Woah. If anything shocked me, this did. It completely blew me away.
For those of you with absolutely no media acess, Roger Clemens has been traded to the Yankees for Homer Bush, Graeme Lloyd, and (sob) Boomer Wells. I'm sure this raises many emotions in all of us, and I have to say my piece.
David Wells was certainly not the epitome of the Yankees this year. That goes to the driven warrior, Paul O'Neill, or perhaps hard-working, well-spoken David Cone. Yet he was a Yankee, the number one pitcher with his magical perfect game, and a sense of fun and desire that sparked all of us.
And what about Roger Clemens? With all of those Cy Youngs, he's gotta be worth it. He is a heck of a pitcher. But, as with Kenny Rogers, the personality fit is a gamble. To the other extreme.
Unlike Kenny Rogers, Clemens is cool, confident, and collected. But, when he's hit, as was demonstrated to the Yankees this past season, he can lose all that in an instant. Then he becomes the opposite of what the Yankees represent, a vengeful, wounded pitcher with the aim to nail someone in the back.
Yes, it's definitely a gamble. Brosius is too much a Yankee to bear a grudge against Clemens, but who can tell with Irabu? And frankly, I'd support our Japanesse friend. And although it's simply an opinion, I believe that Clemens is in it for the money. That is NOT the attittude of a ballplayer. And the Yankees are ballplayers.
A few months down the line, if it does work, and Clemens is helping us to another 125 wins, will I change my tune? Probably. I did that with Brosius and Martinez (Boggs and Donnie Baseball, respectively). And Clemens...well, 5 CY YOUNGS.
But I still feel so BAD for Wells.
At the ESPYs, he told us how he felt New York was his new home. He was, we said with pride, the Wild One we'd somehow managed to tame. To a point, of course. His shining accomplishment, his 'ultimate', took place in the pinstripes. A Yankee caught his final out, yankee teammates lifted him up on his shoulders. But he is no loner a Yankee.