In 2001, when Roger Clemens had a record of 20 wins and 1 loss (before finishing the season 20-3 and winning the Cy Young), Mike Lupica tried to convince the reading public that Clemens did not deserve the Cy Young Award and his record was mainly because of run support and weak competition. You remember how Joe Torre supposedly kept Clemens out of the tough games and, besides, Clemens supposedly could never win a big game.
It was one of the most embarrassing displays of so-called sports journalism I've ever seen. I wish I had a blog at the time just so I could look at the archives and get revved up.
Lupica's theory ignored the fact that Clemens ended the season 3-2 vs. Tampa Bay and 17-1 vs. Everybody Else.
It truly was an amazing experience to see Clemens get criticized for receiving run support by the same people who didn't bother checking Mark Mulder's run support and who didn't care about, say, Andy Pettitte's level of competition in 1996.
It was all unheard-of logic because it was created solely by Clemens-Haters.
Mike Lupica was the chief culprit of this diseased thinking. Now he's suddenly Rocket's Biggest Fanboy.
The Yankees are not getting Clemens back. He will be too expensive and, as Lupica himself describes in his article, there is no particular reason to think Clemens can match this kind of success in the American League, particularly against a lineup like Boston's.
Mock Unit all you want for "keeping 'em close" on Friday night. In retrospect, his game looked like a masterpiece compared to Pavano's and Mussina's.
With or without Clemens, the Red Sox are going to be tough to beat. Because the Red Sox are good and stuff.
While it's hard to argue with Lupica's Red Sox accolades -- they are the world champs for a reason -- I'm still forced to take pause and wonder why Ortiz's moonshots get such masturbatory attention:
"Oh, sure. On consecutive at-bats, Ortiz first hit an upper-deck home run that tried to make it out of the Stadium, then hit one into the area in center known as 'the black.' The first one actually was more impressive. Both Ortiz and Jorge Posada tilted their heads all the way back and watched the flight of the ball as if studying some kind of sudden lunar eclipse."
ARod has 17 homeruns and I've only seen Lupica mention them in passing. Last Sunday, for example, while mocking ARod's therapy and graciously comparing ARod favorably to Mike Cameron.
Stuff like "Alex Rodriguez hit a bunch of home runs this week" and pointing out that Mike Cameron has "had a month as good as anybody in town, at least this side of A-Rod."
Ho-hum. Most Valuable Player. Triple Crown Candidate. Possibly the first Yankee in his lifetime to hit 50 homeruns.
Yawn. Let's talk about Jaret Wright or David Ortiz instead.
This sort of blind journalism begs the question: Mike Lupica, do you ... love the Red Sox?
I don't mean love like, "I really love the Red Sox! Go, team, go!"
I mean ... do you love the Red Sox ... in an unnatural way?
In your dreams, do you make love to the Red Sox? Do you accidentally shout out Theo Epstein's name during moments of ecstasy?
One more point:
The Yankees should not be ridiculed for going 16-2 against bad teams. The Red Sox just lost series to Oakland, Seattle, and Toronto. Baltimore just got swept by Detroit after the Yankees swept Detroit -- a virtual three-game gain in the standings.
The Yankees always make the playoffs by beating up on bad teams. These games are very important, especially since the Yankees started off 11-19 and were left for dead.
Before Lupica starts setting the Yankees' playoff rotation, they'll need to make the playoffs first. The only way that's going to happen is if they dominate the bottom-feeders.
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