Roger Clemens' interesting pregame ritual

Here's a story that was too good not to share. If you're looking for another reason to dislike Roger Clemens, here it is. Apparently, in the new book by Joe Torre, there is a story from one of the Yankee trainers revealing that before important playoff starts, Clemens would have the trainer rub liniment on his balls before the game. Ummm, I know the locker room is supposedly a pretty weird place that's different from the real world, but that's got to be the weirdest thing I've ever heard about. The simple question is, why couldn't he just do it himself, rather than getting the trainer to do it?

Andruw Jones slides even further toward irrelevancy

Latest news on Andruw Jones I found is this nugget that he quit the winter ball team he was playing for. Believe it or not, he was apparently hitting only a woeful .148 during his time there. Of course, this comes after the recent announcement from the Dodgers that they had agreed to release him in exchange for Andruw agreeing to defer a portion of his salary. Now, I don't have the time nor energy to do a lot of digging into this, but it seems to me that was basically the Dodgers cutting a player for poor performance. Where is the benefit to Andruw? He still had (I think) around $12 million left on his contract. He's not going to that anywhere else next year for sure. The only reason I could see is that he really didn't want to be playing in Los Angeles. I don't believe that either though, because there is no way he'd give up $10 million dollars just to try to sign with another team.

Of course, one option for Andruw may be re-signing with the Braves. Not really sure what to think of this one. On one hand, Andruw has just shown nothing over the past two years to even resemble a major league player. Two years ago for the Braves he was automatic out in the middle of the lineup, which of course was impossible to get around. On the other hand, the drop in his production has been so precipitous it makes you wonder if there's any fix out there. I mean, we all know he was productive at one point. What's to say he can't be productive again? He's only 31 yrs old at this point and hit 51 HR's in 2005. Was it just the pressure of the free agent year in 2007 that led to the dropoff? Was it just poor conditioning? Those are things that can be fixed if he puts his mind to it. My guess, which I haven't read anywhere else, is that maybe Andruw has some serious mental issues going on, like depression or related illness. There doesn't appear to be any physical reason, and I can't believe that he's not a competitive enough person to put 100% effort into his career at this point.

I tend to agree with Dave O'Brien writing for the AJC who believes re-signing Andruw to a small deal with incentives would be a good idea. Give him another chance and let's see how it works out. If he truly wants to keep playing of course. It wouldn't surprise me at this point if he considered early retirement.

Highlight Reel

Here's another link I had to post. This may be the most gruesome injury of all I've seen. Strangely though, the guy didn't seem to react that much, just kind of held his leg dangling around for all to see.

Furcal back with the Braves?

As reported nearly everywhere else, Rafael Furcal is close to signing with the Braves as a free agent. The offer is reportedly lower than one made by the A's and perhaps other teams. Assuming it happens, I definitely think it's a good move by the Braves. Of course, only if there are other moves coming as I assume there must be. It seems to me they must now move Yunel Escobar, who would likely have more trade value but who never really seemed to fit in with the Braves. Maybe I 'm wrong, but my guess is Escobar wasn't quite the same teammate that Furcal was. He always appeared to be a little aloof and maybe too flashy. That doesn't fit with the Braves style under Bobby Cox. There's really not much evidence to support this, other than the Braves not making the playoffs the last two years.

In any event, I can't see Furcal and Escobar both remaining on the team. They still need another starting pitcher and more power in the outfield. Maybe there's a deal for Grienke from KC, Ryan Ludwick from the Cardinals, or some surprise deal no one has thought about. Escobar would probably be the centerpiece of either one of those deals. Plus, the contemplated trade with San Diego probably gave Escobar the impression the Braves wanted to move him. He's definitely talented, and will probably have a long career, but I think right now he's most valuable to the Braves as trade bait.

Highlight Reel

And, for those who passed on watching the unwatchable Heisman Trophy presentation, we all apparently missed Billy Sims being a little too loud upon Sam Bradford's introduction. Wonder if it had anything to do with imbibing a bit beforehand? According to Wikipedia, he did the same thing for Jason White in '03. There's reason enough to root for another OU winner. Link

Highlight Reel

If you haven't seen it yet, you've got check out this video of "Cowboy Chris" heckling Ed Werder of ESPN while he's preparing to go on air. Apparently, some in Big D don't believe Werder has accurately reported the story regarding any dissension among the team. Link

Why the hate for Lou Holtz?

For some reason, a lot of bloggers out there criticize Lou Holtz and attack him personally at times. I actually like watching the guy and think he's pretty entertaining. Sure, he's a little crazy at times, but he's also an old school college football coach and I think they're probably all going to be crazy. And sure, he's a homer for Notre Dame and South Carolina, but can you blame the guy for pulling for his old teams and hoping they do well? Anyway, here's a vid from over the weekend that is pretty funny. It provides a good chance for some to mock ol' Lou but personally I think it's great to see a TV analyst being honest about how he feels.