Clemens Returns Again (Split from NYC's Weaker Sisters)

[Guest Edgy DC]

If Kay can convince Clemens that 161st Street and River Bronx Avenue is Broadway, maybe they're only telling him they're paying him $20 million, and are in fact paying him 20 million lira or something.

[soupcan]

iramets wrote: This is great even w/o the risk factor. As I like to observe about elderly pitchers, sometimes the best 41 y o pitcher just can't get anyone out at age 42. Just happens. Happened to Spahn, happened to Carlton, it's happening right now to Randy Johnson. Can't wait for Clemens to suck, and take the Yankees with him.

I totally agree. At some point Clemens IS going to start pitching like the mid-40's fat guy that he is. I hope to pieces that that time has come.

The stumbling, bumbling, pitching starved Yankees give a a prorated $28 million dollar deal (and don't forget the luxury tax penalty) to a 45 year-old pitcher who then goes out and pitches like he's 45? A Yankee hater couldn't ask for more.

[metirish]

MFY @ Boston on June 1st for a three game series....did you hear Clemens talk about the conversation he had with Steinbrenner during spring training,anyway he said it tugged at his heartstrings and that helped get this deal done.

[soupcan]

Did he say heartstrings or pursestrings?

[Guest Edgy DC]

OK, I'm jumping in with a prediction: 6-9, 4.46.

[metirish]

Edgy DC wrote: OK, I'm jumping in with a prediction: 6-9, 4.46.

I'll go with a torn hammy and a 1 - 4 record - ERA over 5..

am I being too greedy......

It's worth noting that Clemens averaged less than six innings per start last year for Houston.

[Guest Rotblatt]

]OK, I'm jumping in with a prediction: 6-9, 4.46.

Sounds plausible. Kind of perfect, in fact, so I might steal it as my own. And here's my prediction for the post season: 0-2, 5.83.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

The ideal post-season would have Clemens at home in Texas from the very beginning.

[Farmer Ted]

My prediction is he tweaks a muscle, spends time on the DL, can't do much more than pitch out the pen, then gets exposed in the Mitchell investigation.

[Willets Point]

First Wang's near-perfect game, now this. This is the point that will be looked back as the turnaround. Yankees' fans will rubbing this world series championship in our noses for decades to come.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I hope Houston and the Yankees see the awful precedent they've set with allowing star pitchers to stay home if they're not pitching.

Twenty years from now, maybe no starters will be showing up on their off days once they've reached free agent eligibility, and we'll be speaking of those that do show up once in between starts for a bullpen session as "old school."

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

That's very possible.

I don't think that would apply to ALL free agent pitchers, though. Just the elite ones.

If things unfold as you predict, a guy like Barry Zito would get that option from the Giants, but Steve Trachsel wouldn't get that from the Orioles. Trachsel was a beggar, Zito a chooser.

[Centerfield]

Rotblatt wrote: ]OK, I'm jumping in with a prediction: 6-9, 4.46. Sounds plausible. Kind of perfect, in fact, so I might steal it as my own. And here's my prediction for the post season: 0-2, 5.83.

What post-season?

[Guest Edgy DC]

So, pure speculation here, but anybody else see the retiring/unretiring cycle as a convenient way to avoid testing until traces of performance enhancing drugs are out of his system?

[Willets Point]

