Clemens to Sit Out Next Start

Roger Clemens will sit out Sunday’s scheduled start for Toronto against Texas because of recurring problems with a strained right groin.

The four-time Cy Young Award winner removed himself from Tuesday’s start at Minnesota after seven pitches. Clemens hurt himself while warming up in the bullpen.

Toronto will activate right-hander Erik Hanson off the disabled list to make Sunday’s start.

Clemens said he will throw Sunday and Tuesday and hopes to return to the rotation next Friday.

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Former Minnesota Twin outfielder Kirby Puckett says his auto accident this week was caused by a dropped cellular phone.

Puckett needed 20 stitches to close a scalp wound after his sport-utility vehicle rolled over Sunday.

He and his father-in-law, Allan Hudson, were returning to Minneapolis from a fishing trip when the phone fell to the floor and Puckett bent down to pick it up.

“Suddenly my father-in law said for me to watch out,” Puckett was quoted as saying in Friday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I tried to pull back and the car just started fishtailing. I was not speeding at all. Before I knew it, the car flipped over three times and landed on its roof.”

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No beer at Fenway Park for the home opener? What’ll they do next? Paint the Green Monster blue?

For the first time since Prohibition, there was no beer served at Fenway for the first Red Sox home game, the result of the opener coinciding with Good Friday and Passover.

Team officials thought it would be in poor taste for fans to be boozing on the holy day.

To those for whom the Red Sox are a secular religion, however, not to have a brew to wash down a Fenway Frank could be considered sacrilegious.

“It doesn’t make sense. There was a lot of alcohol consumed in the Bible,” David Corcoran said.

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Five protesters were arrested in the burning of an effigy outside Jacobs Field in a protest of the Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo logo.

The arrests came three days after a city judge threw out charges against demonstrators who burned a Wahoo effigy before Game Five of the World Series last year between Cleveland and the Florida Marlins.

Firefighters quickly extinguished the burning effigy Friday, which was lit as fans walked into Jacobs Field for Cleveland’s home opener against the Angels.

Police Chief Rocco Pollutro said the arrests were made to protect the public and keep the peace.

The protesters believe the red-faced Chief Wahoo image is a degrading stereotype and burning an effigy is protected under the right to free speech.