The Bronx Daily

Tell Dellucci to Stop His Whining

David Dellucci of the Cleveland Indians took exception to Joba Chamberlain pumping his fist and screaming when he was struck out. Dellucci had hit a 3 run homerun the night before against Joba and won the game for his team.

"If he wants to yell and scream after a strikeout and dance around the mound, that's what gets him going," Dellucci said. "My home run was in a much bigger situation, a much more key part of the game, but I didn't dance around and scream."

The fact is that Joba is an excitable guy that loves what he does and wants to show how much he feels for the game. Dellucci needs to realize that Joba is a high energy guy that love his team, teammates, and winning. Maybe if David had the same enthusiasm, he wouldn't be a fringe player at best. Pipe down David, unless you want to be a leader on your team and actually care about what you do. Oh, never mind!

Clemens in the News Again!

Here is the latest on Roger Clemens. He has become a lighting rod for controversy. What are your thoughts?

Years before Mindy McCready brought Roger Clemens home for breakfast, the country crooner’s mother says she confronted her daughter about the nature of her relationship with the Rocket Man.

“Obviously it’s a question I had to ask. A mother wants to know what’s going on,” Gayle McCready Inge told the Herald yesterday. “As a mother, I was told nothing.”

The Daily News of New York quoted sources yesterday as saying the green-eyed, honey-haired McCready had a 10-year fling with the controversial Cy Young Award winner after he saw her singing karaoke in a Florida bar in 1991, when she was 15 and he was still pitching for the Red Sox.

By the time McCready brought Clemens, a married father of four, home to Fort Myers for breakfast “a couple of years ago” - and Inge’s husband cooked him bacon, sausage and eggs - Inge said she had come to believe the relationship was strictly platonic.

“I knew Roger Clemens to be a friend of hers. She has all kinds of friends,” Inge said. “Besides, Mindy wasn’t the type to hold much back. We only met him that one time. We thought he was very, very nice.”

Clemens’ Houston attorney Rusty Hardin, did not return a call yesterday from the Herald. But he told the Daily News on Clemens’ behalf, “He’s considered (McCready) a close family friend. He has never had a sexual relationship with her.”

For her part, Inge doesn’t believe the relationship with Clemens began when her daughter was a minor. “I don’t believe that she was 15. She was driving when she met him,” Inge said.

As far as Inge knows, McCready, 32, and Clemens, 45, are still pals.

“I hope this (romance rumor) doesn’t affect that,” Inge said. “The allegations are horrible and I really feel for his family.”

As Clemens continues to defend against allegations he used steroids to enhance his on-the-field performance, years of personal setbacks, including jail time, have kept McCready off the charts. Her mother said she has a new album coming out and is hoping to launch a reality TV show.

Mike Brophey, program manager of Boston country music station WKLB, said McCready had her “heyday” in the mid-1990s with songs like “Guys Do It All the Time,” but, “We haven’t played much of her music”’ and listener requests for it have long dried up.

Despite having opened in the shadows of recording giants Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson and George Strait, “She was a fairly small act in our business,” Brophey said. “I think she had an awful lot of potential, but it was never realized.”

McCready, who filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Tennessee in 1997, last year served a five-month stint in jail after attacking her mother and resisting arrest. Inge said her daughter, who has a toddler son, had been drinking and, “There was a lot of tension,” in the family home. Inge said the altercation “didn’t amount to enough to even make news.”

In 2004, McCready, who was once romantically involved with actor Dean Cain, was convicted of fraudulently obtaining prescription painkillers. A year later, while on probation, she was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Sorry, No Reggie Here

Hank Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman had their tiff about the Joba Chamberlain situation, but it does not look like Chamberlain will get involved. Unlike the Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin, George Steinbrenner feuds of 30 years ago, this one does not look like it will involve the player.

"[I want to be] a pitcher," Chamberlain said. "I honestly don't care [what role]. Being able to help this team in any way, I don't care if it's for one inning or six or seven strong. It's a win-win opportunity for everyone involved. As I told Cashman from the get-go, I'm never going to make his decision easy. It's something that I'm going to continue to work hard and come to the ballpark every day. If it comes down to when I'm going to get switched and I've got to do some things to get ready, then that's fine. If I'm going to stay where I'm at, then that's fine too."

Well at least we can have fun listening to Steinbrenner and Cashman. To be honest, I am glad to have such a team player like Joba. He is a class act.

Matsui Weds

Hideki Matsui did not want to lose a bet he had with Bobby Abreu and Derek Jeter about who would marry first. Matsui decided he was going to win and got married on Wednesday at a chapel in New York. He kept the relationship away from the media including the Japanese media that tails him around.

When asked about the secrecy he said, "Basically, the only people I told about this were the immediate family. I think that helped."

Manager Joe Girardi added his advise when gambling saying, "Sometimes you should have all the information before you make a bet."

Jeter was given a one year handicap to find a wife and not pay. His response? "He won. I got one year? No chance. I'll give him the money today. That's pretty good, though. He's sneaky. I should have known he was up to something."

The lesson learned, never bet on getting married unless you are ready to take a quick plunge!