-Anonymous
Roger "The Rocket" Clemens played his last regular season game yesterday and I can't help but feel like I'm losing a friend. Roger is one of those atheletes by which you measure your life. From the time I started watching baseball as a very young man, Rocket has been in the league. At first I hated him. He was the tempermental fire-baller pitching for the enemy in Boston. I accused him of being a baby and getting away with calls that Yankee pitchers would never have gotten away with.
I can't remember watching a season of Major League Baseball without having Clemens involved. In 1984, when he broke in, I was just 4 years old.
I watched his career through 20 strike out games and feuds with management while my own rolled along. I felt sorry for him when he left Boston with rumors of being washed up chasing him. I watched in surprise as he catapulted himself back into the MLB elite in Toronto and was ecstatic when he signed with the Yankees.Throughout his career Rocket played the came with an intensity and drive that doesn't come up except for when talking to people with last names like Ryan, Koufax or Johnson. He is one of the best ever. Next season, my first season without the Rocket, will be different. I'm not sure baseball will ever be the same for me again.