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Friday, December.07, 2012

The Rocket has undeniable Cooperstown credentials, topped by a record seven Cy Young Awards, the 1986 AL MVP, and 354 victories. He struck out 4,672 batters during his long career, a total topped only by Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson, and twice had 20-K games in which he didn’t walk a single batter. That combination of power and control also helped Roger Clemens lead his league in ERA seven times.

In my memory bank of Red Sox pitchers, which dates to the mid-’70s, only Pedro Martinez resonates as more dominant over a sustained period of time. But while Pedro was a delicate thoroughbred rarely allowed to reach past the seventh inning, Clemens was a good-old-fashioned workhorse who regularly finished what he started.

Five years his junior, and about to enter my final year of high school, I followed the action that sweltering August evening through Ken Coleman’s radio account while downing beers and looking out for cops in a concert parking lot. I’ve long since forgotten the venue and the band my buddies and I were seeing, but can still recall the excitement in Coleman’s voice. He knew he was seeing the start of something special.   

In 1986, fully matured and free of the injuries that hampered his first two seasons, the Rocket went full throttle – going 24-4 and nearly pitching the Red Sox to a World Series Title. I watched most of the series from a dormitory lounge at Syracuse, surrounded by Mets fans, but with Clemens on the hill their taunts grew quiet. Even the enemy respected him then.

That was the year the “K” cards started popping up at Fenway, and, as with Pedro later on, Yawkey Way had a special electricity when Clemens was scheduled to start. He stayed a winner through the team’s myriad ups and downs, and in the days before ESPN.com and smart phones, scanning the morning paper for his pitching line was one of my favorite collegiate pastimes (along with summer pilgrimages to see the Rocket live).

Did former teammate Jose Canseco give Roger any advice?

Later, while working late into the night at the Sports desk of The Washington Post, I went high-tech — scanning for Clemens’ name amid the Associated Press game accounts that came across in glowing green on my smoke-stained monitor. By the time I moved back to Boston in 1995, however, the Rocket appeared to be on the descent, his gut expanding along with his ERA.

Pitching for mostly mediocre teams, Clemens was 40-39 from 1993-96. I was at Fenway for his last start of ’96, a 4-2 loss to the Yankees in which the pending free agent received a standing ovation when taken out midway through the eighth inning. Even thought it was a meaningless game, we knew based on the acrimonious relationship between Red Sox GM Dan Duquette and his ace that it might be the Rocket’s final hurrah for Boston.  

It was. Although Clemens still led the league in Strikeouts in 1996 – including his second 20-K gem — management allowed him to depart to Toronto for what Duquette famously predicted would be “the twilight of his career.

Roger Clemens came off of a 10-13 year with Boston in 1996, to sign a 4 year deal worth about 30 Million withe the Blue Jays. He fulfilled 2 years of the contract in winning 41 games before he was dealt to the New York Yankees for David Wells, Homer Bush and Graeme Lloyd Amidst this time frame, have been accusations of PED use leading back to these years.

A visibly slimmer Clemens rebounded to win back-to-back Cy Young Awards for the Blue Jays in 1997 and 1998.  Whether anyone likes it or not, Clemens 2 seasons with Toronto were incredible and one has to wonder why the sudden bounce back?  He racked up 2 Cy Young’s, 2 ALL-Star Appearances and led the Pitching Triple Crown Categories of Wins, ERA and Strikeouts in the AL during both years.  Clemens also led the 1997 American League with 3 Shutouts, 9 Complete Games and Innings Pitched with 264.0.  In 1997, he was 21-7 (.750), with a mind-boggling 2.05 ERA.  There are only 2 other pitchers in the AL (Ron Guidry 1978-1.74 ERA, Pedro Martinez 2000-1.74 ERA, and Clemens himself in 1990 with Boston-1.93 ERA) that have had a better single season ERA  in the time frame from 1977-2012.  In 1998, he was 20-6 (.769), with a 2.65 ERA.

Clemens went on to enjoy several more outstanding seasons for the Yankees and Astros – pitching effectively into his mid-40s and climbing the All-Time Leader Boards in various categories.

Yankee Roger: Public Enemy #1 For Red Sox Nation.

