ONLY ONE IS TELLING THE TRUTH...

I'm talking about Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee. We saw it yesterday in all its glory on ESPN. Four and a half hours of riveting and sometimes damning testimony and we're left with one basic fact. Only one of them is telling the truth. This is from Thursday morning's Jeff Jacobs' Hartford Courant column. I'll link his entire piece, but first read this excerpt. He's the best...

"Sorry, I don't believe him.
Every one of us got to decide whether Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs. Every one of us got to decide if Clemens was setting the record straight or crooked. And at some level, Clemens, one of the biggest hams in American sport, must have loved it.
A quick check with a SportsNation poll at ESPN.com showed only 22.5 percent of 50,730 respondents believed Clemens more than trainer Brian McNamee."

Peter here. There's so much more in his column...just click on the title of this post. 22.5%, huh? That doesn't surprise me, not at all, but maybe I'm "disremembering" something, to use the word that Roger continually used about his "former" buddy Andy Pettitte and his earlier testimony about Roger and PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) as far back as the late 90s. The moment when Roger testifed that Andy was "disremembering" is the moment when I just stopped believing him, not that Brian McNamee's public personna elicits faith and trust in ANY of us. We'll never know exactly who is telling the truth, and I don't think that will change. Not without a trial, and that's something that won't happen.

In Boston Red Sox news, our self proclaimed "hero in the dark," Hideki Okajima, spoke out yesterday about his preparation for his second season with the club. He will be a hero in the dark no more, for every AL club has seen him. In fact, at one time or another, they were baffled by him. EVERY CLUB! This is also from the Hartford Courant...

"The biggest surprise on the Red Sox and perhaps in the entire American League last season, Okajima parlayed his wicked changeup into an All-Star appearance and a sixth-place finish in rookie of the year balloting.
The lefthander made 66 appearances as the primary setup man for Jonathan Papelbon, posting a 2.14 ERA and recording five saves, baffling hitters with the split change and the funky head-down delivery.
Now, the element of surprise will not be an ally in 2008, and no one is more aware of it than Okajima. A year ago he called himself the "hero in the dark" in spring training while receiving far less attention than countryman Daisuke Matsuzaka.
"In my mind, the same pattern as last year is not going to work," Okajima said Wednesday at the Red Sox minor league complex. "Still, my best pitch is the changeup. It didn't work, trying to throw new pitches against hitters."

Peter here, and "the Darkman," which was my nickname for him last year, but it didn't catch on here in America (but it did in Japan! That's another story), even with a nice write-up by the Globe's Gordon Edes, will no longer be a hero in the dark. But I believe he has the guile to do it all over again. Yes, the rest he had before the post season allowed him to again perform well, and without him, the Red Sox would have been also-rans for another post-season. But the magic was there, and it will be again. Soon. And when I say soon, I mean in 2008.

Click on the title of this very post for that link to Jeff Jacobs' illuminating and entertaining sports column about yesterday's Congressional Hearings. I hope some of you had a chance to see a portion of it. And that's a wrap for another morning as we march slowly but surely towards first pitch baseball time. RED SOX baseball time. Step by step, inch by inch, as the Three Stooges said long ago.

As always, BE WELL. FOREVER. And Happy Valentine's Day to every one of you. You make me so happy, just by stopping in! And I'll never forget you. Ever!!!!!!