Red Sox Fans Do Right Thing
With Ovation for Clemens
By JOHN FEINSTEIN
AOL Exclusive
There's so much wrong with sports nowadays that there are moments when it is easy to forget why we care about games and the people who play them in the first place. The list of crimes being committed -- some of them literally crimes -- by athletes and coaches and parents at every level of sports from pee-wee to the elite pros seems to be endless.
And then, once in a great while comes a moment when all of that goes away and we catch ourselves sitting there with a silly grin on our faces soaking something in that is sweet and genuine and brings us all back to why we started paying attention in the first place.
One of those moments happened Sunday in Fenway Park, on a spectacular late summer afternoon in the midst of a tension-filled series between two of sports' great and most tempestuous rivals, the Yankees and the Red Sox. This is a rivalry about two cities and two franchises with completely different histories and personalities bonded really by only one thing: dislike for one another.
The long-suffering fans in Boston find the rarely suffering fans in New York insufferable and arrogant, their feelings summed up best by one fan this past weekend who, using a line normally reserved for wealthy politicians, said of Yankee fans: "They're all born on third base and think they tripled."
Yankee fans DO look down their noses at Boston fans, their general approach being, "Rivalry, what rivalry? We've won TWENTY-SIX World Series since you last won one. The only things we know are guaranteed in our lives are death, taxes and the Red Sox fading in September or, occasionally, gagging in October."
They find it both amusing and annoying that every summer Red Sox fans insist on insisting, "This is our year, this is a different team." And their amusement makes those in Red Sox Nation crazy.
At the center of all this anger and angst the last few years has been Roger Clemens. For 13 years he was New England's MIA (Most Important Arm), the condition of his right arm being far more important than the condition of the economy. He got the Red Sox within two innings of a title in 1986 and into the playoffs four times in nine years. In all, he won 192 games between 1984 and 1996.
But he left town at the end of the 1996 season and signed with the Toronto Blue Jays. Some Red Sox fans choose to forget that it was general manager Dan Duquette who decided that Clemens, 34 and seemingly close to the end, wasn't worthy of a long-term contract.
Given that Clemens has won 114 games and three Cy Young Awards since Duquette made that decision, one would have to say he was wrong. Many of those same fans also forget that Clemens didn't choose to go to New York, he was traded there in the spring of 1999.
All they know is he became a Yankee, won two World Series titles wearing the hated pinstripes and declared his devotion to Yankeedom by saying he wanted to go into the Hall of Fame wearing a Yankees cap.
Clemens understood the booing he heard when he came back to Boston. Had he started his career in New York and ended up in Boston, he would have received the same treatment in New York. That's the way a rivalry works.
On Sunday, he pitched what will likely (barring a meeting in the playoffs) be his final game at Fenway. Fate being what it is, he walked to the mound looking for his 100th victory in the great old yard in the midst of another New York-Boston pennant race.
The game was vital for both teams: the Yankees had looked old and weary on Friday night in defeat and when the Red Sox jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning behind Pedro Martinez on Saturday, whispers of a sweep began to be heard in the Back Bay.
They didn't last long. The Yankees shelled Martinez and then their high-wire act bullpen barely hung on for a classic 10-7 victory, one of those four-hour games that leaves everyone watching drained and pleading for more. So the lead was 4 1/2 entering Sunday and the Red Sox dreams of cutting it to 1 1/2 with all sorts of momentum were gone. Still, a win over Clemens would leave them well within striking distance.
Clemens was far from great. He's 41 now and he knows his best moments are behind him. There would be plenty of money on the table if he wanted to pitch another year or two but he has his 300 wins and his World Series rings.
Most nights now he is a six, maybe seven-inning pitcher at best and he doesn't see any reason to hang around until he's a five-inning pitcher. So, this is it. The Yankees got him a lead early, built it to 8-2 in the seventh but there was still suspense because Clemens clearly wasn't going to finish, Mariano Rivera had thrown 40 pitches Saturday and the rest of the Yankee bullpen is about as reliable right now as an Enron financial statement. When Clemens loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh, Joe Torre knew he was done and went out to get him.
You sat and wondered: now that it was over, now that Clemens was departing that mound for the last time, how would the Boston fans react.
The answer came quickly: as soon as Clemens handed the ball to Torre and began trudging from the mound, Red Sox Nation was on its collective feet. It wasn't slow or grudging, it was gracious and it was, to get a bit corny, beautiful.
OK, they were saying, we gave you all the venom we had for seven years, but we haven't forgotten those 13 years or those 192 wins. You were a great Red Sox player and this is probably the last time we'll see you compete. This ovation is for you, Roger.
They were still on their feet cheering when Clemens reached the dugout. Maybe Clemens was surprised. Certainly, he was touched. Don Zimmer, who once managed in Boston but has now sat next to Torre during this latest Yankee stretch of championships, pointed Clemens back to the field. Clemens paused, wiped his face with a towel as if considering whether to go back out. Would the cheers continue?
Yes. He came back out. Not just for an instant, but for several. He took off his cap, looked around and said, "Thank you," several times, turning to look around at the packed stadium. It was one of those chill moments, where the hairs on your arms stand on end because you know you are seeing something extraordinary.
You knew that as soon as Antonio Osuna finished warming up and Bill Mueller stepped into the batter's box, every one of these fans would be pleading with the Red Sox to rally and take that 100th victory from Clemens' grasp. But not at this moment; right then and there, they said thank you to Clemens and he said thank you to them. He had produced for them, they produced for him.
No doubt there are some who would claim that Yankee fans wouldn't have done the same if it had been the other way around. I don't believe it. I think most fans are good fans and people who come to sports for the right reasons. The sickos and the morons who get more attention than they deserve are the exceptions, not the rules.
Yankee fans had the good taste to boo Armando Benitez even when he was a Yankee and lustily booed Roberto Alomar on behalf of Met fans last week. My guess is, when the day comes that Pedro Martinez or Nomar Garciaparra play their last games in Yankee Stadium, they will be cheered even though neither was ever a Yankee.
This has been a great baseball summer and it should be a super fall with no fewer than 17 teams still in legitimate contention for the playoffs in the one sport where making the playoffs still has actual meaning.
But when they put together the highlight reel for '03, even though there will be lots to choose from, it is difficult to believe they will find a better moment than late Sunday afternoon on the last day of August in Fenway Park when Red Sox fans said goodbye to Roger Clemens.
Every once in a while, sports get something exactly right. This was one of those times.
John Feinstein's column appears every Tuesday, exclusively on AOL Sports. |
