A Rocket reentry intriguing
Send in Pete Carroll to recruit him, or better yet Texas football coach Mack Brown. Make sure the video features a few of Roger Clemens's favorite country singers. It will take a lot of TLC, and probably a lot of money, to lure Clemens back to Boston.
The idea of sending a video to Clemens -- as reported by more than one media outlet yesterday -- to show him how much Boston fans want him back is important to the recruiting process, because the pitcher's agent, Randy Hendricks, indicated to this reporter a few weeks ago that the sentiment of Sox fans is something Clemens will weigh heavily. Hendricks wants to get a true measure on how Clemens would be received in Boston.
For now, Hendricks has indicated that the Red Sox are very much in the mix for Clemens, along with Texas and the Yankees. Hendricks has talked to the Red Sox at least twice. He indicated recently that the Sox had contacted him again after Larry Lucchino initially expressed interest in late November.
As for the video, Hendricks said, ''All I know about the video is that the press is asking me about it."
Told that a possible Clemens return was being positively received in Boston, and asked how much that meant, Hendricks said, ''A lot, and thanks for the update."
There were a lot of things said when Clemens left Boston following the 1996 season that didn't sit well with him and his agents. Clemens was depicted as deserting the team, the city, and the fans, they felt, when in fact the Red Sox management team of Dan Duquette and John Harrington felt Clemens was pretty much done after four average seasons.
The Sox made Clemens a two-year offer that swelled to four after the Blue Jays and Yankees weighed in with offers that blew Clemens away.
Hendricks hoped Clemens simply could end his career in Houston. But the Astros, who paid Clemens $18 million last year -- in a season that brought them to their first World Series -- have decided they won't pay anyone that much again.
Clemens, who hasn't said publicly whether he intends to play another year, had a sweetheart deal in Houston much like the one Tom Seaver had in his brief stint with the Red Sox in 1986. Under the terms, he could spend more time at home and wasn't required to show up if he wasn't pitching. But unlike Seaver, Clemens asked his teammates beforehand if it would be OK. No one objected.
If they determine Boston is the best place to return, Hendricks and Clemens know it would be a great story. Boston is where Clemens amassed 192 of his 341 wins. He won three of his seven Cy Youngs here, and his only MVP. Why not end his career in Boston?
He would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of his first 20-strikeout game and the 10th anniversary of his second 20K game with the team he was pitching for at the time.
The mistake Duquette and the Sox made after 1996 was not realizing that Clemens's velocity had risen back to his dominating levels. He didn't get a lot of wins because the bullpen couldn't hold leads.
In the four-year period when his career took a step back, a few things were happening with Clemens.
One was that he was reinventing himself. He started to develop the split-fingered pitch that has been so effective the last 10 years. While he was experimenting with it, he left a few over the plate that were hit out for home runs.
He also battled injuries in those four years. He used to pitch with tendinitis, with blisters, with groin and hamstring problems. They were the kinds of injuries that often would keep a normal pitcher out for weeks, but ones Clemens chose to pitch through. In retrospect, he probably shouldn't have, but that was the competitor in him.
During last year's playoffs, Clemens told me how much he enjoyed Boston, how much he missed seeing his old friends there, and how he just wanted to show up every now and then and hang around Fenway with his wife Debbie.
He seems to have erased the memories of a few obnoxious fans taunting his wife at Fenway when Clemens was in town with the Yankees. He came to understand that the sight of pinstripes brings out the worst in the extreme fans.
Clemens may not even decide about a return until he pitches in the World Baseball Classic next month. That may give him a good indication of whether he can get through another season physically.
''We will know a lot more after he pitches in the World Baseball Classic -- what I call the test drive," said Hendricks.
One point that Hendricks and Clemens have made is that Clemens cannot pitch a full season and expect to finish the postseason strongly. He wants to be able to join a team in midstream and be strong into the playoffs. That could be precisely what the Red Sox need. Maybe he and Matt Clement can do some job-sharing in the rotation -- Clement in the first half of the season, and Clemens in the second.
The team that needs him the most is Texas, which would get not only a No. 1 starter but also a huge drawing card.
The Red Sox have a plethora of starting pitchers, and they'd have to figure out how to make a spot for him, but that would work itself out. Believe me, this wouldn't be a situation where someone says, ''What would we do with Roger Clemens?"
In any case, this is a Red Sox team where Clemens would fit in. He's idolized by Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling. Tim Wakefield is a former teammate, and John Flaherty has experience catching Clemens. And of course, new bullpen coach Al Nipper remains a close friend.
There are many reasons this would make sense.
Clemens coming back to Boston isn't just a pipedream. If the Sox do all of the little things, pull out all the stops -- videos, visits, phone calls, roses for his wife -- the Rocket could soar one last time in the place where his Hall of Fame career began.
