Green: Rocket’s career made for movies
On Oct. 7, 2007, the Yankees were down 2-0 to the Indians in the American League Division Series. Roger Clemens, who hadn’t pitched since mid-September, was set to take the hill for the Bombers. It had all the trappings of an historic moment. For a man who had already retired multiple times, this finally felt like the end. Here comes the old war horse, his team’s season on the line.
In fact, as my friend Nick pointed out on our blog, UmpBump.com, his situation was all too like that of Kevin Costner’s character in the movie “For the Love of the Game.” As Vin Scully, playing himself, put it: “After 19 years in the big leagues, 40-year-old Billy Chapel has trudged to the mound for over 4,000 innings. But tonight, he’s pitching against time; he’s pitching against the future, against age, against ending. Tonight, he will make the fateful walk to the loneliest spot in the world, the pitching mound at Yankee Stadium, to push the sun back into the sky and give us one more day of summer.”
The difference? Roger’s career was better than something Hollywood could dream up. At 45 years old, he’d weathered 23 years in the big leagues and racked up nearly 5,000 innings over 707 starts.
Of course, as anyone who’s seen the movie knows (and if you haven’t, I’m saving you two hours of your life that you’d never be able to get back), Billy Chapel goes on to pitch a perfect game. But that eerily warm October night in Yankee Stadium, Roger Clemens turned in just 2 1/3 innings, while giving up four hits, two walks and one home run. Though the aptly nicknamed Bombers slugged their way back for the win that night, it was clear that Roger’s $28 million season — and almost certainly his first-ballot Hall of Fame career — was over.
Next week, when Roger makes the fateful walk to Capitol Hill to the loneliest spot in the world — the congressional hot seat — and swears up and down that he never did steroids, he’ll try again to push the sun back into the sky. Isn’t that what the lawsuit and the “60 Minutes” interview were about? Giving himself one more day of summer? This is the man who fought off destiny to revive his career — perhaps with artificial help — time after time after time. But there can be no comeback now. Roger is learning the hard way that not all choices can be taken back.
So this is how it ends. After 4,672 career strike-outs, 354 wins, 46 shutouts and seven Cy Youngs, we get 2 1/3 innings pitched, a name named and a lawsuit. It’s a made-for-TV ending for a silver screen career.
Sarah Green is a freelance writer who can be reached at 
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