Mike Mussina: Hall of Famer?

I don't think of Clemens as a great post-season pitcher, but he was certainly well above average. You are a Yankees fan, so I kind of get where you are coming from. He was brutal in a couple of postseason series in 99 and 2000, which painted everyone's perceptions of him. The Yankees won those series, so it made his stinker performances stand out. And then as a fan, you were never really looking forward to him getting a postseason start. The thing is, he wasn't brutal across the board during those 2 postseason runs. He had more good games than bad ones. In fact, his game against Seattle in the ALCS in 2000 was one of the best postseason pitching performances ever. Complete game, 1 hitter, 15 strikeouts. Aside from those numbers, Seattle was just overmatched against him that day. He was overwhelming.

After that, he settled into a pretty effective pitcher in the postseason, for the most part. Kind of forgotten. In the 2001 world series against Arizona, he pitched his head off (or maybe it was the PEDs that made his head come loose). Game 1: Mussina got knocked out after 3 innings. Game 2: Pettitte pitched a shutout. Game 3: Clemens gave up 3 hits and 1 run in 7 innings. Then things fell apart, including the Game 6 that Pettitte was horribly bad. Game 7: The Yankees lost, but Clemens pitched a great game. 1 run in 6 1/3 with 10 strikeouts. The Yankees took the lead late. ... and then it was Rivera, out of everyone, who blew it.