Roger Clemens, Choke Artist
Posted Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2000, at 11:30 PM ET
Roger Clemens is, without question, one of the greatest power pitchers in baseball history. In 16 years in the American League, he's struck out 3,504 hitters, grabbed five Cy Young Awards, and won 260 games. He's a lock to be voted into the Hall of Fame the first year he's eligible. When George Steinbrenner had the chance to acquire the Rocket from the Toronto Blue Jays two years ago, the Yankees owner just couldn't resist—even though it meant trading David Wells, who was beloved by his teammates and had played a huge role in the Yankees' 1998 World Series run. And what has Clemens done for the Yankees? Pretty much what he's done his whole career: He's been at his best when it matters least, and at his worst when it matters most. The Rocket, to put it bluntly, is a choke artist.
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StumbleUponThe just-ended playoff series against the Oakland Athletics was the most obvious recent evidence of Clemens-as-choker. To quickly review: Yankee manager Joe Torre, his pitching staff in disarray, decided to open the series with Clemens because he'd been the team's best pitcher during the second half of the season. (Never mind that he lost his last three starts as the Yankees were losing 15 of their last 18.) This meant, among other things, that El Duque, who has struggled mightily during the regular season but has proven his mettle time and again during the post-season, would only be able to pitch once against Oakland while Clemens would get two starts. Needless to say, the Rocket lost both games. In Game 1, he looked unhittable for four innings—and was yanked an inning later, after the A's had pounded him. Then in Game 4, after both Andy Pettitte and El Duque had pitched tough, gritty victories, Clemens was called upon to finish off the A's. Instead, the A's finished him off, as he gave up a three-run homer in the first and two more runs in the fourth. The New York fans booed him after he was pulled by Torre. Yes, he was pitching on three-days rest, but this is the playoffs, for crying out loud. This is when great players are supposed to rise to the occasion.
To longtime Clemens-watchers (such as, well, myself), the surprise is not that Clemens let down the Yankees, but that Torre showed that much faith in him in the first place. The truth is Roger Clemens has never risen to the occasion. It's just not part of his makeup. As Boston Globe columnist (and well-known Clemens tormentor) Dan Shaughnessy pointed out recently, in the Rocket's 14 post-season starts, he's only won a pathetic three games. And of those three, two don't really count as "pressure games." They took place during last year's post-season, when Clemens was the Yankee's No. 4 starter. In each game, he was finishing off a team—Texas in the first round of the playoffs, and Atlanta in the World Series—that was on the verge of being swept. He also pitched a game against his former team, the Red Sox, during last year's post-season. He went up against Pedro Martinez, and in that game a lot was at stake, at least emotionally. Naturally he got completely crushed by the Sox. Indeed, according to ESPN's Peter Gammons, the Yankees have only lost three post-season games since Clemens joined the team—and he was the starting pitcher all three times.
And then there were his years with the Sox—years in which Clemens would be brilliant during the season (especially in the first half when the games mattered less), win 20 or more games, be lauded as the greatest pitcher of his era, and then blow it during the post-season. Who started the infamous Game 6 against the New York Mets in the 1986 World Series? You guessed it. In Boston, that game lives in infamy not only because of the grounder that went through Bill Bucker's legs, but because Clemens, who had a 3-2 lead after the seventh inning, mysteriously did not appear for the eighth. Later Red Sox manager John McNamara claimed that the Rocket had taken himself out, a charge that Clemens vociferously denied.
But even that isn't the low watermark for the Rocket's post-season outings. No, that would have to be the final game against Oakland in the 1990 American League Championship Series. That was the game, you'll perhaps recall, in which Clemens went berserk when the umpire made a call he didn't like and got tossed in the second inning. In addition to costing the Red Sox the series, Clemens' actions had another sorry consequence. For a good three years afterward, American League umpires took their collective revenge by "squeezing" him, making him a far less effective pitcher because he simply couldn't get a close call for a strike.
No thanks to Roger, the Yankees are still in the post-season. The series against Seattle starts tonight. But Torre has clearly learned his lesson. When the Yankees manager announced his rotation for the Seattle series, he set it up so that El Duque and Pettitte will get two starts each, if necessary. Clemens will be the No. 4 starter, just as he was last year, meaning he'll only get one start. Torre denied that this was because of Clemens' dismal outings against Oakland, claiming instead that the Rocket needed a little more rest because he's a power pitcher. But nobody was fooled. A lifetime of choking has finally caught up with Roger Clemens.
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Reader Comments from The Fray:
A career is what it is. The lack of understanding about mere episodes along the way is typical of writers who haven't experienced the smell of dirt and leather for hours on hours of practice and competition. Mere episodes in playoffs comprise a moment of geological time in Rocket's career--shorter than the lifespan of man or Dinosaurs. This kind of journalism is typical of a short attention span culture needing simplistic headline treatment for what is truly great, complex and subtle all at the same time. Take a tally of the number of times Clemens succeeded as a stopper in his years with the Sox. I don't know it for sure but I bet the end of a team slide or a must win type requirement was achieved with amazing frequency by Clemens, especially in the mere .500 years Dan Duquette self-servingly called a twilight period .Go find examples of choking and chokers somewhere else and be thankful you were given a chance to see the likes of Roger, Pedro, Tiger Junior and Michael. There are just so many great warriors that the creator provides.
--Bill Vanech
(To reply, click here.)
1) Clemens pitches on four or five days rest in the regular season; with this much rest, he's been the most effective pitcher over the last fifteen years, bar none, one of the greatest in history. In the post-season, Clemens's managers get clever and try to start him on three days rest. Clemens has never pitched effectively on three days rest, and there's no reason to expect him to start doing so in October against above-average opposition.
2) It's unfair to judge Clemens by a small sample of post-season starts. In his years with the Red Sox, they made the playoffs because they were a slightly above-average team with a great pitcher; such teams never do well in the post-season against better, deeper squads. More importantly, anything can happen in a handful of games. It's a frequent sportswriter fallacy to take these sorts of small-sample variances that are entirely expected in the realm of statistical error, and ascribe deep personality traits and causal relationships to them. It's just luck, guy.
--F.H.NBW
(To reply, click here.)
Games in the early season do count. As much as ones late in the season, and more than ones in the post season. Without regular season wins, you don't play post season games. Without Clemens this year, the Yanks would be at home. He was the best pitcher on the team and in the top 5 in the league.
Clemens poor record in the post season has more to do with his team's performance than his. In every post season he's played in except last year, his team has been the underdog. And last year, he was 2-1. Sorry, you don't get to throw out games arbitrarily. They all count.
Clemens left game 6 in 1986 leading 3-2. He was pinch-hit for. He was 24 years old and had thrown 135 pitches. What's more, the Sox pitching coach said it was MacNamara, not Clemens, that made the decision. Think of it this way, if the Sox had won that game, would you have said, "Boy, they managed to win in spite of Clemens leaving early."
Roger Clemens has a better post season ERA than Andy Pettite. Of course, Pettite has a better record, because he's been pitching for a dominant team.
Clemens was hit by a line-drive 3 games before the end of the season. He hasn't been the same since, in regular or post season. Each game, he pitches fairly well for about 4 innings, and then falls apart. He is clearly injured. But you irresponsibly ignore this in your article.
--Daro
(To reply, click here.)
(10/11)