Roger Clemens Returning to Baseball With Independent Minor League Team

Now that former pitcher Roger Clemens has been acquitted of charges that he lied to Congress in his denial that he used performance enhancing drugs, he’s going to do what every 50 year old with 354 career major league victories (ninth in the all time list) and 4672 strikeouts (third all time) does:  he’s going to return to baseball by pitching for an independent minor league team in some sort of comeback.

Clemens, who last pitched in 2007 for the New York Yankees, is scheduled to pitch August 25th for the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League, an independent minor league.  The Skeeters are based in the Houston area, so Roger doesn’t have to venture far from home.  At a news conference, the seven time Cy Young Award winner refused to discuss if this is the first step in an attempt to make it back to the big leagues.

According to his agent, Clemens has a fastball that clocks out at 87 miles per hour.  That’s great for a 50 year old and adequate for minors, but if he does have any plans to make it back to the majors, he’ll need to have some very effective breaking stuff to go with that.  Maybe he should talk to Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey about the knuckleball.