Memories of one of Clemens' previous retirements from the archives

]Centerfield Mar 17 2006 10:33 AM USA LOSES AS JETER FAILS TO DO EVERYTHING IT TAKES TO WIN By Centerfield CPF News ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Roger Clemens was looking for a much better finish to his brilliant career. Instead, the Rocket Man choked yet again in a big spot, taking the loss as Oliver Perez and seven relievers combined to pitch a three-hitter to lead Mexico past the Rocket and Team USA 2-1 on Thursday night, eliminating the Americans from the inaugural World Baseball Classic and putting Japan in the semifinals. Clemens pitched well (for a choker) Thursday night, but the bats couldn�t get the job done for the United States. A lineup loaded with All-Stars such as Alex Rodriguez, Chipper Jones and Ken Griffey Jr. managed just three hits against the gritty Mexican pitchers. Despite the poor offensive showing, the consensus in Anaheim was that this loss rested squarely on the shoulders of Derek Jeter. �Derek usually does everything it takes to win,� Team USA manager Buck Martinez said. �Tonight, he didn�t play the game the way it�s supposed to be played. It�s a shame...you see what can happen.� Despite batting .450 in the World Baseball Classic, Jeter�s TTRM (Things That Really Matter) numbers took a huge nosedive during this tournament. Jeter was 0 for 11 in Little Things that Constitute the Difference Between Winning and Losing, batted .043 in At-Bats that Really Matter and failed to record a single Important Nuance that Doesn�t Show Up in the Box Score. �I knew it was going to be tough,� said Jeter. �The other countries play a high level of baseball and, you know, we have A-Rod.� �With my heart and my determination, I can usually will my team to victory by simply refusing to lose. Tonight, I don�t know, I just didn't feel very adamant.� Jeter added that he wished he could have given Clemens a better finale. �I wish we could have ended his career on a better note. I�ll try to make it up to him next time he retires.� When it was over, Clemens talked about his final outing. "They were tough. And when they started hitting the ball, there were no other objects around the mound for me to hurl at them. I�m not happy we lost, but since we only scored one run and since I wasn�t actually on the mound when the go-ahead run scored, I think people should blame my teammates and not me.� Asked about his retirement, Clemens responded, �For me, right now, it's goodbye." The game was not without controversy. Mexico took a 1-0 lead off Clemens in the third on a leadoff double by Mario Valenzuela and a two-out single by Jorge Cantu. But it wasn't that simple. A television replay showed Valenzuela's fly ball hit the right field foul pole at least 10 feet off the ground and bounced back onto the field. However, first base umpire Bob Davidson didn't see it that way, and Valenzuela wound up at second. It was Davidson, umpiring behind the plate, who ruled that Japan's Tsuyoshi Nishioka left third base early in the eighth inning Sunday to negate a sacrifice fly that would have snapped a 3-3 tie in a game Team USA won. Asked about the call afterwards, an irritated Davidson responded, �Why are you asking me about these calls? Ask Buck...he�s the one who tells me what to say.� With the United States loss, Japan, which has already lost twice to Korea in the Classic, faces its archrival in Saturday's second semifinal game in San Diego, with the Dominican Republic meeting Cuba in the daytime opener. The winners play Monday for the championship.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm splitting.

[metirish]

] Jeter added that he wished he could have given Clemens a better finale. �I wish we could have ended his career on a better note. I�ll try to make it up to him next time he retires.� When it was over, Clemens talked about his final outing. "They were tough. And when they started hitting the ball, there were no other objects around the mound for me to hurl at them. I�m not happy we lost, but since we only scored one run and since I wasn�t actually on the mound when the go-ahead run scored, I think people should blame my teammates and not me.� Asked about his retirement, Clemens responded, �For me, right now, it's goodbye."

So great that we have archives...to me that's even funnier today than back then.

[Willets Point]

Edgy DC wrote: I'm splitting.

I first thought you were splitting with laughter. Good idea though, I was considering the same thing.

[Guest iramets]

Willets Point wrote: ="Edgy DC"]I'm splitting. I first thought you were splitting with laughter. Good idea though, I was considering the same thing.

Admin humor.

[nymr83]

Clemens prediction: 20 starts, 8-6, 3.90, 123 IP, 105 K

[Guest silverdsl]

Edgy DC wrote: So, pure speculation here, but anybody else see the retiring/unretiring cycle as a convenient way to avoid testing until traces of performance enhancing drugs are out of his system?

I've wondered about the same myself.

I don't like Clemens.
I don't like the Yankees throwing $28 million at a pitcher of his age no matter how great he's been and how desperate their pitching woes are.
I don't like the special treatment Clemens is going to get with the skipping road trips if he's so inclined.
I don't like the way fans are thinking he's going to save the season before he's even pitched a game because I think it could lead to expectations that Clemens won't be able to live up to now that he's back in the AL.
In spite of how much I dislike Clemens, I'll cheer for him just as much as any other player if he helps the Yankees win.

[metirish]

Fair play to Tim McCarver,and Michael Kay should really grow up......

