The Rocket Is Mad

Roger Clemens held a press conference yesterday in which he sat with his lawyer and played a taped conversation he had with former trainer Brian McNamee.

The press conference was to be Clemens "evidence" that he did not use performance-enhancing substances despite McNamee's claim that he injected Clemens himself.

All I saw was a scared Rocket trying to confuse the media, sports fans, and fellow MLB players. Problem is, he did not confuse anyone with that press conference.

McNamee continually asked Clemens, "what do you want me to do?" in the recorded phone conversation, to which Clemens answered vaguely each time.

What Clemens did get across to the world is that he is a desperate man. Taping a phone conversation in which nothing was said, proved, or disproved. Then follow that up with fielding a couple of questions before storming out.

He was aggressive while fielding questions, and at one point called out Hall of Fame voters:

"You think that I played my career because I'm worrying about the damn Hall of Fame?" Clemens said. "If you have a vote and it's (turned) because of this, you keep your vote. I don't need the Hall of Fame to justify that I put my butt on the line and I worked my tail off. And I defy anybody to say I did it by cheating or taking any shortcuts. OK?

"I made a statement through this man (Hardin) when it first happened. I made a statement through my foundation. That wasn't good enough. And now I'm here doing this. I cannot wait to go into the private sector and hopefully never have to answer it again. I've said enough."

Clemens even asked reporters if he "can drink water? Or is that good or bad? Can I drink water? You know. And I can swallow..."

Yes you can Roger, yes you can.

Who knows what will come of this story, but we do know one thing: Clemens is definitely worried about the Hall of Fame and his legacy that may be tarnished.

The Beginning

Although it is not the Mitchell Report that is due out this offseason, there were three names in a report today that has them linked to steroids that they purchased from the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center in Florida.

Two were former players, Matt Williams and Ismael Valdez, with the other being a current player in Jose Guillen. Just goes to show you that you never who is on the stuff. Williams and Valdez I did not follow much, but did not expect to hear that Williams was using performance-enhancing drugs.

Citing business records, the Chronicle reported Guillen, who played for the Seattle Mariners last season, bought more than $19,000 worth of drugs from the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center between May 2002 and June 2005. Guillen had some of the shipment sent to the Oakland Coliseum during the 2003 season, after he was traded to the A's.

Now Guillen on the other hand... I followed this guy because he is a crazy. He was with the Los Angeles Angels in 2004 and was quite a ball player, but was a firecracker waiting to explode. No wonder he would go into psycho-mode anytime the opportunity arose. He has a huge grudge with the Angels and it becomes personal anytime he faces his old squad. Every year it is guaranteed that there will be benches cleared whenever Guillen faces his old team, no matter who he is playing with.

This disturbs me because he was around Angels players and may have provided them with steroids. Dude has balls, getting them delivered straight to the Oakland Coliseum?!?! That is insane.

Sad, sad for baseball. This George Mitchell's Report is going to be nuts. Does it bother anyone else that Mitchell is a Boston Red Sox director? He might leave off Red Sox players from the report in the best interest of the team. God, I hate Boston. More proof that they are the new "Evil Empire" of MLB.