Clemens Delivers Final Example of His Brilliance on the Mound

They clapped for him. Then they cut his NY out.

They paid him homage with their weak swings, their wild swings, their mood swings. Then, when his shirt was changed and his back was turned, they sneaked in their biggest swing.

Marking what was probably the final appearance for one of baseball’s greatest pitchers ever Wednesday, the Florida Marlins presented Roger Clemens with a cruel and unusual retirement gift.

A solid gold watch-this-sucker.

A game-winning home run by .094-hitting Alex Gonzalez in the 12th inning. A Marlins’ 4-3 victory over Clemens’ New York Yankees. A World Series that is suddenly and dramatically tied at two games apiece.

It was nearly half past midnight. Clemens was long since finished by then. But he had already captured the crowd, the magic, the moment.

In the squinting and stubbled end, when we had no right to expect it and no reason to imagine it, Clemens once again gave us more.

Racked around for three runs and exhausted by 42 pitches in the first inning Wednesday, he endured two more hours. Allowing nothing else.

“That’s been my makeup my entire career anyway,” Clemens said. “Fight and scratch even when I don’t have my good stuff.”

Then, facing Luis Castillo in the seventh, likely the final batter of his career, surrounded by the thousands of flashing camera lights, he battled him for nine pitches and five foul balls before striking him out. Looking. On a 94-mph fastball.

“It was quite amazing,” Clemens said.

Finally, moments later, when summoned by 65,000 Florida Marlins fans to the top dugout step in one of the most compelling curtain calls in World Series history, Clemens didn’t stop at the step.

He proceeded to the grass alongside the third base line, where everyone could see him.

He removed his cap and waved his arms, so everyone could feel him.

He beat his black glove on his gray-shirted chest, so everyone could understand him.

And they did, everyone standing and cheering, even the Marlins, Ivan Rodriguez and Jeff Conine standing on the diamond, slapping their hands to their gloves in appreciation.

“When you battle like I have over my career and you get the respect of your peers, that’s all you can ask for,” Clemens said later. “I wanted to make sure that I tipped my cap back to them.”

It was a numbing scene, this visiting player, his team trailing, his night finished, awash in the affection of hostile thousands.

“At that point, everything seemed to slow down,” Clemens said.

Everything but the heart.

Said Yankee Manager Joe Torre: “When I see Pudge standing at home plate, applauding, I thought that was ... memorable.”

Said Marlin Manager Jack McKeon: “It was a very touching moment.”

Overcome with emotion, Clemens said he retired to Torre’s office to collect his thoughts before rejoining his team on the bench. They were in a 3-1 hole. They tied the game in the top of the ninth.

He screamed with the rest of them. It ultimately didn’t work.

After 20 years, 310 victories, 4,099 strikeouts, a half-dozen Cy Young Awards and unmatched respect, Roger Clemens is finished.

Or is he?

If this suddenly nutty series goes to Game 7, who knows, they may need him to come out of the bullpen and buzz somebody’s chin.

Clemens did that Wednesday night, of course

In the first inning, third batter, Rodriguez. Clemens threw a fastball that tickled his nose hairs, forced him off the plate, then smirked.

After Rodriguez singled, Clemens did it again, this time to a kid who was 1 year old when Clemens made his major league debut. It was Miguel Cabrera. The kid was stunned, swung at the next two pitches. But the kid won with a two-run homer.

How much respect does Clemens have?

As the kid rounded the bases, he never even looked at the pitcher, much less posed or glared.

It looked as if Clemens wouldn’t get out of the first. But when he did, he dominated, throwing fewer pitches in the next four innings combined.

“You got to try and get stingy,” he said.

Stingy with everything but his effort, which we saw again and again Wednesday, from the way he lunged at every ball that was hit near the mound to the way he collected his hit.

That’s right, his first -- and last -- World Series hit, coming after he was badly fooled and down two strikes in the fifth. He broke his bat. He reached first base.

He was nearly beaned running to second on a double-play grounder, sliding only at the last second.

“I didn’t care if the ball hit [me] or not,” he said in typical Clemens fashion. “I kind of shut my eyes and just slid. You know, whatever.”

In honor of two decades of whatevers, Rodriguez tapped Clemens on the leg during the pitcher’s first plate appearance.

“Nice career,” Rodriguez said.

“It’s been fun battling,” Clemens said.

Even more fun watching.

Later, at the end of what could be his final news conference as an active player, Clemens turned the microphone over to his young son Kacy.

“Thank you for watching over my dad for the last 40 years ... I mean 20 years,” he said, amid much laughter.

Actually, it seemed like 10 minutes. And the pleasure was all ours.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.