Baseball Players Say The Darndest Things.

David Wells is talking ish about Roger Clemens and his non-travel clauses in his contracts that he's had ever since he went to Houston:

"I don't think I would ever do it because of the fact I personally think it would disrespect the team and your teammates," Wells said, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "You look at the other players. How are they going to respect you? What are they going to think if you're not there pulling for the team?"

Boomer has a tendency to spout off a lot, but that doesn't make him wrong -- and teammate Greg Maddux is backing him up.

"I can't imagine doing that," Maddux said, according to the Sun-Sentinel. "I like the game. I like the atmosphere. I appreciate what it has to offer. I want to play the whole year."

The problem with the Rocket's precedent is that it reeks of the baseball equivalent of Shaq taking about half of the regular season off last year for the Heat, and look how well that turned out. What's worse is the implication, in this Buster Olney piece on how Clemens returned to the Bronx, that making the Clemens exception would have caused trouble if they'd kept Randy Johnson around:

And when the Yankees traded Randy Johnson to the Diamondbacks, they felt as if they were setting themselves up in two ways to lure Clemens: First, by clearing Johnson's $16 million salary from their books, they would have the cash to bid aggressively on Clemens, and secondly, they would no longer have second thoughts about giving Clemens special treatment, like leaving the team on days between his starts. They would not have wanted to create that precedent if Johnson was still on the team.

There will be another 40+ year old pitcher who is dominant enough to use this as a precedent down the line, and it's not a good one to follow.

Now, we get to a much more controversial name -- two Red Sox players have now chipped in on the whole Barry Bonds/steroids/breaking the HR record bit. David Ortiz isn't really convinced that Bonds took steroids, mostly on the grounds of not knowing whether that actually affects the hand-eye coordination necessary to hit like Bonds does, and to an extent, Ortiz does. However, Ortiz isn't crazy about commissioner Bud Selig possibly skipping out on #756:

"He's just making things worse," Ortiz told the Herald. "He's the commissioner, there's nothing you can do about it. You can't be saying that. What are people going to think about the game? They'll be like, 'This game is a joke.' He should come, even if he doesn't want to."

Bosox pitcher Curt Schilling also weighed in to WEEI radio:

"Hank Aaron not being there. [Selig] trying to figure out where to be. It's sad," Schilling said, according to the [Boston Globe]. "And I don't care that [Bonds is] black, or green, or purple, or yellow, or whatever. It's unfortunate ... there's good people and bad people. It's unfortunate that it's happening the way it's happening."

Didn't end there, though, as #38 ripped Bonds for being an admitted tax cheat, adulterer, and steroid user -- even though Bonds has never admitted to that in public, I believe.

Selig has to live with the mess he's made. Any concrete proof we have on Barry is limited to leaked grand jury testimony, which he hasn't been charged or convicted on yet. Baseball can't and shouldn't be allowed to think that ignoring Bonds will make him the easy scapegoat, letting it off the hook.