The Rocket does not have to go around thanking people for helping him, but he does. Roger Clemens, one of the best pitchers of all time, takes the time to boost the confidence of his catcher Jorge Posada.
After Clemens’ last start, a dominating 3-2 win over his former club, the Blue Jays, Clemens talked at length about his gratitude for Posada. He said he approached Posada several times during the game to compliment him.
“He does that all the time,” Posada said yesterday. “He is always trying to pump you up by saying, ‘good job’ or ‘that was right where I wanted it to be.’
“It’s nice to know he’s comfortable with me behind the plate,” the 29-year-old catcher said. “Especially when you know where he will end up.” In other words, a kind word from a Hall of Fame lock means a boatload.
Posada also explained how he is growing in confidence himself and has been able to convince the Rocket to use certain pitches against his will.
“Even when he shakes me off,” Posada explained before Clemens took the hill against the Cleveland Indians last night. “I feel like I’m able to say, ‘no, let’s use this,’ and he will.”
Manger Joe Torre says the relationship between the two is a work in progress, as it is with every pitcher. The only hurler that Posada is not completely comfortable catching is David Cone. And that, Torre says, is because Cone throws so many different pitches and from so many different angles. But Torre also admits that “Jorgie tries so hard that sometimes he gets frustrated” back-stopping for Cone. But with a growing, stable, mutual-admiration relationship with Clemens, Posada can be sure his abilities are for real.
Posada and Clemens sit down about an hour before gametime and go over the lineup, checking out guys’ tendencies from the scouting report. Clemens adds his input, Posada adds his. “We both talk a lot about it,” Posada said. He noted Clemens is ultra-intense for these sessions and Posada senses a very obvious excitement and anticipation in Clemens’ pre-game actions.
“He comes in and is ready as soon as he gets here,” Posada explained. “He’s pretty focused on the game most of the day.”
After the win over the Blue Jays on September 13, Clemens explained how precarious the game-calling and pitch selection was. Clemens was facing many players who had learned his trade secrets when they were all teammates in Toronto.
Clemens, a Blue Jay and Cy Young award winner in 1997 and 1998, had said: “I know more than a handful of them and, because of that, it’s always a little bit of a game within a game.”
Clemens noted it was particularly tough to face his former catcher Darrin Fletcher, who caught both his Cy Young seasons north of the border.
“We know each other pretty well,” Clemens acknowledged of ‘Fletch’. So before throwing in to him, Clemens and Posada chatted at length. The Rocket emphasized the importance of each pitch.
“It would be like me facing you,” he told Posada. That phrase resonated in particular that night, since Clemens said he and Posada were unusually telepathic in their pitch selections. “I went to talk to him more than usual during innings to compliment him,” Clemens had said. “I’d have something loaded up [in my glove] and I didn’t have to shake or stare him down, we were together.”
That Clemens’ is pleased and confident in Posada has trickled down to another starter’s ease with Posada. Andy Pettitte, an intense Texan like Clemens, has flourished with Posada behind the plate. Pettitte, of course, has made use of ‘personal catchers’ during his tenure as a Yank. He first preferred Jim Leyritz and then worked almost exclusively with Joe Girardi. But Pettitte has been modeling himself after Clemens this year, adopting Clemens’ strenuous workout regiment and his fierce, aggressive approach on the mound. Pettitte talks to himself more, as well as to Posada, during and between innings.
“Roger has really helped Andy a lot this year,” acknowledged Posada. Clemens and Pettitte are all but a lock to be the Yanks’ one-two punch in the postseason.
And there’s no doubt who will be behind the plate. Even if Cone makes a playoff start or appearance, he will not use backup catcher Chris Turner, as he has much of the year.
“In the playoffs, Jorgie is starting every single game,” Torre said emphatically.
With the full support of his manager and the team’s two top hurlers – newcomer Denny Neagle has also thrown compliments Posada’s way – Posada goes into the postseason on a personal high.
“I appreciate what they say,” Posada said. “It’s nice to know that people recognize what we are doing to help them back there.”
