Clemens figures to get a free pass

Roger Clemens figured it would be easier than mowing down the 7-8-9 hitters. He'd schmooze a few senators, testify in Congress that he never took steroids, and eventually stroll into the Hall of Fame with his name cleared.

Instead, he's now looking at a possible prison term after the feds accused him of lying to Congress.

Jon Kyl also lied to Congress, but since he's a sitting senator, no biggie. His punishment is a $122,000-a-year pension and a probable job as a lobbyist for corporations. Nice work if you can get it.

Clemens, meanwhile, is hardly a deep thinker, but you have to wonder what's going through his mind during his perjury trial. The Texas no-apology tough-guy has gotten everything he wants for his entire life, and now this.

The Rocket will probably skate, though. Prosecutors are inept, and all it takes is one star-struck celebrity hound on the jury to make it all go away.

The truth hurts.

Steroid Commissioner has problem with poker players

So A-Rod’s in trouble again with baseball commissioner Bud Selig. MLB’s Barney Fife wants Rodriguez to sit down and explain just what’s going on with those high-stakes poker games we told you to avoid just a few years ago. Better have the right answers, too, or else.

Seems baseball got wind of the fact that A-Rod may have ignored Sdelig’s admonition a few years back to put the cards away, and recently was involved in games that included other rich people, expensive cigars, cocaine, lots of gorgeous women and gamblers who asked A-Rod to let a few ground balls go through his legs at opportune.

Actually, that’s not true. Baseball (Selig) is just assuming that there were sexy women and gamblers there. Makes the story better, and turns a harmless habit into an activity that is rocking baseball to its core. [As for the cocaine, shouldn’t be hard to test him.]

Selig and MLB have a curious relationship with gambling. If teams and the league can make money from it, then it’s no problem. Players? Not so much. So Lenny Dykstra can lose money in poker games several decades ago, be forced to eat number two during an apology and promise to never do it again. Yet the Yankees and other teams can enter into working relationships with casinos and bulk up their bottom lines. The wife of Detroit Tigers owner Mike Ilitch owns parts of several casinos nationwide, yet Selig seems OK with that. The Yankees themselves rake in a good penny on Mohegan Sun advertising. The list is e... [More]