GaryMrMets
08-18-2003, 01:13 AM
http://www.yesnetwork.com/announcers/index.cfm?cont_id=198944&page_type=wide
Pep Talk: Rocket should stick around
http://www.yesnetwork.com/photos/pepes_small.jpgBy Phil Pepe
Special to YES Network Online
August 12, 2003
On the day after his 41st birthday, Roger Clemens puts aside his walker, tucks his AARP card in his back pocket, takes a swig from his bottle of Geritol, and drags his creaky, 41-year old body to the pitcher’s mound, pausing to allow a boy scout to escort him across the foul line. Huffing and puffing, wheezing and straining, he sets the Texas Rangers down on five hits over seven innings, allows one run, walks two, strikes out four and wins his 11th game of the season.
So, the question before the house is this: Why is this guy retiring?
Another question: Who said this guy is retiring?
Clemens never has made a formal, official announcement that the 2003 season will be his last, although privately he has told many people several times this will be his final season and there is no reason to doubt that is the case. Everybody assumes this is the end, the Rocket’s last blast-off.
A fair assumption, but there still is room for a reversal of that thought.
There are two reasons Clemens is ready to call it quits: 1) His place in baseball history as one of the game’s great pitchers is secure. He is a certain Hall of Famer. 2) He wants to see his boys grow up and watch them play baseball. Very good reasons, indeed. But there are also reasons to think otherwise.
His first pitch against the Rangers was a 97 mile-an-hour fastball.
Imagine, if you will, that you’re not watching a 41-year old. Imagine you’re watching a 21-year old firing the ball at 97 with movement. Scouts would salivate. Agents would pitch tents at his doorstep. Owners would willingly break the bank to get this guy’s name on a contract.
Most players walk away from baseball because they no longer can do it physically or they no longer can find the motivation mentally to endure the rigors of training necessary to perform at peak efficiency. Neither reason applies to the Rocket.
Clearly, he still has the physical components to get hitters out, to be a winning pitcher. Among power pitchers, only Nolan Ryan did it longer; only Ryan was able to overpower hitters in his forties the way he did in his 30s and 20s.
As for the mental part of his game, Clemens obviously enjoys the training regimen that allows him to continue to overpower hitters (chances are, he will continue to be a physical fitness fanatic even after he retires). It’s also obvious that he still enjoys the competition, the pitcher vs. hitter battle.
So why retire?
After his start on Aug. 10, Clemens stood at 4,063 strikeouts and 304 career wins -- 71 as a Yankee -- and with several milestones in reach. He figured to get nine more starts for the season (in his career?) and would need to average eight Ks a game to pass Steve Carlton’s total of 4,136 for second on the all-time list (Ryan’s record of 5,714 is unreachable).
Projecting Clemens for five more wins this season would give him 76 wins as a Yankee, leaving him six short of Bob Turley for 20th on the team’s all-time list and 15 behind Tommy John for 19th. Both would be within reach with one more season.
If passing Turley and John to move up to 19th on the all-time Yankees’ win list is no great incentive to keep Clemens around, perhaps moving up to 12th on the all-time list of wins is. And with another year, Clemens could leapfrog over several pitchers.
If he gets the projected five more wins this season, that would leave him with 309 for his career, passing the legendary Old Hoss Radbourn for 17th all-time. Right ahead, there for the taking, would be Tim Welch and Tom Seaver, tied for 15th at 311, Gaylord Perry at 14th with 314, Phil Niekro at 13 with 318 and Don Sutton at 12 with 321.
Passing Turley and John on the Yankees’ list, and Welch, Seaver, Perry, Niekro and Sutton on the all-time list might not be as high a priority for Clemens as spending time with his family. The YES Network’s Jim Kaat, who knows a thing or two about baseball longevity, thinks it isn’t and is among those who is convinced Clemens will retire after this season.
But, says Kaat, Roger has an out if he wants to take it.
“He can say he talked it over with his family and they urged him to play one more season,” Kaat said, adding he doubts that will happen.
“The real test for him will come around January and February, when normally he would start getting ready to go to spring training,” Kaat warned. “He’ll wake up one day and realize he won’t be doing something he’s done for almost 30 years, almost his entire adult life.”
What Clemens will miss most when he does leave, said Kaat, is the competition and the clubhouse, the camaraderie with his teammates.
Right now, it’s about 95 percent certain this will be Clemens’s last season and failing to win another World Series is not likely to have any bearing on that decision because Clemens has the World Series ring that had eluded him in his years with Boston and Toronto.
When the season ends, that percentage might drop the closer it gets to spring training. But it might not drop enough for Clemens to change his mind.
Will he or won’t he stick to his guns and walk away?
We may have to wait until February before even the Rocket, himself, knows for sure.
Acclaimed author and former Yankees beat writer Phil Pepe is a regular contributor to YES Network Online. His latest work is entitled "The Yankees: An Authorized History of the New York Yankees Centennial Edition," due to be released in November.
