{"id":134897,"date":"2020-10-13T12:08:08","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T20:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=134897"},"modified":"2020-10-13T12:08:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T20:08:08","slug":"the-rocket-that-fell-to-earth-roger-clemens-and-the-rage-for-baseball-immortality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=134897","title":{"rendered":"The Rocket That Fell to Earth: Roger Clemens and the Rage for Baseball Immortality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Pearlman writes in his 2009 book<\/a>:<\/p>\n

* To those who had come to know [John] McNamara during his time in Boston, the shifting of blame was hardly a surprise. Though popular with a handful of Red Sox veterans, the 54-year-old skipper was a guarded, crotchety man who trusted few people outside his tight ring of coaches and friends. Upon being hired by the Red Sox, McNamara McNamara owned a lifetime major league record of 751-805 and had been fired three times. He saw himself as one of the geniuses of the game, and anyone who dared question his moves or motives was, in his eyes, a buffoon. \u201cEverybody thinks he can do your job,\u201d he snarled. \u201cEverybody.\u201d So when the press asked about Clemens\u2019 departure from game six, what was he supposed to say? That he was wrong? No way. Not McNamara\u2019s style. He would blame his ace before taking any personal responsibility. Clemens was livid. \u201cDid McNamara tell you that he\u2019s a drunk?\u201d he later asked television announcer Tim McCarver in an unsubstantiated off-the-air rant. \u201cDid he tell you that he had the clubhouse guys fix him a drink in the fifth inning? That he was completely clueless?\u201d Upon reporting to spring training, Clemens\u2019 mood hardly improved. Because he had slightly more than two years of major league service, Clemens was required to pitch one more season before becoming eligible for arbitration. Hence, while Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, the MVP runner-up, was being awarded a $1.975 million salary via arbitration, Clemens was forced to accept Boston\u2019s offer of $500,000\u2014a mere $160,000 raise from 1986. \u201cWe decided to renew Roger\u2019s contract at a figure we think is fair,\u201d Lou Gorman, Boston\u2019s general manager, said at the time. \u201cThis is fair.\u201d <\/p>\n

What frustrated Clemens wasn\u2019t necessarily the paltry contract offer but that the Red Sox had lied to him. During the off-season, Clemens, his agents and Gorman had agreed to a one-year, $1 million contract that left all sides smiling. Yet when Peter Ueberroth, baseball\u2019s commissioner, learned of the agreement, he called Gorman in a tizzy. \u201cLou, I\u2019m reading that you\u2019re going to pay Roger Clemens $1 million,\u201d said Ueberroth. \u201cPlease tell me it\u2019s not true.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d said Gorman. \u201cI shook hands and made a deal with the man.\u201d A lengthy pause. \u201cWell, Lou, I\u2019m ordering you not to give him $1 million,\u201d said Ueberroth. \u201cYou can\u2019t pay him more than $500,000. Not a penny more.\u201d \u201cBut Pete,\u201d asked a stunned Gorman, \u201cwhat am I supposed to do here?\u201d Over the previous two years, baseball\u2019s ruling class had colluded to drive down wildly escalating salaries. <\/p>\n

* As Jordan would later write of Clemens in a piece for The New York Times Magazine: <\/p>\n

“A French dilettante once said, \u201cI am such an egotist that if I were to write about a chair I\u2019d find some way to write about myself.\u201d Clemens\u2019s egotism is more childlike and innocent. He doesn\u2019t realize that he sees himself as the center of his small universe, at the center of every story he tells\u2026 Everyone is a bit player in Clemens\u2019s universe, even his beloved mother, Bess, who reared him and his five siblings mostly without a father. She left her first husband when Clemens was a baby, and her second husband died when Clemens was 9. Bess has been fighting emphysema for years. \u201cShe has her good days and bad,\u201d Clemens says. \u201cI only hope she can hang on to see me go into the Hall of Fame.\u201d Clemens assumes everyone\u2019s pleasure revolves around him\u2026. He says he hates to miss a start because that might deprive his fans, especially young boys, from the pleasure of seeing \u201cthe Rocket Man punch out 20.\u201d The Rocket Man is his nickname. He sometimes autographs his book \u201cRocket Man\u201d or \u201cRoger \u2018The Rocket\u2019 Clemens\u201d and then adds a list of his awards.” <\/p>\n

