Last night at the Arizona Ale House, as I was talking with pissang about the sad state of the Baltimore Orioles and San Francisco Giants, I made a comment about Roger Clemens, who is having one of his best years at age 43: "I want whatever he's taking." I didn't mean for my words to be taken seriously. But after reading the tale of his most recent outing, I'm wondering whether I should have:

Clemens said his back -- which he said he injured while moving furniture at his home in late July -- prevented him from coming out for the ninth inning.

"I'm getting by," he said. "I know the results are looking good, but I want to get to a point where my body feels good without hurting something and then have to miss a start. I don't want that to happen."

Clemens said he needed "to get off this medicine that's tearing my ..." before stopping himself. He would not say what medication he was taking, and then quickly said the medicine was not causing the problem.

Hmmmmmm. I mean, I want to believe that his absurd 1.32 ERA is as "authentic" -- whatever that means -- as Barry Bonds' s insane numbers of the 2000s. But if it's a wee bit curious that Barry started getting better as he approached his 40s, don't you think the same is true for the drawling Texan?

Mode: wetter Wetter
Muse: the excellent CD EH brought me from China by his friend Ron's band