The HOF cap will say NY

I really wanted Clemens to sign with the Red Sox.

Back in the pre-internet, pre-themediaisinsane days when E$PN was called ESPN and it covered more than two teams, Boston was like a foreign country to me. It was a time when girls wore leg warmers and boys looked like girls, Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were on our side, and Cindy Lauper was so unusual, George Michael had no police record, and Bono sported a mullet. It was pretty tough to follow the American League aside from reading the little blurbs in the Dayton Daily News on how each game went, and there was no such thing as FoK$ Saturday Yankees/Red Sox Game of the Week. I knew of Roger Clemens, but I didn't understand his significance. I didn't know he would go on to be one of the greatest pitchers of all time.

There isn't anything he hasn't done - 7 Cy Young Awards, an MVP, 4600+ strikeouts, 2 World Series rings and 3 other pennants, a .662 career winning percentage...

This should inspire awe in baseball fans (click to view):



The way the Bankees announced it was pretty awesome. Imagine being at that game, your pitching rotation in shambles, when the PA announcer tells you to direct your attention to the screen. There, standing in the press box, is a guy who pitched for your team when you basked in the glory of October, lighting the embers of your memories of your back to back World Series Championships. You cheer at the sight of him, in no way expecting what you are about to hear:

“Thank y’all. Well, they came and got me out of Texas, and I can tell you it’s a privilege to be back. I’ll be talking to y’all soon!”

The stadium erupts, and the kindling of hope that this disastrous season is not lost bursts into flames. (But what is hope, except a cruel, too often empty sentiment? Pandora should have kept the box open for Bankees fans.)

Those of us who have been able to see him pitch all of these years should consider ourselves lucky. Special treatment? So what. The guy is from another universe. He turns 45 in August. He should have retired a few years ago but teams keep begging him to come back. There are very few Roger Clemenses in the world. I hate the last two teams he's played for, but I find it pretty tough to root against him (unless he's playing the Reds, which he doesn't have to do this year barring an October miracle!)

And thank god the endless speculation is over. I was getting sick of it.

Oh, and this still isn't going to fix the Bankees woes.