Matt Clement a gamble that could pay off for Jays

One time at a ratfested Goodwills, I took a gamble on a Deep Sands of Time 45 (I thought it might be a psychdrip missing from the “Chocolate Soup For Diabetics” collection)...turned out to be some flat local soul outta Orangeburg. Another quarter wasted...Oh, well.

Others may want to call it a gamble, but not Matt Clement.

Sure, the Toronto Blue Jays are signing a pitcher who has not thrown a pitch in the majors since 2006, and who had a right shoulder that—to paraphrase the doctor who operated on the mess in September 2006—resembled the remnants of a blown car tire. But he says the Jays are only taking a chance.

“It is not like they can take me from where I was at last year and bank on me pitching 35 starts,” Clement said on a conference call with reporters yesterday after signing a minor-league contract with an invitation to compete for a big league job with Toronto at spring training.

“If you want to call it a gamble, I am not going to label it one way or the other ... I don’t think anybody would say it is a concrete, for-sure, slam dunk.”