NY Daily News: Roger, Andy on Different Paths in Htown

Roger, Andy on Different Paths in Houston


A couple of guys who used to work here are back in town for a few days. Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, maybe you remember them. They wore pinstripes and pitched in important games. October was always a big month for them and now October is nothing they have to worry about.
They will go home a lot sooner this season. Wait a minute, they are home. Houston, where the World Series is on a TV screen, played by two other teams. And New York, especially their old club, seems to be surviving without them.

"Things haven't gone the way I wanted," Pettitte was saying before Houston's 7-3 loss to the Mets last night, his Southern accent a lot more noticeable than it was on 161st St., where he spent nine seasons, won 149 games, 20 more than once, and did it all very quietly.

He won't win 20 this year, won't come close. Pettitte has spent 47 days on the disabled list, and when he pitches tomorrow against the Mets, he'll be trying to improve a 6-4 record. New York never knew that Pettitte.

Clemens, however, the 42-year-old Clemens, is giving his new team the same kinds of numbers he started putting up 19seasons ago. Time stands still for him. Nothing has changed. Not his numbers - 12-4, a 2.63 earned-run average - and not his answers, which are rarely as impressive as his fabled workouts.

The Astros, who were supposed to be important players in their division, have nothing better than a longshot chance at the wild card. "It'll take some exceptional baseball these last 50 games to get there," Clemens admits. "Having to concede you're not gonna win your division is tough to do when you've won it so many times."

He was, he said, "excited" in May, when Houston spent three weeks in first place. "This is what it's supposed to be," he was thinking. But the months since then have been very un-Yankee like.

Does he, he was asked, ever wish, you know, dream, fantasize, whatever, that he was still in the Bronx?

"Wishing I was back was never a factor," he said. "I don't have any regrets whatsoever."

Clemens, you might recall, was supposed to be hunting, not pitching this season. A story floated around that he might volunteer for the Olympics, but a big league comeback, nah, that was out of the question. Until the Yankees didn't offer Pettitte enough money or enough years, or a locker with a fireplace, and so he signed with Houston. And out of the blue, Clemens put himself on the same line. Now he's second on the ERA list, holding hitters to a .216 average, and striking out 9.1 every nine innings, and his jerseys are probably the leading seller at Minute Maid Park.

The Hall of Fame will just have to wait until 2010 for his thank-you speech. Unless, he keeps pitching ...'05, '06, if he feels like it. Why not?

"I'm not gonna touch that," Clemens said. But, yeah, his body still feels strong, "and my recovery time is still the same." His one concession to age and more than 4,400 major league innings: "I need a little more ice."

His contract with Houston says he doesn't have to make every trip, and this was one he could have missed. He pitched last Sunday, a 5-2 win over Montreal, and won't be on a mound again until Friday. He's here, he said, because "I love the city. It's great. I wish I had more time here. I'm not gonna see everybody I want to see."

He's been in a few restaurants, he said, and people keep telling him how the Yankees are doing. And he comes back with, "I don't think they have a lot to worry about."

The way he makes it sound, and because the Yankees are millions of games in front, none of the citizens has been hollering, "Thanks for nothing, Roger." He and Pettitte won 38 games last year and, when they left, the fans spent most of the winter wondering where those 38 would come from. Another waste of time, it turns out.

While Clemens makes it sound like one good day after another, Pettitte will tell you he's struggling. He hurt his elbow on a checked swing Opening Day, and the season has been a painful experience. And when he hurt his forearm in late May, "I told the Houston media I thought I'd need a miracle. I haven't let it change the way I pitch, but the deal is, it's not allowing me to pitch the way I want to. I'm breaking down more." And this is what's left: "I'm trying to figure out how to get through these last few months."

Two familiar pitchers, two different stories.