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If you had to win one game, who would you want on the hill?

by Gary Armida

There was a recent conversation around a dinner table, when a father, a life long Yankee fan from the Mickey Mantle era, said to his 32 year old Yankee fan son, “Now that is how a 40 year old ace is supposed to pitch! I didn’t see him limping off the mound after two innings!” The son could only shake his head and realize he deserved that after kidding with his dad years before by saying that the Mick couldn’t hold Bernie Williams’ jock strap (yes, a very Field of Dreams moment). Dad was obviously talking about Curt Schilling’s American League Championship Series game six performance against The Cleveland Indians when the 40 year old went 7 innings while allowing just two runs with very little stuff. Meanwhile, the Rocket limped off the mound in the third inning in his last playoff start.

The two pitchers have always been connected by the seemingly mythological story of Clemens taking Schilling aside and giving him a pep talk early in Schilling’s career. While people laud Schilling for his post season success and his infamous “Bloody Sock” game, Clemens is often labeled as a post-season failure despite being labeled by some as the greatest pitcher of the modern era. What happens is the tradition media will have these “discussions” saying that if there was one game to win, they would take Schilling, among others, over Clemens. The Father also shared this opinion with the son, a life-long Clemens fan (yes, even when Clemens was a Red Sox-weird, but true). While this has become popular to say, it is often said without much thought, other than recalling the highs of Schilling and the lows of Clemens. Let’s take a more objective look.

The Regular Season Numbers

A surface look at those numbers gives Clemens the advantage in many of the categories. Although both pitchers were brought up at their age 21 season, Schilling only appeared in a handful of games during his first three years, while Clemens was a full-time starter, limited by injuries during 1984 and 1985, but winning his first Cy Young award in 1986 during his first three years. Now, some would look at the career wins and ERA and declare Clemens the clear winner and others would argue that those statistics are often predicated on team. While the latter has an element of truth, wins and Clemens’ predominately American League ERA cannot simply be overlooked. Roger Clemens gets bonus points for pitching the vast majority of his career in the tougher American League. So, now that ERA and wins are out of the way a deeper look must be given here.

Taking out the fact that Clemens has pitched four more seasons than Schilling, there is still strong evidence that Clemens was indeed the better, dominant pitcher. His shutouts more than exceed that of Schilling, despite the fact that Clemens has only thrown two since 1999. Additionally, Schilling has served up only 16 less homeruns despite throwing over 1600 less innings during his career.  Schilling, however, has a lower walk rate and a higher strike out per nine ratio, which is a little known fact considering Clemens is second on the all-time strikeout list. The conclusion can be drawn that Clemens was more dominant, more consistent, and more durable over his career while Schilling, after starting slow, has put up numbers within the Clemens range thanks largely to seven great seasons. This round goes to the Rocket.

The Post Season Numbers

The Post Season numbers show, obviously, Schilling to be dominant. His winning percentage, ERA, complete games, and walks are all clearly superior to Clemens. There is simply no denying the fact that Curt Schilling is the more dominant post season pitcher. What is debatable is the supposed failure of Roger Clemens in the post season. Clemens’ numbers and ratios are generally in line (although slightly worse) with his regular season statistics. The worst thing one could say about Clemens is that he is an average post season pitcher. While Clemens has had his share of rough post season outings, he has had some dominant performances like the 2000 ALCS and World Series where he threw 17 shutout innings. Schilling, however, raises his game in the post season. His post-season numbers and ratios generally dwarf his regular season numbers (save for K/9). In 2001, Schilling threw three consecutive complete games (the other was in 1993 for the Phillies). The conclusion drawn here is Schilling is the pitcher with superior results in the post season, while Clemens can be characterized as average. This round goes to Schilling.

The Conclusion

After seeing the tale of the two seasons, the debate is even more fueled. Who would you want-the more dominant pitcher during the season or the post-season pitcher who raises his game to another level? The analogy could go like this-Roger Clemens is to the regular season as Curt Schilling is to the post-season. We have a tie…

No, we can’t have a tie. There has to be a winner, right? Well, the question brought up around the dinner table was “who would you want for just one game?” The answer has to be Curt Schilling. The numbers and results don’t lie. Roger Clemens is the better pitcher, but “The Bloody Sock” wins against The Rocket in this debate. Dad, you were right again.

Now it’s your turn. What do you think?