1. Why did Roger Clemens come out of hibernation? He did not have a new case. He just had the same old sad one that is basically this: I am Roger Clemens, I have been saying nonsense for years and getting away with it, so here is some more nonsense.
My hunch is that Clemens came out because the seclusion is destroying him. Two key elements to Clemens’ personality are his need to be social and a massive ego. He spent an entire career imagining that those two items would be satisfied in retirement by him essentially being a living legend with carte blanche in every ballpark and in every pro-am golf event. He was going to be the Rocket forever in his mind. This is the part he loved playing. It was mostly an act, but after a while Clemens bought totally into his own fiction that he was the John Wayne of baseball. He figured he would just move from one standing ovation to another, one moment of adoration to the next. Again, Clemens loves to be around people, specifically those that fawn over him.
Mark McGwire might be able to handle being a pariah, essentially disappearing from public view. But I have often imagined this is the worst kind of prison for Clemens – though perjury charges might get us to test how he handles the real thing. It is not just that the Rocket myth has crumbled, but also all the perks that go along with it.
So I have wondered for a while how Clemens might try to introduce himself back into the larger world. But even for his garbled, stumbling, incoherent history his showing on Mike and Mike in the Morning was pathetic, especially when you remember how much he must have been prepped by his new p.r. geniuses. His message was an attempt to say that there is a “piling on” effect, that he does a lot of charity and to continue to deny, deny, deny.
I could pick apart nearly every answer. But suffice to say that what is not going away is Andy Pettitte’s testimony and backing of Brian McNamee. Clemens has leaned on the trite “I can’t defend a negative” in explaining his lack of an actual defense. However, Clemens also said he has run into Pettitte on a few occasions and never bothered to bring up the testimony. Well, it would not be defending a negative to challenge Pettitte publicly one-on-one or more aggressively then by saying that his one-time pal “misremembered.” What sane person who was claiming so vociferously that he was innocent would not be screaming at and about Pettitte?
2. Thank goodness Joe Girardi is a fitness buff who was going to work his Yankees into shape or else they would have real injury problems.
Derek Jeter (oblique), Hideki Matsui (hamstring) and Phil Coke (back) all joined an injury list that is bigger than a breadbox and moving darn close to the size of an elephant. Aside from missing both of their catchers, their two prime set-up men, their shortstop, their right fielder, their DH and their No. 2 starter, well the Yanks aren’t missing anything.
And there is a Logan’s Run-type quality to what is occurring to the Yankees. Essentially if you reach 33 years or age or older you are in big trouble. Alex Rodriguez (33) just returned from hip surgery. Damaso Marte (34), Jose Molina (33), Jorge Posada (36) and Cody Ransom (33) are all on the DL. Jeter (34) could not play Tuesday night and Matsui (34) had to be pulled from the game. Mariano Rivera (39) is not quite performing like his, well, old self yet as he returns from shoulder surgery and Andy Pettitte (36) is coming off the first four-homer game of his terrific career.
Well, the good news is that Johnny Damon (35) is currently the Yankees’ MVP. Be careful, Johnny, be very careful.
And the Yanks need to be careful here, as well, especially if these injuries to Jeter and Matsui are not minor. This is the second straight year that Girardi’s team has not stay healthy, and the Yanks continue not to have minor league answers to make losses more tolerable.
3. The NL MVP award is Albert Pujols’ to lose. But as we get near the quarter pole of the season, Carlos Beltran has completed the equivalent of a strong showing in the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primary. He has probably been helped by Manny Ramirez falling out of the race. It also probably does not hurt his candidacy that Ryan Zimmerman plays on the worst team in the majors.
The highest Beltran has ever finished in the MVP voting was fourth in 2006.