For Roger Clemens, one of the joys of watching his son Kody get the call to the big leagues was the spate of texts that flooded Kody's phone. Not just any old texts, but texts from some of the legendary players Clemens crossed paths with during his 24-year career, "guys you would recognize," he said.
"It was really cool for me to just step back and be a dad," Clemens said at Comerica Park before Kody Clemens made his MLB debut for the Tigers earlier this month in a win over the Twins.
"It was the same thing when I drove him around the ballparks and a Derek Jeter would give him advice or a Jeff Bagwell. I would just let them talk and listen to it," Clemens said. "If he asks me a question I’ll try to answer best I can, but (my sons) get on me about my hitting all the time: 'You don’t know crap about hitting, Dad, so just be quiet on this one.'"
Larry Walker knows crap about hitting. Ask the Hall of Fame. And when Kody Clemens was summoned to Detroit, Larry Walker was among the names who popped up in his texts.
"Yeah, I’ve met him," Kody Clemens said. "We went on vacation in Cabo and he lives down there for half the year and I got to go hang out with him at his house. We just talked, chopped baseball. It was so cool."
And what was Walker's advice when the big leagues came calling? Kody turned to his locker, pulled out his phone and read the text aloud:
"The lights are better, the hitter’s background is better, the pitchers are around the strike zone more often. Pick yourself out nothing but strikes to hit and never look back.
"Congrats on the call to The Show. Good luck, bro.
"Larry Walker."
The rookie looked up and smiled, "It was sick."
Unlike Kody Clemens, Walker had a hit in his MLB debut. (He also reached based in all four of his plate appearances and doubled off a runner at first for good measure.) Clemens went 0-3 and was 0-17 through nine games entering play Monday against the White Sox. He changed that by picking himself out a strike -- a 1-0 changeup from Lance Lynn -- and hitting a single to right center field.
Clemens singled again in his next at-bat for the second hit of his career. Only 2,159 more to catch Walker.