In a sort of serendipitous demonstration of Letters' recent word of the day, geegaw jocks the aurora borealis or celestial filament as some are wont to say (but fails to jock it in the jock2 sense: "What are you doing today?" "Oh, I'm going to go down and jock the 6-foot full-color Jumbotron at Shinjuku station."). Read it there are marvelous moments in it.
The Astros have been in even worse shape, using three starters with less than two years of major-league experience. Signing Clemens to go with right-hander Roy Oswalt and left-hander Andy Pettitte again gives them a legitimate Big Three once again. If Clemens, after several minor-league tuneups, proves anywhere near as good as he was last season, he will give the team precisely the lift it needs.