Nothing particularly new to report on the Brian McNamee-Roger Clemens end of things, other than what Watson covered yesterday (Pettitte may have to come into court). It is interesting though, that McNamee's lawyers have ramped up their talk about the DNA tests on the syringes they presented to the court and how said tests will prove that Clemens is fibbing.
Of course, none of that is as interesting as finding out that a) Roger Clemens stinks at spelling, and b) his email address is Rocket something-something at something dot com. My guess is "Rocketman22 at aol dot com". From the Smoking Gun (who, naturally has copies of the emails, which were attached to a brief filed yesterday):
The e-mails ... were sent in October 2006, following the publication of a Los Angeles Times story reporting that Clemens and teammate Andy Pettitte were identified as steroid users in a confidential federal affidavit (the Times story proved to be erroneous). In the first e-mail, Clemens tells McNamee that, "Pet and I talk about the BS coming out. What a crock of sh*t!"
The third-place Yankees are in no position to deal with yet another distraction (Hank said what?! A-Rod is sleeping with who?!), but it's possible that Andy Pettitte, the team's best and most reliable pitcher this year, may be called in to testify in the defamation suit brought against Brian McNamee by Roger Clemens.
According to the New York Daily News, one of the claims Clemens is making against McNamee is that McNamee defamed Clemens by telling Pettitte Clemens used PEDs. McNamee's lawyer, Richard Emery, wants the judge to determine if the statute of limitations on that claim has passed, and doing so may require a hearing in which Pettitte will be forced to leave the Yankees and testify.
Sounds bad for the Yankees, right? It could get even worse. Emery has also requested that the defamation suit be moved from Houston to New York, which would allow Emery to subpeona a long list of witnesses, which includes Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, Mariano Rivera, as well as team trainers and doctors.
All of a sudden, dealing with paparrazi on the A-Rod/Madonna beat doesn't seem too bad.
Joe Buck visited with David Letterman last night and actually got off a pretty good line about the recent allegations about steroid users supplementing their intake with Viagra. The joke comes after some other discussion that we'll talk about after you've watched the video, which comes courtesy of Bugs & Cranks.
Nice of Buck to spend less time talking about how he and, by proxy, other members of the media just ignored PEDs 10 years ago than he did castigating Randy Moss for pretending to drop his pants. It wasn't a case of what we know now, it was a case of people like Buck looking the other way. In fact, he seems a lot more aggrieved by the fact that people somehow thought a broadcaster shouldn't be hugging a player during a game. Because it's all about him at the end of the day.
Jay Gibbons, everybody's favorite admitted HGH user and alleged victim of collusion, is finally going to play some baseball again. But don't go looking for him on television. You'll have to drive out to beautiful Islip, NY to find Gibbons with his new team: the Atlantic League's Long Island Ducks.
"I'm looking forward to getting back and playing ball again," said Gibbons, who will likely start working out with the Ducks in the next couple of days. "It's been 10 weeks, so hopefully I can get out on the field some time this week."
Boy, what a drop off for a 30-year-old outfielder who could probably still play some ball. Yeah, he's had some injuries lately ... and he may not be that good. But even so, there's not a major league team willing to give him a job in AAA? The fact that he has to go all the way to an unaffiliated Independent team while so many others mentioned in the Mitchell report have jobs in the majors means that it's not collusion. But it's just weird.
There's been a lot of discussion about possible collusion by major league teams to keep Barry Bonds from continuing his career. For all his foibles, the man can still rake and it's surprising that no team is willing to hold their nose long enough to benefit from his 1000 or so OPS. Buster Olney writes at ESPN.com that other players tainted by the Mitchell Report can't seem to find work either. He mentions Nook Logan and Jay Gibbons, late of the Orioles, as two players who aren't getting sniffs. He also includes a copy of a letter that Gibbons has written to all 30 major league teams.
All I need is a chance -- any chance -- anywhere. I am more than willing to begin the process of proving that I can and will be a productive major league player by playing in the minor leagues.
As you know, I have played seven seasons in the big leagues and have hit 20-plus homeruns in three seasons and have hit .277 in three seasons (2003, 2005 and 2006). At 31 years old, I have NO DOUBT that my best baseball is ahead of me.
I have some doubts about that. I'd never tell a man to give up his dream of playing in the big leagues but Gibbons doesn't have a ton of great baseball ahead of him. The only interesting thing about Gibbons's career is that he hit .277 in three separate seasons.
Remember when Rafael Palmeiro stepped out of the shadows and told the world that he was a proud user of Viagra? Snickers abounded that the man who swung a big bat at the plate couldn't in the bedroom but, if a report in the New York Daily News is true, there may have been another reason why Palmeiro used the little blue pill.
