Absolutely. I wouldn’t be in the least bit upset if he didn’t hit 300. Ever.
And it’s sad that the worst thing you could say about the Yankees is that my Tigers beat them.
I have an inclination to root against the Cubs in general, but there is no team in sports more evil and hated than the Yankees, so there you go. Go Mr. Wood.
I’ll be packing up the wedding china and babysitting a toddler.
The only thing that could possibly make this a better, more fantastic game would be if one pitcher were accidentally plunked near the beginning of the game.
A Yankees/Cubs bench clearing brawl, with Kerry Wood and Roger Clemens tearing each other’s shirts off…
For the curious, the game is Saturday at Wrigley and the first time the two teams have met since the 1938 World Series.
From the Cub’s home page…
"History will be on Wood’s side. Three pitchers have recorded their 300th career wins against the Cubs – Kid Nichols in 1900, Christy Mathewson in 1912 and Warren Spahn in 1969 – but none have done so at Wrigley.
Sammy Sosa, who leads the Major Leagues with 88 RBIs in Interleague games, hit his first home run off Clemens way back on June 21, 1989, when he was with the Texas Rangers and Clemens was pitching for Boston."
scratches head Umm, well, it’s actually been done by more than one other. Perhaps you meant it’s a match up of the two pitchers who have struck out 20 in a 9 inning game?
Given the limited number of pitchers with 300 wins, it’s quite statistically unlikely three of them got their 300th win against the Cubs. I’d say history is not on Wood’s side; he’s probably pitching for the only franchise to ever lose three 300th wins.
I don’t get all the hatred for the Yankees, to be honest. The core of that team came from their farm system, and they were willing to pay to keep those guys. Isn’t that what teams are supposed to do? Clemens came to them only after Boston (thank you Dan Duquette) said he was finished.
But I digress. This is a Roger Clemens bashing party and I’m here tin help with that. Clemens is an ox. He throws innings. Lots of them. 299 wins is NOTHING to slight. Even with a great team you’d be really hard pressed to get within 250. Some bashing, huh? Well, here you go: He is the Atlanta Braves of pitching.
What do I mean by that? Lots and lots of regular season wins, but not a whole lot else. He isn’t a big game pitcher at all. His 6-6 post season mark isn’t impressive. Of the 22 games he’s started in the post-season, he’s won only 6 of them. That is almost half of what is regular season wins/games started percentage looks like. If you had a staff full of Roger Clemenses, you’d be playing golf with Atlanta every year in mid-October.
This game won’t live up to the hype, similar to how the second game of the '86 series between Clemens and Gooden fell flat. Or how about how Clemens couldn’t beat Detroit with a 6 run lead? The only question is how Kerry will respond to the pressure. Being a Cub, this is likely the last chance he’ll have to be in a game with much riding on it.
Ah yes. How can we forget that great home-grown Yankee talent like Mussina, Clemens, Weaver, Contreras, Giambi, Matsui, Mondesi, Ventura and Wells. And that past home-grown core of O’Neil, Brosius, Boggs, Martinez and Knoblauch.
The Yankees would have a good team with their home-grown players, but wouldn’t be NEARLY as dominant.
Not that Boston’s much better, to be frank.
And in any case, the Yankees are evil, their owner is a jerk, they are ruining baseball just as much as those jerks like Pohlad and Glass who refuse to spend the money on their team to let them keep their teams together. Plus, their fans tend to be insufferable know-nothings who still believe Jeter is the best SS in baseball.
Neurotik
Right. And Pedro grew up in Boston and Schilling and Johnson in Arizona and ARod in Texas and Maddux in Atlanta and Griffey in Cincinnatti… oh, wait…
This is neither the forum nor the thread to debate this with you, so I won’t. If you want to argue it, we can. But the truth is I agree with most of what you said. Most.
Just don’t go around calling “know-nothings” when in fact Yankee fans are no better or worse than any other team’s fans. There just happen to be a bandwagon full of them now that they are winning again. It will blow over. It always does when the winning stops. The you can find out who the real Yankee fans are. I’ll be there. Have been for 26 years.
