Touch 'Em All: A fleeting moment of fame for ex-76er

Thousands of fans nationwide suddenly sat up Sunday night during a Twins-Rays game and muttered "Is that the Matt Geiger?"

In the top of the eighth, Twins leftfielder Josh Willingham lofted a foul ball toward the seats down the first-base line. Rays first baseman Carlos Pena probably would have caught the ball, when a gigantic, bearded fan stood up and tried to grab it.

The fan was Geiger, who missed the ball and wound up grabbing Pena's glove.

A few minutes later, he was escorted away by Tropicana Field security.

It appeared Geiger was ejected, but a tweet from a Rays beat reporter said he was "not ejected, just relocated."

A 7-foot hacker, Geiger played the last three seasons of a 10-season NBA career with the 76ers, but is best remembered around here for refusing to waive a no-trade clause that killed a proposed deal sending himself and Allen Iverson to the Detroit Pistons.

Retired for 10 years, Geiger now lives in Tarpon Springs, Fla., and, apparently, is a Rays fan. Just not a very good outfielder.

SI.com reports that Boston's eighth and ninth-inning pitchers, Mark Melancon and Alfredo Aceves, have put 21 baserunners on in five innings of work. Nineteen have scored.

On the fifth day of Roger Clemens' federal trial for lying in front of Congress, the District Court in Washington, D.C., finally seated 12 jurors and four alternates.

The 10 women and six men mostly said they didn't follow baseball or know much about Clemens. In fact, seven said they'd never even heard of him.

After a rambling, hour-long opening statement from prosecutor Steven Durham, Judge Reggie Walton admonished both sides for making their cases too complicated for a jury to understand.

"Keep it simple. . . . Boom! Move on," said Walton, who then declared the slow-moving trial adjourned for the day and abruptly left the bench.

Walton earlier ruled that Clemens' former teammate, Andy Pettitte, can testify that he used human-growth hormone, but can't say where he got it. Pettitte has said he obtained HGH from Clemens' personal trainer.

Clemens is accused of lying when he said he never used steroids or HGH at a 2008 congressional hearing. A perjury trial last year resulted in a mistrial.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.