“Confidence,” righthander Brooks Kriske said. “It’s just trusting yourself and believing in yourself and having that confidence that your best stuff can beat any hitter out there.”
Easy to say for someone who struck out 4,672 batters, third-most in MLB history, right? But veteran Thomas Hatch said you don’t have to have a Clemens fastball to be confident, and for that confidence to pay off.
“It’s a chicken-and-egg thing. When you’re confident, your stuff’s better, too. If you can stay confident, then your stuff plays up as well,” said Hatch, who met Clemens at a prospect showcase when he was in high school. “He’s a big work ethic guy. He falls back on his training and worked really hard, trusted in that. His confidence showed up, and his stuff was good because of that.”
“In today’s age, kids would call it that aura,” Kriske added. “The aura you have when you’re pitching. And he was the bulldog.”
Also the Rocket. Meanwhile, as Clemens preached to an attentive audience, his son was in the clubhouse, dressing for batting practice. Didn’t he want to listen in?