Clemen$

RO-GER, RO-GER, RO-GER!

Can you hear it now?

I had been formulating a post in my brain since the minute I heard the news of Roger Clemens going back to the Yankees, but I didn’t have time to pump it out.

Then, Ed beat me to the punch last night, so I was content to simply post a comment there. But, as I started writing, I realized there was no way I could express this as a comment, so I had to bang out this. I had to add a post to the Clemens fire in the Blogosphere.

I was listening to the Sox game on Sunday afternoon when Castiglione, or that new clown — not Dave O’Brien, the other guy — announced the Rocket made an appearance on the Yankee Stadium jumbotron. Ed and I had just taken in Spider-Man 3 and were headed back to his house for some beer and burgers, so when we stopped at a packy to pick up the beer we had a quick chat as we peeped our choice of brew.

We were traveling separately, so when I got out, the first words out of my mouth were to ask if he heard the news. As we walked thru the door, I followed up with a comment about Pettitte offering [insert disgusting reference here] to his buddy if he’d come to NYC. It actually wasn’t that disgusting, but it was offensive, and I’m not sure why I felt the need to be like that. I guess I was angry about the news and my inner Mullet came out.

I wasn’t angry that we didn’t get him. I didn’t want the Sox to overspend to get the guy, so I was a bit relieved that they didn’t. I was angry because I just knew Georgie Porgie overpaid the guy by ALOT to get him. The fact that there is no salary cap in baseball shouldn’t mean you can try to buy a championship, but it is what we have seen time again from that organization, and while it has been nice to see them continually fall on their faces trying it, it still makes me angry to think about it and it still isn’t right, right?

That still isn’t it though; still not why I felt angry. I didn’t realize why until later that night.

I was angry (not so much anymore) because the Roger Clemens I grew up watching was finally gone.

Well, what does that mean?

It means that he’s dead to me (or some such thing).

Sure, the guy wasn’t always the best guy, just like a lot of baseball’s best, but what he meant to the Red Sox as I grew up is gone. The fact that he was, and always will be, one of the best pitcher’s I’ll ever see in my lifetime won’t change, but I’ll no longer think back so fondly on that.

Look, we were all disappointed when he left town to be closer to home… you know, Toronto’s close to Houston, right? Hey, he took the money and ran, but we all thought he was in the “twilight of his career;” the Duke had us convinced, right? We could see with our own eyes he was no longer the same guy. Well, the money changed all that and suddenly he was winning Cy Young’s again and we started to root for him again, didn’t we?

Then, and I’m not sure why I feel the need to document the timeline here… really, but then, he got himself traded to the Yankees because he realized a ring might be more important than money. Everyone asked, why didn’t he think that before he went to Toronto, but hey isn’t NYC closer to Houston than Toronto? (I’m not sure that it is.) But, going to the Yankees means we could no longer root for him. Nope, it meant chants of RO-GER, RO-GER, RO-GER when he’d visit.

Anyway, flash forward to his retirement from the Yankees (happy days!) to pitch in the NL for the Houston Astros. Well, he finally made it home, all he had to do was retire. He’s seen some good years there and I was able to root for him again and forgive him somewhat for being a Yankee. Sure, he was taking some serious money to pitch in Houston, but they were giving it away and it was like part of their Marketing budget instead of payroll.

So, for the last bit of history, and this be recent, we knew it was going to come down to the Sox, Yankees or Astros when it came time for him to pitch; if he were even going to pitch. I had my odds on Houston. Why would he leave? Pitching in the NL is easier than the AL East, he’s home and the Astros figured to be as good or better than the previous year.

Then, the unexpected (every report I read said end of the month) announcement.

Forgive me… I’m getting to my point… I think. Yeah, I’ll just get to it already…

My point, which I lost, but have now found, is he’s gone. Wait, didn’t I already say that?

Yeah, I did, but I haven’t fully explained it, right?

I simply mean, that by choosing to go back to New York; to take all that money; to take the spotlight; to be away from home again; that he has finally lost any ounce of credibility that was left. Therefore, he’s now lost my respect and a lot of my admiration.

I’m not going to hate on the guy, but if I were to be at a Yankee game and he were pitching, he’d hear it from me. When he goes into the Hall of Fame, I now want him in there as a Yankee. He now stands for everything they do, good and bad. I’d argue he’s done nothing to merit that hat there as a Yankee other than to win the Series a few times, but all his greatest accomplishments came as a Red Sox. Leading them to the Series with an MVP and Cy Young in ’86. Two 20 strikeout games. These are things people remember him for, right?

Well, now I remember him for taking an insane amount of money to pitch part of a year for the Yankees and for boosting his ego as some self-appointed savior of the injury plagued Yankees.

Look, it’s not like Roger is going to be that key missing piece to win it all for them this year, but he does infuse a bit of hope and energy into an otherwise beaten down clubhouse in the Bronx, I’ll grant him that. But, he’s not doing it for them; he’s doing it for his own ego.

You know, it also gets the talking heads in NYC fired up again. I breezed thru some quotes the idiot Dirt Dog guy put together on the boston.com Sox blog and found it interesting that the one that struck me the most was from the reputable NY paper (and part Sox owner), the Times:

The Red Sox are not desperate for pitching; they have a pretty good starting rotation. They would have been happy to send Julián Tavárez back to the bullpen and give Clemens his spot in the rotation, but they are in first place and lead the Yankees by five and a half games. That position just might make them feel a little too good about themselves. Did someone say cocky?

I’m not suggesting their mind-set was ‘Who needs Roger Clemens?’ but maybe they weren’t prepared to pay the price. They had, remember, paid $51 million for the rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka, and maybe they just didn’t have a yen to pay for Clemens, too.

First, someone needs to smack that smug look off Chass’ face as he was typing that.

Second, I believe by the end of the season, time will have shown that D-Mat will have had a better time of pitching in the AL East (and AL in general) than Roger. In fact, I think that might be true of Tavarez and/or Jon Lester, the guy(s) he’d replace! I think the Rocket is in for a rude awakening when he finds out how much better the Blue Jays are now and that even the Devil Rays and Orioles are better than most of his former division.

I hope that comes true. I hope he fails during the season and tires down the stretch. This shiznit about him signing with NY because they’d let him pitch sooner is so much, well, what I already said. He’d be better off waiting. Both Boston and Houston wanted him for the playoffs, not June. They know he got tired late last year. He’ll be burned out *saving* the Yankees now, so that he can’t help them in the playoffs. Maybe they don’t care. Maybe they need him more now and they’ll deal with that later.

I’m with Ed, Chris and #38; I like out team as constituted now. Sure, it would have been sweet to see Clemens finish his career here by winning a Series with us, becoming the all-time club Wins leader and have #21 retired in right field, but that’s not going to happen. I’m okay with that.

This post isn’t sour grapes either. I’m not even angry anymore. I realized what it was and suddenly, I felt fine and I know time will tell what it will tell.

I can’t wait to hear the RO-GER, RO-GER, RO-GER chants again…