So Barry Bonds thought he was rubbing flaxseed oil on himself? Isn’t that what you put on your deck to make the water beed up on it? Maybe Barry thought arthritis was water damage?

The San Francisco Chronicle has the highlights of Barry’s grand jury testimony and it’s impressive to see a guy have to choose between lying his ass off or just making himself sound incredibly naive and stupid. Barry went the naive and stupid route, which will keep him out of jail. Jason Giambi just fessed up and told the truth.

Either way, why do we know that this is going to come back to screw the Cubs? Because you see the Yankees doing anything they can to get Giambi’s contract voided . They’re either going to succeed and then have a ludicrous sum of money to make sure Carlos Beltran is theirs, or they’ll fail, which will scare the Mets out of any Sammy Sosa trade.

Newsday wrote about it today. What do Giambi and Sosa have in common? Diminished body size and diminished performance. There has been no proof that Sammy ever used steroids, and so far nobody has ever stood up to officially accuse him. But just the specter of it, when pushed back to the fore by a Giambi saga that will drag on for months could be enough to torpedo the Cubs attempts to dump Sammy on the Mets…or anybody.

The closest Sammy’s ever come to being implicated was when his buddy, and former Cubs teammate Manny Alexander had the misfortune of letting a Mariners’ bat boy drive his car, only to get pulled over and have the cops find Manny’s low-grade Dominican horse steroids in the car.

Apparently, Manny is proof that if you have no talent, all you get from steroids is a bigger, surlier, bad baseball player. Also, steroids apparently have no effect on baserunning because Manny never could remember which order he was supposed to run the bases in.

Who knows how this will shake out though. Maybe the whole Yankees offseason turmoil will convince Beltran that even though there’s more money there, he’d like to take his enormous face mole to a different city?

The Cubs are planning on this scenario with Beltran. That he is honest when he says he’d like to stay in Houston. The Astros are said to have offered him $13.5 million per year for six years. That ain’t gonna do it. The Yankees can pay Carlos whatever. The Cubs hope that Carlos will pick the happy medium. Them. Lots of cash, though not as much as the Yankees and the comfort of not living in New York and of playing in a home ballpark in which Carlos sports a near .500 batting average.

As for Sammy to the Mets, the longer it drags on, the less likely it becomes. The Cubs need the Mets to just make a rash decision and do it. So far it hasn’t happened. It’s likely to heat up again after Tuesday’s arbitration deadline when both teams have a clearer view of the free agent market. But if we get past Christmas and Sammy’s still a Cub, buddy… Well, see you in Mesa, buddy.

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Notre Dame officials flew to Salt Lake City to meet with Urban Meyer and to go throw paint at the Mormon Tabernacle. OK, maybe they didn’t throw paint, but I’ll bet they were tempted to.

Meyer had a busy day. He interviewed with reps from the Florida Gators for an hour and a half in the morning, then spent three hours with Irish AD Kevin White and incoming president Father John Jenkins. Three hours? Notre Dame wins!

Well, maybe the Irish took him to dinner. Salt Lake’s got a Jimmy John’s, right?

Urban’s got the Irish over a barrel. Everybody in America knows they fired Ty Willingham when they did so that Florida wouldn’t beat them to hire him. They want him. They need him. He’s got leverage and he’s going to use it. He’s going to get his money, he’s going to get to coach the Utes in the Fiesta Bowl and because he’s been open about this whole thing with his players he gets to leave without having them throw stuff at him like he was Gary Barnett. Not bad.

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Acting Irish coach Kent Baer says there are ways to get out of your contract. Take him for example, he drew up a defense that couldn’t stop the forward pass and he’ll be out of his on December 29.

I have a manly love for Brian Urlacher, but really, what would the Bears be proving by playing him on Sunday, that they’re not just complete jackasses, but something even worse?

The Illini are looking ahead now to Arkansas, and of course, Chicago State.

Load up the Vanagon! We’re off to Shreveport to root on the Huskies!

Ron Zook might be nuts, but I’ll bet he makes the Illini into a winner. You just watch.

Groucho with Pat Riley.

Urban apparently fessed up with his players and said it’s either Notre Dame, Florida or more fun with the Utes. They don’t really think he’d stay do they?

Samurai Mike to coach the Browns? Roz thinks it could happen.

Al Leiter could be finishing up as a Fish. And then flopping right into the broadcast booth.

Honestly, why would anybody trade for Felix?

The Phillies are going after Kenny Lofton and Sandy Alomar. They hope to reunite the rest of the 1994 Indians (except for Manny Ramirez) and win the 1995 NL Pennant. I hope they can convince Chad Ogea to quit his job at Tractor Supply.

I watch one NBC show now. “The West Wing” and even it sucks.

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