Pitchers Aspire To Clemens' High Standard
It seems a modern player doesn't get the credit he deserves until late in his career or after it is over. One example is Boston's Roger Clemens, who, if he continues at the same level for another decade or so, could be considered the greatest right-hander of all time, Nolan Ryan notwithstanding.
Since his breakthrough season in 1986 in which he was 24-4, had a 2.48 ERA, won the MVP and the Cy Young Award and struck out 20 Mariners in one game, Clemens has been the standard by which all other pitchers are measured. He has won three Cy Youngs, three ERA titles, two strikeout titles and 20 games three times.
He has a career 143-65 record (a .688 win percentage), a career 2.78 ERA, and 48 10-strikeout games. His ERA has been above 3.00 just one in his career, 3.13 in 1989. He has a 83-28 record in games started after a Red Sox loss.
Like Ryan, he's a dominant power pitcher, but Clemens has exceptional control. His career strikeout-to-walk ratio is 3.4-1 (1,752-509).
Clemens appears on his way to another 20-win season, the strikeout and ERA titles and a fourth Cy Young as he's currently in an exceptional groove. He is 9-4 with a 1.79 ERA but has won six of the past seven games, including two against the Mariners. In the six victories, he has a 0.90 ERA.
Yet he is still three months away from his 30th birthday.
RYAN: 0-FOR-'92 -- Nolan Ryan, who some consider the best right-hander ever, has yet to win a game for the Rangers in 1992. Three of his potential victories were blown by the Ranger bullpen. He also has spent time on the disabled list and since developed a slight groin pull.
He has not won in 11 starts, since Sept. 25, when he beat Seattle. You might think that, at age 45, he's losing it, but in his last start one fastball was clocked at 97 miles per hour.
Nevertheless, Ryan has accomplished at least one thing this season - he's the losingest pitcher this century. He lost his 280th game a week ago, breaking a tie with Hall of Famer Walter Johnson and putting him third on the all-time list behind Hall of Famers Cy Young (313) and Pud Galvin (309). However, both Young and Galvin lost some of their games in the 19th century.
RECORD PITCHERS -- Texas is on a pace to break one of the more cherished records in baseball - at least as far as Seattle is concerned. The Rangers already have used 21 pitchers. The record is 25 set by the one-year Seattle Pilots in 1969.
"I'm heartsick about this. It's the only record we set," said former Pilot pitcher Jim Bouton, the author of "Ball Four."
"What I remember about that team is always walking down to the hotel lobby to get on the bus and seeing a new guy sitting there. . . . You couldn't send your laundry out - because you might not be there to pick it up.
"You'd stand on the mound, look at somebody playing in the infield and say, `Who is that guy?' "
Of the 25 Pilot pitchers, 14 had losing records and 10 had earned-run averages ranging from 5.19 to 27.00.
"When a new guy came, there was an automatic perception that he was better than anyone else on the staff," Bouton said. "That lasted until the first time he pitched."
The Rangers, who made 10 roster moves just last week, could also eclipse the Pilots' record of 53 players used in a season.
TIANT'S TROUBLES -- Cuban pitching legend Luis Tiant is on the verge of losing his suburban Boston home.
Tiant, a pitching coach in the Los Angeles Dodgers' system, is behind on his mortgage and has to pay another $2,500 in back taxes. The family moved into the house in 1987. He took out a $225,000 adjustable-rate, 30-year mortgage and shortly later added a $21,000 second mortgage.
Real-estate prices have fallen so much in the East that he can't sell the home to recover his losses. According to a family friend, Tiant and his wife, Maria, and three children "will be out within days."
WHAT'S IN A NAME -- The Class A baseball team in Albany, Ga., has found one of the keys to succeeding in the minor leagues. The club learned that it's not so important what's on the field as what's on the uniform.
The South Atlantic League franchise, which moved from Sumter, S.C., this year, adopted Polecats as its nickname. The weasel-like creature, abundant in the area, is known for its particularly offensive scent glands.
