Clemens Makes His Return to the New York Yankees

Three and a half seasons have passed since Roger Clemens last pitched for the Yankees. He finished out the 2003 season with a 17-9 record, and effectively entered retirement.

That is, until his friend and former Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte joined his hometown Houston Astros. Clemens, who also calls Houston "home", postponed his retirement, signing a contract with the Astros, where he and Pettitte remained until the end of the 2006 season.

Clemens and Pettitte were successful pitchers for the Astros, with a combined record of 75-44 with a combined ERA of 2.88.

In the months leading up to the 2007 season, Pettitte re-signed with the Yankees, bringing forth speculation about Clemens also returning to the Yankees.

According to MLB.com, Clemens spoke with Yankee team owner George Steinbrenner, making clear his intention to return to the Yankees, and "do the only thing they know how to do with the Yankees, and that's win a championship." He followed this up by making an announcement of his intention to once again become a New York Yankee to fans at Yankee Stadium on May 6, 2007. According to ESPN.com, Clemens one-year contract is for $28,000,022 (the last two digits to match his uniform number), prorated to exclude the first two months of the season. When he starts earning his salary today, he will earn $17,442,637. His contract will cost the Yankees a total of $24,419,691, accounting for an additional $6,977,054 paid by the Yankees to the league in luxury tax.

His first game was supposed to take place on Monday, June 4^th, but he was sidelined with some discomfort and disruption of scar tissue in his groin.

But today, June 9, 2007, that pain has been managed, and after three starts in the Yankees minor league system to sharpen his pitches, Clemens will be returning to pitch his first game for New York since 2003.

The Yankees last World Series appearance was in 2003, where they lost the series to the Marlins after six games. Following this series was Clemens and Pettitte's departure. Since then, the Yankees have won the AL East three times but have only made it to the ALCS once, and have not made a World Series appearance.

The last Yankee World Series win was in 2000, a season where Clemens had the team's best ERA, at 3.70.

With Clemens and Pettitte both back on the Yankees, will there be enough power in the pitching to bring the team another World Series appearance? According to MLB.com, Clemens says "anything less is a failure, I know that." With a tremendous record of 5-1 against the Pirates, Clemens performance tonight is likely to be a step in the right direction.