Clemens coming back

ESPN.com news services

Roger Clemens is pushing back his retirement, agreeing to a one-year contract with the Houston Astros, ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney reports.

Clemens, the game's only six-time Cy Young Award winner, will be paid about $5 million to play next season, Houston television station KRIV reported Monday. He had said for more than a year that he planned to quit after pitching last season for the New York Yankees.

But Clemens was persuaded to join the Astros, his hometown team, after close friend and former Yankees teammate Andy Pettitte signed with Houston last month.

The Astros called a news conference for Monday afternoon.

"I wish him the best of luck," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told Olney. "I'll always think of him as a Yankee. His time here was special. One of the best moves we made was making Roger Clemens a Yankee.

"I am surprised [that he's not retiring]. There was never any 'I'm 90 percent retired,' or '99 percent retired.' It was always communicated he wanted to go out a Yankee. But people have a right to change their mind. We weren't allowed to be a part of the process [of negotiating for 2004], for whatever reason. But I'm not going to dwell on this."

Clemens, 41, was 17-9 with a 3.91 ERA last season, his fifth with the Yankees. He spent his first 13 seasons in Boston, then went to Toronto for two years before moving on to New York, where he won World Series titles in 1999 and 2000.

His 310-160 record puts him 17th on the career wins list, and his 4,099 strikeouts place him third behind Nolan Ryan (5,714) and Steve Carlton (4,136).

Clemens' last appearance for the Yankees was a memorable one, in Game 4 of the World Series against the Florida Marlins. Flashbulbs popped repeatedly as fans photographed what they thought would be his final pitches.

Fifty friends and family members flew to Miami to watch the game; Clemens didn't get a decision as the Yankees lost to Florida 4-3 in 12 innings. Even the Marlins' players applauded after Clemens struck out Luis Castillo in what was thought to be his final major league pitch.

"So many people were using flash photography, it was quite amazing," Clemens said then. "I think everybody started understanding that it was going to be my last inning, my last hitter, my last pitch."

Clemens thought about pitching for the United States at the 2004 Olympics, but the Americans were eliminated in qualifying in November.

Clemens' outlook on retirement started to change Dec. 11, when left-hander Pettitte -- who also lives in the Houston area -- agreed to a $31.5 million, three-year contract with the Astros.

Houston, which has never been to a World Series, will head to spring training with a projected starting rotation that includes Clemens, Pettitte, Roy Oswalt and Wade Miller.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

 

That would be huge.

 

I can't wait until this guy steps into the batters box and takes one up and in

 

Please let this happen

 

i bet he looks forward to it too. like him or not, he is one of the best ever.

 

Anybody who thinks that people are going to be gunning for Clemens should ask themselves how often people threw at Nolan Ryan.

Not many people are going to go high and tight to him, because they know they have to come up to bat as well. And Clemens is fucking crazy.

 

I wouldn't risk losing a testicle to clearing a pitcher off the plate. Hell, the guy won't be able to hit the fastball anyway, why bullshit with it?