Bess Clemens, Rest in Peace

Condolences to the entire Clemens family.

Bess Clemens died at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday of complications from emphysema, but not before she quizzed her son about Andy Pettitte's troublesome elbow. Not before she asked if the Astros would make the playoffs. Not before she told everyone in the family to go to work. As Clemens recalled her last lines, he laughed and then he cried.

I was not surprised to learn that Roger would pitch last night. As I said to Madame Cura when we heard the news, "I'd hate to be batting against him tonight."

"I planned on pitching the whole time," Clemens said. "No way I was going to run out on the team."

When Clemens first got to the mound, he felt lost. When he allowed one run in the first inning, he felt relieved. Working with a sore left hamstring and a self-diagnosed heavy heart, he surrendered one run in six and a third innings. He drew a bases-loaded walk at the plate and turned a line drive into a double play in the field. After the sixth inning, he walked to the dugout with his right fist raised. He left having thrown 83 pitches, an earlier departure than usual, but later than anyone could have reasonably expected.

Yankee fans got to know Bess Clemens during the 2003 season when Clemens, supposedly in the final year of his career, and with 299 wins under his belt, was struggling in start after start to win his 300th. She was there, though, at pretty much every one of his starts, even though by that time she was rarely able to leave her home in Texas, she was so weak. We wanted Clemens to get that win so badly, not just because it was becoming a huge distraction to the team -- all of the players were pressing just as much as Clemens was -- but because of Bess, there in the stands tethered to an oxygen tank.