I hate people. You know it! Urgh, when you retire - You retire. Shitheads thinking I'M going to let them sign with Houston. God damn it. It's from the Courier Journal
(My paper).
Clemens listens to his mom, will pitch for AstrosRight-hander, Houston inka $5 million deal HOUSTON - Roger Clemens throws quite a curveball, too.
Clemens changed course yesterday, ending his much-ballyhooed retirement after only 78 days and agreeing to pitch with close friend (Cece - URGH!) Andy Pettitte on their hometown Houston Astros.
At 41, the six-time Cy Young winner got a one-year deal for $5 million. Instead of finishing in Yankee pinstripes, the Rocket splashed down in Spacetown.
"I took to heart what Wayne Gretzky told me and Michael [Jordan] and Emmit Smith and even Johnny Bench," Clemens said. "It's great to come home."
Once his wife and four boys approved, Clemens got the one final OK he needed to hear.
"My mother gave it her blessing," he said.
For more than a year, Clemens insisted that 2003 would be his final season. But that changed after the Yankees lost the World Series and Pettitte left New York.
"It's a great thing for Houston and, frankly, Roger has the right to do whatever he wants," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said.
Clemens is coming off a season in which he went 17-9 with a 3.91 ERA. He reached career milestones of 300 wins and 4,000 strikeouts in the same game in June.
After the season Clemens filed for free agency as a formality. A month later the United States was eliminated from Olympics qualifying - he had shown interest in pitching at Athens - and it seemed he was ready to settle down and spend time with his family.
"Roger Clemens was a great warrior for the Yankees - a teacher and a leader," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a news release. "He told the world he was retiring, and we had no choice but to believe him."
Clemens hopes to help the Astros reach the World Series for the first time.
In other Yankees news . . .
Tony Clark agreed to a $750,000 one-year contract with the Yankees and will be backup to first baseman Jason Giambi, who had left knee surgery following last season.
Clark had 254 at-bats with the New York Mets last season, batting .232 with 16 home runs and 43 RBIs.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Giambi is 100 percent following his operation. New York needed a new backup after trading Nick Johnson to Montreal for Javier Valquez.
