Some have rotated down from No.1 slot

By Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Staff, 03/31/00

FORT MYERS, Fla. - An ace is not forever.

It's easy to compile a list of big league pitchers who went from stopper to plugger.

Young flamethrowers never think it will happen. They have the juice in their arm that allows them to overpower hitters when nothing else is working. Bases loaded? No outs? No problem. Just turn it up a notch and strike out the side.

ROGER CLEMENS THEN Won three Cy Youngs (1986, '87, '91) after becoming the Red Sox' top guy in '86, with three 20-win seasons and tow record 20-strikeout games. After struggling for a few years, regained his Cy Young form in Toronto (1997, '98) with back-to-back 20-win seasons. NOW The Yankees had hopes of Clemens making three straight Cy Youngs when they obtained him from Toronto for the '99 season. But he was a somewhat disappointing 14-10 and relegated to No.4 status in the postseason. This year, he's likely to be slotted in the middle of an aging rotation.

An ace pitcher is like an only child. The single son or daughter learns that the whole world revolves around him or her. A pitching staff stopper is similarly indulged. Every other pitcher on the team steps aside to accommodate the big kahuna. If there's a rainout, other pitchers skip their turn to allow the ace to start on his regular fifth day.

Life can be difficult when one loses this premier status. Some can make the adjustment, others cannot.

Roger Clemens at the end of the 1999 season was the No. 4 starter in the vaunted Yankees rotation. Orlando Hernandez, David Cone, and Andy Pettitte had earned the right to pitch ahead of the Rocket, which is how Clemens wound up pitching the fourth and clinching game of the Yankees' World Series sweep against the Atlanta Braves. In New York last autumn, Clemens had the same role for the Yankees that Kent Mercker did for Boston.

Orel Hershiser and Dwight Gooden went from ace to average. And what about Boston's own Jeff Fassero? It's hard to believe now, but Fassero at one time was the ace on a Montreal staff that had Pedro Martinez and on a Seattle staff that had Randy Johnson.

Injury is usually the reason an ace loses his status. Think of Frank Tanana back in the 1970s and '80s. He was a high-octane lefthander when he came to the big leagues, but arm problems made him a snowflake specialist for the second half of his career. In the late '70s, he was the most effective hurler on an Angels staff that included Nolan Ryan, but a decade later he was a nifty backup to Detroit ace Jack Morris.

BRET SABERHAGEN THEN Won Cy Youngs for the Royals in 1985 (20-6, 2.87) and '89 (23-6, 2.16). But after being dealt to the Mets following the 1991 season, he was cursed with an assortment of injuries, needing shoulder that kept him out for all of '96 and most of '97. NOW Made a remarkable comeback to go 15-8 for the Sox in '98 and 10-6 last season, but more shoulder surgery in the offseason has the Red SOx hoping he'll be back by midseason to help them for a pennant run. Saberhagen, who'll turn 36 in April, thinks he could be back soon. Don't count him out.

Don Gullett was the ace of the 1975 world champion Reds. Manager Sparky Anderson announced, "After the seventh game of the World Series, Don Gullett is going to the Hall of Fame.'' It never happened. Gullett hurt his arm, went to the Yankees, but never won 20 and finished with 109 wins (and only 50 losses) in nine seasons.

Asked about the transition from ace to average, Gullett said, "Obviously it's devastating enough psychologically. You see a lot of guys that have physical problems where they're not what they used to be. Those guys have got to have a mindset where they're going to go out and learn how to pitch with less than their best stuff. I think it shows the dedication and hard work a guy puts forth to get the same results out of less stuff. I think a lot of guys work their way back and can't get it together. They can't psychologically make the adjustment when they don't throw as hard as they used to.''

It can be a huge adjustment.

Bret Saberhagen won the Cy Young Award and the seventh game of the World Series for the Royals when he was 21 years old. He won another Cy four years later when he was 23-6. Then came arm trouble.

"I never considered myself the ace,'' he said. "I considered myself a guy the team relied on when I went out to get a win. An ace? That's for other people to talk about. We had Mark Gubicza, Danny Jackson, Bud Black, Charlie Leibrandt, Kevin Appier. We had a lot of quality pitchers when I pitched.''

He's being modest. The Royals did have a deep staff, but Saberhagen was No. 1. The 1980 Orioles had 25-game winner Steve Stone, plus reigning Cy Young Mike Flanagan and a couple of stars named Scott McGregor and Dennis Martinez. But Jim Palmer was still the ace. Three Cy Youngs create privileges.

Ego comes into play. It's one thing for a fireballer to learn how to win with location and craftiness. Accepting a No. 2 or 3 role can be another matter.

