Rocket might’ve resorted to extra fuel

Roger Clemens might have had some help getting up for a game.

A report at NYDailyNews.com cites a source who claims the former major league pitcher kept a stash of Viagra in his Yankees locker, hiding the little blue pills in a vitamin bottle to avoid the inevitable jokes about the drug's sexual benefits.

Athletes using Viagra or comparable over-the-counter boosters is nothing new, according to the report. It says many athletes using steroids will take Viagra before a juiced workout, hoping Viagra's ability to dilate blood vessels will help deliver the anabolics to their various muscle groups.

If the "vitamin V" accusation is true, Clemens, who repeatedly has denied using steroids, would not have violated any Major League Baseball rule because it, along with other leagues, does not ban the substance or others like it.

• THANKS, JIM -- If you grew up when gasoline was 30 cents a gallon, then Saturday afternoons meant watching ABC's "Wide World of Sports."

It was an era without instant news and endless hours of televised sports.

Jim McKay, who was buried Tuesday, was your sports buddy as host of the show.

For those with a passion for a sport outside the mainstream, he validated it by reporting on those events.

USA Today's Michael Hiestand writes: "Today, offbeat sports on TV become setups for announcers' punch lines. But McKay didn't talk down to competitors.

"In 2001, he told me why: 'One time, half-kidding, I asked a guy who won the World Demolition Derby title about his "achievement." He said it was because he went to church a lot. And I thought, damn it, I'm not going to make that mistake again. It was the achievement of his life.' "

• CATCH AND RUN -- The fan who caught Ken Griffey's 600th home run ball Monday in Miami is known only as "Joe."

Reds officials made him an offer for the ball after he made a great catch and run, according to the Miami Herald. Joe said no.

Florida Marlins president David Samson also met with the man, said to be a Marlins season-ticket holder since 1993.

There were reports of a skirmish for the ball, but Samson said replays show Joe came up with it cleanly.

"He had a glove. He caught it and then deked everybody out by pointing (the other way). Then he left,'' Samson said.

Joe's odds of getting the ball were good; the crowd was estimated at about 10,000, not the announced 16,003.

• HOT RACING -- NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers are concerned about the way their new model cars are retaining heat in the cockpit.

On Sunday at Pocono, Pa., Brian Vickers, Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were among those nearly overcome by spending four hours in cockpits with temperatures around 120 degrees. Earnhardt was red-faced and spent after finishing fourth.

"The sumbitch gets hot," he said of his car last month after the 600-mile Sprint Cup race near Charlotte, N.C. "It's going to suck sitting in there during the summer."

COMPILED BY JEFF WOLF REVIEW-JOURNAL