It really is a sad story how the Roger Clemens story is playing out. We've watched the greatest pitcher of a generation deal with steroids allegations the wrong way, fight back the wrong way, and now watch him as he has to squirm through tawdry allegations of infidelity, including a long affair with a country singer who was 15 years old when Clemens met her.

In a series by the New York Daily News this week, the wheels have come off his credibility. Clemens denied an improper relationship with a teenaged Mindy McCready - the worst allegation that's come out so far - but some think this all sounds a lot like Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. McCready acknowledged the affair to the Daily News.

It makes you wonder if Clemens had taken a more subdued tactic off the bat. How different would life for Clemens be if he had simply offered a no-comment, or even a quick denial, when the Mitchell Report came out? It would have been bad for the media, but probably very different for Clemens.

He then probably wouldn't have been called before a Congressional committee to testify against his former trainer, Brian McNamee, or at least he would have declined testifying. He then wouldn't have been under investigation for perjury. And he wouldn't have filed a defamation suit against McNamee. And then the other details of his personal life wouldn't have become an issue in court.

Clemens made his own bed in all of this, and it's a huge blow to his defamation case.

"I know that many people want to know what I have to say about the recent articles in the media. Even though these articles contain many false accusations and mistakes, I need to say that I have made mistakes in my personal life for which I am sorry," Clemens said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. "I have apologized to my family and apologize to my fans," Clemens said. "Like everyone, I have flaws. I have sometimes made choices which have not been right."

For years, and in the past few months, too.

Background: Clemens vs. McNamee.

A month into the season, and the three teams that are considered the top contenders in the American League Central are all puzzled at their lack of punch.

And all three took aggressive and/or questionable tactics to try to fix it.

The Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers both cut starting outfielders on Monday. Jason Michaels was sent packing from the Indians, and Jacque Jones was let go from the Tigers, both designated for assignment. That means that the teams have 10 days to either trade them, waive them or send them outright to the minors.

Of the two, Jones is the biggest surprise. He had just a month to adjust back to the American League for a new team, and is making more than $5 million this season. He also has a track record of success, with a .278 lifetime average with 165 homers and 628 RBI in 10 seasons.

"Jacque Jones is not the reason we're four games under .500," Tigers manager Jim Leyland told the Associated Press. "Had he gotten off to a bad start? Yes, he had. It was totally unfair. He's been a class act the whole time."

Leyland over the weekend said there wouldn't be any imminent moves. Doesn't sound like he signed off on the deal. The Tigers called up minor-leaguer Matt Joyce, and moved Gary Sheffield from designated hitter to left field.

The Indians will go with Ben Francisco, who has played well in short stints in Cleveland before. Michaels was hitting .207.

In Chicago, manager Ozzie Guillen went on another tirade to the media over the weekend (here's the video), and then had a bizarre (and somewhat tasteless) ceremony involving the team's bats and blow-up sex dolls.

It didn't go unnoticed.

"The presence of those dolls creates an uncomfortable situation for any female journalist who enters the White Sox locker room simply trying to do her job," Jenni Carlson, president of the Association for Women in Sports Media, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

If Guillen survives yet another controversy, he and the others can take solace that none of the Central teams have played well enough to make a difference. First-place Minnesota (16-14) and last-place Detroit (14-19) are separated by just 3½ games as of May 5.

Photo: Manager Ozzie Guillen of the Chicago White Sox jokes with members of the Minnesota Twins bench on April 7, 2008 at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

There are injuries, and then there are big injuries. And four big ones that could have a big effect on the regular season happened this week.

• Troy Tulowitzki, Rockies: The second-year shortstop, a pillar for the NL champs last season, tore a tendon in his left quadriceps near his hip. Tulowitzki was off to an ice-cold start, hitting .152, and now will most likely will be out until the All-Star break.
• Jorge Posada, Yankees: After more than a decade behind the plate, Posada is on the disabled list for the first time in his career with a sore shoulder. Doctors don't believe he needs surgery, but it's all wait-and-see (and hope) in New York. The Yankees' backup catcher, Jose Molina, is a capable backstop but can't come close to replacing Posada's production in the lineup. Posada hopes to return in six weeks, if his shoulder responds to rest.
• Yovani Gallardo, Brewers: Gallardo isn't a household name, but was one of the most promising pitchers in baseball, and everybody in Milwaukee knows who the 22-year-old righty is. He tore a knee ligament avoiding a collision at first base and is out for the season. This could tip the scales in the NL Central more toward the Cubs and Cardinals.
• Phil Hughes, Yankees: The promising second-year pitcher has a stress fracture of a rib in his side and is out until at least July. It was a bizarre tale as it looked like a phantom injury, an oblique strain designed to give Hughes a couple of minor-league starts to work through some problems (he is 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA). But now a team already not deep with starting pitchers is searching for some kind of solution. I wouldn't be surprised if the Yankees soon trade for an innings-eating type of starter - not a star - if the price is right.