Saberhagen said, "It was an easy transition for me - people calling me an ace then and now a No. 2 or No. 3 pitcher. As long as the team feels it's going to win when I'm pitching, that's all I care about. And I'll pitch as long as I feel that. When the time comes when people are going, `Oh no, Saberhagen's pitching today,' then it's time to back away.''

OREL HERSHISER THEN Established himself as the Dodgers ace in the late '80s, winning the Cy Young award in 1988 when he went 23-8 with a 2.26 ERA and pitched a major league record 59 consecutive scoreless innings. But shoulder surgery in '91 put him on the shelf for most of two seasons, and he struggled for a few years before becoming an effective pitcher again for the Indians, winning 45 games over three seasons. NOW After bouncing around as a .500 pitcher for the Giants and Mets the past two seasons, the 41-year-old is back with the Dodgers, looking to hook on at the back of the rotation.

Gullet said, "You've really got to take a look in the mirror. Look in the mirror at yourself and look at what's ahead of you. You have to be man enough to figure that out and see for yourself. You have to understand and accept that and say to the new guy, `You're the man.'''

Dave Stewart, who was an ace with both the Blue Jays and Oakland A's, said, "I think if you're being realistic, you understand where you are. Coming into the latter part of your career, you recognize the fact that you're not capable of doing the things that a No. 1 guy does. You accept the role. In the end, you recognize who is the No. 1 guy on the staff. I think Clemens started to recognize where he was on that staff last year. Most of those guys had more playoff experience than he had.''

Red Sox pitching coach Joe Kerrigan has the ace of aces in Pedro Martinez, but he also has three other starters who once were aces on other staffs: Ramon Martinez (Dodgers), Fassero (Expos and Mariners), and Saberhagen (Royals).

"I still treat 'em with respect,'' said Kerrigan. "You've got to respect what a guy like Saberhagen has done for the game of baseball and what he's done for us the last couple of years. That's the way you treat Ramon, too. You treat Ramon like he's the man. And Fassero. I think you have to treat those people with the respect like they are still No. 1.''

This can be easier said than done. Ultimately, the job of the manager and pitching coach is to get the maximum number of starts from the ace, which come at the expense of other starters, including erstwhile aces.

Gullett said, "If you have that front-line absolute stopper - and there are very few of those guys in the game today - I would feel comfortable putting everything on a guy like that. It's the right thing to do. You want him to have the proper amount of rest. If there's an off day or a rainout, you're not gonna back your horse up an extra day. If you figure that happens three or four times during the season, you get an extra start out of a guy and it makes common sense to tell you that every time you get a chance to put him out there with a proper amount of rest, you're gonna put him out there.''

How do the other veterans feel about being skipped to accommodate the ace?

DAVID CONE THEN Won 20 for the Mets in 1988 and 10 for the Yankees in 1998. In between he was up and down - as a result in part of surgery to treat an aneurysm in his right arm in 1996 - but he managed to win the Cy Young with Kansas City in 1994 (16-5, 2.945 ERA). NOW Like Clemens, Cone was a candidate to be the Yankees' ace last year, but even though he threw a perfect game in July, he finished 12-98 and had to settle for second- or third-rate status behind Orlando Hernandez, the team's new ace. Either he or Clemens, both 37, could step to the fore again in 2000, or more likely be relegated to 3-4 behind Hernandez and Andy Pettitte.

"It happened to me in Los Angeles and Montreal,'' said Pedro. "It's OK. I didn't mind it. That's up to the manager. I will always do whatever the manager decides.''

Saberhagen said, "The manager's got to take into account if that's best for the team or best for the individual. It's not a fun thing to be skipped, and if it happened to me I wouldn't be too happy, but you've got to look at it as a team, and not as an individual. If it's best for the team, that's what's gotta happen. You can't always be looking out for yourself.''

Stewart added, "When I was with the Dodgers, I was behind Don Sutton. When you have a staff that's working for the same thing - to win and get to championship play, you want to get your No. 1 guy out there as much as you can. In Oakland they understood I'd go on the fourth day and sometimes I'd go back-to-back on the fourth day. It doesn't really affect the other guys. It shouldn't.''

Losing the ability to overpower hitters is the other adjustment that comes when you are no long No. 1.

"I could never do what Frank Tanana did,'' said Saberhagen. "He went from power to finesse, and that's tough to do. If I can't still throw the ball by people at times, I couldn't keep going.''

Gullett added, "I think we all take that for granted that you're invincible and an injury can never happen to me. But it's a fact that every pitch you make could be your last pitch.''

Pedro offers this tantalizing prospect regarding his big brother:

"I think he's a No. 1 still. Ramon hasn't pitched healthy, but if he is healthy he can be the No. 1 starter. I wish I could give Ramon my spot, because that would make us so much better. Imagine Ramon coming to the level I am now and becoming the ace. Me as the No. 2 starter. That would be a lot of fun.''