The paper reports this morning that Roger Clemens was a regular user of them as well. Not to take care of his large stable of blonds, though. Rocket, Palmeiro and other alleged steroid users use them because they believe they can help build endurance and deliver oxygen, nutrients and PEDs to muscles more efficiently. BALCO honcho Victor Conte said it's well-known in his circle.
"All my athletes took it. It's bigger than creatine. It's the biggest product in nutritional supplements."
Viagra's been found with cyclists busted in Italy and a liquid form of the drug was discovered, along with anabolic steroids, near the dead body of NFL draft prospect Heath Benedict in March. The World Anti-Doping Agency is funding a study to determine if the drug aids training and performance among athletes.
They may have a hard time implementing the study, though. Several years ago, the head of a doping research laboratory e-mailed Dick Pound, the unfortunately named (especially in this case) then-head of WADA, about Viagra. Pound's inbox filtered the message to his spam folder along with so many other too cheap to be believed come-ons for the drug.
There's been a lot made of the drop in offense in the American League this season with reasons ranging from weather to a paucity of good young players used to explain why the bats aren't thumping as they have in the past. There's been another reason tossed around as well, the presumed disappearance of steroids in the post-testing game of baseball.
Jeff Blair of the Toronto Globe and Mail picks up on this during a look at the scuffling Toronto Blue Jay offense in general and Alex Rios in particular. He describes J.P. Ricciardi watching Rios take a called third strike and say, cryptically, that we'll see a lot less balls in the seats.
If you're J.P. Ricciardi, you can't just attribute it to the Mitchell report or anything like that, because you're an employee of Major League Baseball and, well, he just can't go there, you know?
I think if Ricciardi could use something like that to explain away his team's offensive production, he'd be wise to do it actually. Wouldn't make it true but it might give him an out.
Using PED's to write off the decline in offense makes no sense. It doesn't take into account that the players using weren't just power hitters, weren't just hitters and didn't just play in the American League. It doesn't explain why the National League is outpacing its 2007 performance to this point in the season and it certainly doesn't explain why Rios and the Jays can't hit.
Former home run king Hank Aaron was pegged to give the commencement address at Concordia University Saturday; what would he say? It's still only a few months after Barry Bonds broke his all-time home run record and then vanished (against Bonds' will) into the night. Would Aaron discuss it? Or leave it alone?
"I still," Henry Aaron was saying, "consider myself the home-run king."
Oh, snap! That's more than Aaron has ever said on the matter, either positively or negatively. He then goes on to kinda back off that statement, talking about how Bonds was an incredible player, that he hopes the ordeal is over soon so Bonds can get on with his life, and so forth. Then, in his actual commencement, Aaron went with this:
"This is advice from an old man who has been a lot of places, seen a lot of things," said Aaron, who casts a regal appearance at 74. "Be careful before you make choices. Avoid shortcuts. They are quick fixes and unrewarding."
No word on whether Bonds was wearing a Concordia U cap and gown, but he might as well have been. That was a commencement speech to an audience of one. Which is kind of like an army of one, but with way more steroids and way less self-respect.
These latest words from Aaron are a lot different from the taped message after Bonds hit No. 756.
Paul Lo Duca has been on the DL most of the season with a broken wrist, and isn't going to be back until close to the all-star break. That's too bad, because it means we're not going to hear nearly as many great quotes out of Lo Duca as we normally would. Thank goodness that the Nationals let Lo Duca travel on the road trip to New York (the Nats don't usually let injured players travel, but gave Lo Duca a pass because he lives in NY), or else we probably wouldn't have heard Paul's take on "Cheer-gate" and Nelson Figueroa, courtesy of his appearance on WFAN (through Adam Rubin's Mets blog at the Daily News):
"I don't know. I'm not a big fan of it to be honest with you. I'll be honest with you. You know, we're struggling. Guys are just trying to have a little fun. I think they saw Figueroa getting a little upset, so they amped it up a couple of notches. I do think it's a little bush league. At first it started off as a little fun, until he got mad. I don't agree with it. But, also, Nelson Figueroa has nine wins in the big leagues and he needs to keep his mouth shut."
So I'm confused, it was all right until Figueroa got mad ... but Figueroa shouldn't actually tell anybody he's mad? I see. Sounds like Lo Duca didn't want to take sides and just hate each side of the argument equally.
Speaking of hate, some who formally loved Lo Duca now may hate him because of his appearance in The Mitchell Report, which was more than a mere cameo. Until now, all we've heard from Lo Duca was the prepared apology. While on WFAN, he went into it in a little more detail.
The third-place Yankees are in no position to deal with yet another distraction (
There's been a lot of discussion about possible collusion by major league teams to keep 
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There's been a lot made of the drop in offense in the American League this season with reasons ranging from weather to 
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