Time to wonder if the Tampa Bay Rays are for real. They won 8 of 9 before a first-place showdown at Fenway Park with the world champs the weekend of May 1-3. They lost the series opener to the Boston Red Sox, falling a game out of first place.

It's already looking like the best season in team history, which isn't hard to achieve for a team that was 645-972 in its first 10 seasons. Tampa Bay's best season was 70-91 in 2004.

"It's been one of the best weeks in franchise history. We're going to try to keep it going," outfielder Carl Crawford told the Associated Press. "We got that feeling of winning, and we kind of like it. Everybody feels the same way."

Why they're winning:

• Maturing starters. James Shields is turning into an ace, and presumed ace lefty Scott Kazmir hasn't even pitched yet this season - he's scheduled to start May 3. Matt Garza, Andy Sonnanstine and Edwin Jackson aren't worse than most of the rest of the league has in its rotations. Right now, if you could give me the Rays' starting rotation or the Yankees, I'd actually take the Rays.
• Improved bullpen. It didn't look like a strength before the season, but 38-year-old Troy Percival saved his first five chances and has been a stabilizing force.
• Better defense. It's a complicated formula, but David Pinto of the Sporting News calculates that the Rays' defenders are more than two runs better than last year.
• Dropping the "devil." There are certainly those who will give this credence, as preposterous as it sounds. I don't put much stock in it, but to each his own.

Raysmanager Joe Maddon is taking an approach of cautious optimism, and I wouldn't make any World Series reservations for Tropicana Field, but the first winning season in team history is certainly realistic.

Any baseball fans who are fans of the ABC drama "Lost" might enjoy this humorous comparison between characters on the show and baseball, by About.com Basketball Guide Dennis Velasco. Jack Shepard and Derek Jeter: Definitely see that.

The same Yahoo sports blog has another look at the probable favorite teams of the characters on "The Office." I doubt Ryan is a Red Sox fan, though. That guy has Yankee fan written all over him, since he seems to love New York so much.

With great salaries come great expectations. And Barry Zito isn't alone in his misery this season.

Zito became the highest-paid middle reliever in baseball history following his demotion - the San Francisco Giants will pay him $14.5 million and still owe him a ridiculous guaranteed $112.5 million - and it's already looking like one of the worst free-agent moves ever.

"I'm certainly not happy with it, by any means," Zito said after his demotion to the San Jose Mercury News. "This is the bed that I've made. I have to lay in it for the time being and I have to overcome."

In fact, the only team that seems to want him right now is the Fresno Grizzlies, the Giants' Triple-A affiliate.

The Giants aren't the only team that hasn't spent wisely so far this season. Check out these starts for players who are all among the top 21 in salaries this year.

• The Mets' Carlos Delgado ($16 million) is hitting .194 with three home runs as of April 30, and two of those homers were solo shots in the same game.
• Teammate Carlos Beltran ($18.6 million, is barely better, hitting .216 with two homers.
• The contract of the Braves' Mike Hampton ($15.75 million in 2008) finally expires after this season. He still hasn't pitched since 2005, and suffered another setback during rehabilitation on April 30.
• Seattle's Richie Sexson ($15.5 million) is hitting .207, and that's two points higher than in all of last season.
• And then there's the Dodgers' Jason Schmidt ($15.2 million), who is 1-4 with a 6.31 ERA.

So Barry, you've got company. And some time to work things out.

Photo: Barry Zito of the San Francisco Giants pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on March 31, 2008 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images)

There's no doubt that the Atlanta Braves' rotation looks great on paper. It's that combined age thing that looks like its downfall.

Tom Glavine just turned 42. John Smoltz turns 41 early next month. Tim Hudson will be 33 in July. The current rotation's combined age is roughly 33 - old by any standard - and that's skewed younger by a rookie Jair Jurrjens (22) and No. 5 starter Jeff Bennett (28).

Glavine is on the disabled list for the first time in his career, and is expected to return this week. Now Smoltz could be headed back to the DL as he's experiencing ongoing shoulder pain. Hudson, the team's ace, is reasonably healthy and is 3-2 with a not-terrible 3.74 ERA, but has been iffy in spots.

