The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees have contacted their former ace Roger Clemens to see if the 43-year-old, 7-time Cy Young Award winner would be interested in pitching for them, according to the Boston Globe and New York Daily News reported.

"We have talked about things in general with the Yankees," one of Clemens' agents, Randy Hendricks, said in an e-mail to the Daily News on Sunday. "We have told the teams that have called to talk to us in January because there is no rush, due to Roger's timetable."

Clemens reacted positively to the Red Sox's interest, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources close to the pitcher.

The Red Sox contacted Clemens' agents, the Hendricks brothers, to express interest in the pitcher, the newspaper reported.

''We had an internal discussion," Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino said, the Globe reported, ''and concluded we should make an initial call to let the Hendricks brothers know we were open to discuss Roger's return if he should have interest in the Red Sox in 2006.

''Nothing further."

Clemens, who was not offered arbitration by the Houston Astros, is a free agent and can't re-sign with the Astros until May 1. Clemens has said through his agent that he doesn't expect to make a decision about whether he'll pitch next season until January or February. But Clemens is committed to play for the U.S. in the World Cup of Baseball, which takes place in March.

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According to the Globe, some close to Clemens think that if he wants to pitch again, he'll return to Houston on May 1, so he can monitor the progress of his son, Koby Clemens, a catcher in the organization.

Clemens is 341-172 lifetime with a 3.12 ERA in 672 games and 4,502 strikeouts. Last season, he went 13-8 with a 1.87 ERA.

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