Jeez, people...get over it already:
Roger Clemens ended last season as a living legend in New York. On Tuesday, he became a rat.
And a turncoat.
And a traitor.
He did not simply become a former Yankee by signing to play for his hometown Astros.
He became an enemy of the state.
Part of me wants to shrug this all off as typical New York sports hyperbole, while the (admittedly) more dominant part wants to point and do the Nelson Muntz laugh.
"We figured him for a phony, fingered him as a fraud," wrote New York Post columnist Mike Vaccaro. "He wasn't going to be able to put his act over on us. Not on New York. We're too savvy, too smart. We saw him for what he was: a disingenuous double-talker who spoke poetically about wearing pinstripes but sure seemed a lot sweeter on George Steinbrenner's checkbook. You were slow to accept him, slower to embrace him.
"And you know what? We fell for it. Fans. Sportswriters. Yankee brass. We were the guy who's convinced that just because his beautiful date two-timed her last boyfriend, she'll never do it to him."
So any player who isn't DiMaggio, Mantle, or Jackson - who retires in a NY uniform and sings the organization's praises until his dying breath - is "disingenuous?" Forget being too savvy to see through Clemens' supposed duplicity, is Vaccaro really so naïve to think that no player in the Yankees' organization wears the pinstripes strictly for the money? How do you guys feel about Jason Giambi?
Then there's Mike Lupica:
"Clemens is who he is, loyal only to himself, and his family."
What a concept. Ask Lupica where the New York Daily News ranks in priority compared to his wife and kids.
This has less to do with Clemens wanting to pitch at home than it does those Yankees fans who are aghast that there are baseball players out there who simply don't want to play for the Yankees, no matter how much Steinbrenner dangles in front of them. And again, where's the hate for Pettitte, who by his own admission was the one who goaded Clemens into considering a return?
The way I see it, Yankee fans hated Clemens for 15 years while he was pitching for Boston and Toronto. The current vitriol just means that things are finally back to normal. All part of what makes sports fandom fun, I guess.
I know there are at least three of the Yankee faithful who read APCB. Thoughts?
I may not be one of the Yankee fans to whom you were referring, so up your count to four, but I too find it a little irritating that Clemens decided to "un-retire" for the Astros after all the hoopla at the end of last season.
I'm not calling him names, mind you, but it just rubbed me wrong.
However, I am happy for the Astros, and I'm glad he is going to get the chance to play at home. I suppose if there hadn't been so much talk about Clemens' "last pitch of his career," etc., it wouldn't matter to me if he had merely changed teams for his last year (or so) of baseball.
I was thinking of you in particular, Ms. Elizabeth.
Just waiting for Chuck and Brandon now.
I'm with Elizabeth. I'd feel the need to return all those lovely parting gifts he got from the Yankees now if I were him, assuming they'd take them back now. But in the end, I don't think it's a big deal. No hard feelings here. The New York media (and Mike Lupica in particular) are just way too precious for me sometimes.
I was a bit peeved at first, but mainly because Clemens un-retiring just served as a reminder that the Yanks let Pettite go, and if they had only made the effort to sign him like they promised, this wouldn't have happened. Not that it's a bad thing, I actually think it's cool. I can't blame Roger one bit for coming back, his best friend is pitching in their home state and he's still 'got game' himself, so why not? It will be exciting to watch the Astros next year (esp. come August when they visit Shea - will Roger pitch???), and I don't hold a grudge at all. If I was one of those guys who had bought some 'commemorative dirt' from Roger's last outing, yeah I'd be more than just peeved right now though. *snicker*
Some of these Yankee fans and media are making an embarassing spectacle out of it all, like we need another knock against us at this point!!
Also I was wrong the other day, Jeff Nelson signed with the Rangers, not the Astros.
if steinbrenner and the yankee fandom are pissed, I am happy. As a Red Sox fan living in the heart of Yankee country its actually heartening to see a guy (well, two if you count Wells) blow of the aura of the Yankees.
Clemens himself is a twit -- he jobbed the Red Sox out of $40M in the mid-1990s when got fat, lazy and mediocre (41-40). He stole money from Red Sox nation and then turned it up a notch when he left.
So, NY gets what it deserves here. A soul-less baseball player leaves Yankee fans feeling duped. A perfect ending
You're making me glad I don't read the sports pages, Pete.