Of all the players in baseball, is there anyone you can hate more than Roger Clemens? Barry Bonds, perhaps, but that's about it.
The Scumbag from Texas signed a pro-rated "minor-league" deal with the Yankees, worth approximately $4.5 million a month. If he were pitching an entire season, the deal would be worth $28 million. He'll be allowed to skip road trips when he's not scheduled to pitch (imagine the uproar if Pedro Martinez asked for that in his contract) and should be ready to go by late May or early June.
With Clemens spending the past few seasons in the NL, it's difficult for some fans to remember why he should be hated and despised. Here's a few reasons off the top of my head:
He asked out of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. We all remember Buckner, and Schiraldi, and Stanley, but people rarely talk about Clemens letting us down in the game.
He said he could never pitch against the Red Sox.
Before he left Boston, he seemed done. Everyone gets on Duquette for not re-signing him, pointing to his stats in Toronto, New York, and Houston as proof that it was a bad deal. However, it's strange that it was not until after he got snubbed by Duquette that he once again became an amazing pitcher.
He threw at Mike Piazza's forehead. I'm all for pitching inside, and I'm all for beaning hitters, especially if they've had success against you, but not in the head. You just don't do shit like that.
He threw a broken bat at Piazza.
He pussied out of a start at Shea Stadium where he'd have to bat against the Mets.
He claimed he was retiring, and accepted a Hummer from the City of New York as a retirement gift. He then came out of retirement with Houston and refused to give the Hummer back. I guess scraping by on MLB salary for 20 years has left him strapped for cash.
In the mid 1990s, he constantly came to Red Sox camp out of shape. It wasn't until he got snubbed that he got back to being a professional.
He spent his head-hunting days in the AL.
He was in negotiations with New York, Houston, and Boston about pitching this season, claiming a decision would be made by the 15th of May. Both the Red Sox and Astros were "surprised" by the speed of his decision.
This is a good pickup for the desperate Yankees. They need pitching. This is a good place for Clemens to go, he needs to have attention and be the hero. But this move doesn't put them over the top. They still need Pettitte and Wang to pitch well, and they need some contribution from their arsenal of mediocrity.
I wanted the Sox to get Clemens, but we didn't really need him, not as badly as the Yankees did. I don't feel like we've lost the bidding war to get Clemens, I simply feel like the Yankees wanted to win it more, understandably so.
He is supposed to return around late May or early June. The Sox and Yankees have a series in Fenway in the first week of June. I only hope that the Fenway Faithful remember how much of a scummer Clemens is and mercilessly boo The Mercenary.