When the Clemens family purchased a Porsche, Roger insisted on a CY-MVP vanity license plate. When Clemens ate out at a restaurant, he would look around, hoping someone would recognize him. (Then, when he was recognized, he would audibly complain about the lack of privacy.)<\/p>\n

* As the hundreds of major league ballplayers who turned to performance-enhancing drugs throughout the 1990s did their absolute best to keep the media at arm\u2019s length, Piazza took the opposite approach. According to several sources, when the subject of performance enhancing was broached with reporters he especially trusted, Piazza fessed up. \u201cSure, I use,\u201d he told one. \u201cBut in limited doses, and not all that often.\u201d (Piazza has denied using performance-enhancing drugs, but there has always been speculation.) Whether or not it was Piazza\u2019s intent, the tactic was brilliant: By letting the media know, off the record, Piazza made the information that much harder to report. Writers saw his bulging muscles, his acne-covered back. They certainly heard the under-the-breath comments from other major league players, some who considered Piazza\u2019s success to be 100 percent chemically delivered. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy who did it, and everybody knows it,\u201d says Reggie Jefferson, the longtime major league first baseman. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing how all these names, like Roger Clemens, are brought up, yet Mike Piazza goes untouched.\u201d \u201cThere was nothing more obvious than Mike on steroids,\u201d says another major league veteran who played against Piazza for years. \u201cEveryone talked about it, everyone knew it. Guys on my team, guys on the Mets. A lot of us came up playing against Mike, so we knew what he looked like back in the day. Frankly, he sucked on the field. Just sucked. After his body changed, he was entirely different. \u2018Power from nowhere,\u2019 we called it.\u201d When asked, on a scale of 1 to 10, to grade the odds that Piazza had used performance enhancers, the player doesn\u2019t pause. \u201cA 12,\u201d he says. \u201cMaybe even a 13.\u201d <\/p>\n

* Perhaps his strangest away-from-the-family pursuit came in the form of Charlize Theron, the bombshell South African actress with the 36B-24-36 body and the form-fitting red-carpet outfits. Clemens had long fancied the starlet, who during the 2002 season came to New York to promote a new film. While eating dinner at Serafina\u2014one of Manhattan\u2019s snazziest bistros\u2014an apparently intoxicated Clemens looked up and spotted his Hollywood crush. He approached the actress, introduced himself and asked whether she\u2019d like to join him for a drink. When Theron\u2014who, as a baseball ignoramus, likely had no idea who the pitcher was\u2014declined, Clemens trailed her through the restaurant until a bouncer stepped in his way. \u201cTake one more step,\u201d he growled, \u201cand there\u2019ll be some real trouble here.\u201d With that, Clemens stopped, looked up as Theron exited through the front door and yelped, \u201cBut Charlize, I\u2019d do you right\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n

* In the insular world of professional baseball, there exists a code of honor that, in any other sector of society, would make no sense whatsoever. On the diamonds and inside the clubhouses, loyalty means standing up for your teammates, no matter the circumstance. Boston outfielder Wil Cordero is arrested for beating his wife in 1997? He\u2019s welcomed back with hugs and open arms. Mets pitcher David Cone allegedly exposes himself to female fans in the Shea Stadium bullpen in 1989? Most Mets laugh it off as wacky hijinks. <\/p>\n

* The once-bashful kid now lived for the attention. He didn\u2019t merely want it\u2014he needed it. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about the ultimate narcissist,\u201d says Pat Jordan, the writer and former minor league pitcher. \u201cActors are fearful\u2014their narcissism is a product of their fear. But an athlete\u2019s narcissism doesn\u2019t spring from fear, it springs from arrested development. A person like Roger Clemens has never cultivated anything but himself. Everything is about the arm, about maintaining the arm. The longer it goes on, the easier it is to become a Roger Clemens. You constantly call attention upon yourself, because you\u2019re all you know. I used to be like that when I played, and I wasn\u2019t one one-thousandth of the pitcher Roger was. It took me a long time to get out of the idea that if it rains on my parade, I\u2019m the only one get<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff Pearlman writes in his 2009 book: * To those who had come to know [John] McNamara during his time in Boston, the shifting of blame was hardly a surprise. Though popular with a handful of Red Sox veterans, the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13539],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t