Your Cheatin' Heart

Raise your hand if this Clemens having an affair with a 15 year old country music star frightens you. It sounds like a plot line out of a bad television show.

But really, is this even a story? Sorry for all this participation, but raise your hand if you are still surprised to read about affairs with professional athletes. When A-Rod was caught with that stripper friend last year, the media flipped out and most sports fans yawned, saw she wasn't even attractive, maybe made a quick joke, and was ready to move on.

And here again, its the perfect media cares more than us storm. It involves Clemens (yawn) and a professional athlete's love life (yawn).

People like to hear about athletes lives, they like stories like Reggie Willits, utility player for the Angels who actually lives in a batting cage. And stories like Roy Oswalt getting a Bulldozer from the owner when he won the Cy Young because he always wanted one. Fun, quirky stories are good. Hard struggle stories are good (see Hamilton, Josh). But stories we all already assume to be true, its worth a glance and its time to move on.

Clemens added some shock value with the age and profession of his mistress. But really, did anyone read any of those articles with the same attentiveness you read about a truely compelling story? One where you read the initial article, then google it to find out if there is commentary online? No.

And what's sad is, the media sees Scandal and Big Name and just assumes that we will really care about this. We care about last night's game. The scores. Who hit the big hits, who pitched lights out, and when Jorge will be back. Not retired pitchers stepping out on their wives 20 years ago.