Roger Clemens made his return to the mound for the Sugar Land Skeeters last night with two Royals officials in attendance. Senior pitching advisor Bill Fischer and independent league scout Ron Toenjes were at the game, but Royals GM Dayton Moore quickly doused any speculation of interest, according to MLB.com's Dick Kaegel.
Moore said Fischer, a former pitching coach of Clemens in Boston, was invited to the game by the right-hander and that Toenjes "wasn't sent there to scout the game. He was sent there to be along with Fish, and that's all. We were not there scouting Roger Clemens."
With Fischer with him in the dugout, Clemens allowed only one hit, no walks, and struck out two during 3 1/3 innings, reports Alyson Footer of MLB.com. Clemens hit 88 mph with his fastball as 24 of his 37 pitches went for strikes.
"It was good." Clemens said of his outing. "Everyone says it's like riding a bike. I just wanted to make sure I got out of there uninjured but still make a good showing."
Will this showing lead to a possible return to the Major Leagues? "It's a great deal of work," Clemens said, "and I'm not thinking that at this point."
After all the relievers KC and Boston ran out there today and yesterday? sure KC doesn’t need another arm?
kidding.. why would anyone want him.. When houston thinking they want him brings back memories of Bill Veeck running 70YO Minnie Minosa to the plate.. Then Minosa wasn’t a juicer in denial, but a classy former great ball player also..
That or Eddie Gaedel, not so coincidentally another Veeck signing.
The only team that would sign Clemens would do so for a publicity stunt, in other words only Houston. It would be a mockery though. Will the Tigers sign Jack Morris to a one day contract if he fails to get into the Hall just so he gets another shot? How about the Cards or A’s sign McGwire to restart his clock? Orioles or Rangers with Palmierio?
If anybody signs this clown, I hope that teams fans are smart enough to boycott the team. Sickening that this is even a thought let alone something a GM has to answer to. This is a clown question, bro.
no body said that about jamie moyer when he was attempting to come back at this age.
I think boycotting your team of allegiance is a bit much, he’s an egotistical cheater but on the grand scale of bad people, he’s not very highly ranked.
Jamie Moyer wasn’t a symbol of steroid abuse, so I’m hoping you were joking and not making a serious comparison.
Agreed that boycotting your own team is silly and if he signs with the Astros my bet is he’ll get a standing ovation from the home crowd. However the grounds crew might have to clean the field in the middle of the game due to opposing fans throwing stuff on the field.
really? did opposing fans throw things at Arod? Pettite? WIll opposing fans throw things at Melky? Braun?
Make no mistake, i’m not a clemens fan by any means, but I think him becoming the posterboy for the steroid era is a bit ridiculous. It was rapidly used back then, and apparently, still used today.
I think the whole thing is ridiculous, but if a team actually wants to sign him, then all the power to you
Arod, Pettitte, Melky, and Braun weren’t seen as baseball legends. However Bonds, Clemens, Palmierio, and to some extend McGwire and Sosa were. And opposing fans did throw things at Bonds.
On top of all that ARod, Pettitte, and Melky have all admitted they did something wrong and Braun won his appeal thus subverting the ire of fans.
If Palmiero is a baseball legend, A-Rod should definitely be… And Bonds and Clemens should be considered baseball immortals.
At the time when all the steroid scandal was exploding ARod was simply just one of the best of the time, if he had a career ending injury no one would have called him legendary and right now he won’t if he doesn’t break the 700 home run mark (Even then the steroid scandal will hang over his head). Palmiero was one of five players with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, a lot of people considered him to be a legend.
Legends, immortal, whatever. The point I was trying to make was if Clemens and Bonds weren’t part of the steroid scandal they would have had their names along side the likes of Ruth, Aaron, Gibson, Johnson, Cobb, etc as the elites of the elites. However because of the sandal they’ve become the face of steroids in baseball.
I agree with everything youve said, and was always a huge Palmiero fan (I always thought that he was underrated if anything), but it’s hard to deny that at the time of his admission, everyone thought A-Rod would go down as one of the top ball players of ALL time, not just our time. Look at the escalators built into his contract, awarding him $6 million(?) for each all-time great he passed on the HR list. At the time it seemed a given.
The hardest thing with steroids and the HOF is that some of these guys were sure things (Bonds and Clemens, and in my opinion Palmiero), some would have been borderline (McGwire and Bagwell) and some probably wouldn’t have been close without the PEDs (Sosa). But how to differentiate? The HOF counting stats are there, so where does the line get drawn?
Also, in no way am I throwing Bagwells name into the PED discussion, but it appears some writers must have, with his votes so far. I just think he’s borderline, but is being looked at skeptically because of the era he played in
Don’t get me wrong, ARod (even with the steroid issue) will be a first round HOFer. But I still say until he actually sets or comes close to a major record we can’t really call him a legend.
I do have to wonder. In 50 years if baseball is still around, how will people look at certain players? I remember the summer when McGwire and Sosa shot for Maris’s record, it was epic since the home run record was suposed to be virtually unbreakable. Will modern sluggers get recognition or will they be dismissed?
Hopefully in 50 years, steroids will be looked on in the same manner that segregation in baseball or the drug exploits of the 60s-80s are now. An afterthought, and not a taint on the players of that era.
I would also predict (and hope) that the Veterans’ Committee goes back and puts all the past PED users who have HOF-worthy stats into the HOF (since I strongly doubt the BBWAA votes them in anytime soon, although that would be ideal).
Are you kidding me? How is ARod not a legend and in the same category as Bonds, Ruth, Gehrig… etc?
He will go down as a legend. Just not in a good way.
Roger The juice Clemens is so juiced up. The Guy is washed up as far as MLB is concerned.
queue the next article about another terrible team having no interest in rocket.