Dan Gould

Well, there's big news out of Boston today. I presumed that Schilling was dedicating himself to both improving his fitness (to make those "weigh in" clauses) plus doing his shoulder exercises to ensure that he'd have a decent final season. Turns out he's got far more significant shoulder woes than he had last season, may be lost for the season, and the Red Sox looked into cancelling his contract. It certainly hurts from a depth perspective, but in a way, this actually is sort of pleasing: Number one, we get Clay Buchholz in the rotation from day one. I can't wait to see how he does after tossing the no-hitter in his second start of the year. Number two, as impressed as I was with the results Clemens got with his diminished velocity but expanded repertoire, I lived on pins and needles everytime I watched him. There was a perpetual fear that if he missed his spot, he could give up a tape-measure shot at any moment. So it may hurt to have lost a front line starter, but on the other hand, that could leave Julian Tavarez as the number six starter - he wasn't entirely awful last year in that role, so maybe they hold onto him in the spring as an insurance policy. That will give Justin Masterson a little more time before he gets called up if there is an injury or a string of bad starts by Lester or Wake.

How could anyone not expect it to be pretty darn good to begin with? You seriously had expectations of mediocrity?

No he won't. If Oliver North, Linda Tripp, Monica Lewinsky, Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney [ I could go on] got nothing more than a terse "thank you very much" or nasty "what a hero he was" or the obligatory "the Democrats are the evil perpetrators"....Clemens won't see any more jail time than Paris Hilton. OTOH, if he was a Black HR king, well, just lock the bastard sonofabitch up for all eternity. It is total bullshit, Guys. Justice, what justice....? Responding, after deleting a bunch of unnecessary blank lines. Why does everything in your mind go back to Bonds all the time? This is about Clemens. And since you seem to have forgotten, we have had a black Home Run king for almost 34 years. Why does this continue to be a racial issue for you (and seemingly nobody else), when everyone is clearly ready to give Clemens his due just as much as they are Bonds? And beside that, he gives an example - Paris Hilton - of someone who DID ultimately go to jail! Plus three people - Tripp, Lewinsky, Cheney - who have never been charged with crimes, so why would they be examples of "wrongdoers" who don't serve time due to racism?

I find it really amusing that Hardin is apparently now saying that they are 'elated' about McNamee turning over the gauze and syringes because it shows that he's a "psycho". Yeah, they'll keep saying that until the blood is proven to be Roger's. Because let's examine the idea that McNamee "manufactured" this evidence. And since he manufactured it, let's presume that it does indeed show what he needs it to show: Clemens blood - confirmed through a DNA match - and PED on the needle or inside the syringe. Can we all agree that McNamee has had no access to Clemens' blood for a significant period of time? I mean, let's presume that he did indeed inject B-12 and Lidocaine, in the past. If these syringes and gauze pads were held since 2000-2001, the assertion that McNamee "manufactured" the evidence requires the belief that: McNamee injected innocuous drugs like B-12 and Lidocaine that he decided IN 2000-2001 that he would "frame" Clemens at some later date, and while working for him, hanging out with his family, etc., he simply bided his time until the opportunity presented itself. Compare that, logically, with McNamee's position: He feared that if an MLB or Federal investigation were undertaken, that Clemens would throw him under the bus to save his own skin - is this not a reasonable expectation given Clemens behavior over many, many years? Remember that this was at the same time that Clemens threw a broken bat at Mike Piazza while giving the nonsensical explanation that he thought it was the baseball. He felt obligated to implicate Clemens so he told the Feds and Mitchell about it, but did not wish to hurt Clemens anymore than necessary, and therefore withheld the physical evidence that he had kept to protect himself - this makes perfect sense in the context of the taped phone call, in which McNamee appears legitimately broken up over the fact that he had to implicate Clemens due to his plea agreement to tell the truth. That phone call was the final straw in convincing McNamee that indeed Clemens would attempt to destroy him and led him to provide all the evidence he has regarding Clemens in order to protect himself from Clemens' campaign to destroy him. Just like McNamee's lawyer said after the press conference: This is war. If you look at it logically, the "manufactured evidence" looks more and more like O.J.'s attorney's response to the devastating blood evidence: They planted it. They took the reference sample from O.J., held it over a weekend, and sprinkled the blood inside the Bronco. Why did they do it? They had no choice. The evidence was overwhelming and they had to discredit it somehow. Notice that Clemens' lawyers never said "if Mr. McNamee saved the syringes he used to inject Roger with B-12 and Lidocaine, then the scientific evidence will show that Roger's blood is present with syringes bearing traces of these elements, not steroids. Any other conclusion demonstrates that McNamee has mixed Roger's blood with PEDs to falsely implicate him." But they can't say that because A) they don't really want to keep asserting "B-12 and Lidocaine" because there's no logical reason for McNamee to inject these drugs B) they know that if Roger got innocuous injections only back then, no one would have been concerned enough to save the medical waste like this. Here is my prediction: At some point next week, Roger Clemens will finally assert his Fifth Amendment privilege. It might happen at the start, or it might happen in the middle of his testimony. But I believe that by the time Roger testifies, we will have heard That Andy Pettitte testified to a discussion of PEDs with Roger That Jim Murray testified to a discussion with McNamee of Roger's use of steroids and the possibility that he would test positive when MLB started the testing program. That assumption is the only explanation for Murray spending 3+ hours giving testimony, more even than Pettitte's meeting with the staffers. He had to have things to say to talk that long.

