7:00 PM Eastern
I have been planning on doing something about the Jays’ line-up, and how I think it’ll best work, but I think that given the impending Senate “he-said, she-said” between apparent scuzzball Brian McNamee and flaming-panted sack of crap Roger Clemens, I think we’ll be a little bit busy the next couple of days, so I just wanted to quickly give some thoughts on a couple of things that have been kicking around lately.
First, the Senate hearings. It’s unseemly how Clemens has been glad-handing his way around Congress the last week or so, cashing in on his celebrity in hopes of getting favourable treatment once the hearings begin, and I really, really hope it hasn’t worked – but it very well might. Politicians are, by their very nature, kinda slimy. They love publicity and pandering to their constituents, and any chance to press the flesh with a big, famous celebrity athlete is something that often makes them lose bladder control. Sometimes it’s just being in the same hearing room as a big, famous celebrity athlete that turns the trick – remember how many of the representatives at the last big hearing told the assembled group (McGwire, Canseco, Palmeiro, Sosa et al) how happy they were that the athletes came to the hearing, how wonderful it was to see them, blah blah blah? Most of them did everything but ask for an autograph, and some of them got those after.
Here’s hoping that they’re a little tougher on Clemens than they were with the first group, and maybe the fact that they’ve already gotten their autographs and pictures will help with that, but I really doubt it.
I believe, if it’s not already apparent, that Clemens is lying through his teeth, and that the physical evidence that McNamee has provided will eventually show that. Even if the syringes just have Clemens’ DNA on them, that’s more than enough for me. If that happens, Clemens will probably claim that McNamee injected him with lidocaine or B-12 or something like that. But remember, in Clemens’ first online news conference or whatever it was, he swore that McNamee had never injected him with anything. Of course, he changed that story when he talked to Mike Wallace. But he’s never lied. Right.
Why would McNamee hold onto that stuff for years and years? Two reasons: 1 – he’s a scumbag, and B – a scumbag knows a scumbag when he sees one. He knew that Clemens would turn on him in a heartbeat and he’d have to protect himself. So far, McNamee has told the truth about Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, and it’s quite apparent he’s telling the truth about Clemens. Still, I’m interested to see how differently the congresspeople treat the two of them in the hearing room, and how much grandstanding there is.
The other thing I wanted to address is the fact that the Blue Jays are taking heat for offering tickets to Tigers and Red Sox fans for their teams’ games in Toronto. I think it’s a great idea for the Jays’ marketing crew to target fans of close-by teams who would be willing to make the trip up here to watch their beloved clubs play (why didn’t they do this with the Indians? Probably because they don’t come in until August – never mind.) , after all, it’s not like Rogers Centre is sold out on a regular basis – and of course, they’re not offering Sox fans tickets to the home opener.
However, with regards to how this plan has been carried out, that is, opening up sales to Red Sox and Tiger fans before the local sale of single-game tickets starts on March 2, the term “galactically stupid” comes to mind. The Rogers folks probably aren’t going to be very happy with me for that, but hey – truth is truth.
How big a piece of Samsonite do you have to be to think that it’s a good idea to offer tickets to your event to fans of the opposition before you offer them to your own fan base? The ridiculosity of this is beyond belief, and I actually hope that there’s a game or two in which a few hundred Jays fans get shut out of the ballpark, just so the outcry will be that much greater than it is now. Either wait until March 3 or 4 to offer the tickets to the visiting fans, or push back the single-game date to mid-February so that Jays’ fans have first shot.
Comments are more than welcome, and e-mailically, I’m at wilner590@hotmail.com
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Glad to see you agree with the stupidity of this ticket selling scheme. The optics of this are just terrible. Even if these games don’t sell out, how is it fair that there are Red Sox fans buying up tickets to the first few rows of every section while most Jays fans are still waiting for their chance to start buying? Sadly I think this injustice has gone largely unnoticed by the general Toronto sports market, the only place I even hear about it are the die-hard Jays blogs. I hope that, if you get the chance, you’ll bring this up on an interview on the Fan and get the message out.
- ColinMike is it really fair to call Brian McNamee a “scumbag” I’m sure every trainer had to educate himself on steriods because the majority of the players they were trainer were taking them. I’m sure they helped the players with how to inject the steriods and when to use them to help prevent harmful side effects to the athelets. I think What Mcnamee did was wrong but I also think he did what he had to do to stay in his choosen profession and to support his family and is in no way a “scumbag” I think if your prepared to call him a “scumbag” you need to start calling alot of other people in baseball the same.
- Dan MooreNow Rogers Clemens someone who takes steriods then lies about then sues his friend who injected him with the steriods thats a “scumbag”
- Dan MooreHey Mike, like your show,
I was wondering how much coaching will Clemens have through these congressional hearing? Will he have lawyers, publicists etc… telling him what to say?
