Roger left his 2nd start of the 1998 season after 11 pitches with a groin injury that caused him to miss his 3rd scheduled start and he was still recovering in this game. The main difference between 1997 and early 1998 was the walks shown at 3:53. Roger's success in 1997 was due to keeping his fastball down and movement and control on his fastball and splitter. Clemens wasn't throwing as hard as he did during his first 4 seasons as a Yankee or later in the 1998 season, but he was throwing harder than the the 1997 games I've seen with a radar gun and the other where velocity was mentioned when he topped out at 95 mph. At 17:34, Clemens threw a 96 mph fastball on the outside corner to Tavarez, but just missed below the knees. Roger's first pitch of the game was a 94 mph fastball and Tavaras flied out to center at 0:30. At 1:09, Roger's 2nd pitch of the game was a 95 mph fastball and Carter was late and popped it up out of play. Carter fouled off another 95 mph fastball down and away at 1:52. At 2:40, Clemens struck out Carter swinging with a nasty 89 mph splitter down and away after he may have overthrown the previous 91 mph splitter in the dirt at 2:18. After walking the bases loaded with 1 out in the 4th, Clemens got out of the inning with impressive splitters that started in the zone before the bottom fell out when the hitters started to swing. At 22:16, Clemens struck out Reboulet swinging on a splitter down and away. Clemens got ahead of Tavarez with a Tavarez with an 86 mph splitter that wound up in the dirt on the first pitch at 22:52. At 23:29, on the 1-1 pitch, Clemens got Tavarez to chase an 87 mph splitter down and away and on the 1-2 pitch at 23:50, Clemens took something off and fooled Tavarez with an 84 mph splitter for the strikeout. Clemens was impressive working out of that jam and was throwing pretty well early, but gave up 2 runs in the 2nd due to bad luck on the turf as Baltimore barely hit the ball. At 12:35, Alomar was running on the pitch and Surhoff hit a chopper in front of the plate that bounced high enough for Alomar to reach 3rd and Surhoff to reach on an infield hit. At 13:30, Ripken hit the next pitch on the ground and it rolled past Gonzalez on the turf for the only hit to reach the outfield in the inning. Hoiles moved Surhoff and Ripken over with a sacrifice bunt on the next pitch at 14:21. Reboulet then drove in Surhoff on a suicide squeeze at 16:24.
When Roger missed early in the game, he was missing down, even with his hard stuff. That's why he had just 3 home runs in 85 1/3 innings with 87 strikeouts and only 60 hits. He bounced a 94 mph fastball to Carter at 1:36 and missed low with 94 mph fastballs to Alomar at 9:40 and Surhoff at 10:46. Clemens was sometimes prone to walks when he had bad defenses behind him with the Yankees and his last season in Boston and tried to make perfect pitches on the corners. He seemed to be doing that here, perhaps due to the turf. He walked Baines on four straight 94+ mph fastballs, but wasn't missing by much: He hit the outside corner with a 94 mph fastball, but missed low at 3:07. At 3:22, he came back over the inside corner with a 95 mph fastball, but missed low again. At 3:40, Roger's 94 mph fastball had too much late movement running down and away. At 10:11, Roger had too much late movement again on the 94 mph fastball and it just ran off the corner and low late for a leadoff walk that got him into trouble in the 2nd. Clemens had just missed the outside corner with the splitter on the 1-1 pitch to Alomar. Clemens didn't have to try to paint the corners because Baltimore wasn't hitting his fastball even when he threw it right over the plate. At 16:03, Clemens threw a 95 mph fastball with late movement right down the middle to Reboulet on a 2-0 count. Roger usually had problems pitching with a groin or hamstring injury when he left his splitter up and that's what happened with 1 out in the 5th when Baltimore finally began to hit the ball solidly. He threw some good pitches to Baines to get the count to 2-2, but hung a splitter up in the zone and Baines pulled it through the hole for a single at 26:29. Clemens also got ahead of Palmeiro 1-2, but Palmeiro lined a hanging splitter to center for a single at 28:25. At 29:35, Clemens still had a good fastball and painted the outside corner at 94 mph to even the count 1-1 against Alomar. But Clemens got away with one as he missed badly with a splitter that was supposed to be away and wound up inside, but Alomar fouled it off at 30:22 and Clemens hung another splitter in the middle of the plate at 31:49, but hit it to Canseco who nearly doubled off Baines. Clemens hurt himself by throwing a splitter in the dirt and Fletcher couldn't find the ball allowing Baines and Palmeiro to advance at 32:49. At 34:22, Clemens again threw a good 94 mph fastball right on the corner and up in the zone on the 3-0 pitch. But on the 3-2 pitch at 35:24, Clemens hung another splitter on the inside part of the plate and Surhoff lined it to right for a 2-run single. By the end of the month, Clemens appeared to be 100 percent and in 17 starts from June 30th, Clemens had the most dominant stretch of his career with 169 strikeouts in 132 innings while allowing just 5 home runs(2 of them in his final start) with a 1.77 ERA, 1.98 FIP, and a .180 opponents batting average in the toughest league and era.
Not sure. I’m sure you could check on baseball reference or something. I only got the United States ESPN broadcast on the tape as I live in California.
According to the only man to accuse him, Roger didn't even use steroids until sometime after he returned home following his June 8th start @ Florida. So if Roger had used steroids at all by this point, he would have used Winstrol a grand total of 1 time. There was also no way to account for steroids nor any users pre-2005 so it hardly makes sense to call it cheating when there was no policy to cheat against. That's why there were so many users in any given game from this period.
This took place on the same night that Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls won their 6th NBA Championship.
And notice that the Chicago Bulls intro song ("Sirus" by Alan Parsons Project) is playing at the very start of the vid.
