When Roger Clemens is inducted into Cooperstown, Dan Duquette should be right by his side taking some of the credit. Or at the least the Rocket could send him a fruit cake. It was, after all, the former Red Sox GM who turned around the Roger`s sagging career when he declared it dead 125 wins ago. Simply by uttering that Clemens was in "the twilight of his career" Duquette fired the Texan up. The remark obviously struck a nerve and poured fuel in the Rocket`s tank. He`s been pitching with a monster chip on the shoulder ever since and it`s shaped like Duquette.
So is Duquette the biggest idiot ever to work in baseball or what?
Well, growing up in Red Sox Nation during Clemens Beantown days, I saw what Duquette saw in Roger`s final seasons with the Sox - that Clemens was an overweight, unmotivated, whiny bum. Sure the Sox of those days weren`t the free spending Yankee hunters they are now and he wasn`t surrounded by talent, but then again, he wasn`t in Toronto either and in the two seasons there after leaving Boston he went 21-7 and 20-6.
Duquette did the right thing. He bailed on a mediocre money-hungry punk of a pitcher whose best days seemed to have been behind him. Clemens showed up at Red Sox camp one year the size of a blimp, his work ethic was nonexistent and he was constantly bitching. And on the mound the Rocket was more like a firecracker. Only this one never exploded - until he left.
Don`t believe me? Just look at his numbers. In his first nine seasons with the Red Sox Clemens went 152-72 and had seven consecutive seasons with 17 or more wins. Then things went dramatically downhill. In his final four years in Boston his numbers were those of a washed up hurler playing out the string.
--In 1993, he posted a record of 11-14 with an ERA of 4.46.
--Clemens lowered the ERA to 2.85 in 1994 but only went 9-7.
--In 1995 the Rocket was 10-5. His ERA 4.18. And he threw just 140 innings.
--And in 1996, his final season in Boston, he went 10-13 with an ERA of 3.63.
Hardly superstar stuff and certainly not worthy of a multi-million dollar investment. And so Duquette made the decision to cut ties with Clemens and spend his cash on a young, skinny Dominican who was tossing fireballs north of the border. Unless you`ve been living in a spider hole with Saddam we really don`t need to recap what Clemens has done since leaving Boston. He`s been awesome. Clemens is the best pitcher of our generation and is now one of the hardest working players in the game with a workout routine that makes Jerry Rice seem lazy.
So what the hell happened? Did he hate Boston that much? Something sparked the resurgence and it can all be traced back to Duquette`s put a fork him he`s done comment.
I`ll bet if asked, Roger would just smirk about what turned around his career and the mention of Duquette. But something motivated him and I can`t imagine it was playing the Jays that did it.
And even after a brief retirement (Pettitte and Clemens had this Houston thing planned all along) the Rocket, at 7-0 with an ERA of 1.72, is the best pitcher in baseball so far this season. On Sunday, Mike Piazza spoiled Clemens bid for his eighth straight win when the Mets slugger homered off Octavio Dotel in the ninth.
Clemens is likely to get the nod to start the All-Star Game in his hometown; Houston is gonna go on to win the NL central (sorry Cubbies) and Clemens, quite possibly will add a NL Cy Young Award to go with his six AL awards in a trophy room that rivals any in the Hall itself.
Oh, and remember it wasn`t long ago that Clemens said he would boycott the Hall if his bust was topped with a Boston B? Well don`t be surprised if it`s not a Yankee cap either, but instead a Houston lid he demands when the Hall calls. It is, after all, his hometown, and he really doesn`t seem like a man ready to walk away after this season. He still has something to prove not only to Duquette, but to the Yankee Boss.
