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Like most people do, I hate the New York Yankees. Steinbrenner, Jeter,
Williams, Posada, Rivera – all of them at one point or another incurred my
wrath as I watched them win World Series after World Series during the late
90’s. However, I think I’m not alone when I say my least favorite of the bunch
back then was Roger Clemens. Many things drove me nuts about the
Rocket – the way it appeared he stabbed Boston in the back, or the entire
Piazza/bat incident, or the way he was
Fast forward to January 2004. My favorite baseball team, the Houston
Astros, signs Yankee pitcher and Texan Andy Pettitte to a three-year
contract, the biggest free agent signing in the history of the franchise. We
were finally getting the guy who was going to show us how to win that long-
unreachable World Series title. Well sometime during the negotiations, the
rumor mill starts churning that the Astros, by signing Clemens’ best friend
Pettitte, might be able to swipe Roger out from
And how did I respond to this? I think my reaction was somewhere between
the joy of fatherhood and the thrill of winning my fantasy football league
(both of which I will hopefully experience someday). Suddenly Roger
Clemens was my hero. He sets up a plan where he doesn’t have to travel
with the team if he’s not pitching? Great – don’t make him ever pitch on the
road if he doesn’t want to! They could have given him his own jet and I’d
have offered to wash it by hand. The funny thing is that I never felt a
moment’s guilt about it, like it just felt so right that I never asked myself
questions like “Don’t you hate this guy?” or “Remember how much you used
to want to club him between the legs with a Nerf Crotchbat?” And with the
wonderful season the Astros ended up having last year, my entire
perception of the Rocket changed, and it seemed like his reputation
improved nationwide, too. The media started treating him like a beloved
veteran instead of a supervillain. In less than half a season he became the
face of the franchise on a team with classy veterans like Craig Biggio, Jeff
Bagwell, and Lance Berkman. He’s been a much-needed mentor for talented
young pitchers on the team like Roy Oswalt, Brad Lidge and Brandon
Backe. He also served as a great ambassador for baseball and for the city
of Houston as sort of the unofficial host of the 2004 All-Star festivities, doing
pretty much anything and everything that was asked of him. When the team
started slowly before catching fire both seasons of his tenure thus far (which
feels like 15 years), and he became the subject of trade whispers, both
times he put the kibosh down on the rumors himself, saying that he
understood why the Astros may would need to trade him but he loved
playing in his native Houston (where he can be near his kids) and that he
didn’t want to be traded. And with a 1.38 ERA as of now, he’s having
arguably the best season of his 22-year career.
That’s why I was so surprised a few months back when I was watching Roger
pitch on tv on a Sunday afternoon and my old roommate Lurch proclaims, “I
hate Roger Clemens.”
Huh? How dare you! How can you not love this man?! I was in a slight state
of shock, and all I could respond with was something like how I bet he’d like
him if he was on his team (which, by the way, is true, Lurch).
But all this got me thinking – the reason I was surprised at Lurch’s remark
was that, because I’d forgiven Roger for everything I’d ever hated him for, I
just figured everybody else had also. He seemed way more harmless as a
human being since he no longer donned the evil pinstripes of the Yankees,
and I thought he’d won the love of all baseball fans the world over. So while
Lurch was still carrying a grudge from the Clemens years of 1999-2003,
that's when the thought occurred to me - Did he ever really do anything so
bad to earn my distaste to begin with? What about the ill will he received
from others? And what about other people whom I’ve long considered
persona non grata? Could I forgive them too?
To look back at Roger’s career and the love-hate relationship he’s had with
the fans, not only with followers who have a vested interest in the teams he’s
been with but with all lovers of baseball, I can see some parallels with history
in my own life. Much the same way that Red Sox fans hated the way he
exited Boston, whether they were on his side or that of GM Dan Duquette
(who believed Roger was washed up – in 1996), there have been friends
I've bitterly lost over the years that I hated to lose but I knew the situation
called for it and that I could never have anything to do with them again, for
my own sake. In 1997 he went to Toronto and won two Cy Young Awards in
two seasons (but not much else) – eerily reminiscent of girls throughout the
years who were with guys I believed sucked,
But time heals many wounds. If I saw the ex-friends I severed ties with long
ago, it couldn’t be like it used to be, but I like to think we’d shake hands and
wish each other well. If those girls wanted those inferior guys instead of me,
then I’m fine, because if they had standards that low, then I didn’t really want
to be with them anyway. And those punks I hated back in the day, I should
give them a break as well, because I wouldn’t want people to base their
whole opinion of me on what I was when I was 14 years old. Chances are
they’ve changed, as have I, and we could probably even get along fine now.
So when looked at from that point of view, there are no good reasons for
fans of Boston, Toronto, or New York to still hate Roger Clemens. Neither
should fans impartial to those cities (me included) – he never did anything to
us or our teams. We should all just enjoy him for what he is now – a lock
Hall of Famer still demonstrating his greatness every five days for his
hometown squad, where he’s a natural fit, and the one place no one can
argue that he doesn’t belong. And we should all give up our anger and
frustration over things that are in the past, and probably weren’t as bad as
we remember them in the first place. Now, if I can just get Lurch on the right
track….
Anthony Elms
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