So many fans from around the country have requested merchandise featuring the likeness of the smelly critter that the club cannot keep up with the orders.
The Polecats expect to make $75,000 in merchandise sales this season, which, by any minor-league measure, is a sweet smell of success.
QUOTABLES
-- "My biggest problem was, I was afraid I'd step on a mallard." - Texas left-fielder Kevin Reimer after a game in Yankee Stadium played in a downpour.
-- "I was rearranging some rakes." - Minnesota left-fielder Shane Mack, after chasing a double into the corner, crashing through a gate and winding up against the Metrodome's grounds-crew shack.
-- "Well, he won't have any trouble getting into Toronto - because his passport should be in order." - Texas Manager Bobby Valentine on recalled pitcher Danilo Leon, who pitched on three continents last year (in Italy, Mexico and Venezuela).
SHORT STOPS
-- Since Baltimore's Cal Ripken began his consecutive-games-played streak in 1982, major-league ballplayers have used the disabled list 2,858 times.
-- California pitcher Mark Langston was used as a pinch runner for Hubie Brooks Wednesday against Chicago. But the game went 12 innings and Langston had to bat twice. He was 0 for 2.
-- The Mets committed six errors Wednesday against Montreal to give them 46. It's still well short of Texas' folly - 59 in its first 62 games.
-- Toronto produced nine extra-base hits Wednesday against New York.
-- San Francisco's Dave Righetti appeared in 522 straight games as a reliever until his start Tuesday against Cincinnati. His last start was Sept. 16, 1983, when he was with the New York Yankees. He retired the first nine Reds and wound up giving up three hits and one run in five innings.
-- Montreal pitcher Ken Hill threw a one-hitter against the Mets Monday. The only hit was an infield single by Expos pitcher Anthony Young.
-- The Mets have been shut out nine times in their first 56 games. Cleveland has been shut out eight times in their first 56 games.
-- By midweek, Baltimore already had 35 victories, two more than it had at the All-Star break a year ago.
-- Cubs rookie Jim Bullinger Monday became the 10th pitcher in major-league history to hit a home run in his first time at-bat, against Cincinnati. He did it on the first pitch thrown to him. He's the second pitcher to do it this season. San Diego's Dave Eiland did it April 11.
-- One year ago this week, the Braves were 31-26 and the bullpen had a 4-6 record with 14 saves. At midweek this season, the bullpen has blown five of 16 save opportunities, lost 10 games and has an ERA above 4.00, second worst in baseball. The bullpen also has given up a league-high 20 home runs.
-- Boston closer Jeff Reardon, about to set the all-time record for saves with 342, holds or shares single-season saves records for three different teams: Montreal (41), Minnesota (42) and Boston (40).
-- Only one player since 1965 had more RBI than Baltimore's Brady Anderson's 39 after 54 games. That was 40 by Lou Brock in 1967.
-- Oakland's Dennis Eckersley allowed three runs in one appearance June 1. That was one more run than he'd allowed in April and May combined. It also was only the fourth time in 215 appearances in the last four years that Eckersley had given up more than two runs in a game.
-- Dodger Todd Benzinger has five grand slams in 48 career homers while Baltimore's Glenn Davis doesn't have any in 179 career home runs.
-- Mets' Eddie Murray hit his 16th grand slam last week, trailing only Lou Gehrig, Willie McCovey, Jimmie Foxx and Ted Williams.
-- Minnesota's Kirby Puckett hit two grand slams within six days after 5,100 at-bats without one.
-- Seattle's Kevin Mitchell hit his first slam during the past road trip, his first in 165 home runs. The M's pitching staff has given up five slams. The record is nine.
Bob Sherwin covers the Seattle Mariners and Major League Baseball for The Times. Also contributing: Knight-Ridder News Service, Sporting News, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Associated Press, Scripps Howard News Service.