] Clemens' story has hollow ring 28 million reasons not to believe him By BOB RAISSMAN DAILY NEWS SPORTS COLUMNIST It was the sound bite, the Roger Clemens quote designed to explain why he so graciously accepted all that loot - the prorated salary of $28 million - from George Steinbrenner. "I've come back to do what they only know how to do here with the Yankees," Clemens said Sunday shortly after his Bronx coronation. "And that's win a championship." These words inspire some Yankees fans, and other assorted Clemens groupies such as Ma and Pa Pinstripe, aka Suzyn Waldman and John Sterling, but they ring hollow to others who refer to The Rocket as The Phony. That's basically the characterization Fox's Tim McCarver presented Saturday, the day before Clemens stepped out on The Boss' balcony and announced his decision to embrace the title of America's Highest Paid Part-time Worker. In the bottom of the fourth (Mariners-Yankees), McCarver said winning a title was not Clemens' primary motivation for returning. "I have been skeptical when Roger Clemens says he wants another World Series ring," McCarver told play-by-play man Joe Buck. "If he really wanted a World Series ring he would've chosen the best club, before spring training started, and been with that club at the beginning of the season so he could do something about it." McCarver continued, saying Clemens' line about wanting another title made absolutely no sense. "I mean what a gig, to show up in early June and, in Houston's case over the last few years for the most part, pitch in only home games where he could drive to work and not go on the road," McCarver said. "I mean I understand what his agents are saying. They're saying that money is no matter. Well, if that's the case, sign for nothing." There is reason for skepticism. Not only of Clemens' motives, but the lengths the Yankees have gone to sign him and spin the move. Considering T-Mac's take on Clemens, it's safe to say that unlike Michael Kay, the voice of Al Yankzeera, McCarver did not get "goose bumps" when Clemens made his Sunday stadium appearance. Yesterday, Kay, on his ESPN-1050 show, was extremely agitated over those criticizing him for waving pom-poms and saying the sight of Clemens in the Stadium gave him "goose bumps." Kay was also beside himself over anyone daring to think Clemens' Stadium coronation was both cheesy and ostentatious. "I did have goose bumps," Kay whined. "He (Clemens) is a decent dude. He treats me with respect." Clemens should. Kay has a well-documented history - only matched by Ma and Pa Pinstripe - of kissing Clemens' posterior on a regular basis. Nonetheless, even a Clemens bobo like Kay, who also is a paid employee of the Yankees, had serious issues with his buddy being able to come and go as he pleases, which GM Brian Cashman calls "The Family Plan." "Couldn't the Yankees have said, 'Roger, we're paying you 28 million dollars, can you please show up every day?'" Kay said. Stephen A. Smith, Kay's ESPN-1050 colleague, said Yankees brass "bent over" for Clemens by creating a separate set of rules. "It," Smith said, "is disgusting." On WFAN, Mike Francesa torched the Yankees for caving in to Clemens and reversing a team policy Joe Torre said would never change under his watch. "The Yankees sold their souls here. They said they would never do this," Francesa said. "You either have a team or you don't. The guy (Clemens) is bigger than the team now." The eventual outcome of this saga will be based on Clemens' pitching performance. Still, when a variety of mouths, who usually can't agree on anything, holds hands on one issue, it leaves the door open for anyone else questioning Yankee management's credibility. With FranDog yesterday, Cashman tried selling the notion that discussions about creating separate rules for Clemens commenced in December 2006. This is hard to believe. If the Yankees were in first place, does anyone in their right mind think Cashman, Torre & Co. would have given Clemens carte blanche? Also, the way Cashman kept telling FranDog to "ask Joe" how the players reacted when the manager asked them about letting Clemens come and go as he pleases, suggests this is all a highly orchestrated game of tush-covering. No one likes looking desperate. Now Cashman, Torre & Co. do. They all better hope McCarver is wrong. They better hope their 44-year-old pitching mercenary came to the Bronx to win a title. Not to pocket millions. And spend weekends with the family.

John Harper spinning things for the yankees...

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/col/harper/index.html

[Willets Point]

Wow, for once I agree with McCarver.

This term needs to enter the permanent lexicon when refering to Clemens: America's Highest Paid Part-time Worker.

[Frayed Knot]

The sad part in all this is Clemens trying to hide the part about allowing him to come and go as he pleases even though both Cashman and the agents openly admit that the lack of such a clause was absolutely a deal-breaker. Both sides have said publically that the Yanx refusal to grant him one last year was a big reason he spent last season in Houston and that the Yanx reversed their previously held policy on this months before the season started.

Then, during the various chats he had in the NYY booths following his 7th inning stretch-of-the-truth announcement, not one of the supposed media pros (Kay, Sterling, Waldman) even thought to ask him about that clause, instead leaving it up to that veteren of years of hard-bitten jounalism; Al Leiter. Roger side-stepped Leiter's question and then later at the post-game press conference insisted that he DIDN'T KNOW whether he had the ability to travel whenever he wanted, adding that; "I haven't read the contract"

[Guest iramets]

So he's a fucking liar, right?

[Centerfield]

I heard that he didn't read the contract because he crumpled it up and threw it at his agent thinking it was the ball.

[metirish]

iramets wrote: So he's a fucking liar, right?

That and a total wanker, wouldn't it be just great if by the time he's ready to pitch the yankees are nine or ten games out.

[Guest Iubitul]

Centerfield wrote: I heard that he didn't read the contract because he crumpled it up and threw it at his agent thinking it was the ball.

This one just bounced off the scoreboard in right-center....

[metirish]

A view from Britain,the fan comments are interesting.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/05/08/injuryplagued_yankees_add_a_28.html

[metsmarathon]

alex rodriguez wrote: so, about that tent...