The Rocket Says Good-Bye

By Lou Parrotta

With the winter snows coming earlier than anyone would like, I long for baseball season to return.  I am warmed in this cold weather by the mere thought that pitchers and catchers report in about 75 days, and I could not be happier.  The sight of major leaguers donning their uniforms means that spring is in the air, and the national pastime is underway once again.

  Next season, though, there will be one major absence as far as players go.  Roger Clemens, "The Rocket," will not report to Florida for spring training.  No, he will remain in Texas with his wife and family and begin his next career - retirement.  It will be odd not to see Clemens on the mound, but he is 41 and he realizes it is better to go out on top of your game instead of fizzling out at the end.  I respect that, but I feel a look back on his Hall of Fame career is a must.

Clemens played for the Red Sox from 1984 until 1996, when General Manager Dan Duqette thought he was washed up and did not resign him.  The Blue Jays, capitalizing on Duquette's egregious mistake, signed him quickly.  After two seasons north of the border, Clemens was traded to the New York Yankees for David Wells and others.  He played in New York from 1999 until this year, his retirement year.

Here are some of his dozens of feats in no particular order: 6 Cy Young awards; 1 Most Valuable Player Award; 6-Time Earned Run Average Champion notching a 1.93 E.R.A. in 1990; 4-Time Wins leader in the American League; won 20 or more games 6 times; 5-time Strikeout Champion; struck out 200+ eleven times (with seven coming in a row and a career best 292 in 1997); and a 9-Time All Star.  He notched his 300th win and struck out his 4,000th batter both on the same day.  He finished his career with 310 regular season wins, 4,099 strikeouts, 117 complete games, and 46 shutouts.  His career E.R.A. was 3.19.  He struck out 20 batters in a 9-inning game not once but twice - once in 1986 and once ten years later in 1996.  Finally, in 1999, Clemens was voted as a member of the highly exclusive All-Century Team with other immortals such as Ted Williams, Hank Aaron and Jackie Robinson.

The Rocket's resume goes on and on.  These are just a few of the highlights of one of the greatest pitchers of all-time, and certainly the greatest one in my lifetime.  His impact on baseball was witnessed on a number of occasions this past year - his "farewell" tour.  During his last regular season game at Yankee Stadium on September 27, 2003, a game he won 6-2, Clemens struck out the last batter he faced in the seventh inning.  As he walked off the mound to go into the dugout, everyone in the stadium, including Mike Hargrove and his Baltimore Orioles gave him a thunderous ovation.  The same scene replayed itself the following month on October 22, in Florida during the World Series against the Marlins.  The outcome was drastically different as Clemens left the mound facing a loss.  It did not matter that to the Marlins fans or the Marlins and manager Jack McKeon for that matter that they were winning, as they gave this living legend a tremendous standing ovation.  McKeon, who has been around baseball forever, even took his hat off to Clemens.  It was a wonderful sight.

The Rocket will be missed and his intensity for the game will be hard to match in the future.  But, just as Clemens followed Bob Gibson, who followed Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, who followed Warren Spahn, etc., someone will come along to dominate once again. But, it will never be the same.  So long, Rocket!  You were one of a kind!