Clemens vs. Gooden--This Really Seems an All-Star Matchup

He returns to the city in which he was reared, to the stadium in which he would sit by the bullpen rail and listen to the explosive sound that Nolan Ryan’s warmup pitches made.

He returns to a family reunion staged around tonight’s 57th All-Star game in which he makes his debut as the American League’s starting pitcher.

Amid the air-conditioned fantasy of the Astrodome, the dream rolls on for Roger Clemens, who shook his head Monday and said:

“It seems like this is another page in what has been a storybook season for me and hopefully will continue to be for the Boston Red Sox.”

It is that and more, of course.

It is a pitching matchup that seems to rival any of the previous 56, as captivating, at least, as Gomez vs. Hubbell in ‘34, or Grove vs. Dean in ‘36, or Vander Meer vs. Gomez in ‘38, or Wyatt vs. Feller in ‘41, or Newhouser vs. Blackwell in ‘47, or Parnell vs. Spahn in ‘49, or McLain vs. Koufax in ‘66, or Palmer vs. Seaver in ‘70, or Palmer vs. Gibson in ‘72, or Palmer vs. Blue in ‘78, or Ryan vs. Carlton in ’79.

This is Clemens, Boston’s 23-year-old Lord of the Ks, vs. Dwight Gooden, the New York Mets’ 21-year-old Dr. K. This is heat that complements the Texas humidity and challenges the humility of the best hitters in baseball.

And it is still more, as Clemens noted.

“Maybe this is just a little preview of October,” he said, alluding to the possibility that his own Red Sox and Gooden’s Mets will meet in the more important World Series, setting up another confrontation between the flame-throwing young pitchers.

This is what Clemens, at least, is all about. He helped pitch Texas to the NCAA championship as a sophomore and helped pitch New Britain of the Double-A Eastern League to a championship in his first year as a pro.

“I like to get things done as quickly as I can,” he said Monday. “You can be a dog all season, but if you’re 2-10 and win one game in the World Series on national television, you’re a hero.

“You can go home and talk to the Chamber of Commerce. You can do the card shows and all that garbage for nothing. That’s what it’s all about.”

That, and the competitive challenge of this matchup with Gooden, which ABC (Channel 7) will televise at 5:30 p.m.

A capacity crowd is expected at the Astrodome, which is special to Gooden, too.

He made his major league debut here April 7, 1984, pitching five innings of a 3-2 win over the Astros.

Of course, the AL has trouble winning no matter who’s pitching or where the game is played.

The NL leads the series, 36-19-1, and has won 21 of the last 23 and 13 of the last 14, a seemingly inexplicable dominance.

Said Whitey Herzog, the NL manager:

“I want to win because I’m the only National League manager to have lost in about the last 12 years.”

That was at Chicago in 1983. Herzog said his 1986 lineup would win 125 to 130 games over a 162-game season. It reads:

Tony Gwynn, left field; Ryne Sandberg, second base; Keith Hernandez, first base; Gary Carter, catcher; Darryl Strawberry, right field; Mike Schmidt, third base; Dale Murphy, center field; Ozzie Smith, shortstop, and Gooden, pitcher.

Then? Herzog seemed to say that the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela would follow Gooden. American League Manager Dick Howser was more definitive.

He plans to use Milwaukee screwball specialist Ted Higuera and Texas knuckleballer Charlie Hough after Clemens.

“I’d like for Clemens to be able to go nine,” Howser said, “but maybe we can get away with the three going three each.”

Howser’s lineup: Kirby Puckett, center field; Rickey Henderson, left field; Wade Boggs, third base; Lance Parrish, catcher; Wally Joyner, first base; Cal Ripken, shortstop; Dave Winfield, right field; Lou Whitaker, second base, and Clemens, pitcher.

There are 28 All-Stars on each team, but the Clemens-Gooden matchup was the Monday story.

Excited about it?

“I don’t see how you can expect our hitters to be excited about it. Dwight Gooden is no picnic,” catcher Parrish said.

“This is an All-Star game. It’s a special situation, especially for Roger (his first appearance).

“He’s probably going to be a couple of feet off the ground, and as hard as he’s capable of throwing, that’ll put another couple of feet on his fastball.

“As far as Gooden, everyone knows how hard he’s capable of throwing. I just hope I can make contact.”

Clemens is 15-2. He pitched a five-hitter to defeat the Angels Saturday after losing his previous two starts in the wake of a 14-game win streak, the AL’s fifth longest at the start of a season. He leads the league with 146 strikeouts in 145 innings, having walked only 35.

