Clemens pitches at Astros camp -- which means nothing
KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- On his first day at Houston Astros camp, Roger Clemens threw pitches and hit grounders to his son, Koby.
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That's about all the baseball he feels like playing right now.
The seven-time Cy Young Award winner is no closer to deciding whether he'll play a 24th major league season.
"Everybody knows where I stand. I don't care to play, but if that decision comes up again, then it's a big decision on me," Clemens said Thursday. "It has nothing to do with anybody else. It's a decision on me to go out and perform."
If he comes back, the 44-year-old pitching great said he'll choose between his hometown Astros, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
Clemens said he's not "milking" his decision in search of the highest bidder. He also said he'll have no problem walking away when the time comes.
"It's 10 times harder to make the decision to come back and try to do it again," he said. "I love what I do and I have high expectations to perform. When I don't, it's disappointing."
Clemens is on an easier workout regimen now than he was when he arrived at spring training last year to prepare for the World Baseball Classic.
He said Thursday he feels "very good" and "strong," but knows that the older he gets, the harder it will be to get himself prepared for another season.
"At one point, it's not going to work out," he said. "These are the questions I have to ask myself, that's why I push myself so hard to find out before I get to that moment."
Clemens said he'll wait until his agents, Alan and Randy Hendricks, get an offer he can't refuse before he amps up his workout regimen. And even then, he might have doubts.
"I don't know what's going to happen two months from now," Clemens said. "I could get into the middle of a training session and know that I just can't do it. That would be the easiest call for me to make."
Koby Clemens, a third baseman starting his second full season in the Astros' minor league system, said his father told him last week he was "80-20" leaning toward not coming back. Then again, after the 2003 season Clemens said there was a 99 percent chance he would retire.