- JeremyCongress can be very tough with their questioning, e.g. McGwires pathetic strategy. What do you think the suggested messages that Clemens will be giving are?
Don’t hold your breath for the outcry — if Rogers is more interested in out of town fans, eyhh, I guess I’ll just go do something else — if Rogers doesn’t seem interested in respecting it’s hardcore fans, they only deserve the traditional apathetic variety — sure its ultimately a business and its all about the money, but the greed never used to quite so naked — at least let us pretend that the organization actually values those of us who are passionate fans — I guess so long as the fan base remains apathetic the job of (mis)managing is a whole lot easy b/c no one cares and will call them to task
- HenrySingle game tickets go on sale Feb 15 so any fan who would want tickets to those games would have a choice before they are offered to opposing teams fans
- RobRegarding the Jays offering tickets to Sox, Tiger, Yankees fans ahead of Jays nation – either there has been rapid damage control or someone was pulling your leg. I agree with you it’s too ridiculous no matter how badly you think the Jays org is. Looking at the Jays site today they are offeirng single game tickets onsale this Friday. I can see no evidence they are offering tickets to any group (other than flex pack buyers) early. How would you tell someone was in Boston or a Sox fan anyway ?
By the way the Yankees are not offering single game tickets until Feb 29th so the Jays are getting out of the blocks early. I convinced my wife we should take a family vacation to New York this summer. The real reason of course is to get to a game at Yankee stadium before they knock it down.
- Ian CTotaly agree with comments on Clemens and offering tickets to tigers fans first. Can you imagine the uproar that would bring in a place like boston or new york even if somehow they didn’t sell out every game!
- MattIt’s the principle of it. It doesn’t matter that these games don’t sell out. I don’t even mind if they offer them to other teams’ fans. But to offer it to the other fans BEFORE general Toronto fans is really bad. So disrespectful. If this happened in Boston, the city would shut down.
Oh, and Mike, this refers to the previous post. You should deep-fry your french fries, they shouldn’t come out of an oven.
- JoannaWatching the congressional hearings today was entertaining. Clemens clearly is a jerk with an ego bigger than Texas-but this time, I think it costs him. The committee was ridiculous-almost as bad as Jays ticket handling. Well no, I think Jays management is a new low of lows.
Questions were split on party lines-Democrat or Republican. Rebublican’s were with Clemens, Democrats were against him. Of course, Clemens close relationship to the Bush’s had nothing to do with that, right? Anyone not thinking Bush put in quiet calls to make sure Roger got treated well is naieve.
It was so obvious, it was pathetic. Clemens is guilty as hell, but, Petite nailed him. Now, if the Democrats have their way and the evidence delivered by McNamee is actually tested, proof will be had.
Based on today, Clemens should face 2-3 charges of perjury, multiple charges of witness tampering and multiple charges of violating the new “gift rules” of US Congress. Will he be charged-likely not or at least not as long as George Bush is in the Whitehouse.
However, McNamee gets the last laugh-Clemens is dead meat in the civil suit. I hope McNamee gets him for 10-20 million.
- gerryIan, tickets have already been offered via email to registered users of the Red Sox and Tigers websites. Registered users of BlueJays.com were sent a similar email, but most Jays fans aren’t registered and have to wait until after Red Sox and Tigers fans are given first choice of seats.
- ColinJ.P gave Sal Fasano his word that he would be the back-up catcher. We know how good J.P’s word is.
http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080214.bluejays15/GSStory/GlobeSports/home
- Christopher JonesI have a few nagging concerns about Greg Zaun’s response which was given to The National Post.
1) Why was it an email question and answer interview. Did Greg need time to “measure” his response?
2) We’re to believe that right out of the blue, someone phoned the National Post writter and “tipped him” about the check Greg wrote and what the story was behind it. Man is that convenient-hard to believe but certainly convenient.
4) We are supposed to believe that Greg didn’t call Jason Grimsby to ask him what he did with the check. Not believeable!!!! Think about it, Greg is asking us to believe he wrote a check without anyones name on it, gave it to Grimsby who wrote Radomski’s name on it and used it to buy HGH AND GREG NEVER CALLED GRIMSBY TO ASK ABOUT IT.
This is an out right lie. Think about it. The reason Zaun’s name was in the Mitchell report was because of this check. I think Zaun would have been on a plane the next day to find Grimsby and ask him about it. BUT No contact, no phone call, no email. BS lie.
5) When Zaun was asked whether he had ever used PED’s he responded by stating “I have nver violated MLB’s drug policy or tested positive. What he didn’t say is “I’ve never taken any performance enhancing drugs.
Personally, I think Zaunie would have been better off keeping his mouth shut.
- gerry