result of our request is simply not accurate.

Neither is the memory of anyone associated with Roger Clemens except Roger Clemens.

The crux of this issue is whether the depositions and affidavits taken from several witnesses, including Clemens, in the weeks before the hearing could have given the committee all the evidence it needed to issue a report without the public spectacle.

No, the crux of the issue is why Congress would have shoved its pork bellied beak into this issue in the first place. Why does Congress need to issue a report on this? Surely there are more salient issues that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform could concern themselves with?

What we could not live with was a report that was cut-and-pasted without all of us hearing and seeing from Roger directly.

Yes, because having Roger read the same prepared statements in a calculated manner and throw his wife under the bus really cut him as a compelling figure.

In all of my years of watching politics, I’ve never seen a good witness before Congress.

See: John Kerry before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee April 22, 1971.

Although there was a lot of back and forth, a lot of arguing, the fact still remains that it dominated the news cycle…if we’re able to cause one child to say, I’m not going the steroids route, if we’re able to save one life, I think it’s well worth it.

Ok, so ESPN running “BREAKING NEWS” that there was no news to come out of the hearing and having body language experts and talking heads comment about how there was no news to come out of the hearing constitutes the reason for having the hearing?

What about the other few million kids who just got scared off running for Congress because they don’t want to associate with bumbling buffoons?

I dont worry so much about the Roger Clemenses of the world. You know why? He’s a multimillionaire. He’s been paid well. He’s paid to do two things: practice and play. He’s going to be fine.

Ok, so Roger Clemens is living the sweet life and can throw gobs of money at high-priced lawyers to make sure that no one bothers him and retire in his 40s. That is really scaring the kids off steroids.

Does anyone else snicker every time they say “Rusty Hardin” ?