Its too bad Blue Note had to fade away and Horace Silver had to look for a new label.

Debra, I think you're right and withdraw my previous reservation.

Couldn't happen to a nicer psychopath. Bonds has issues that go way back from when he was growing up but Clemens is scary. Actually I think he's more sociopath than psychopath, but perhaps JazzShrink could favor us with his long distance diagnosis.

And from the AP: That's must-see TV. And its obvious that they did not want to talk about evidence until Roger foolishly appeared before the committee staffers and repeated his denials under oath. Like McNamee's lawyer said after Clemens played the audio tape, "this is war" and being a smart general, he waited until the time was right to mount a full-scale, devastating attack.

That was from the NYT. Here's an excerpt from the Daily News, on the syringes:

Holy shit, Clemens goose may be cooked now As ESPN is reporting, if DNA material plus drug residue is recovered from the syringes/gauze pads, investigators may seek a court order for a DNA sample from Clemens. If it matches, Lanny Breur will be eating his words. And Clemens will be heading to jail.

How about two superlative singers who recorded for Duke: Bobby Blue Bland, Two Steps From The Blues Junior Parker, Driving Wheel There are other Junior Parker albums to have but it looks like the CD reissue of that album might be easiest to find.

And, speaking of Ace, they've got a couple of good comps of his work, too.

If Sal is interested in horn-driven West Coast blues, three Ace compilations: Jimmy McCracklin and his Blues Blasters, Volumes 1 & 2 Lowell Fulson, Black Nights - the Early Kent Recordings

It's a joke, pertaining to Durium's typo. And you know how long he's been waiting for that typo to come up? He was going to give it one more day, then use it in the "sexiest album covers" thread.

Third, except that I'd hesitate to list the Otis Rush Cobra recordings as highly. Iirc, he kept rehashing the same music with different lyrics, and I believe there are a few alternates as well. I mean, I love his music but its not a little repetitive after a while. To each their own. This is all a matter of taste. To me the Otis Rush Cobra recordings are seminal electric blues recordings. He revived and rehashed those songs many times in later years, not always with inspired results. I selected the two Otis Rush albums I put on the list with some care, for that reason. Agreed, but I wasn't referring to rehashing the tunes later on, but to the fact that he rehashed the same music multiple times for that label, in search of another hit, and it grows wearying to hear them one after the other. Its unbelievably great music but for me, it has to be heard in smaller doses than one sitting.

They aren't "reissues" if they were not released at the time. And they are certainly "official" if Horace gave his approval, for instance, to the Paris Blues recording, which I am sure he did.

Third, except that I'd hesitate to list the Otis Rush Cobra recordings as highly. Iirc, he kept rehashing the same music with different lyrics, and I believe there are a few alternates as well. I mean, I love his music but its not a little repetitive after a while.

Sal, In the past three or four years my listening interests (and purchases) have really moved strongly toward the blues. I'd always had a love for B.B. King and it sort of started when I discovered the Ace reissue series of all of his old Crown LPs. From there I moved into Lowell Fulson, Chicago artists and lots of others. In a lot of ways, my approach started with the Ace website - I knew I loved the B.B. King reissues, and cruising around the site led me to try one of the Lowell Fulson compilations among others. Those led me to pursue other artists and I steadily expanded from there. I could give you a list of classic recordings by the best-known artists, but I would really recommend a different approach. This is what worked for me when I started in jazz: Look for sampler CDs. There are literally tons of blues compilations out there, by label, by subgenre, by instrument. I wouldn't be surprised if you can find a lot of them very inexpensively through ebay stores or Amazon Marketplace. Try a few, take note of the songs/artists you like the best, and then go from there. I did that with two Columbia Jazz Masterpiece samplers, received at Christmas after I announced that I "thought I might be interested in jazz" and from those two LPs I went from Miles to Coltrane to Red Garland, and Wynton Kelly to BN, and Count Basie to Joe Williams and on and on and on and on. Enjoy the journey. In a way I feel as though I've "come home" to the blues simply because I always preferred jazz with a strong grounding in blues, so I felt very much at home as I got deeper into it.

