Clemens changed course Monday, ending his much-balleyhooed retirement after only 78 days and agreeing to pitch with close friend Andy Pettitte on their hometown Houston Astros.
At 41, the six-time Cy Young winner got a one-year deal for $5 million. Instead of finishing in Yankee pinstripes, the Rocket splashed down in Spacetown.
“I took to heart what Wayne Gretzky told me and Michael (Jordan) and Emmitt Smith and even Johnny Bench,” Clemens said. “It’s great to come home.”
Once his wife and four boys approved, Clemens got the one final OK he needed to hear.
“My mother gave it her blessing,” he said.
For more than a year, Clemens insisted 2003 would be his final season. But that changed after the Yankees lost the World Series and Pettitte left New York.
“It’s a great thing for Houston and, frankly, Roger has earned the right to do whatever he wants to,” baseball commissioner Bud Selig said.
Clemens is coming off a season in which he went 17-9 with a 3.91 ERA. He reached career milestones of 300 wins and 4,000 strikeouts in the same game in June.
In what appeared to be his final outing, even the Florida Marlins applauded after his last pitch in Game 4 of the World Series.
“Thank you for watching over my dad for the last 40 years — I mean 20 years,” 9-year-old Kacy Clemens said at the postgame news conference that night. “And we’ll take it from here.”
After the season, Clemens filed for free agency as a formality. A month later, the United States was eliminated from Olympics qualifying — he had shown interest in pitching at Athens — and it seemed he was ready to settle down and spend time with his family.
“Roger Clemens was a great warrior for the Yankees — a teacher and a leader,” Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. “He told the world he was retiring, and we had no choice but to believe him.”
Now, Clemens faces another stiff challenge, the kind that has always motivated him. He hopes to help a talented Houston team reach the World Series for the first time in its history — the Astros began playing in 1962, about four months before Clemens was born.
Clemens will play in the ballpark he helped open. He pitched in the first game at then-Enron Field, an exhibition between the Yankees and Houston on March 30, 2000.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think this team had a great chance of winning. That obviously figures into it,” Clemens said.
Said Astros general manager Gerry Hunsicker: “His charisma, character, credibility is all going to take this franchise to a new level.”
The Astros finished second in the NL Central last season, one game behind the Chicago Cubs.
Some would say Astros owner and Temple businessman Drayton McLane got quite a bargain.
Clemens will pitch for much less than last year’s $10.1 million salary. The Astros will defer $3.5 million of Clemens’ pay until 2006.
Clemens can earn an additional $1.4 million based on the Astros’ home attendance: $200,000 for each 100,000 fans starting at 2.8 million and running through 3.4 million. The Astros drew about 2.45 million fans last year.