Now back to my mythical vote. Let’s assume, given the large pile of damning information, that Clemens did indeed juice it up starting at age 34 in 1997. Since the player he is deemed most statistically comparable to on baseball-reference.com from ages 34-41 is Tom Seaver – whose career, ironically, ended with Boston in the pre-Juice days of 1986 – I thought swapping in Seaver’s statistics for Clemens’ from 34-41 would be a good way to gauge how the Rocket’s career might have gone had he kept on the straight and narrow.

And, since Seaver retired at 41, it’s a safe bet that a “clean” Clemens would likely have also hung ’em up rather than continue at less than his best. The real Clemens kept hurling until he was 45, longevity that allowed him to pad his stats and his wallet

Given Seaver’s late-career numbers in place of his own, the Rocket’s record drops from 354-184 to a less glittering 279-112, and he winds up with three rather than seven Cy Young Awards. He still strikes out a lot of guys, but ends with closer to 3,800 lifetime whiffs than 4,700. And, like Seaver, he retires at 41.

Now back to my mythical vote. Let’s assume, given the large pile of damning information, that Clemens did indeed juice it up starting at age 34 in 1997. Since the player he is deemed most statistically comparable to on baseball-reference.com from ages 34-41 is Tom Seaver – whose career, ironically, ended with Boston in the pre-Juice days of 1986 – I thought swapping in Seaver’s statistics for Clemens’ from 34-41 would be a good way to gauge how the Rocket’s career might have gone had he kept on the straight and narrow.

And, since Seaver retired at 41, it’s a safe bet that a “clean” Clemens would likely have also hung ’em up rather than continue at less than his best. The real Clemens kept hurling until he was 45, longevity that allowed him to pad his stats and his wallet.

Given Seaver’s late-career numbers in place of his own, the Rocket’s record drops from 354-184 to a less glittering 279-112, and he winds up with three rather than seven Cy Young Awards. He still strikes out a lot of guys, but ends with closer to 3,800 lifetime whiffs than 4,700. And, like Seaver, he retires at 41.

Is a Clemens with these numbers a Hall of Famer? Probably, especially when you look at his “real” pre-1997 career. Playing exclusively for the Red Sox from 1984-96, the Rocket went 192-111 with 100 Complete Games, a WHIP of 1.158, and 38 Shutouts. Those victory and Shutout totals, incidentally, leave him tied atop the all-time Boston leader boards in both categories with Cy Young – the same guy whose name is on all those plaques Clemens earned for pitching excellence.

Whether a 279-win Clemens with no PED rumors is a first-ballot Hall of Famer is up for debate. I don’t think so. His peak years may be as good as anyone’s, but less lifetime victories than Cooperstown outsiders Jim Kaat and Tommy John should deny him a slam-dunk selection like those afforded Seaver and Ryan.

This might be for the best. Perhaps sweating it out for a few years with low vote totals will help Clemens to recall facts he may have “misremembered” about those needles, and lead to an admission that earns him a clear conscience and a Cooperstown plaque.  Either that or he will pitch for the Houston Astros in 2013 and start his 5 year waiting period all over again for the Baseball Hall Of Fame.

I’ll never feel quite the same about the Rocket as I did back in the ’80s, but if he admits to the use he’ll have gained back some of my respect.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of www.mlbreports.com and their partners.***

A big thank-you goes out to  Saul Wisnia for preparing today’s featured article. Saul shares his Fenway Reflections at http://saulwisnia.blogspot.com. Born just up the street from “America’s Favorite Ballpark,” he is a former sports and news correspondent at The Washington Post and feature writer at The Boston Herald. He has authored, co-authored, or otherwise contributed to numerous books on Boston and general baseball history here, and his articles and essays have appeared in Sports Illustrated, Red Sox Magazine, Boston Magazine, and The Boston Globe. His most recent book, Fenway Park: The Centennial, was excerpted on http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/.  Wisnia lives in Newton, Massachusetts, 5.94 miles from America’s favorite ballpark, with his wife, two kids, and Wally (the cat, not the Green Monster).  Feel free to follow Saul on Twitter Follow @SaulWizz

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