The Braves are off to a decent start, and Chipper Jones is having an MVP-caliber first month of the season. But it might already be time for new GM Frank Wren to adjust. Should the Braves save their arms by going to a six-man rotation? Is it already time for a trade?

And could this be it for Smoltz, a certain Hall of Fame selection (along with Glavine and former Braves ace Greg Maddux, who will go down as perhaps the greatest starting rotation in baseball history). But Smoltz knows he's playing on borrowed time and has said he won't go through another long rehab. He could be the first of the great trio to call it quits, and soon.

In a move that everybody could see coming from miles away (except maybe Wayne Krivsky), former St. Louis general manager Walt Jocketty was named GM of the Cincinnati Reds on April 23, replacing Krivsky.

The Reds have started 9-12. That's not a catastrophic start, but it seemed the Cincinnati management was looking for an excuse ever since hiring Jocketty was hired by the Reds in January as a special adviser.

"I fought for an hour to keep my job," Krivsky told the Associated Press. "I did not see this coming at all. I still think it's a gold mine. That's what hurts so much, not to see the job through to the end and bring that winner to Cincinnati. I've had visions of being in the clubhouse with champagne being poured all over everybody."

He didn't have much time to dream, or to turn things around for a team that hasn't been to the playoffs since 1995. Jocketty will be the fourth general manager in six years for a team that has had seven consecutive losing seasons. Dusty Baker is the fourth manager since 2003.

“Good organizations keep a lot of the same people for a period of time if they are working well together,” Baker told the Cincinnati Enquirer, “and they are good hires in the first place.”

Slate recently uncovered a strange truth about major-league baseball players. A disproportionate number of them were born in August.

Among the game's all-time greats, Roberto Clemente, Roger Clemens, Cal Ripken, Ted Williams and Frank Robinson are among those who were born in August. And Slate did some research and found out that as of 2005, 594 big-league players had August birthdays. The next closest is October with 534.

Is it in the stars? That's what a writer named John Holway argued in a book called “The Baseball Astrologer” in 2000. But there's a much more logical explanation than a proclivity toward Leos and Virgos toward baseball.

If you separate foreign-born players from the equation, the difference between the birth months for American-born players is even more pronounced for August (503) than the lowest month, which is July (313). And there's no discernible trend among the foreign-born players. Those of you who had children playing Little League might have the explanation in your mind now – August 1 was typically the birthday cutoff for youth baseball around the country.

Those with an August birthday were among the oldest players on their teams, with an advantage in coordination and skill level. July birthdays were the youngest on their teams. While everybody would catch up at some point, how many children with talent and a July birthday felt overmatched in baseball and tried something else instead?

So baseball players with an August birthday, according to Slate, have a 60 percent better chance to make the majors.

But don't look for that trend continued: USA Baseball instituted a new age cutoff at May 1 this year, which has been adopted by most youth baseball organizations. So if you want your kid to be a big-leaguer, go for a May birthday.

Miguel Tejada is under investigation for perjury already by the Department of Justice. Should we add a fraud count as well?

ESPN performed some background checks on Tejada, the new Houston Astros' shortstop and the 2002 American League MVP. They confronted him with evidence that his birthdate is May 25, 1974. The Astros' media guide lists his birthday as May 25, 1976.

Tejada walked away from the interview - see it on YouTube here - but later confessed to team officials that he's really 33, not 31. He convinced scouts he was 17 instead of 19 back in the Dominican Republic back in 1993, when he was originally signed.

"It was brought to our attention that the date we carry for Tejada, the year of birth, is incorrect," Houston GM Ed Wade told the Associated Press. "We told Miguel we were going to go ahead and make the appropriate changes and all the information was put forward. But the fact of the matter is he's playing like he was 25."

Sure, Tejada is getting it done on the field so far for the Astros -- .306 and three homers in 17 games entering April 19 -- but this has to be frustrating for the Houston brass. The day after they traded for him this offseason, he was named in the Mitchell Report as a possible user of performance-enhancing drugs. Now he suddenly aged two years. He'll make $13 million this season and in 2009.

If he wasn't performing, would the Astros have grounds for fraud to void his contract? Won't happen, but it would be an interesting debate. Any thoughts out there?

Photo: Shortstop Miguel Tejada of the Houston Astros flips the ball to Mark Loretta for force play against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 7, 2008 at Minute Maid Park in Houston. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)