The Daily Yankeeland

Roger Clemens and his new bad hair spent 5 hours being deposed as pre-cursor to next week's congressional hearings. Clemens remained defiant, denying all accusations of P.E.D use. For 5 hours though? Was he teaching Henry Waxman how to throw Mr. Splittee?

Rudy Guiliani incurred the wrath of many, us included, when he said he was rooting for the Red Sox in last year's World Series. Well now he's going to pay for it. Topps Co., the greatest maker of baseball cards, is putting out a new card that will show Guiliani, fist raised in triumph, celebrating with the Red Sox at the end of the 2007 World Series.

The card will appear in about 1 in every 70 packs. This somewhat makes up for, in our eyes, Topps putting Dubya in the stands, watching a Mickey Mantle at-bat.

Johnny Damon's main man Rudy Guiliani is out of the running for President, but JD is getting set for spring training. He recently sat down with TCPalm.com's Ray McNulty at Scott Proctor's charity fundraiser.

On the Yankees new approach to go with young pitchers:

“I see it as we’re giving some young pitchers an opportunity, some pitchers the league doesn’t know too much about.”

“Obviously, we’re not going to go out and change our offense and defense, because we still believe we are the best all-around team, as far as that’s concerned. First base could be an issue, because we have about four or five different guys playing there. But, all around, I think we’re very solid.

“And,” he added, “I think these young pitchers could bring in a different attitude for us.”

Damon is adept at dealing with change - he's played for 4 teams during his MLB career - and he's ready to deal with a change in the manager's seat.

“I’ve been around the game for a long time,” said Damon, who has played for four teams in 13 major league seasons. “I’ve had, let’s see, how many different managers? One, two three . . . four, five . . . six different managers,” he said. “No, seven now, with Joe Girardi."

Damon still does hold a bit of a grudge against the Red Sox, feeling they really did not want to re-sign him when he became a free agent after the 2005 season. He also feels the Red Sox are not a better team without him. As for the rivalry:

“The media makes it really intense, then the fans do, then it gets to the players,” Damon said, later adding, “I never really got the rivalry until . . . well . . . I still don’t, because I grew up here in Florida and my big rivalries were about Florida and Florida State."

Now we need Damon to come to camp healthy and to play a solid 6 months, not 3.