`Monster` Clemens

`Rocket Man` Roger Clemens (39, New York Yankees) received all sorts of honorable titles as a baseball player. With his trademark strikeout titles, and five Cy Young awards, Clemens had earned the World Series champion rings, enduring the harsh criticism that he was a greedy champion-seeker.

Leaving these flamboyant records behind, almost 40 year-old Clemens rewrote the Major League history.

Starting the game with the Chicago White Sox, Roger Clemens captured a win giving up five hits and three runs (two earned runs) for 6 and 1/3 innings yesterday.

With the win, Roger Clemens became the first 20-game winner in the American League, winning his 16th consecutive decision, and became the oldest 20-game winner in the AL in 42 years since Early Wynn in 1959 at the of age 40.

Moreover, Clemens`s current 20-1 stats is the best winning percentage (0.952) among the 20-game winners in the ML history. No pitcher has ever won 20 of his first 21 decisions.

With the outstanding pitch of Roger Clemens, the most likely candidate for his sixth Cy Young award, the New York Yankees is now just five games away from the fourth consecutive division title.

Meanwhile, adding three RBIs in a game with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cardinal Albert Pujols broke the ML single-season rookie RBI record with 120 RBIs, previously set by Wally Berger, who drove in 119 runs in 1930.

Zang Hwan-Soo zangpabo@donga.com