‘MAJOR’ QUESTION
Clemens not ruling out a return to big leagues
Roger Clemens didn’t say yes yesterday when asked about a possible return to the major leagues. More significantly, he didn’t say no.
And maybe that tells us everything we need to know about the Rocket’s latest relaunch.
Clemens, who last pitched in the majors with the Yankees in 2007 at the age of 45, met the media in Sugar Land, Texas, yesterday, one day after agreeing to pitch for the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League.
“I’ve been to the major leagues and back a couple of times,” he told reporters when asked about his longrange plans. “I’ve retired and unretired, so I wouldn’t consider thinking that far ahead. I’m just trying to get through Saturday. We’re going to have fun with it.”
Though Clemens, 50, said he has only committed to making one start for the Skeeters, there’s a strong feeling his stay with the Skeeters — however long it lasts — is a dress rehearsal for a September cameo with his hometown Astros.
But any appearance with lastplace Houston — for whom Clemens pitched in 2004 and 2005 and which sent its scouting director to watch his workout for the Skeeters on Monday — would be much more than a publicity stunt.
It also would restart the clock on his eligibility for the Hall of Fame. Clemens, the only player to take on the Mitchell Report head on after he was accused in it of using performanceenhancing drugs by his former personal trainer, is scheduled to be on the ballot for the first time this year along with other firsttimers such as Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Craig Biggio, Curt Schilling and Mike Piazza.
Pitching in a major league game this season would push Clemens’ Hall of Fame eligibility back another five years. It also would separate the game’s only seventime Cy Young Award winner and 354game winner from Bonds and Sosa, widely recognized as steroid abusers, in the minds of fans and, more importantly, the members of the Baseball Writers Association of America who annually vote on enshrinement to Cooperstown.
To date, no one who has been linked to steroids in any way has even come close to being elected to the Hall of Fame, and it is almost certain neither Clemens, Bonds nor Sosa will receive enough support from voters for enshrinement next summer. But who knows whether the issue of steroids and PEDS will carry the same stigma in 2017.
“Sure, the Hall of Fame is great,” Clemens said yesterday. “I’ve told people that. But it’s not going to change my life either way. But if there’s something there that somebody feels like they have a grudge or want to hold something against you, I can’t control that one bit.’’
Clemens, who was acquitted in June of lying to Congress, said he has spoken to new Astros owner Jim Crane often, but the subject of pitching for Houston again had not been broached. Crane has told the Houston Chronicle the team has no plans to bring Clemens back and would check with Major League Baseball before doing anything.
Clemens, whose fastball was clocked at 87 mph on Monday, also said he has been throwing a lot to his sons, but wouldn’t consider himself “anywhere close to majorleague ready.
“I’m nowhere near where I was five years ago or the amount of work that went into it,” he said. “People are trying to ingrain in my mind that 50 is the new 40. But I’m not buying it because I’m still having to pack myself in a lot of ice.”