Maddux-Clemens a matchup to relish
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A showdown of this caliber may never happen again
HOUSTON – Watch baseball for a lifetime and maybe you’ll have the good fortune to see the kind of historic matchup those in the sellout crowd of 41,232 at Minute Maid Park witnessed Friday night.
Greg Maddux of the Chicago Cubs vs. Houston’s Roger Clemens, two future Hall of Famers with 11 Cy Youngs and 634 wins between them staring down from the same mound in the same ballpark for only the second time in their careers, and first since both reached 300 victories.
It seemed fitting that they would meet for this historic matchup in Texas, since Maddux was born in the Lone Star State, but has lived most of his life elsewhere, while Clemens was born in Ohio, but has been a Texan since he was a child. For the two great right-handers, this was more common ground.
You took for granted this would have to be a pitchers’ duel, the only question was who would prevail. You figured it would be vintage Maddux and Clemens, that it would be the two masters painting the corners with their distinctive styles on the same field. Like Van Gogh and Gauguin on another field 120 years ago, this would be two great artists matching brush strokes in pursuit of another masterpiece.
This wasn’t going to be just a ballgame, this was historic.
Or so it seemed to everyone but Maddux.
“I really didn’t and maybe I’m an idiot for not,” Maddux said. “I was trying to win. I haven’t won a game all month. I wasn’t really concerned about who I was pitching against until he was hitting. I know it’s kind of cool and everything, and maybe when I’m done it’ll be cool, but I didn’t want anything to get in the way of my preparation. (I wanted to} do what I could to get a win and keep us in the game and give us a chance to win, and not get wrapped up in everything.”
Clemens was well aware of his opponent as any fan of the game.
“I know about it, I need to go catch up on what everybody was talking about,” Clemens said. “I don’t look at it on game day. You can maybe count them on one hand, future Hall of Famers, if you will, and for him to weather the storm and get to 300 also, I tip my cap to him. I enjoy watching him very much.”
Though neither pitcher was at his dominating best, both were effective and gave their respective teams a chance to win. Both were gone when it ended in a 3-2 Chicago victory, but the win went to Maddux.
He needed 87 pitches to get through six innings, and he left leading, 3-2, after holding the Astros to a pair of runs on seven hits and a walk to go with seven strikeouts. Two of those hits were by Clemens, who singled down the line in the second and hit the third-base bag with a roller in the fourth for another base hit.
“When I’m running, it looks like first base is running from me,” Clemens said. “I knew when the crowd got louder (the ball) stayed fair.”
“I think it {stinks},” Maddux said, chuckling about the two lightly-hit singles by his mound counterpart. “But two hits is two hits. I’m just glad we got the win.”
Clemens also allowed seven hits, but left the game trailing, 3-2, in the seventh. The right-hander walked two and struck out four and saw his scoreless string snapped at 24 consecutive innings when the Cubs scored twice in the second.
Both men were lifted for pinch hitters and thus didn’t get the kind of walk-off ovation they might have had in a different scenario.
For the first time since 1892, a pair of 300-game winners faced each other in a National League game, and while 113 years is a very long time, unless Clemens and Maddux meet again later this season, it will likely be even longer – perhaps never – before two masters of this caliber go toe-to-toe again.
The Hall of Fame requested signed caps from Clemens and Maddux. An MLB authenticator collected dirt from the mound that was also bound for Cooperstown. Appropriate mementos from a matchup that may never come again, not only for Clemens and Maddux, but for baseball’s dwindling number of 300-game winners.
The last century saw only four meetings involving 300-game winners, but considering how few members of that illustrious club are walking around or even knocking on the door, this could wind up being the only one of this century.
Clemens may retire after this year. Maddux is not far from retirement either. Once those two are gone, the outlook is not good for more 300-game winners, which makes a matchup of the same even more unlikely.
Tom Glavine is 38, began the season with 262 victories and hasn’t had a winning season or won more than 11 games in a year since 2002.
Randy Johnson began the year with 246 wins and even if he maintained his average of the last three seasons of 15.3, he wouldn’t get No. 300 until midway through the 2008 season, when Johnson would be pushing 45 years old.
There’s no one else on the horizon. Only three other active pitchers have reached as many as 205 victories and all three of them – 35-year-old Mike Mussina, 39-year-old Kevin Brown and 41-year-old David Wells – have yet to record career victory No. 215.
**The numbers don’t lie.
Maddux vs. Clemens might be the last in a long great line of 300-game winners, which makes this night one for the ages. In time, maybe even Maddux will see it that way, too.**
“When it’s all said and done, I get to say I not only pitched against one of the greats, but I played my career at the same time,” Clemens said
But I am disappointed a bit there will be no D-Lee, no Phat, no Tejada.