Pep Talk: Rocket should stick around
http://www.yesnetwork.com/photos/pepes_small.jpgBy Phil Pepe
Special to YES Network Online
August 12, 2003
On the day after his 41st birthday, Roger Clemens puts aside his walker, tucks his AARP card in his back pocket, takes a swig from his bottle of Geritol, and drags his creaky, 41-year old body to the pitcher’s mound, pausing to allow a boy scout to escort him across the foul line. Huffing and puffing, wheezing and straining, he sets the Texas Rangers down on five hits over seven innings, allows one run, walks two, strikes out four and wins his 11th game of the season.
So, the question before the house is this: Why is this guy retiring?
Another question: Who said this guy is retiring?
Clemens never has made a formal, official announcement that the 2003 season will be his last, although privately he has told many people several times this will be his final season and there is no reason to doubt that is the case. Everybody assumes this is the end, the Rocket’s last blast-off.
A fair assumption, but there still is room for a reversal of that thought.
There are two reasons Clemens is ready to call it quits: 1) His place in baseball history as one of the game’s great pitchers is secure. He is a certain Hall of Famer. 2) He wants to see his boys grow up and watch them play baseball. Very good reasons, indeed. But there are also reasons to think otherwise.
His first pitch against the Rangers was a 97 mile-an-hour fastball.
Imagine, if you will, that you’re not watching a 41-year old. Imagine you’re watching a 21-year old firing the ball at 97 with movement. Scouts would salivate. Agents would pitch tents at his doorstep. Owners would willingly break the bank to get this guy’s name on a contract.
Most players walk away from baseball because they no longer can do it physically or they no longer can find the motivation mentally to endure the rigors of training necessary to perform at peak efficiency. Neither reason applies to the Rocket.
Clearly, he still has the physical components to get hitters out, to be a winning pitcher. Among power pitchers, only Nolan Ryan did it longer; only Ryan was able to overpower hitters in his forties the way he did in his 30s and 20s.
As for the mental part of his game, Clemens obviously enjoys the training regimen that allows him to continue to overpower hitters (chances are, he will continue to be a physical fitness fanatic even after he retires). It’s also obvious that he still enjoys the competition, the pitcher vs. hitter battle.
So why retire?
After his start on Aug. 10, Clemens stood at 4,063 strikeouts and 304 career wins -- 71 as a Yankee -- and with several milestones in reach. He figured to get nine more starts for the season (in his career?) and would need to average eight Ks a game to pass Steve Carlton’s total of 4,136 for second on the all-time list (Ryan’s record of 5,714 is unreachable).
Projecting Clemens for five more wins this season would give him 76 wins as a Yankee, leaving him six short of Bob Turley for 20th on the team’s all-time list and 15 behind Tommy John for 19th. Both would be within reach with one more season.
If passing Turley and John to move up to 19th on the all-time Yankees’ win list is no great incentive to keep Clemens around, perhaps moving up to 12th on the all-time list of wins is. And with another year, Clemens could leapfrog over several pitchers.
If he gets the projected five more wins this season, that would leave him with 309 for his career, passing the legendary Old Hoss Radbourn for 17th all-time. Right ahead, there for the taking, would be Tim Welch and Tom Seaver, tied for 15th at 311, Gaylord Perry at 14th with 314, Phil Niekro at 13 with 318 and Don Sutton at 12 with 321.
Passing Turley and John on the Yankees’ list, and Welch, Seaver, Perry, Niekro and Sutton on the all-time list might not be as high a priority for Clemens as spending time with his family. The YES Network’s Jim Kaat, who knows a thing or two about baseball longevity, thinks it isn’t and is among those who is convinced Clemens will retire after this season.
But, says Kaat, Roger has an out if he wants to take it.
“He can say he talked it over with his family and they urged him to play one more season,” Kaat said, adding he doubts that will happen.
“The real test for him will come around January and February, when normally he would start getting ready to go to spring training,” Kaat warned. “He’ll wake up one day and realize he won’t be doing something he’s done for almost 30 years, almost his entire adult life.”
What Clemens will miss most when he does leave, said Kaat, is the competition and the clubhouse, the camaraderie with his teammates.
Right now, it’s about 95 percent certain this will be Clemens’s last season and failing to win another World Series is not likely to have any bearing on that decision because Clemens has the World Series ring that had eluded him in his years with Boston and Toronto.
When the season ends, that percentage might drop the closer it gets to spring training. But it might not drop enough for Clemens to change his mind.
Will he or won’t he stick to his guns and walk away?
We may have to wait until February before even the Rocket, himself, knows for sure.
Acclaimed author and former Yankees beat writer Phil Pepe is a regular contributor to YES Network Online. His latest work is entitled "The Yankees: An Authorized History of the New York Yankees Centennial Edition," due to be released in November.