A Tale of Two Angry Men

This morning I'd like to discuss two angry men.

The first angry man is me. I'm mostly angry with myself for not only taking Ohio State last night but compounding the fact by taking the under as well. How could I be so stupid? This is two years in a row now that I've duped myself into taking Ohio State. I'm so stupid!

The line for the game started at 6.5 but by game time it was just 3.5 points. Normally I trust the linesmakers are right with their initial lines barring injuries or weather related issues. For whatever reason - I went against my normal inclinations to take the Buckeyes. The under? Well I though the game featured two tough defenses and two running orientated offenses. That usually equates to low scoring - right? Well when it comes to National Championship games - coaches usually let it all hang out. That means scoring and damn it - I knew that!

The other angry man to discuss is Roger Clemens.

You could pick the word defiant to describe Clemens performance yesterday but I prefer the word angry. I also think that anger is at the root of this situation.

I'm no psychologist and I don't even play one on TV but I can't help but think of an angry Roger Clemens leaving Boston "in the twilight of his career" angry that his body was failing him. Angry that he would not last in the league to put up Tom Seaver or especially Nolan Ryan type numbers. Angry enough to imagine that he'd been wronged - wronged enough to justify the taking of steroids to get back at the whore mother natured and that bastard father time who had conspired to rob Roger of his fast ball.

In his mind - I'm sure that Roger Clemens feels he's the victim and that this whole thing has turned into some Shakespearian tragedy (or more befitting Roger's tastes - a very special episode of the ABC After School Special). Roger may think himself as some modern day Hamlet but the Shakespeare quote I couldn't shake after watching Roger yesterday was, "the Roger doth protest too much."

Getting back to angry me. I'm also angry with Roger Clemens because of the timing of all of this. The Mitchell Report came out on December 13th but yet Roger timed all this so that the 60 Minutes interview came out two days before and his press conference happened the day before baseball announces the 2008 inductees into the Hall of Fame. Yesterday Roger made it clear that he does not give a "rat's ass" about the Hall of Fame. And that self-centeredness extends to any common courtesy that should go to Goose Gossage and Jim Rice and the other potential inductees who will now have to answer questions about Roger Clemens on what could be one of the greatest days of their lives. This is as bad as Scott Boras using the final game of the World Series to announce Alex Rodriguez was opting out of his contract.

What are the Odds on the Mitchell Report Naming Names?

Angels owner Artie Moreno says its 100% that names will be included in the upcoming Mitchell Report dealing with steroids in baseball. What I want to know are what are the odds on different players being named. Some enterprising sports book should have prop bets on this. Jose Guillen would be off the board because he supposedly has already been identified as a player who will be named. Can I put some money on say Miguel Tejada at 2-1 odds that he'll be named? It's a safe bet that if there was a list with such a prop bet that Barry Bonds' name would be off the board as well. I'd be willing to put some money down on Roger Clemens at 2-1 too.