The Rocket Loses Some Firepower : Clemens’ Fastball and Popularity Are Not Up to Speed in Boston

It is sunny and Sunday, hot and humid, as Roger Clemens emerges from the Boston Red Sox dugout and slowly makes his way toward the bullpen. He is followed by low murmur, high indifference, sparse applause. Absent is the simmering anticipation, the excitement, the human electricity that a Clemens start used to generate. There isn’t even a group of half-lit, sun-baked crazies poised to slap homemade Ks up on the bleacher wall. But at least there is no booing.

When the Red Sox’s two-time Cy Young recipient was introduced on Opening Day in April, he was treated to an a cappella chorus of vilification the depths of which are usually reserved for someone wearing New York Yankee pinstripes. In an off-season television interview, Clemens made comments that were interpreted to be critical of the city of Boston.

Noses got out of joint, ire was raised. And no one can dish it out quite like the Boston faithful with a sense of mission. “They boo,” the dearly departed Bruce Hurst says comparing other fans, “but they don’t pass out doing it.”

Just three short seasons ago, Roger Clemens was the toast of Beantown. He set down 20 batters on strikes in one game, pitched the Red Sox into the World Series (24-4, 2.48 ERA, 238 strikeouts), was named American League and All-Star Game most valuable player and won the Cy Young Award. The following year he earned a second All-Star berth and another Cy Young (20-9, 2.97 ERA, 256 strikeouts).

Last season, Clemens was 15-5 (2.24 ERA) heading into August, cruising, it seemed, toward his third 20-victory season and yet another Cy for the mantle.

And then mortality set in.

Clemens went 0 for August (five losses, 7.33 ERA), finishing the season at 18-12, with a 4.82 ERA in his final 10 starts.

There was talk of injury, that his vaunted 95-plus-m.p.h fastball was lacking.

Some said his season changed after a late July game in Texas in which he threw 161 pitches in 101-degree heat.

There was mention of a lower-back injury he sustained at home when he had to twist and throw a rug he was lifting to avoid dropping it on his infant son.

In September, Clemens said he had “severe tendinitis” in his right shoulder that was related to the back injury.

But Red Sox physician Arthur Pappas said the shoulder was just sore and that the real problem was a muscle pull in the rib cage.

Everyone did agree that something was wrong.

“Guys were saying he wasn’t throwing as hard,” says Red Sox second baseman Marty Barrett. “When they got to second base, they would say he was just throwing 90, as opposed to his usual 95.”

But the pitch that earned Clemens such harsh treatment at the throats of the home folk came in an early December TV interview from his winter home in Texas. Said Clemens in part: “ . . . There are some things going on there in Boston making it a little bit tough as far as your family. . . . There’s too many obstacles there in Boston to be able to overcome. . . . There are a lot of things that are a disadvantage for a family there. I’m not going to specify it right here, but I know that a lot of the Red Sox people know about it, and I know everybody on our team knows about it.”

After the initial tabloid-led uproar, Clemens tried to clarify his remarks, claiming he had been talking about the Red Sox organization when he used the word “Boston.” He insisted he was referring to the facilities for players’ families at Fenway Park, the lack of a comfortable wives room, inadequate parking and poor security in the stands during games.

But the local media wasn’t buying.

Wrote one columnist: “ . . . I’m sure there are better places for the Clemens’ kids to play in Katy (Texas) than mine have on the Boston Common. . . . Perhaps Mrs. Clemens is dissatisfied with the spartan comforts of our public transportation system. You know, when she rides the subway, as I’m sure she does all the time.”

Added another: “And why can’t the Red Sox provide Mrs. Rocket with a cellular phone? What happens say, when she has to run out of the park because little Koby filled up his last diaper? . . . . “

“Those people wrote what they did because they wanted to get Roger,” says Clemens’ agent, Randy Hendricks. “It’s not like they didn’t understand what he had been trying to say. I think a number of them thought Roger was getting too big for his britches and decided they needed to teach him a lesson.

“People talk about New York, but Boston’s the worst place I’ve seen in 20 years in this business. There’s a strange combination of parochialism and worldliness. It’s not like I’m saying they’re dummies, it’s not like I’m saying they’re rubes, but . . . . “

In spite of the uproar, Clemens signed a three-year, $7.5-million contract with the Red Sox in the spring. But the security he secured has not translated into success. He is 11-8, with a 3.21 ERA and 150 strikeouts. Good numbers to be sure, but not for the man projected to be the premier pitcher of his era.

Nor has the long-term commitment Clemens made to Boston squared everything with the fans. They don’t “lose their breath” at the mention of his name anymore, and the romance has cooled.

So what about it, Roger? Roger? Roger?. . . .

That’s another thing. Clemens isn’t talking to the media this season, except on the days he pitches, and only about the game. In a second television interview six weeks after the first disaster, Clemens voiced anger at sports writers who had brought his family into the initial controversy.

“I don’t have a problem with someone writing or saying things about me,” Clemens said, “but when they start writing about my wife or kids, someone’s gonna get hurt ...”

“I asked Roger about that statement,” Hendricks says, “and he just kind of winked at me and said, ‘Maybe they (media people) need to think that for a change.’ It was almost as if to say, they always think they’re running the show. They think they’re immune from pressure. But he’s not gonna hurt anybody, that’s not his style.”

Yes, western civilization has witnessed more mature relationships.

To what extent the off-season flap has affected Clemens’ performance is unclear.

“Roger is a very tough guy mentally,” says Hendricks, “so I’d say he was hurt by what went on, but not wounded. I think his feelings were: If that’s what they think of me, fine. If they don’t want to try and understand after all the things I’ve done up there, OK.”

“I don’t know all of what happened with the fans in Boston,” says Charlie Maiorana, Clemens’ coach at Spring Hill High School in Houston. “But I do know that if somebody verbally attacks his family, he’s gonna take off on ‘em. I also know that Roger felt he had put everything on the line for Boston, and the reaction really hurt him. He took it personally.”

“What Roger said, he said from the heart,” says teammate Mike Greenwell, “and people took it the wrong way. It’s affected him. It goes to show how fast fans can turn on you. Say just one wrong thing and you’re a bad guy. And Roger’s a great guy. He was just trying to make things better for the team and better for the wives. And he did.”

Clemens, as usual, worked hard in the off-season.

“We have three major-league pitchers who work out here at the high school,” Maiorana says, “and they all have good work ethics. But Roger’s is far beyond anyone’s. Sometimes I have to go tell him that’s enough for today. Roger wants to be the best pitcher in baseball.”

Following the off-season, Clemens was pronounced fit and ready to resume firing in spring training, but

“The thing I’ve noticed since the All-Star break last season is that there is a difference in his velocity,” says Red Sox catcher Rick Cerone. “This year he’s shown signs of getting back to where he was early last season, but he’s still not throwing as hard as he was.

“But those things happen because you throw so many pitches. You reach back to get that 96-m.p.h heater and it’s not always there. But he knows how to pitch, and that’s what keeps him in games. His fastball has been around 90, and he may not think that’s good, but to me 90 m.p.h is plenty good enough.”

“He’s throwing more breaking balls than you’d like to see, because his fastball is still there,” says Red Sox General Manager Lou Gorman. “Some say it’s down to 91 or 92, but you’re not going to throw 95 all the time.”