UPDATE: Charlie Manuel suspended for a game - MLB

UPDATE: I think I got that wrong. USA Today is reporting that Manuel was suspended for a run-in with C.B. Bucknor, not the Bob Davidson thing. I had the dates wrong and made a bad assumption. Apologies.

12:03 PM: One step forward, two steps back. While Bob Davidson was suspended for his run-in with Charlie Manuel, Manuel got a game suspension too:

Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel has received a one-game suspension stemming from the on-field incident in the top of the eighth inning of Philadelphia’s Tuesday, May 15^th game against the Houston Astros at Citizens Bank Park.

Weak. Yes, Manuel barked something from the dugout, but that happens all the damn time. At most you see a manager ejected for it (that was a Bobby Cox special on hot days when he didn’t want to leave the shade). But everything after whatever Manuel said was instigated by Davidson.

One wonders if the umpires union or whoever made a big fuss about things and said “if you’re going to suspend Davidson, you gotta suspend Manuel too!” Whatever the case, though, this was not an instance that, in my mind anyway, called for equal punishment.

Roger Clemens will be an analyst for ESPN when the defending World Series champion Houston Astros host the Chicago White Sox on opening day.

Clemens made four appearances on last year’s KayRod Cast with Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez. He will be stepping in on March 30 for David Cone, who will be doing the New York Yankees opener against the San Francisco Giants on YES Network.

“Roger has been sort of a friend of ours for the last year, so to speak, he’s in. He’s been engaged, knowledgeable and really present,” said ESPN Vice President of Production Phil Orlins. “You know, whatever past may be, he’s still tremendously engaged and he really brought that every time he was with us.”

Clemens was a seven-time Cy Young winner but his career after baseball has been tainted by allegations of performance-enhancing drug use. He is a Houston native and pitched for the Astros for three seasons.

Orlins said that with the rules changes and pitch clock, it is important to have a pitcher in the booth with Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez.

“We don’t feel like we have to have the dynamic of Eduardo with a pitcher, but we certainly think that works. Throw in the added factor of rule changes and it is better to have a batter-pitcher perspective,” Orlins said.

Orlins did not say if this would open the door for future opportunities for Clemens as an ESPN analyst.