The Indians finally made the necessary roster move with Juan Lara.  He's been dropped from the 40 man roster, cleared waivers and re-signed to a minor league deal.  This way, he'll remain on the team payroll and have his medical bills paid by the team.

This is simply the right thing to do, and something the fans, and probably more importantly the players, have come to expect from this organization.  It also has to be good for PR with other players in the Caribbean baseball academies like the one Lara came from.

Jay speculated in the past that when it's clear that he'll never be able pitch at the major league level again, the team would sign him to major league deal and DFA him so he qualifies for the MLBPA's pension and benefits.  Perhaps, they're not ready to concede that he won't get to that level again, hence this move instead.  If anything, that's a good sign about his level of function off the diamond.

This leaves the 40 man roster with 39 players.  Who is likely to fill that spot, and what are the implications good and bad to putting a player on that roster?

C.C. had his promised "one time only" discussion with reporters on his decision to table contract negotiations.  It's reported here.

He recalls what a distraction the negotiations were on his extension that he signed on 4/27/05. Because of a strained oblique - he started only two games in that distracted state going 1-0 (12.2IP/10H/2R/2ER/3BB/12K).

Ascribing to the philosophy that ignorance is bliss, he's told his agents not to even tell him if the Indians up their offer during the season.  

In excerpts of the 60 Minutes interview, Clemens admits he was injected with drugs by Brian McMcNamee, but he claims that they were lidocaine and B-12.

The AP story is here.

How stupid do Clemens and his lawyers think the American people are?

For that matter how stupid do you at LGT think the American people are?

For that matter what do you think?

For more proof that this guy's an idiot, see this article.

Apparently, he left the ball Varitek gave him from the final strike out of Game 4 "on the counter," and his dog Boss, "tore that thing to pieces."

I know that closers have a different mentality, but this guy's making Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn look like a Rhodes Scholar.

All we need now is a comment from Doug Mientkiewicz on the proper care and feeding of WS game used balls.

This season because of the Extra Innings/Direct TV Debacle, my cable company, Cablevision, didn't get the E/I Package until June.  (Of course, it was offered at the full-regular season price eventhough more than one fifth of the season had already gone by.  Thank you, Mr. Dolan.) By that time, I'd gone with XM and Gameday Audio to get the games.  

The one thing I have missed is the STO post-game interviews and the pies in the face of the players.

Is there a repository of these events somewhere on the vast and useful thing we call the internet?

If so, where?  If not, can someone create one?  

It would be greatly appreciated by video-challenged fans like me!