The gilded numbers on his Hall of Fame plaque will be magical now, his status as one of baseball's greatest pitchers confirmed forever. Roger Clemens became a 300-game winner last night at Yankee Stadium, and one milestone was not enough. Clemens also recorded his 4,000th strikeout.
Clemens had made three previous starts with a chance to win his 300th game, but he did not do it until the Yankees defeated the Cardinals, 5-2, last night in a constant rain. Clemens needed four strikeouts to reach 4,000, and he got them with his first four outs of the game. He added six more strikeouts, reminding everybody how he became a star in the first place.
"It's been a lot of hard work, and it's paid off," Clemens said. "I've been fortunate that I still have my fastball, and I've never wavered from that. I'm a power pitcher, and I enjoy that."
For 20 seasons — 13 with Boston, 2 with Toronto and the last 5 with the Yankees — the 40-year-old Clemens has been defined, and defined himself, by the strikeout. The first names of each of his four children begin with K, the scorecard designation for strikeout. Only two pitchers have more career strikeouts, and one of them, Nolan Ryan, was the last pitcher to win 300, in 1990. Clemens became the 21st to reach 300 victories, an achievement considered the ultimate barometer for sustained pitching greatness.
Clemens pitched six and two-thirds innings, allowing two runs on six hits and two walks. Chris Hammond recorded the last out of the seventh, Antonio Osuna worked a scoreless eighth and Mariano Rivera, the closer, retired the side in the ninth for the save.
Clemens watched the last out from the Yankees' dugout, seated next to Manager Joe Torre. When Miguel Cairo grounded out to first baseman Jason Giambi, Clemens embraced Torre and then the bench coach Don Zimmer.
The scoreboard flashed the names of the other 300-game winners and the sound system played Elton John's "Rocket Man" — Clemens's nickname — as Clemens bounded onto the field, hugging each teammate. There were tears in his eyes.
"He was so excited," Hammond said. "I don't know if he'd be human if he wasn't crying."
Clemens's wife, Debbie, soon came down from the stands, and their two youngest sons, Kacy and Kody, jumped into their father's arms. Then the boys raced to the mound, scooping dirt into plastic bags as a souvenir.
In the clubhouse, every locker had a T-shirt with a commemorative 300 Wins logo, the same design Clemens tried to wear on his glove during his first attempt to win his 300th 18 days earlier. That game, on Memorial Day, began a four-start, three-city saga that finally concluded at the Stadium.
"I really wanted to do it here," Clemens said. "That's why I signed back here."
Clemens returned to the Yankees last winter and pledged that it would be his last season. After last night's game, with his wife, sons, sister and in-laws seated to his right, he was definitive: he will retire after this season and go home to Houston. "I'm not coming back," Clemens said, looking to his wife.
"No, he's not," she said.
Instead of playing games, Clemens will be watching them. His two oldest sons are 16 and 15.
"I think he wants to come home and help the big boys, Koby and Kory," Debbie Clemens said. "I think they're all really looking forward to having him around. I told him he has a lot of bench time when he comes home. There's about 12 games a week."
For a few more months, Clemens is a Yankee, and he said nothing would change his routine. Within an hour of the end of the game, he told his wife that he would soon call his personal trainer to arrange this morning's workout. He will continue to motivate Andy Pettitte and the other pitchers.
"I'm not going to let my shoulders down now," Clemens said. "I'm going to be out here pushing Andy just as hard tomorrow."
Pettitte was one of the first teammates Clemens hugged on the bench after the last out. He had retreated to the clubhouse after being pulled, where he showered and shaved and received a pep talk from the principal owner, George Steinbrenner. Clemens said he was pacing in the ninth inning when he decided to put his uniform back on.
"I need to be down there, be with the guys," he told the trainers.
Clemens had reason to be nervous. He had left his last two starts as the potential winning pitcher, only to have the bullpen blow both leads. Last night, Clemens left with the Yankees ahead, 3-2, thanks to a home run by Ruben Sierra in the fourth inning.
When Cairo flied to center for the second out of the seventh, Clemens had thrown 120 pitches and knew he would be replaced. The sellout crowd of 55,214 booed Torre when he went to the mound and signaled for Hammond.
The TV cameras caught Debbie Clemens raising her arms and shrugging, and Clemens later joked that she owed Torre an apology. "I really like Rog to give up his own runs," she said. "I'd rather have that than a relief pitcher."
Protecting a one-run lead, Hammond allowed a bunt single, then another single. He said later that the pressure of the game felt like the World Series, but he escaped with a groundout by Jim Edmonds.
That preserved the lead and Clemens's fine pitching line. Torre said he had never been so impressed with Clemens, because of the weather, the unfamiliarity of the opponent, the close score and the pressure of going for his 300th victory at home.
"He probably pitched as good a game as he's ever pitched, because of the circumstances," Torre said.
Clemens struck out the side in the first, retiring Cairo, J. D. Drew and Albert Pujols. He used a split-fingered fastball on Pujols to record his 3,999th career strikeout.
In the second, Edgar Renteria fouled off two pitches with two strikes and took three balls. On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Clemens blew him away with a 94 mile-an-hour fastball, and Posada rushed to the mound to present him the ball. Clemens shook Posada's hand and patted him on the helmet, and a bat boy took the ball.
The crowd stood and cheered for Clemens, who joined Ryan and Steve Carlton as the only pitchers with 4,000 strikeouts.
The fans stayed to cheer for Tino Martinez, the next batter, who was returning to Yankee Stadium for the first time since leaving after the 2001 season.
"Tino stepped out for me, and I stepped off the mound to welcome him back," Clemens said. "I thought that was really cool."
Clemens used the word cool several times after the game. He has never seemed bothered by the continuing spectacle of 300, enjoying the time with his family, the support of the crowds, even thanking the news media for their coverage.
He will watch the tape of this game someday, Clemens said, when he has time to reflect on what it all meant. His wife already knows.
"I really believe he has a true love for this game," Debbie Clemens
said. "Most people get bored after 10 years and after achieving things. He
never has ever done that."
By Tyler Kepner of The New York Times.
This article appeared in The New York Times of June 14, 2003.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company.