You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello

--John Lennon & Paul McCartney

The 2003 World Series will not only be remembered for the improbable victory by the Florida Marlins over the New York Yankees in six games but also the arrival of baseball's newest star, Josh Beckett, and the departure of its oldest star, Roger Clemens. In a touch of irony, Beckett's complete-game, five-hit shutout last night ended the career of Clemens, the player he grew up idolizing.

Beckett and Clemens have a lot of similarities. Both are Texans. Both are approximately the same height (Beckett, 6'5", and Clemens, 6'4"). Both are power pitchers, throwing fastballs in the mid- to high-90s. Both were highly touted as amateurs (Beckett, 1999 All-USA High School Baseball Player of the Year; Clemens, two-time All-America honors at the University of Texas and the winning pitcher of the 1983 College World Series). Both were drafted in the first round (Beckett, #2 in 1999, and Clemens, #19 in 1983). Both had outstanding minor league records. And both showed glimpses of stardom in their first couple of injury-plagued years in the big leagues.

Let's take a closer look at their records.

MINOR LEAGUE COMPARISONS

Totals:

	G	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Beckett	43	215	142	51	42	51	295	1.76
Clemens	23	151	104	28	26	37	178	1.55

Rate Stats:

	H/IP	WHIP	K/IP	K/BB
Beckett	0.66	0.90	1.37	5.78
Clemens	0.69	0.93	1.18	4.81

The minor league records of Beckett and Clemens are eerily similar in terms of ERA, H/IP, and WHIP. Josh and Roger also struck out well in excess of one batter per inning and their strikeout/walk ratios were both around 5:1. Beckett's superiority in strikeouts is probably more a function of the difference in the eras in which they pitched than anything else.

MAJOR LEAGUE COMPARISONS:

Totals Through Age 23:

	G	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Beckett	51	274	239	119	101	111	289	3.32
Clemens	36	232	229	105	100	66	200	3.88

Rate Stats:

	H/IP	WHIP	K/IP	K/BB
Beckett	0.87	1.28	1.05	2.60
Clemens	0.99	1.27	0.86	3.03

Again, there are more similarities between Beckett and Clemens than differences. Through age 23, Beckett has generated more strikeouts per inning than Clemens did although the latter had much better control than the former. All in all, one might give a slight edge to Beckett.

Going forward, Beckett will need to step up his regular season totals next year in order to stay abreast of Clemens as far as age comparisons are concerned because The Rocket broke through the following year (1986) with one of the premier seasons of the past 20 years.

1986 Totals:

	G	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Clemens	33	254	179	77	70	67	238	2.48

Rate Stats:

	H/IP	WHIP	K/IP	K/BB
Clemens	0.70	0.97	0.94	3.55

Clemens won the first of his six Cy Young Awards in 1986 and was named the American League's Most Valuable Player as well. Clemens is the only starting pitcher in either league to win the MVP since Vida Blue captured the A.L. MVP in 1971.

Does Beckett have it in him to put up a 1986 Clemens-type year in 2004? The answer is a definitive "yes" based on his postseason performance.

2003 Postseason:

	G	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Beckett	6	42.2	21	10	10	12	47	2.11

Rate Stats:

	H/IP	WHIP	K/IP	K/BB
Beckett	0.49	0.77	1.10	3.92

Whether Beckett comes through or not is an entirely different question. He certainly has the talent and the makeup to take the next big step, but he will need to remain healthy over the course of a full season to have a chance. Skeptics may point out that Beckett has never started more than 23 games or thrown more than 142 innings in a year. However, it should be noted that Clemens had never started more than 20 games or pitched more than 133 innings prior to his breakthrough season in 1986.

Given Beckett's meteoric rise during the postseason, I would not want to bet against him. To wit, Beckett entered the playoffs with 89 professional starts and no complete games. Less than a month later and the big righthander has two, both shutouts.

Roger, Over and Out

When Clemens took the mound in Game Four, he became the third oldest pitcher ever to start a World Series game. The Rocket was 41 years, 2 months, and 18 days old. Only Jack Quinn (45 years) and Grover Cleveland Alexander (41 yrs., 7 mos., 13 days) were older when they started World Series games. Clemens was also only the sixth pitcher with 300 or more wins to start a World Series game. In fact, Clemens and Steve Carlton are the only two pitchers to have 300 wins at the time of a World Series start in the past 80 years.

Pitcher             Team                  300th Win   World Series
Cy Young            Boston (A.L.)         7/6/1901    1903
Christy Mathewson   New York (N.L.)       7/5/1912    1912, 1913
Walter Johnson      Washington (A.L.)     5/29/1920   1924, 1925
Grover Alexander    St. Louis (N.L.)      9/20/1924   1926, 1928
Steve Carlton       Philadelphia (N.L.)   9/23/1983   1983
Roger Clemens       New York (A.L.)       6/13/2003   2003

Prior to The Rocket's start in Game Four, only nine members of the Hall of Fame appeared in their final game as an active player in the World Series. The only pitcher to accomplish that feat was Sandy Koufax, the starting and losing pitcher in Game Two of the 1966 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles.

Player		         Team		         Year
Frank Baker		New York (A.L.)		1922
Travis Jackson		New York (N.L.)		1936
Bill Terry	         New York (N.L.)		1936
Joe DiMaggio		New York (A.L.)		1951
Johnny Mize		New York (A.L.)		1953
Jackie Robinson		Brooklyn (N.L.)		1956
Sandy Koufax		Los Angeles (N.L.)		1966
Eddie Mathews		Detroit (A.L.)		1968
Willie Mays		New York (N.L.)		1973

No Joshing

>From a Josh Beckett questionnaire in 1999:

Major leaguer I admire most: "Curt Schilling (Philadelphia Phillies) and Roger Clemens (New York Yankees). I know we are in different leagues, but we're the same kind of pitchers. I don't consider myself them yet, but I think I can get there."

Yes, indeed.