My other favorite team, part II.

No runs for Clemens. Big surprise. 2-0 Reds.

Today on Cold Pizza, Woody Paige posited that Clemens would rather be back in Boston or New York, in the middle of a pennant race. My God. It depresses me to think how many no-nothings are floating around cable TV, reading something on the internet and repeating it or--even worse--pulling something out their butts. The plain truth--to anyone with the scantest knowledge of the Astros, or the Rocket, or baseball--knew plainly that Clemens was coming back to the Astros or retiring. The Yankees would have exceeded the Astros' offer, slid Clemens into Jared Wright's spot, slid Wright to fifth starter, put Sydney Ponson back in a cab, and started printing playoff tickets. The problem is that neither Joe Torre nor Brian Cashman would ever stand for a Clemens' accomodation deal, whereby Clemens would be allowed to skip road trips when he wasn't pitching, and some home games as well. That isn't how the Yankees do business, and that was that. And Clemens wouldn't come back otherwise. And he wouldn't go to Boston, and certainly not the Rangers.

This isn't to say that Torre's way is necessarily better: the Astros made the World Series last year giving Clemens all his accomodations, while the Yankees didn't make it out of the first round. The point is that Torre's way is Torre's way, and Torre has won enough to run his nine how he sees fit. Besides, the Boss probably wouldn't allow for special treatment for Clemens even if Torre lobbied for it, which he wouldn't.

Bottom line: For Clemens, it was the Astros or nothing.

Lately, I'm driven nuts by glib sports commentators who spout nonsense they know nothing about about teams they don't really watch. Really, why do they even bother? I see maybe 100 Astros and 80 Yankee games a year, and what I hear on ESPN often has no bearing on reality. Right around the All-Star break everyone on cable was going on and on about how well Astros reliever Chad Qualls was pitching, whereas anyone who had actually watched the Astros actually play for any length of time this season would know that Qualls has been barely competent, if that, and often disastrous.

This the Lupica effect--scanning the box scores and saying, Hey! Qualls! Low ERA! Never mind the nine thousand inherited runners Qualls allowed to score, the runs he walked in, the walks to number eight hitters gave up to start an inning, the bases-loaded jams from which either Dan Wheeler or Ron Villone or Russ Springer saved him. Never mind how Garner had to appear before the Astros' beat writers and say, in essense, Never mind it all, I'm sticking with the lad. Never mind any of that. Qualls rules!