Beautiful, Chad. I knew you wouldn't disappoint me on this particular item. This is so perfectly stated.
Fat Billy makes the Yankees better, no question. But is his magic arm enough to dig them out of the hole they're in? That has yet to be seen. There's still a lot of baseball left and right now, as of this moment, I think the Sox are just fine. And you know what else is encouraging? The way the Sox players shrugged this matter off as no big deal:
Ortiz: "We’re fine. Having Clemens is a plus, but we don’t need pitching. They need it more than we do."
Varitek: "We’ve got to worry about us winning games. We can’t worry about what he’s doing now that that’s over with."
Beckett: "We’re doing OK right now, aren’t we?"
Youkilis: "He’s not pitching for Toronto, is he?" (This one's my favorite.)
Hopefully this doesn't look like false bravado in three months. But I love this team as is and I love its collective attitude. Let that greedy, egomaniacal jerk play in NY--it's where he belongs.
Any chance he hucks a chunk of a bat into the Sox dugout at Jon Lester because he originally planned to cop out of a humiliating defeat this year with "I left the game in the 2nd because I have anaplastic large cell lymphoma..."?
Clemens does help the Yankees, putting a big ol' patch on their biggest hole -- the rotation. They now have a chance of putting together a starting five that's good enough, given the potency of their offense, to carry them into the postseason.
A chance. That's all. Clemens is a 6-inning pitcher, heavily reliant on an already-overworked bullpen. Also, last year he faded toward the end; this year he's returning to action earlier, and is at least as likely to fade.
The Yankees still have a whole lot of questions: are Pettitte and Mussina anything more than average anymore? Is Wang for real? (Still an unresolved question in my mind.) Can they get anything at all out of Igawa and their young starters? And will their bullpen blow out because of overuse?
By itself, the Clemens move doesn't worry me. But if it's Step 1 in a larger plan... with step two being a midseason trade for Dontrelle Willis... then color me worried. With Clemens and WIllis in the Yanks' rotation, I'd have to give them the edge in the AL East.
I'm sad just for the fact this means Debbie Clemens won't be making any more Bedazzled-crap with a Sox logo. 
http://207.97.200.184/index.asp
Does Steinbrenner know that the Yankees signed Clemens?
I hope he's in the rotation to get shelled at Fenway the first weekend in June. Though something tells me he will "not quite be ready."
I also hope he comes back and gets nailed for whatever PED he's been using. That would be the icing...
As to his impact? He certainly helps the Yankees. Hell, Oil Can Boyd would help the Yankees at this point, but he doesn't by any means save them. The AL East ain't the NL Central—he won't be posting any sub-three ERAs here.
I don't get it - I wasn't in this part of the country back when it happened - but didn't the Sox jettison Clemens back in the day, not the other way around? Why should he owe Boston any loyalty? Not being snarky (for once), just curious.
He went for the money. Is any one of us sincerely surprised? I would have been far more surprised if he had taken less money for sentimental reasons and come to Boston. He is no more nor less of a human being now than he was before the ridiculous sideshow at Yankee Stadium yesterday. Roger's white horse will pull up coming out of the gate, develop laminitis and will have to be put down. Please, please let us now put to rest any talk of retiring #21, or of him going into the HoF with a "B" on his cap.
He makes the Yankees' staff somewhat better, but I really would be worried as a Yankees fan if this is their piece de resistance to get them to the World Series. They are in serious need of starting help, middle relief help, and some help from the bench. Let's hope they don't catch on.
The Sox should now reissue #21 to someone else since Clemens has shown his ultimate colors. It would be sweet to see Beckett walk out onto the mound in Toronto tomorrow night wearing #21, the number he originally wanted when he joined the team.
It would be sweet to see Beckett walk out onto the mound in Toronto tomorrow night wearing #21, the number he originally wanted when he joined the team.
While I agree that'd be sweet in principle, that's not entirely true. Beckett wore #21 with the Marlins from '03-'05, but he wore #19 in the minors. (And highschool, I believe.) The only reason why he didn't wear it with the Marlins to begin with was because it was Lowell's number. So he started with #61, which is 19 upside down. I think he's quite fond of his current number.
Besides, if Beckett's 6-0 start this year is truly a precursor of things to come, he deserves to build a Sox legacy on his own number. He doesn't need to coast on the fumes of an egotistical, not-really-from-Texas mercenary. 
