What people believe is immaterial, because Clemens will be arriving soon, will possibly have his first major league start against the Red Sox (who also had great interest in his services, but mostly for public relations and marketing purposes), and is guaranteed to get all the money his contract promises – even if he will not necessarily earn it. Facts are facts, and no 44 year old player is going to carry any major league team in the game today all the way to the World Series on his own – not even the Rocket. So, while his is a feel-good story for the AARP eligible faction of the Major League Players Association, most of the kids in the game today who will face Clemens from the plate have one goal in mind – make the old man look bad. For that reason, and that reason alone, Clemens can look forward to long at-bats, short outings, and occasional embarrassing starts sometimes countered with a brilliant showing when the Yankees face one of the other bottom-feeder teams in the American League…like Kansas City. Yeah, suddenly earning a prorated 28 million per year makes sense when an individual of advancing years can look forward to a season of those kinds of embarrassments.

At least the Rocket came back to do what he could for the team that is closest to his heart, the team he is most often associated with. Oh wait…he signed with the Yankees, not the Red Sox.

Truthfully, if nothing else this move by the Rocket allows him one sure thing – the chance to come back next year and play for the Red Sox one last time. No matter how well or poorly Clemens does this season, what the man may have really been saying was that he is not ready to give up on what made him great just yet. Perhaps if he had signed with the Red Sox, it would have been considered his swan song and been written about ad nauseum. Perhaps if he had signed with the Red Sox it would have left him with no way to come back to baseball again next season…and that reality may have been just too scary for the man. Letting go can be hard to do, and Clemens never felt so important, never felt so much celebrity, as he clearly has felt playing baseball. Maybe seeing Nolan Ryan the anonymous Texas banker scares Clemens a lot, because the last thing he wants is to be a dusty old relic wasting away in relative Texas obscurity. Perhaps the thought of only being able to be in the baseball limelight on special occasions has the Rocket grasping for it again and again until he can grasp no more. Perhaps the challenge of going to a team as bad as the Yankees this year and saving them is the kind of chapter Clemens needs to add to his legacy – his legend – even still. While it could all be delusion that has him embracing this challenge, pulling it off would embody greatness and guts. Forget about the other 24 guys on the Yankees, sad thing is about them that they needed the Rocket to come back and lead them to glory. Perhaps no one will ever truly know what makes the man tick, but we do know that he loves the spotlight and he loves to be the center of attention. Even if the Yankees are still bad after Roger comes to town, all he has to do is be himself and he can puff out his chest and proudly proclaim that it was not him who let down the fans, the city or the sport – implying it was the rest of the bums in the Bronx. 

However, if there is one reason he can be forgiven for choosing New York over Boston it is this – would you rather be a king of the rotation in New York, or replace Julian Tavarez in Boston? Honestly, it is probably pretty hard to enhance your baseball legend if you come back and replace a number five starter.