On night of struggles, Rocket shows why he's special
Clemens perfect in April: 5-0 month a first in club history as Astros win 6-1
It was a victory for baseball's "Geritol Generation", as well as for those of us of similar vintage. Forty-one-year-old men are normally near a baseball diamond only if they are watching their son play a Little League game. For Clemens, a power pitcher if ever there was one, to be throwing as hard as he is and as well as he is...well, I'm not sure I have the words to describe it.
You think you can do it? Yeah, right. OK, Cy Young, let's have you try this experiment. Give yourself a few minutes to warm up first. Then walk to a mound, and have someone measure your pitches with a radar gun. Don't even try to keep up with Clemens (don't even worry about the strike zone). Just try to break 90 MPH. Once. If you can manage that, then try to do it consistently- say for 75-100 pitches over a three-hour period. For 99.9999% of us, our arm would be a numb and useles appendage. Speaking for myself, I'd have to learn how to be left-handed, because my right arm would be taped to my side to keep it from flopping around. That .0001%? Well, that would be Roger Clemens. To be able to do what he has done for as long as he has done it, and to still have a usable right arm, well, let's just say the man is a freak of nature.
Pitching involves a motion about as unnatural as there is in professional sports. To be able to do it in the way that Roger Clemens has for as long as he has is truly phenomenal- and the man can swing a bat as well. Not bad for a retired American League pitcher, eh??
