Clemens falls short in one to remember
Frank Clines / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
CHICAGO — Oh, did the Chicago Cubs need a game like this after the week they’d had.
So did Major League Baseball — to say nothing of fans everywhere.
The Cubs and New York Yankees didn’t make history on a gorgeous Saturday at Wrigley Field, as MLB and the Fox network might have hoped, but maybe they achieved something much more valuable.
They reminded people, after a week dominated by corked bats and doubts about baseball’s integrity, how exciting, exasperating and utterly wonderful the sport can be.
The Cubs denied Roger Clemens his 300th victory with a 5-2 decision in front of 39,363 fans and a national television audience who will always be glad they saw it.
They’ll remember Chicago right-hander Kerry Wood, a Texas gunslinger in the mold of Clemens, who out-pitched his childhood idol by just enough to reach a milestone of his own, career victory No. 50.
They’ll remember that although Wood struck out 11 and allowed just one hit through the seventh inning, he was still in danger of losing, 1-0, because that lone hit was a dramatic fifth-inning home run by Hideki Matsui.
They’ll remember the Yankees’ decision to remove Clemens with one out and two on in the seventh, although he had thrown only 84 pitches. They’ll remember the first pitch after that, when Eric Karros hit a homer off Juan Acevedo to give the Cubs a 3-1 lead and ruin Clemens’ day.
