ANAHEIM, Calif. - Mo Vaughn said it once, twice, three times. "I just wish I had a tape recorder with me," said the Red Sox first baseman, "so everybody in baseball could have heard that conference at the mound. It was something."
Eighth inning of the Red Sox' 2-1 win over the Angels Tuesday night. A classic pitchers' duel from black-and-white newsreel film, Roger Clemens and Chuck Finley, ace against ace, each tugging at a 1-0 ballgame. Only problem? Clemens was done.
``It got a little tough there,'' said Clemens of the eighth, although he was on the upside of the score. ``It just feels blessed to be able to get through that.''
Ah, but the conference, the group conference at the mound, the conference that brought words to fill whole reels of recording tape from Vaughn and which brought a smile from Clemens. ``I said I was spent,'' said Clemens, ``and then all the guys in the infield jumped all over me.
Why not, figured manager Kevin Kennedy. ``Why not ask the fielders? They're out there and I've always felt the guys out in the field have as good a feel for what's happening as anybody. So I asked them?''
Clemens, though, was a bit taken aback when Vaughn, John Valentin, Jeff Frye and Tim Naehring jumped on him. ``[Kennedy] asked me how I was doing and I said I was spent,'' said Clemens. ``And then [Kennedy] said, `I've got [Heathcliff] Slocumb out in the bullpen.' So I said, `I can grind it out.' Then all the guys yelled at me, `Well, grind it out then.'''
The Angels' Jim Edmonds had walked with a man out and DH Chili Davis was due up. Vaughn knows hitters ``and I knew Chili was there in the on-deck circle saying to himself, `Take Clemens out,''' the Sox first baseman said. ``I just know Chili was going to be a happy man if Clemens came out. Nothing against Slocumb, but he didn't want to hit against Roger. I just knew that.''
Vaughn said he knows when Clemens is tired from the heat, tired from throwing too many pitches, tired from any and all challenges that opposing lineups throw at him. But not this time. ``I just decided, `Roger wasn't coming out.'''
As Vaughn remembered the conversation, ``Clemens asked his infielders, `Want me to keep digging?' and we all said, `Keep digging.' No way was Roger going to come out then.''
Valentin piped in, as did the rest of them. Kennedy agreed. Clemens - ``gassed'' or not gassed - was going to stay in and face Davis.
``Just when I was going back to shortstop, Roger says to me, `Val, two-seam fastball ... ground ball, right to you,'' recalled Valentin. ``And that's just what it was, two-seam fastball ... ground ball right to me. Double play, except I threw it a bit too high.''
Too high? shrieked Vaughn. ``That was the space shuttle you threw at me. That thing took off like a space shuttle.''
Indeed, Valentin had the easiest of double plays when Davis grounded one behind second, the shortstop taking the ball, moving maybe three strides to touch the bag, then throwing ... well, the throw almost reached the third deck.
``I was so excited, you know, DP to get out of the inning, one-run game, all of that,'' said Valentin. ``I guess I put too much on it.''
But there can't be too much put on the Red Sox these days, ``because I was praying when J.T. Snow came to the plate to just not do something,'' said Valentin. And Snow didn't, flying out to Lee Tinsley in center.
Of course, then came the ninth when Slocumb walked in one run, then had the bases loaded and Edmonds at the plate. ``I've had a lot of experiences like that,'' said the closer with a laugh. ``So I wasn't too worried.''
All of it was remarkable, ``the most amazing mound conference I've ever heard,'' as Vaughn put it. ``I just wish I had a tape recorder with me.''
This story ran on page c1 of the Boston Globe on 08/29/96.