King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Roger Clemens' All-Star start was supposed to be one for the ages, and six runs later, it was. Plus: Feller on Ali. And: 23 skiddoo, it's the Blues Brothers!

July 14, 2004 | I was pretty sure the highlight of Tuesday night's All-Star Game was going to be a pregame clip of managers Jack McKeon and Joe Torre chattering away like old bridge partners in an interview, with Marlins boss McKeon playfully reminding Torre that home-field advantage, won at last year's All-Star Game, didn't help the Yankees skipper much in the World Series.

But then the American League hung a six on Roger Clemens in the first inning. It just doesn't get any better than that.

The American League cruised to a 9-4 win, which means the A.L. champ will open the World Series at home. This was the end of the two-year experiment of having the All-Star Game decide that. Predictably, because it's such a dumb idea, commissioner Bud Selig said this week that he likes it and wants it to continue.

I love it when the preordained story line of a big event -- in this case, Houstonian Clemens retires, then changes his mind to pitch for the hometown team and pitches so well he's picked to start the All-Star Game, held in Houston -- gets blown to smithereens. Clemens was supposed to dominate Tuesday, take curtain calls, maybe even well up during one of the standing ovations.

Instead, showered in pregame cheers from the Minute Maid Park crowd, he gave up a leadoff double to Ichiro and then a triple to Ivan Rodriguez before he got an out. Then Manny Ramirez launched a rocket into the left-field seats for 3-0. After an error at second base by Astros teammate Jeff Kent -- it wasn't a shining inning for the Houstons -- and a Derek Jeter single, Alfonso Soriano hit a three-run homer and it was 6-0.

It was the biggest first inning in All-Star history, the biggest inning period since the A.L. pounded Atlee Hammaker of the Giants for seven runs in 1983. For the first time ever, it became apt to mention Roger Clemens and Atlee Hammaker in the same sentence.

And listen, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Roger Clemens is one of the greatest pitchers of all time, maybe the greatest, but he's also a first-class punk. He has a way of coming up spectacularly small at the biggest moments, dating all the way back to his stupidly getting himself thrown out of a playoff game in 1990. (He shouldn't have been thrown out, but he also shouldn't have put himself in position to be thrown out.)

And maybe even dating beyond that, depending on whose story you believe about why he came out after seven innings of Game 6 in the 1986 World Series. John McNamara, then the Red Sox manager, has always claimed that Clemens asked out because of a blister. Clemens, who is more believable in this argument, has maintained he was yanked for a pinch hitter.

At any rate, A's fans who remember that era look back fondly on Clemens losing again and again in big games to Oakland ace Dave Stewart, a good pitcher but not a Hall of Fame candidate.

Next page: Petulance, punkness, postseason puniness. Plus: Feller vs. Ali. And: The Blues Brothers?