The Mighty keeps falling...

Roger Clemens just can't catch a break.

First his trainer turns him in as PED user. Now, his deacade long affair from the past with country singer Mindy McCready comes to light- to which she says "I cannot refute anything in the story." What's it coming to when you can't trust your shady trainer or your mistress to lie for you when you need them the most?

Looks like he said- he said has been joined by he said- she said. Now, McNamee saved some physical evidence of his relationship with Clemens. I gotta think that Clemens is hoping McCready doesn't go all Monica Lewinsky and do the same. I think we should all hope for that- for sanitary reasons.

Clemens was guy whose workouts were stuff of legend. His exercise routine gave him some of the strongest legs ever seen in baseball. Now it's increasingly looking like he doesn't have leg to stand on.

Against the grade

The NFL draft has come and gone. All the hype and coverage culminated in two full days of wheeling and dealing, selections and expectations.

Now the same "experts" we have been listening to for months- who gave us hundreds of mock drafts (which bore very little resemblance to how it went down) and prognostications- as they do every year are giving out their post-draft grades for each team. A+ for this team, C- for them. All this when common opinion is you really can't judge the success of a draft for three years. Yet, right or wrong, these guys dole out the grades- based on their opinions of what they thought each team needed. Apparently the teams themselves, those receiving bad grades, didn't know what they needed to do- and should have listened to the mock drafters.

I understand that everybody needs to pay the bills, and that's all these draft experts are doing- but I am not a big fan of the instant post draft grade. None of these guys are putting anything on the line by throwing out their opinions. Whereas the guys in the front office actually making the choices are putting their jobs on the line with these selections. Let's give it some time, then we can really see who won and who lost- instead of just guessing.

Draft Week downer

As NFL draft weekend approaches, another NFL story which just won't die has come back in to the lime light. Spygate. Matt Walsh, the former employee of the Patriots is all set to talk to Commissioner Goodell and tell him all he knows about the video-taping practices used by the Patriots in the past. People are expecting Walsh to divulge information or physical evidence that the Patriots video-taped a Rams' pre-SuperBowl walkthrough in 2001.

All I really have to say is: who cares? I am no Patriots or Bill Belichick fan- in fact I can't stand either of them. But give it a rest. They got caught. The Pats and Belichick were punished, and they aren't doing it anymore. And I don't think it was ever the main reason for their success. I think it is safe to say they didn't video-tape for the remainder of last season after they got caught- and they were still pretty good. And I am still sure that there were many other teams out there employing the same or similar tactics- they just didn't get caught. You can bet there were tape- destroying parties throughout the league when this news originally surfaced.

Goodell has said he will crack down on Patriots if new evidence is revealed stating, "Taping a walkthrough is much different from what I punished them for." What's the commish gonna to do? Take away the Pats' Super Bowl victory? Fine them more cash? Hollow penalties that won't erase what happened. On some level it is kind of like the steroid crisis in baseball. I am sure there were many people who knew it was going on at all levels. Then when it became a public issue, it was denounced and people were made examples of. But we're left in the same place. Correct the problem now and going forward, and let the past be just that.

Now I am not saying that any transgression in sports can and should be swept under the carpet. But rather than delve into the past to punish these transgressors- learn from it. Especially in unprecedented matters. Make sure it doesn't happen in your league again, and make it imperative for the league's members to adhere to strict guidelines in this matter in order safeguard the integrity of the game.

Most of all, I am just bored with this story. Even as a professed Patriot-hater, I can't summon up the energy to care. And with the draft approaching, it should be a celebration of what's good about this game right now- not what was wrong in the past. Oh, and if congress gets itself involved in this one, as Sen. Arlen Specter has hinted they might- I am going to stop paying taxes.

Draft Day Anticipation?

Jake Long will be the first pick this year's NFL draft. We know this thanks to countless mock drafts, expert blogs, and well, because the Dolphins held a press conference yesterday to announce it. Four full days before the draft even begins. It's a great pick for the Fins, and as a fan I couldn't be happier... but a little air just went out of my draft balloon (and no, you may not see my draft balloon).

