The Red Sox will not trade Roger Clemens, as some have speculated.
``We want Roger to finish his career with us,'' said owner John Harrington. ``This is the way we would like to have it end. We've told Roger that, and he told us that he wanted the same thing. When the year is over, we'll try to get a new contract done. With his age [34], we will not be thinking long-term, but we'll offer him a deal for more than one year and a deal that will recognize his contributions to the ball club over the years.''
There has been speculation that down the stretch, the Sox might unload Clemens to a contender for prospects. That's not going to happen.
Harrington says the Sox' promising group of youngsters is one reason Clemens would like to stay here. ``He knows we have some kids coming along in the next couple of years that are going to make us a much better team.''
Paul Gaston won't buy into the NBA free agent frenzy. ``I'm glad we didn't have a $10 million slot open burning a hole in our pocket,'' said the Celtics president. ``After talking with M.L. [Carr] and Red [Auerbach], I think we are all in agreement that we do not want our team to go down that road. When you give a player more than $10 million a year, or a $100 million contract, it's not a team anymore. Everything will revolve around that player, or in the case of some teams like Miami, more than one player. They have to become the focal point because of the money they have been given.
``There is no way our team can justify doing something like that. The teams that are doing this are backed by billions of dollars, or some multinational corporation. We have to run this team like a business. I feel that we have been doing that. We're going to get some free agents. We're just not going to go after the type of players that want that kind of money.''
Reportedly, more than half the NBA teams lose money. There is a clear division of haves and have-nots. The teams owned by large corporations or billionaires (Knicks, Lakers, Heat, Hawks) can treat the franchise like a toy. The others cannot.
``If a team does not have all the money behind it, they can go bankrupt trying to play it big in the free agency game,'' said Gaston. ``Those are the teams that have to live off what they make. We're one of those teams. What they are doing with Shaq [O'Neal] and the rest of those guys goes against everything we want to do.''
The media can run all the negative stories about John Calipari they can dig up, but none can change the bottom line. He transformed the University of Massachusetts from one of the worst college basketball programs in the country to one of the best. He inherited a program that did not push the players academically and he got them into the classroom. And he changed a program that lost money into one that made millions. No one else in UMass history made money for the school like Calipari, and no one else brought the school the national recognition he did.
Friends of Larry Moulter had a surprise party for him this week at the Four Seasons in Boston, commemorating his tenure as chief of the Boston Garden/FleetCenter, which he has left to take over Bob Woolf Associates. Bruins boss Harry Sinden got a few good-natured verbal shots in at master of ceremonies Bob Lobel. But Lobel got him later by identifying a clown from Ringling Brothers ``as a former Bruins first-round draft choice.'' Moulter, incidentally, started his new job this week with a bang, breaking his nose when he dropped a weight on his head while working out at the Boston Athletic Club.
The late Cus D'Amato once said, ``All bullies become cowards once they start to lose.'' If there is a better way to describe Riddick Bowe, I'd like to hear it. As soon as Andrew Golota started to give Bowe more than he wanted, the former heavyweight champion looked for the nearest place on the canvas where he could fall and grab his crotch. Even if Golota hit him on the chin in the late stages of that farce, Bowe was going to act as if he'd been nailed below the belt. They should have arrested him for impersonating a fighter, along with those chumps he hangs around with.
Georgetown coach John Thompson on the underclassmen going into the NBA early: ``I wonder what these kids are going to talk with their [older] teammates about. What kind of a life are they going to have? One of the greatest things that happened in my life was being with the Celtics and just sitting in the locker room listening to the conversations. Adult, grownup, intellectual conversations. People don't realize how much of a role intelligence played on those great Celtic teams.''
I hope the Sox are playing Kevin Mitchell just to showcase him for a trade. Otherwise, Reggie Jefferson is getting shafted. There's no way Mitchell should play ahead of Jefferson. Ditto for Mike Greenwell now that he has been reactivated.
Michael Irvin will be suspended early next week.Will McDonough is a Globe columnist.
This story ran on page f2 of the Boston Globe on 07/20/96.