Motivation Quote by Roger Clemens

Clemens is joking about sabotage, but the joke lands because it’s built on a very real truth: the Yankees aren’t just a team, they’re a stage with floodlights aimed at your flaws. The fantasy of shipping opponents to a bar isn’t about cheating so much as it is about control - a pitcher’s most precious commodity. Baseball worships “mental toughness,” yet Clemens admits the quiet part: even elite athletes want buffers, hacks, anything to sand down the volatility of competition.

The line also captures the peculiar social economy of New York sports. “My buddies in New York” turns the city into an extension of the clubhouse, a networked advantage. It’s an offhand nod to the mythos that the Yankees carry influence: not necessarily corrupt, but connected, omnipresent, plugged into the nightlife and the narrative. He’s winking at the idea that being a Yankee comes with perks, then immediately undercuts it with anxiety.

“Guys come at you extremely hard” is the real engine here. Opponents don’t just want to win; they want to beat the Yankees because it means more - for their résumé, their fans, their own sense of order. Clemens frames it as a pressure differential: the same pitch that plays in another uniform becomes a potential headline in pinstripes. The closing fear - “I’ll be embarrassed” - is refreshingly unheroic. Not “I’ll lose.” Embarrassment is about status, reputation, the humiliation of being exposed. That’s the Yankee tax: you’re not only competing against batters, you’re competing against the expectation that you should be untouchable.