As Miggy's career ends, Clemens reminisces on their WS battle
Brian McTaggart
@brianmctaggartHOUSTON -- There was no better way for Yankees ace Roger Clemens to get the attention of 20-year-old rookie Miguel Cabrera of the Marlins than to throw him a little chin music. So what if it was Game 4 of the 2003 World Series? He was going to show the kid who¡¯s in control.
¡°So, first pitch I was going in on him, and it came up and in -- that's what set the stage for the rest of the at-bat,¡± Clemens said. ¡°I may have got his attention.¡±
Six pitches later, Clemens -- the 41-year-old legend making what he thought was the final start of his remarkable career -- had earned the attention of Cabrera, who lifted a 2-2 fastball into the right-field seats for a two-run homer. Twenty years later, with Cabrera¡¯s career winding down, Clemens can laugh about the showdown with a likely future Hall of Famer who was 21 years his junior.
¡°I knew that would probably be my last start,¡± Clemens said. ¡°I remember throwing the first pitch, and the place just lighting up with flashbulbs. And then Miggy comes up. I'm going with my best stuff and here is a young kid who has a terrific at-bat.¡±
Pitching in the bottom of the first, Clemens retired the first two batters before giving up a single to Ivan Rodriguez. A fresh-faced Cabrera, who made his Major League debut in June of that season and was starting in right field for the Marlins, was greeted with a two-seam fastball that he had to lean back from to avoid hitting him.
Determined to show he wasn¡¯t intimidated, Cabrera glared at Clemens.
¡°Ozzie Guillen, a couple other guys on the team, they already told me, ¡®Hey, if he throws at you, look at him,¡¯¡± Cabrera said. ¡°I said, ¡®No, no.¡¯ They said, ¡®Look at him.¡¯ After three coffees, I said, ¡®All right, I can do this.¡¯¡±
Clemens quickly got the upper hand, though, getting Cabrera to swing through a pair of split-finger fastballs.
¡°I didn't want to show him all my pitches right out of the gate,¡± Clemens said.
Cabrera took a ball low to even the count before fouling off two pitches to stay in the at-bat.
¡°It was a situation where the key was midway through that at-bat, I threw him a really good split-finger fastball and he barely fouled it off to keep it alive,¡± Clemens said.
The seventh pitch of the at-bat saw Clemens throw a two-seam fastball high in the zone. Cabrera hit it the opposite way for a two-run homer. Clemens allowed another run in the first but wound up throwing seven strong innings in the Marlins¡¯ 4-3 win in the World Series.
¡°I threw a two-seamer to throw it away to try and pick off the outside corner, and he punted it into the first or second row there in right field,¡± Clemens said. ¡°Basically, I really didn't even blink. I stepped off the mound and was thinking, ¡®Let¡¯s get it together here. This is not the way you want to go out.¡¯¡±
Clemens and Cabrera had a chance to relive the at-bat during Spring Training in Lakeland, Fla., in 2022, when Clemens¡¯ son, Kody, was in camp with the Tigers. Detroit manager A.J. Hinch asked Clemens to come speak to the team.
¡°He goes, ¡®I¡¯m going to show this World Series at-bat with you and Miggy,¡¯ -- I said, ¡®Whoa, that¡¯s fantastic,¡¯¡± Clemens said. ¡°It almost turned into a roast, but what was great was I brought Miggy up. He was sitting in the back kind of smiling and chuckling. I said, ¡®Bring the old man up here¡¯ because he¡¯s as old [now] as I was [then].¡±
The Marlins wound up winning the World Series and Cabrera went on to be one of the best hitters of his generation. He won a Triple Crown, and has slugged 511 homers and amassed 3,167 hits as he enters the final week of his career. Clemens¡¯ start on that October night in Miami was far from his last, though. He came out of retirement to pitch for his hometown Astros in 2004-06, winning his seventh Cy Young, and later finished his career back with the Yankees.
In Kody¡¯s first big league camp with the Tigers in 2021, Roger told his son to deliver a message to Cabrera.
¡°I told him, ¡®Make sure you say hello to him because he¡¯s [at] camp right now,¡¯¡¯ Roger said. ¡°So he goes by and says, ¡®My dad says you're welcome for the two-seamer he threw you in the World Series a few years back.¡¯¡±