As someone who only became a Sox fan in 1996 I never got to see Clemens in his prime Sox years...but I always thought it was funny that in 1995 and 1996 he only won 10 games with an ERA of 4.18 and 3.63 respectively (both years where we missed out on the playoffs by less than a half dozen games). Suddenly he leaves and rediscovers his form - he so dogged his last couple of seasons with the Sox - no wonder Duquette wouldn't pay the big bucks...he would never have imagined that Clemens was holding anything back!
I'm soooo glad this annual pantomime had ended the way it has - maybe next year the idiots at the Globe won't be clamouring for us to sign him...do you think he and Damon will be roomies?
Best commentary I've seen so far - although maybe I'm just saying that because I couldn't agree with you more. I can't say I wanted to see him with the Yankees, because he *does* improve the team at least marginally. But now that it's done, I'm kinda glad. If only because it'll put an end to that sentimental pining that's been going on every year since he's started un-retiring.
well, as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. i can not wait for him to tear his hamstring, or pull his groin trying to beat the clock and join the rotation.
he has his reasons for joining the yankees,28 million of them prorated..holy sh**, this is the truest act of desperation.
if he really wanted to make a statement and pledge his miserable allegiance, he would have signed for 13 million, schillings salary.
all of this hoopla for a 6 inning,45yr old,in 3 months,20 starts,and maybe 140 innings PITCHER.
BRAVO NEW YORK....
The Texas Con-man strikes again. Good
luck $lemens. You are going to need it..
Anyone who is still shocked by a professional athlete "going for the money" is either 5 years old, recently lobotomized or just plain ignorant. When's the last time you turned down a job that paid twice what you make now for doing the same thing?
And rip the guy all you want, but if Clemens had come to the Sox, all we'd be reading about today was how Boston had locked up the AL East.
If we are going to securea deal with the devil, I would much rather have it with a 30 year old Randy Moss than with a 45 year old Roger Clemens.
Jeeze Chad go sip on a mochachino with a box of Tampax, and fire up the Desperate Houswives you have Tivo'd...
Your like a whiney exgirlfriend who wont stop leaving messages on my answering machine about how shes the better person..
Ive been married for 8 years and have three kids.. stop calling!!
Yankeez fanz R good at punktuayshun.
Clemens is a turd, everyone just needs to let it go. Its a good move for the MFY. They needed pitching, he's still good and we will still beat them this year. He would've disrupted a balanced clubhouse anyway, the guy is a prima donna.
Wow.
"He's always chased the money" - I hope the people who write this have never changed jobs in their lives to work elsewhere for more money or to be treated better. After all, baseball players do this for a career and a paycheck, not as a hobby.
I don't care how much money he has or makes. He was offered $10M plus incentives more than the Sox offered. Which one of you would be willing to turn down an offer from a rival company (where you enjoyed working in the past and had many friends) that would pay you $10M a year more than you are making now, and give you more incentives as well? Maybe a couple but honestly I wouldn't expect it to be very many. So why should we be upset at Clemens for not falling into that elite few?
I've been a Red Sox fan since '75 and would have loved to see Roger back. But we don't need him and he doesn't need us. We don't need to be sour about it though.
Why can't the media find fresher topics? This story is a broken record. Who cares about Roger Clemens.
You can blame the media for a lot of things, but not this, Hans. It's legitimate news.
Why refer to Clemens as a mercenary when the Sox are selling out the memory of the game by bastardizing the sanctity of the green monster? "Mr pot...meet Mr. kettle."
dburba, how can you ask, "...didn't the Sox jettison Clemens back in the day, not the other way around? Why should he owe Boston any loyalty? Not being snarky (for once), just curious", then "...rip the guy all you want, but if Clemens had come to the Sox, all we'd be reading about today was how Boston had locked up the AL East"?
A bit disingenuous, wouldn't you say?
As for "all we'd be reading about", it wouldn't be coming from most knowledgeable Red Sox fans. Rather, from the inimitably incompetent hacks that pass for sports columnists and sportswriters in most of the New England media, who seem to like to throw gas on fires, whip up a nasty froth from comments purposefully taken out of context, and inject themselves into almost every sports story.
Webmistress (hehe), I was simply asking what the root of the animosity towards Clemens is to begin with. Not being from New England, I don't know all the details, but I was under the impression the Sox let him go. So, again, what does he 'owe' them?
And perfectly knowledgeable Red Sox fans, if they are that, should stop pretending they didn't want Clemens. Guy's a great pitcher. It's bad for the Sox that he went to the Yankees.
Bastardizing the Green Monster? If by that you mean the seating, I'd say that's a major aesthetic improvement over the net. If mean the advertising, you might want to take a look at a few pictures of Fenway from 40, 50, and 60 years ago. It's nothing new.
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