Happy Birthday, Rocket

Austinist extends our best wishes to Texas legend Roger Clemens today, his 43rd birthday. Clemens is defying age and science once again in another performance worthy of the Cy Young Award. Clemens, a seven-time winner of the award, is putting up mind boggling numbers, as he and the other Astros' starters have propelled the team to the top of the Wild Card pack. Wrap your minds around these numbers:

* In 22 starts, Clemens has given up two runs or less 20 times.
* In 66 innings on the road this year, Clemens has given up three runs and has a 0.41 ERA.
* Clemens overall ERA is 1.45, which is the lowest ERA after 22 starts since Vida Blue had a 1.41 a mere 33 years ago.
* Clemens has won 10 games or more in 19 seasons, second only to the original Texas pitching legend, Nolan Ryan.

Forty-three year olds are not supposed to be able to do that. Hell, 23 year-olds are not supposed to be able to do that. (As for those who would like to paint Clemens with the steroid brush, Austinist says people are innocent until proven guilty).

At this rate there is no reason to believe The Rocket will not win an unprecedented eighth Cy Young Award. Even Lance Armstrong can not claim a record approaching that. He may be a legendary red-ass and he may act like a horse's ass at times and be disingenuous about his career moves, but we say "Happy Birthday" to arguably the greatest right-handed pitcher to ever play the game.