Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Thursday, October 28, 1999

Rocket finally
gets his ring

FINALLY, a ring for Roger. In pitching the New York Yankees to a four-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves, Roger Clemens finally got his wish - a World Series championship ring.

He has now done it all. Not that he needs any more credentials to make it into the baseball Hall of Fame. Five Cy Young Awards should be more than enough.

But a World Series championship ring was one jewel missing in his illustrious career. And he got it in the most satisfying way, by winning the World Series clincher.

Oh, did I say it was also his very first World Series victory?

No wonder he was out there in the middle of a wild celebration at Yankee Stadium with his pinstriped teammates.

Of course, Boston Red Sox fans will never forgive Clemens, the winningest pitcher at Fenway Park. As good as he is, Pedro Martinez will never match the number of games Clemens won at Fenway.

So it might be galling for a lot of Boston fans to see their former Red Sox hero pitching the hated Yankees to yet another World Series championship.

But it was a personal thing for Clemens, who knew he would never get a ring playing for the Red Sox.

So he had to go to New York, New York, where else?

And where else but at Yankee Stadium, baseball's greatest stage.

I mean, if you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere.

CLEMENS will be the first to tell you that he is indeed lucky to be a Yankee.

Playing for a winning organization, such as the Yankees, gave him the best opportunity and he made the most of it.

Another good fortune is having Joe Torre as his manager. Baseball has set-up pitchers, and Torre is a set-up manager.

Nobody expected a four-game sweep, but it was an inspired decision by Torre to start Clemens in Game 4.

Suddenly, Clemens found himself not only with the opportunity of finally get his ring, but getting it rested squarely on his shoulders.

The prized ring, the Yankee Stadium stage, a chance to make history, the whole works. Torre set the table and Clemens ate it up.

It's also fortunate that the Yankees have a Super Mario of a bullpen stopper in Mariano Rivera, the Series' MVP, who saved the most satisfying of victories in Clemens' long career.

Roger wasn't so shabby, either. The Braves couldn't touch him at all and they hit nothing but groundouts all evening. Clemens didn't allow a single fly ball.

He finally had to leave the game in the eighth inning with the shutout still going.

THEN came a moment full of mixed emotions for anyone caught up with the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry.

It was seeing the former Red Sox great waving his cap and then his hand to the Yankee Stadium crowd with the fans returning is salute by standing and cheering for the guy they once loved to hate.

Interestingly, Clemens' finest moment - as a Yankee - came 13 years to the day after he started the fateful Game 6 of the World Series against the New York Mets. He didn't have a decision in that infamous Bill Buckner Game.

But what did you expect? He was then pitching for the Red Sox, not the Yankees, who just win World Series championships.

They won for the 25th time. It was fitting that the Team of the Century won the Last World Series of the Century. And a member of that team?

The Rocket Man.