EQUAL TIME

THE baloney flying out of the YES booth over the weekend was enough to stock a deli.
Yesterday, in the top of the fifth, the Yanks up 1-0 and cheap nfl jerseys
rain getting heavier, Seattle's Franklin Gutierrez tried to score from second on a single to right. Jorge Posada caught Nick Swisher's throw and "tagged" Gutierrez for the out.
But despite Ken Singleton's firm claim over a replay that plate ump Sam Holbrook made "a good call!" all replays showed that Posada had the ball in his bare hand while making the "tag" with his glove. Singleton and Michael Kay were among the last to know.
Two batters later, Kay first mentioned the missed tag, as if he'd thought so all along.
With the rain worsening, neither man seemed upset that the Yanks might win an official game that should've been 1-1; neither said anything about replay rules.
And the more stats Kay reads and embellishes, the more hear-through trouble he makes for himself. Saturday, with Mariano Rivera in:
"This is a very big milestone for Rivera. With this appearance, he has appeared in 964 games, which ties him with David Weathers for 17th place on baseball's all-time games pitched list. So you know, to tie a former teammate, that's a big deal for Mo."
Perhaps realizing that he sounded ridiculous, Kay, a few moments later, amended his speech to, "I'm kinda like kidding, but I'm amazed that David Weathers is 17th on the all-time list."
Incidentally, Weathers was a Yankee for the last part of the '96 season and the start of the '97 season.
*** Pity the Mariners' Felix Hernandez wasn't a Yankee, Friday, when he was Koufax-like unhittable in Yankee Stadium. That's the only way we'd get to see him pitch that game, again, on YES's " Yankee Classics."
The 'whole' truth - MLB's dirt goes well beyond Rocket case
THURSDAY, the moment the Roger Clemens indictment hit the street, the rationalizations and obfuscations began, ranging from "Doesn't the government have anything better to do with its time and our money, we all know MLB stars were juiced?" to sympathetic local talk-radio positions, the kinds of stances that would not have been heard had Clemens not starred for the Yankees or had he spent his career with the Red Sox.
But the clear-headed recognize perjury as a charge that must be prosecuted. Doesn't matter if it's about molehills or mountains - lying under oath is a serious crime.
In Clemens' case, he was a highly paid employee in a multi-billion dollar business, a business granted federal antitrust waivers.
And Clemens is alleged to be one of the larger pieces in a multi-billion dollar business that was injected with fraud, a business that rewarded cheaters and rewarded those big shots who enabled the cheaters - those team owners, MLB execs and MLBPA execs who, at the very least, looked the other way as they stuffed their pockets.
Clemens' indictment on perjury and other charges is a logical conclusion to the events just prior to his 2008 sworn testimony before a Congressional committee.
Over two days, Clemens, escorted by his brilliant attorney, Rusty Hardin, made a transparent "good will" tour of the offices of nearly half of the 41 committee members. He posed for pictures, he signed autographs, he shook hands, he just happened to be passing by, ya know?
Yet, some of them actually took the bait. Brooklyn's Edolphus Towns and his staff posed with Clemens. Then Towns, prior to Clemens' public testimony, spoke of Brian McNamee as a shady character.
Still, such a preemptive lobbying effort smacked of desperation, the kind of Chicago Bears jersey
activity that innocent, circumspect folks would strictly avoid.
Even Clemens' defense seemed to rest on the fact that he's Roger Clemens, superstar, as opposed to resting on logic.
McNamee has zero credibility? If that's the case, then why did Clemens allow McNamee, not a physician, to inject him and his wife with anything?
Again, it's Baseball in the Age of Bud. The Clemens indictment is an indictment of Major League Baseball across its highest levels.
Every clean player who tried to make it and failed, or just barely made it, or made it big the legit way, should find some satisfaction.
So, too, should those fans who prefer the clean - no compromises or rationalizations - to the crooked.
Personalities with multiple personalities
THIS town is starting to load up with two different people who go by the exact same name.
There's the Michael Kay who didn't say a word on YES about the Roger Clemens indictment on Thursday, the day the story broke. Then there's the Michael Kay who Friday winded himself talking about the Clemens indictment on his ESPN 1050 radio show.
And how can the Boomer Esiason of WFAN's "Boomer and Carton" show, the Boomer Esiason who makes pee-pee jokes, be the same Boomer Esiason on CBS's NFL studio show?
They're so different, ya know? If they're the same man, which one is real? Which one is the phony?
*** If you rescued a kitten from a tree, ESPN would take partial credit.
This, Friday, from ESPN.com: "Former Alabama [basketball] player Mikhail Torrance collapsed at a workout Friday and was taken to Blake Memorial Hospital in Bradenton, Fla., a source confirmed to ESPN. He was transferred to the intensive-care until and was in critical condition.
"AOL FanHouse first reported the story."
*** A kid on the New Jersey team failed to field a grounder up the middle in the last inning of his team's 3-1 Little League World Series elimination loss yesterday to Hawaii.
If he didn't feel bad enough, ABC/ESPN then shot two close-ups of the kid, to make sure that everyone got the point and that he has a video keepsake.
*** Note to Sid Rosenberg and others vis-a-vis Ralph Branca vs. Bobby Thomson: Ex-Angels' reliever Donnie Moore did not commit suicide soon after he lost that game to the Red Sox in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS.
Moore shot himself three years later, distraught over his failing marriage, New Orleans Saints jersey
financial debts and being cut by the Royals' farm team in Omaha.
*** The nerve of Jet and Giant patrons to think that thousands of dollars in ticket pricing and tens of thousands in PSL costs entitles them to purchase season's parking for $250 at PSL Stadium!