Roger left his 2nd start of the 1998 season after 11 pitches with a groin injury that caused him to miss his 3rd scheduled start and he was still recovering in this game. The main difference between 1997 and early 1998 was the walks shown at 3:53. Roger's success in 1997 was due to keeping his fastball down and movement and control on his fastball and splitter. Clemens wasn't throwing as hard as he did during his first 4 seasons as a Yankee or later in the 1998 season, but he was throwing harder than the the 1997 games I've seen with a radar gun and the other where velocity was mentioned when he topped out at 95 mph. At 17:34, Clemens threw a 96 mph fastball on the outside corner to Tavarez, but just missed below the knees. Roger's first pitch of the game was a 94 mph fastball and Tavaras flied out to center at 0:30. At 1:09, Roger's 2nd pitch of the game was a 95 mph fastball and Carter was late and popped it up out of play. Carter fouled off another 95 mph fastball down and away at 1:52. At 2:40, Clemens struck out Carter swinging with a nasty 89 mph splitter down and away after he may have overthrown the previous 91 mph splitter in the dirt at 2:18. After walking the bases loaded with 1 out in the 4th, Clemens got out of the inning with impressive splitters that started in the zone before the bottom fell out when the hitters started to swing. At 22:16, Clemens struck out Reboulet swinging on a splitter down and away. Clemens got ahead of Tavarez with a Tavarez with an 86 mph splitter that wound up in the dirt on the first pitch at 22:52. At 23:29, on the 1-1 pitch, Clemens got Tavarez to chase an 87 mph splitter down and away and on the 1-2 pitch at 23:50, Clemens took something off and fooled Tavarez with an 84 mph splitter for the strikeout.
Clemens was impressive working out of that jam and was throwing pretty well early, but gave up 2 runs in the 2nd due to bad luck on the turf as Baltimore barely hit the ball. At 12:35, Alomar was running on the pitch and Surhoff hit a chopper in front of the plate that bounced high enough for Alomar to reach 3rd and Surhoff to reach on an infield hit. At 13:30, Ripken hit the next pitch on the ground and it rolled past Gonzalez on the turf for the only hit to reach the outfield in the inning. Hoiles moved Surhoff and Ripken over with a sacrifice bunt on the next pitch at 14:21. Reboulet then drove in Surhoff on a suicide squeeze at 16:24.
When Roger missed early in the game, he was missing down, even with his hard stuff. That's why he had just 3 home runs in 85 1/3 innings with 87 strikeouts and only 60 hits. He bounced a 94 mph fastball to Carter at 1:36 and missed low with 94 mph fastballs to Alomar at 9:40 and Surhoff at 10:46. Clemens was sometimes prone to walks when he had bad defenses behind him with the Yankees and his last season in Boston and tried to make perfect pitches on the corners. He seemed to be doing that here, perhaps due to the turf. He walked Baines on four straight 94+ mph fastballs, but wasn't missing by much: He hit the outside corner with a 94 mph fastball, but missed low at 3:07. At 3:22, he came back over the inside corner with a 95 mph fastball, but missed low again. At 3:40, Roger's 94 mph fastball had too much late movement running down and away. At 10:11, Roger had too much late movement again on the 94 mph fastball and it just ran off the corner and low late for a leadoff walk that got him into trouble in the 2nd. Clemens had just missed the outside corner with the splitter on the 1-1 pitch to Alomar. Clemens didn't have to try to paint the corners because Baltimore wasn't hitting his fastball even when he threw it right over the plate. At 16:03, Clemens threw a 95 mph fastball with late movement right down the middle to Reboulet on a 2-0 count. Roger usually had problems pitching with a groin or hamstring injury when he left his splitter up and that's what happened with 1 out in the 5th when Baltimore finally began to hit the ball solidly. He threw some good pitches to Baines to get the count to 2-2, but hung a splitter up in the zone and Baines pulled it through the hole for a single at 26:29. Clemens also got ahead of Palmeiro 1-2, but Palmeiro lined a hanging splitter to center for a single at 28:25. At 29:35, Clemens still had a good fastball and painted the outside corner at 94 mph to even the count 1-1 against Alomar. But Clemens got away with one as he missed badly with a splitter that was supposed to be away and wound up inside, but Alomar fouled it off at 30:22 and Clemens hung another splitter in the middle of the plate at 31:49, but hit it to Canseco who nearly doubled off Baines. Clemens hurt himself by throwing a splitter in the dirt and Fletcher couldn't find the ball allowing Baines and Palmeiro to advance at 32:49. At 34:22, Clemens again threw a good 94 mph fastball right on the corner and up in the zone on the 3-0 pitch. But on the 3-2 pitch at 35:24, Clemens hung another splitter on the inside part of the plate and Surhoff lined it to right for a 2-run single. By the end of the month, Clemens appeared to be 100 percent and in 17 starts from June 30th, Clemens had the most dominant stretch of his career with 169 strikeouts in 132 innings while allowing just 5 home runs(2 of them in his final start) with a 1.77 ERA, 1.98 FIP, and a .180 opponents batting average in the toughest league and era.
This is gold for 1998 as an old school person.
Was this on TSN or CBC in Canada that day?
Not sure. I’m sure you could check on baseball reference or something. I only got the United States ESPN broadcast on the tape as I live in California.
This game was broadcast on TSN in Canada, I remember watching it. Thanks for posting!
Canseco, Clemons, Palmero……cheaters abound in this one.
According to the only man to accuse him, Roger didn't even use steroids until sometime after he returned home following his June 8th start @ Florida. So if Roger had used steroids at all by this point, he would have used Winstrol a grand total of 1 time. There was also no way to account for steroids nor any users pre-2005 so it hardly makes sense to call it cheating when there was no policy to cheat against. That's why there were so many users in any given game from this period.