TBO.com - Live in the moment

BASEBALL COLUMN

Rocket Begins Return

By MARTIN FENNELLY

Published: May 19, 2007

TAMPA - With malice toward none, with charity for all, including a smile and handshake for the wide-eyed minor-leaguer who took him out of the park, Roger Clemens is officially in the books as on the way back.

The Hummer that he rode in on was parked outside a few hours before Friday night's Single-A game between Clemens' Tampa Yankees and the Fort Myers Miracle. We don't mean outside Legends Field. We mean outside the Tampa clubhouse door, in a hallway inside the stadium. It's good to be the Rocket.

But Clemens was here to work, to start making his way back to the increasingly desperate New York Yankees, 10 games back of the Boston Red Sox and ready to pay Clemens $18.5 million for four months' work. The Boss, George M. Whatever You Want Roger III, was in the house Friday to see for himself. Uh, he parked inside the stadium, too.

So a Florida State League game was televised live on ESPN, all in the name of a 44-year-old trying to shake the rust off his flame ball on his way to another return on the way to two Hall of Fames, baseball's and the Federal Reserve Bank's.

'It's One Step Forward'

Clemens threw 58 pitches across four innings, 42 for strikes, allowing one run on three hits, striking out two and walking none. His fastest pitch traveled 91 mph.

"It's one step forward," Clemens said.

Seven starters in the Tampa lineup weren't alive when he made his major-league debut. As part of a promotion, Clemens and his momentary teammates were accompanied to the field by area youngsters. Clemens' guest on the mound was 4-year-old Nicholas Ketterer of Land O' Lakes, who was born shortly before Clemens retired the first time.

Clemens let little Nicholas put resin on his hand and had a hug for the youngster after the national anthem. Clemens, the father of four boys, was reportedly so enamored with the tyke that he offered to purchase him from the Ketterer family for $2.3 million.

Kidding!

The announced crowd, 10,257, was the first sellout in Tampa Yankees history. A throng of 1,108 had attended the previous night's Yankees-Miracle game. The real drama was whether Clemens would outdraw the Devil Rays-Marlins game at Tropicana Field. Alas, it was "Legends of Wrestling" night at the Trop, which helped deliver a crowd of 13,003.

Clemens' first pitches of 2007 came against the minor Miracle, possessors of a .223 team batting average. They were undaunted and quite excited to play before a sea of warm bodies against arguably the greatest pitcher of all time.

"It's a thrill," Miracle designated hitter Steve Tolleson said. "He's a legend."

Tolleson is the son of former big-leaguer and Yankee Wayne Tolleson and has the same agent as Clemens, whose Yankees contract will pay him about $18.5 million.

Say Clemens makes 20 starts, and throws 100 times in each of those. That would mean he'll make $9,250 per pitch.

Steve Tolleson earns $1,400 per month playing for the Miracle. After taxes and insurance, "it's about $490 every two weeks," Tolleson said. Plus he has to go on road trips even when he's not playing, unlike Roger.

Tolleson smiled.

"He's Roger Clemens and he's earned it. It's what we all dream of one day."

'On The Fast Track'

"I'm on the fast track, and that's where I expected to be," Clemens told the media.

Preceding the Rajah before the bright lights and cameras was 23-year-old Fort Myers Miracle left fielder Erik Lis, a Chicago native and a ninth-round Minnesota Twins pick in the 2005 draft. Lis was there to discuss the greatest thrill of his life.

In the very first inning, he hit a 2-2 Clemens fastball over the right-field wall. His father, Greg, who'd flown in from Chicago to see his boy face the Rocket, retrieved the homer ball. After the game, which Fort Myers lost 2-1, Lis was ushered to the Tampa clubhouse to meet Clemens.

"I had some nerves going for me, being on TV, having friends calling me who I haven't talked to since high school," Lis said. Twins Double-A manager Riccardo Ingram promised $100 to any kid who hit a homer off Clemens, "which is pretty cool," Lis said. He didn't dare ask Clemens to sign the homer ball, though Clemens would have.

"They're chasing their dreams," Clemens said. "It's pretty neat to see the excitement, the hop in their step."

Roger Clemens expects to start Wednesday for the Yankees farm team in Trenton, N.J. Erik Lis left Legends Field with a smile, a baseball and a story for his grandchildren.

Yeah, I took Clemens deep once.

Some things you just can't buy.