Eight years after first coming out of retirement to pitch close to home with the Houston Astros, Roger Clemens is pulling a similar stunt. Sort of.
The 50-year-old seven-time Cy Young Award winner, who has not pitched professionally since the 2007 playoffs with the Yankees, signed Monday morning with Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League — an independent circuit that is also home to New Jersey’s Camden Riversharks and Somerset Patriots.
Clemens is expected to make his first start Saturday night at home. In the unlikely event that he remains with the Skeeters long-term and makes road trips, Sugar Land visits Camden from Aug. 31 through Sept. 2 and Somerset from Sept. 12-13.
“It is at this point a fun, local, one-time kind of thing,” Randy Hendricks, one of Clemens’ agents, told Patriots’ Pulse in an email. “The hitters will let us know on Saturday whether he should start again for the Skeeters.”
Two months removed from an acquittal on charges that he lied to Congress about alleged performance-enhancing drug use, Clemens threw three simulated innings Monday after a vigorous workout for Skeeters’ brass.
“He was clocked at 87 mph on his fastball and all four pitches were working,” Hendricks said. “I am not surprised because he has been working out to see if this makes any sense.”
Clemens, a 24-year major-leaguer, is not the first player with Hall of Fame credentials to use the Atlantic League as a re-launching pad. Rickey Henderson, Jose Canseco and Juan Gonzalez — the latter two of whom have had their names linked to PEDs — all played in the league at some point.
“I think it’s great — it fills a need for Roger to see where he is at and it will be fun to watch it unfold” said Atlantic League executive director Joe Klein, a former Major League Baseball general manager. “It served Rickey well and Jose got back to the majors. Who says no (this time)? There are certainly some clubs who should take a look at him.”
If Clemens returns to the major-leagues this season, he would not be eligible for the Hall of Fame for another five years — at which point his public image could be different — instead of this December, when he is currently slated to appear on the ballot for the first time.
“He still has three above-average major-league pitches,” said Sugar Land director of baseball operations Michael Kirk, whose team is 5 ½ games out of the playoffs. “I think velocity is overvalued in baseball. The guy knows how to pitch and he has a ton of movement on his slider. People will say it’s a publicity stunt, but I’m trying to win baseball games. He is a guy who knows how to pitch and maybe he can help our other guys. Watching his bullpen, he was competing for sure, and that was just in front of guys in suits.”
News of Clemens’ return — which was in the works with manager Gary Gaetti for months and officially will be announced Tuesday morning — reached another former Yankees and Boston Red Sox legend, Patriots manager Sparky Lyle, at his home just prior to leaving for the ballpark.
“I can’t believe it and I’m wondering why,” Lyle said. “I would think it is more of a marketing thing than anything else, but we’ll have to wait and see how throws. I saw Satchel Paige pitch when he was (59) and he got three outs. It’s all a matter of control and where you throw the ball.”
The Skeeters already have former major-leaguers Scott Kazmir, Tim Redding and Jason Lane on their pitching staff, but none of those players are 354-184 with a 3.12 ERA and the third-most strikeouts of all-time.
“He has done too many things and pitched in too many big games — he was always the money pitcher — that I hold him in very high regard regardless of the last four or five years he played,” Lyle said. “If he did (any PEDs) it was probably then.”
The Skeeters received an overwhelming amount of ticket and media credential requests following the announcement as the baseball world clamors for some answers.
“I know his age is an issue, but I have no doubt that he could still be great,” said Patriots director of player personnel Brett Jodie, who had a few conversations with Clemens when the two were teammates on the 2001 Yankees. “What has he been doing the last four or five years? He’s been in the courtroom a lot, but he always was a physical specimen. And why did he wait until now, the end of the season? There are a lot of questions and we’ll find out the answers soon enough.”
Report from "Patriot Pulse", a Somerset Patriots blog.
