By JIMMY D / Clemens returns to a waiver wire near you | Jimmy's archive

It was 1984.

We were all forced to read George Orwell's no-longer-futuristic fiction in high school, Ronald Reagen was finishing up his first term as Commander in Chief and Prince’s Purple Rain was dominating the music charts.

And for the first time in your fantasy baseball career, a skinny righthander named Roger Clemens was slotted into your draft list. He was 9-4 in 20 starts for Boston that year, with 126 Ks in 133 innings.

Of course, in those early days, your commish updated stats monthly by hand after copying the stats from the newspaper and used a calculator to come up with your league stats.

So why should the fact he turns 45 in August change the routine of Rocket Roger hogging headlines and waiver wire consideration here in 2007?

Clemens announced Sunday he will pull on the pinstripes again this season and got a pro-rated $28-million payday to do it. So at a bit more than $18 million plus nearly $8 million in luxury tax payable by Mr. Steinbrenner for exceeding the spending limit, it will cost the Yankees roughly $26 million.

If Rocket stays healthy, he should get about a million per outing. If you can wring that much fantasy production out of him, then you should be grabbing him off the waiver wire and awaiting his turn in the rotation.

Jimmy scoured the waiver wire for his Jackal squad this weekend and came up with some other options.

James Shields – we grabbed the hard-throwing Devil Ray righty off waivers and started him immediately (he faces Baltimore on Wednesday). Teams are hitting less than .200 off him and he has 37 Ks and just seven walks. We benched Tiger Nate Robertson, whose lone start this week is against the Mariners, to get Shields into the lineup.

Orlando Hudson – 2B has dynamite early stats that Jimmy could no longer ignore, especially with Tad Iguchi struggling at the dish. All he has done is get on base every game this season, while hitting .341, hitting four homers and driving in 25 runs. The GMs in Jimmy’s league have some explaining to do about why he was available.

Willy Tavares – the Colorado speedster has been hot at the plate and swiped nine bags so far, but he tweaked his hammy on Sunday. Regardless, Jimmy grabbed him and benched Giant Dave Roberts for the week.

Billy Butler – Jimmy was gonna take a flier on this dude, who debuted for the Royals last Tuesday and has three multi-hit games in six games. He was a Double A batting champion last year and should get time in KC unless he flames out. Worth taking a chance before he gets any ink.

Bang on NHL playoffs again
OK, so Jimmy is just showing off now. On top of picking Ottawa in five over New Jersey, he even told you which game the Devils would win. Over in the Sabres series, Jimmy nearly pulled the same trick picking the precise number of games and selecting the lone game the Rangers would win. If not for that double-OT win by the Blueshirts, Jimmy would have nailed that as well.

He picked the Ducks in six (they only needed five) and by today, you will know if his San Jose in seven call still has a chance.

Jimmy had earlier called a Ducks-Sabres final and he sticks by that call. Despite their efficient work to date, Jimmy doesn’t buy the Senators’ act as Cup contenders. So everyone who pinned Senators flags to the top of their minivans should take them down now before the humiliation of another playoff loss sets in.

Derby winner made Sense
At one point, Jimmy looked up and saw Street Sense 19th and Circular Quay (Jimmy’s pick) in 18th place in the Kentucky Derby. The next time, one horse was screaming up along the rail and darting into traffic and Jimmy thought sure he had a Derby win with Circular Quay.

It turned out the speedy horse was Street Sense, who will now go to the Preakness Stakes in two weeks to try to complete the second leg of the Triple Crown.

There is a point in an aerial view of the video where he looks like the speedy car among a bunch of Sunday drivers in some hokey video game. Check it out at NBC’s website

http:// video.nbcsports.com/player/?id=100992 to see what all the fuss is about.
It was an amazing rally past 18 horses.

Stay busy and stay lucky.

Email Jimmy at jpoole@herald.ca