He said the possibility of pitching in his hometown in the All-Star game has been on his mind since the start of the season. He has purchased about 50 tickets for family and friends, this being the first time in four or five years, he said, that his three sisters and two brothers will all be at their suburban home.

Gooden, he said, enhances the situation.

“I’ve watched him on television as often as I can,” Clemens said, “and I don’t see how anyone can say he’s been struggling. It’s like when I lost those two in a row, the media seemed ready to panic. I don’t think that either Dwight or I have panicked.

“I think we’re both expecting to be successful again in the second half.”

In the meantime, there’s the matchup, which Clemens described as a great one.

“Of course, he’s had six days rest and I’ve had only two,” Clemens said, “so I won’t be doing anything crazy that would jeopardize the second half.

“But if I feel good,” he continued, “I’ll be bringing it up there in the high 90s (m.p.h.).

“The adrenaline will be pumping. And there’ll be a little more pressure and incentive for me because of my family, but that’s all part of it. The competitive challenge is what I like.”

The dream took shape as he watched his idol, Ryan, here.

Clemens himself has pitched only once in the Astrodome. He was drafted by the Mets while in junior college during the summer of ‘81, elicited what he described as an unsatisfactory bonus offer after an Astrodome tryout, then accepted a scholarship to Texas instead.

“Right now,” Clemens said of the Mets Monday, “it looks like it was their loss and not mine.”

The already pitching-rich Mets would now have both Clemens and Gooden, who was drafted a year later and comes up to his third All-Star game in three years with a 51-17 record, including 10-4 this year when a recent winless streak of three starts, the longest of his career, created panic in the New York media.

Gooden responded by pitching complete game wins over Chicago and Houston before working only four innings of a loss to Cincinnati Wednesday.

“When you pitch in New York and have had the type of success Dwight has,” teammate Strawberry said Monday, “10-4 isn’t good enough. This is the first time he’s had any kind of slump and he’s been trying a little too hard, which is normal for a young pitcher.

“This (the assignment tonight) might give him a chance to open up and turn it around.”

Gooden said he has been trying to adjust to adjusting hitters, working the corners more and changing speeds. He said he isn’t concerned with the media and merely laughs at the “What’s Up, Doc?” headlines in New York. And he said that he, too, is excited by tonight’s match-up, finding some of Clemens’ statistics “unbelievable. I mean, I thought I had done something when I struck out 16 in a game,” Gooden said. “Twenty is amazing.”

The numbers may be in the 90s tonight. Gooden smiled and said, “I don’t have to worry about Roger Clemens. My hitters do.”

THE STARTERS

THE FACTS

What: 57th All-Star game.

When: Tonight, 5:30 p.m.

Where: The Astrodome, Houston.

TV: Channels 7 and 10.

Radio: KNX 1070

Records: National League leads the series, 36-19-1.

Largest crowd: 72,086 at Cleveland in 1981.

Smallest crowd: 25,556 at Braves Field in Boston in 1936.

Most appearances: 24, Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.

Last year: The National League won, 6-1, at the Metrodome in Minnesota. Last year’s MVP: LaMarr Hoyt, San Diego, NL

THE STARTERS DWIGHT GOODEN

W L H BB SO ERA 10 4 106 44 101 2.77

ROGER CLEMENS

W L H BB SO ERA 15 2 97 35 146 2.48

AMERICAN LEAGUE STARTERS

AB R H HR RBI AVG Puckett, Min. cf 382 65 129 16 49 .338 Henderson, N.Y. lf 352 83 100 15 51 .284 Boggs, Bos. 3b 300 56 109 5 43 .363 Parrish, Det. c 297 48 74 21 59 .249 Joyner, Cal. 1b 348 55 109 20 72 .313 Ripken, Bal. ss 327 49 97 13 49 .297 Winfield, N.Y. rf 302 51 70 13 56 .232 Whitaker, Dt. 2b 324 53 86 12 38 .265

NATIONAL LEAGUE STARTERS

AB R H HR RBI AVG Gwynn, S.D. lf 343 59 117 9 36 .341 Sandberg, Chi. 2b 338 33 92 8 45 .272 Hernandez, N.Y. 1b 306 47 87 6 38 .284 Carter, N.Y. c 274 51 70 16 65 .255 Strawberry, N.Y. rf 255 47 76 13 46 .298 Schmidt, Phi. 3b 302 51 86 19 66 .285 Murphy, Atl. cf 322 57 88 14 36 .273 Smith, St.L. ss 282 32 79 0 27 .280