Boston's Best-Roger Clemens

Is was supposed to be over. Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Roger Clemens pitched for the Boston Red Sox. He was the best pitcher the team had. Maybe the best pitcher in the major leagues. "The Rocket" as he was known. Dwight Gooden’s post season pitching was in shambles. Clemens was the one that would bring the Red Sox that elusive victory. Clemens stood alone as the best. 

Late into Game 6, he had pitched multiple strikeouts. The Red Sox were winning. The Mets were deflated. The game was held at Shea Stadium and the crowd was low. The Mets couldn’t figure out how to beat this pitcher. Few in the major leagues could. 

Then the Red Sox took him out of the game. He pitched a great game and now it was up to the closing pitcher. This is normal. Clemens did the work, now it was just a few last batters to pitch to and go home. 

For the past few weeks of blogs and some twitter posts I did, you know that taking Clemens out was a bad move. 

Roger Clemens pitched for 24 seasons starting when he was 21 years (2 and a half months short of being 22 years old) and was a feared pitcher the entire time. He debuted on May 15, 1984. In 1986 he would strike out 20 Seattle batters in one game. His 1986 record was 24-4. Just 4 losses! That is unheard of! His ERA was 2.48. 

In his long storied career, he would win 354 games and pitch 4672 strikeouts. He would be a Cy Young Award winner 7 times. 

Clemens would remain a long time favorite in Boston. He did the athlete trope of retire then come back a year later, but it wasn’t the same thing. He even pitched for the New York Yankees. His last game was September 16, 2007. 

In the mid-2000's he got caught up in a performance enhancing scandal. This wouldn't tarnish his career because he had such an impressive start. 

This information came from wikipedia and baseball-reference.com