What baseball player is worth $18,000,000 for 4 months work? Michaelangelo wouldn't get 18 mil for a year today, even if he held out.
Intangible answer? The Yankees were at 9 1/2 back when Clemens made his first start. They are 6 back today. Was there some emotional shift in favor of the Yankees? Did the RedSox look up from their newspapers is a panic when Clemens signed on? Are the Yankee players winning one for the Clemmer?
No, no, and no.
Baseball is not a game of inspiration, unless the inspiration is a shared hatred. Irritable managers, bombastic owners, and detested opponents can cause a team to focus. The lift provided by a 44 year old pitcher is, at best, minimal.
Players, especially the jaded professionals on the Yankees roster, are not driven by emotion. The season is too long to rise and fall with every passing event or pull at the heart strings.
Picture ARod rallying the guys around and saying, "Hold on, boys, Roger Clemens is coming. Now there is hope!" It doesn't ring true. Johnny Damon tearing himself away from his mirror long enough to get excited about a change to 1/5th of the pitching rotation? Hard to imagine. Abreu begins hitting because of the Dayton Flyer? Sorry, I just don't buy it.
Then is Clemens making a difference when he takes the mound? Here is a stat for you. 5-8. That is the Yankee record with the Rocket on the mound. We don't have lift off.
To be fair, with a little luck along the way, the Bombers could have won 8 of those 13 game. But that is with every break going their way. Baseball fans know the game doesn't play out that way.
Ask the question another way. Could New York have won 8 of 13 with some other pitcher on the mound? Maybe not. But they could have won 7. And is one additional win worth the cost?
4-5 4.00 72 IP 71 H 49K 19 BB.
A 1.25 WHP in the hitter happy American League. It puts you in the top tier of the league's starting pitchers. But not the Top 5. Maybe not even the Top 10.
Along the way there have been some forgettable starts. A no strikeout 4-0 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. Let that sink in. The Baltimore Orioles. An inning and two thirds, nine run, debacle against the WhiteSox.
Three starts have been very good. Six innings of two hit ball against Toronto in Clemens last start. Back to back 8 inning, 1 run outings against Minnesota and Anaheim. But no big strikeout games. Alot of solid major league pitcher efforts, but no magic. No Roger Clemens games.
Baseball is about history and it's all been done before. Clemens in 2007 is Walter Johnson in 1925. The "Big Train" was still very good. 20-7 3.07. But in the World Series against the Pirates the fastball wasn't there, just the guile that came with 19 seasons.
It was cold, wet, and dreary at Forbes Field when Johnson went to the mound in Game 7 on October 15. And the newspaper accounts of the 9-7 Pittsburgh win grow even gloomier when they describe the valiant old war horse laboring against time and young bats. And losing.
Maybe none of this is the point. Maybe George Steinbrenner wanted Clemens to keep the Yankees at the top of the newspaper fold with the Mets. Maybe it was a knee jerk reaction to the RedSox signing Matsuzaki. Maybe it was just something to do when nothing else seemed to be working.
So Clemens wasn't worth it? Ninety-nine percent of you says no. But there is one percent that says wait. Wait until October. Wait until all the votes are in, the standings finalized, the playoffs set. Wait until the World Series. Wait until the last out.
The Yankees win the Series, Clemens wins two games, and it was all worth it. Anything less and the cost was too high. It's a desperate gamble, but it's Clemens and the Yankees to win. A fool's errand or a hero's grand finale.
(Houston GM Tim Papura) OK, $12 million, you report June 15th to a minor league delayed spring training assignment, no actual pitching until July 4th or later, your son will be called up in September, your wife flies free on Drayton's jet to all road games, you don't stay in the same hotel with the commoners, no interviews after games, you don't travel if you're not scheduled to pitch, and a bonus if you average six innings per start plus postseason incentives, which (furiously punching numbers on ThinkPad) should sit us at around $16 million.
(Clemens) "$16.32589 million. But's it not about the money. Remember, if we sign you will be required to inform the press that this wasn't about money."
(Papura) Ah, yes.
(Clemens) "Then there is the matter of your pants."
(Papura) My pants?
(Clemens) "Yes, give me your pants. And your wife's picture from your wallet. She's not bad."
(Papura) But, I can't walk out into the lobby without any pants.
(Clemens, sighing heavily) "But, Brian Cashman would give me his pants."
(Papura, unbuckling his pants) Well, at least we've got a deal...
(Clemens) "Well, it's a framework that we can lead to talks about a deal. I'm far from making a decision.
(Papura) So, I can keep my pants?
(Clemens) "Oh, no, I'll be taking the pants. What are you driving these days?"
(Papura) A Lexus, why?
(Clemens) "Think someone can pick you up? I'll be taking your keys."
(Papura) How will I get home?
(Clemens) "Theo Epstein didn't expect me to figure out his personal affairs and I had just hoped you'd be willing to extend the same courtesy the RedSox..."
(Papura) OK, OK...just so we have the framework within which you might consider at some point contemplating whether you wanted to offer us the option of coming up with an initial proposal, subject to counter offers and clarifications, that you could share with the RedSox and Yankees and possibly permit us to increase.
(Clemens) "Not necessarily..."
(Papura) Why not? There's no obligation.
(Clemens) "I know that, it's just we haven't touched on the substantive issues. My new Hummer, the agreement on the separate lockeroom and shower, the provision about not working out with the team on days of the week ending in the letter "y", the size of my picture on the cover of the team yearbook, my special dietary needs, workout facilities, manicure, pedicure, and penalty provisions for games in which the guys don't get me five runs or more."
(Papura, becoming angry) Will you be needing a throne and servants to carry you to and from the lockeroom?
(Clemens, taking blueprints from a servant) "It's a relatively simple chair with orange silk covering, jewel encrusted fabric stays, and gold embossed carrying sticks. We can talk about the height and ethnic compsition of the bearers later. These are just the normal details, things the RedSox and Yankees already had considered. You really don't seem to be very well prepared."
(Papura) Where do I sign, just tell me where I sign. You can have it all. Just please let me sign.
(Clemens) "Say, that's a nice pen you got there..."
