Clemens delays retirement, rejoins Astros
7-time Cy Young winner will get $12.25 million if rejoins team in late June
 | FREE VIDEO |
 |
'This was a difficult decision' May 31: Roger Clemens talks about his decision to rejoin the Houston Astros and says the team is better than last year. NBC Sports |
 | Video: Baseball from NBC Sports |
 Sammy Sosa’s skin lightened? Nov. 9: Baseball slugger Sammy Sosa shocked the crowd when he showed up at a Las Vegas event with much lighter skin. Is he doing some kind of “skin cleansing,” as some have suggested? Dr. Nancy Snyderman talks with msnbc.com’s Courtney Hazlett and dermatologist Dr. Lynn McKinley Grant. |
NEW YORK - The memory of his mother pushed Roger Clemens to come back. The chance to play with his oldest son persuaded him to pick the Houston Astros.
“We’ll see what happens,” Clemens said Wednesday. “Here we go.”
Clemens agreed to a $22 million contract Wednesday to pitch for Houston for the rest of 2006, ending months of speculation around baseball and in his own mind whether he could — or even wanted to — play a 23rd season.
“I think I’ve placed more responsibility on my shoulders than I ever have in my entire career,” Clemens said. “But I accept that challenge.”
His two youngest sons wanted him to walk away. But one of Clemens’ sisters swayed him by musing on what his mother, who died last September, would’ve preferred.
“Like my sister said, ’Mom would want you to be working. She doesn’t want you to be unemployed,”’ Clemens said. “’So go back to work.’
The 43-year-old Clemens is agreeing first to a minor league deal that pays $322,000 over the five-month minor league season. He is due to make his first start next Tuesday at Lexington, Ky., the Class A affiliate where oldest son Koby plays.
Clemens said Koby was a major factor in choosing the Astros.
“Yeah, Koby is the wild card in all this,” Clemens said. “Just like he told me this morning, even if he was somewhere else, we’ve had too many great moments here the last two years to set that aside.”
A few weeks ago when Clemens was still wavering on whether to return at all, Koby broke his left pinkie finger and came back to the family’s home in Houston to recover.
Clemens said Koby pushed him toward returning.
“Basically, he got me going and that got my body moving,” Clemens said.
Clemens was heading to Lexington this week anyway to see Koby play and see his mother’s tombstone, which was being made in nearby Cincinnati. Now, he’ll have the chance to take the field with his son in a real game for the first time.
|
“It’ll be fun,” Clemens said. “But he’d be the first to tell you that if he was with anybody else or if I really felt deep down that I needed to bookend my career in Boston or go back to the guys in New York, he would’ve encouraged that.”
If all goes well, Clemens’ second start would be June 11 at Double-A Corpus Christi, Texas, followed by a start June 16 at Triple-A Round Rock, Texas.
He could be pitching in the big leagues by June 22. Clemens helped pitch the Astros into their first World Series last year; this season they’re 27-27 and 7½ games behind St. Louis in the NL Central.
|
“The ball’s in my court now,” Clemens said. “This was a difficult decision on my part in a number of situations. I have to now take the next step and get my body ready to come back, get effective, win games.”
Even with an abbreviated season ahead, Clemens is uncertain how he’ll hold up physically. Clemens said the mental strain might be even more demanding.
“I know it’s going to be stressful, I know I’m going to be tested, I know I’m going to have some lows going through this,” he said. “Those are the questions I had to ask myself, if I’m ready to do this again.”
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
LowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM BASEBALL |
 Baseball Section Front |
| Add Baseball headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links