Especially for a guy who looks like he weighs about 150, with a 34 inch chest. Though I guess the less you weigh, the less challenge it is to your muscles but that is probably offset by the increasing tug of gravity at that height. It really goes beyond everyday stupidity. Gravity doesn't increase with height (the gravitational pull of the earth is actually incrementally weaker up there, since it is an inverse square law). Maybe I just assumed that gravity is stronger, since its looking at you up there, mocking it, and thinking HEY, you're supposed to be down here on the ground!

Especially for a guy who looks like he weighs about 150, with a 34 inch chest. Though I guess the less you weigh, the less challenge it is to your muscles but that is probably offset by the increasing tug of gravity at that height. It really goes beyond everyday stupidity.

Dan, where are you reading that? When Rodney Harrison got busted, I read all I could find on HGH. I thought it was a steroid. But after reading about it, it looked to me that HGH shouldn't even be against the rules. It probably doesn't do anything. Many of it's reported benefits have never been clinically proven. It does not make everything grow bigger, it replaces an enzyme the everyone loses as they age and they no longer need to grow. I couldn't find one report of an adult who took HGH and grew. It looked to me like the only people who could benefit from taking it are short adolescents. Taking HGH continues their "growth spurt". But adults? I couldn't find anything that said it stopped the aging process. According to one article I read, it has become a rich man's "fountain of youth", with a lot of stars buying it in an effort to stay young. Kevin, It was in Game of Shadows, the BALCO book. In fact, it specifically compared HGH effects and the disease that killed Andre The Giant. Also, in the steroid thread, some time ago, I linked to a page that discussed HGH in specific relation to baseball. The gist of that was that there is no reason why it should help (baseball players), but I believe it did bring out the "everything grows" point and how that might help a football player where greater bulk is an advantage.

You're probably right, Dan. But, it does seem to me that the phrase is often applied to music that isn't all that far from "conventional", whatever that is! Are you admitting you're "close-eared"??

Nope, those are from Allmusic.com reviews, probably Scott Yanow. Whenever I see "open-eared" in a review, I'd assume that many people immediately equate that with "difficult" or "avant-garde" music. If that's true, the potential tragedy is that the review might turn away otherwise curious people from some great music. Or save those of us who do prefer "conventional swing" from what may be, from experience, an unrewarding listen. Fact is, "open-eared" is as good a shorthand as any for "challenging" or "not mainstream" or "different". Remember that good reviewers want to communicate the type of music that is on the recording, to let readers have an idea if the music is the type of jazz they enjoy. Is there any doubt that for those predisposed, "open-eared" is an equally effective shorthand that signifies a likelihood that they will enjoy the recording? I would further suggest that those who are "curious" would be more likely to try. Its the ones who are set in their ways because they've heard a few of those "requires open ears" recordings to know that its not what they enjoy. I get the feeling that you are trying to blame reviewers for the fact that "difficult" or "avant-garde" jazz remains a small subset of jazz in the marketplace. Now I'd agree with you if you could show that the phrase is overused or applied to music that barely exits the mainstream - but to paraphrase Shakespeare, the fault lies with us, not the reviewers.

Rodney didn't take any steroids. He took HGH to help an injury heal. It is a banned substance, but it is not a steroid. It is not used to build muscle mass. Get your facts right before you pile more ignorant hate on a team. Sheesh! So its ok to take HGH in the NFL but not in MLB? Its funny how people hold different standards for different sports. Heck a player who got suspended for 4 games last year for steroids was still voted to the pro bowl. First of all, there's no question that baseball has a tougher PED policy than the NFL. Second, HGH makes everything grow bigger - including muscles. To say it doesn't build muscle mass is wrong. Furthermore, because it makes everything grow, HGH has the potential to be more helpful to football players, such as a lineman who grows bigger and wider and fills a larger space. That's a more effective lineman.

I fail to grasp the significance of Belichik not being there for the final snap. Did he not run out to congratulate Coughlin? Didn't the confetti rain down? Who gives a shit if they put another second on the clock - he's supposed to run out and assume his position on the sideline, headset on? I'd understand the criticism if the man trotted off the field without acknowledging the winners, but this is much ado about nothing.