"My personnel decisions made with the Red Sox were informed decisions made with the disposal of information I had at the time . . . guided by the best interests of the team and its fans," Duquette said recently. "These were not personal decisions, but economic decisions based on the information we had."
Clemens' earned-run average in his final four Red Sox seasons was more than a full run higher than the previous seven seasons before 1993, and the number of complete games he threw from 1993 to '96 (11) equaled what he had accomplished in one prior season alone, 1992.
"The beautiful thing about baseball is statistics," Duquette said. "They serve as a neat appraisal of a player's performance. They show very clear trend lines of players who are either improving or declining. Baseball executives look closely at that objective data."
Clemens opted to accept a free-agent offer from the Toronto Blue Jays -- three years guaranteed for $24.75 million -- that exceeded Duquette's best reported offer of four years for $22 million. And Duquette replied with a legendary quote in Boston: "We had hoped to keep him in Boston during the twilight of his career."
Some baseball veterans say Duquette's reputation was forever damaged by the loss of Clemens. He was fired when new ownership took over the team in 2002 and hasn't reemerged in the game since. He was recently passed over for a position as the Pittsburgh Pirates' chief executive.
"It's all speculation, but this [Mitchell] information certainly makes Duquette look better," said Bob Costas, a veteran broadcaster and longtime fan of the sport. "Roger was looking for an enormous contract while coming off a poor year. He was a power pitcher, and it could be theorized he was on the decline. It was not a crazy notion, and it doesn't look crazy now, either."
Although Duquette said, "It's not appropriate for me to comment on individual players in that [Mitchell] report," he chuckled when asked whether the revelations about Clemens would make those in Red Sox Nation who view him as a lifelong villain rethink their position.
Ultimately, several players Duquette acquired, including Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon and Jason Varitek, helped the Red Sox break their 86-year-old "curse" and win the 2004 World Series.
Clemens left the Red Sox motivated to prove Duquette wrong. In 1997, not only did he go 21-7, with 35 more strikeouts in the same number of starts as in 1996, he lowered his ERA from 3.63 in 1996 to 2.05.