Remember the days when the NFL commissioner walked up to the podium and announced the first pick in the draft- and despite prognosticators' opinions, leaked information, and anonymous sources no one was absolutely sure who that first pick was going to be. Well enter the age of uber-economics.

It costs so much money to sign these guys nowadays, you be foolish not to come to some sort financial agreement with the first pick in the draft ahead of time. Ask Al Davis how it worked out for him last year. The pre-draft deal is nothing new but it seems to happening earlier and earlier. In the future, might we see teams agree on deals days after the season ends and draft order is determined? Or while attending the combine? Maybe those prognosticators can just figure out how the NFL season will play out, and we can hold the draft in the pre-season? That those player who are thinking about entering the draft early- instead of putting out feelers as where they would go in the draft- can actually wait and see where they are actually drafted before deciding on whether or not to return to college.

Okay, I jest. But who knows, with the Dolphins and Long coming to terms so soon- there could feasibly be a contract done with the number two pick before 3pm on Saturday. Talk about taking the mystery out if it! In all fairness though, we'll still probably always have the gripping anticipation of rounds 6 and 7. All this complaining, and I will still be glued come this weekend, wondering what happens next.

Concrete Truth

I would have put my money on the fact that the whole "Sox shirt in the New Stadium" thing would wind up being a huge hoax. Apparently it really happened.

It took about five hours, but the Red Sox jersey that was embedded in the concrete of the Yankees' new stadium to place a curse on the New York franchise has been unearthed with jackhammers, according to a published report.

...

The [Post] reported Sunday that two workers approached a construction manager with what they thought was the location of the jersey. After digging a two-foot by three-foot hole, the jersey was found.

And even Prince Hal chimed in:

"I hope his co-workers kick the [expletive] out of him," Yankees co-chairperson Hal Steinbrenner said.

That could be a pay-per-view event waiting to happen.

I don't know what to think about all this. In a way, I kind of wish it was treated as a hoax and forgotten about. To tear up concrete to retrieve a piece of cotton, shows concern on the part of the Yankees about curses and the like. Which until now, the Yanks and their fans have been able laugh and scoff at. The other part of me is glad that it was retrieved and won't be part of the new digs (pardon the expression). Curse or no, we don't need the New Stadium built on a foundation of Ortiz shirts.

Red Sawx shirt a part of New Yankee Stadium?

According to this report on ESPN.com a constuction worker and Boston fan working on the concrete crew at the $1.3 billion new Yankee Stadium buried a Red Sox shirt in with the concrete foundation under what will become the visitors' clubhouse, in the hopes of jinxing the Yankees new home, the New York Post reported.

Two construction workers told the newspaper about the stunt on conditon of anonymity.

"In August, a Red Sox T-shirt was poured in a slab in the visitor's clubhouse. It's the curse of the Yankees," one worker told the Post.

"Nobody knows about it. It's in the floors, it's buried." The workers say they're now afraid that they've jinxed the Yankees.

"I don't want to be responsible for sinking the franchise," said a second worker, who witnessed the burial. "I respect the stadium."

Pretty ridiculous stuff, if it's true.

Now, I don't particularly believe in curses- but I also don't want to mess around with the Baseball Gods either. It just goes to show that Boston fans still don't quite know how to deal with winning. Last time I checked, the Sox have won two of the last four World Series and they still walk around with that put-upon chip on their shoulders. I know this is just one jackass's manuever, but it pretty much sums it up for me. A Red Sox shirt right now represents a winning franchise; and with this you are somehow putting a curse on the Yankees?

For me the most puzzling/ amusing part of it all is that it was put into the floor of the visitors clubhouse. Not the Yankees clubhouse. Not under home plate, or where Monument Park is going to be. Perhaps this construction worker has put his curse on the visitors to the new Stadium?

Only time will tell if it's hex or hoax.