With a contract richer than any other pitcher's in history, Clemens arms the Astros for another run at the NL pennant
18 million reasons to play
By DAVID BARRON
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
More than four decades after Harris County voters passed an $18 million bond issue to build a sporting palace that eventually became the Astrodome, Astros owner Drayton McLane on Friday closed an $18 million deal to keep another civic landmark — favorite son Roger Clemens — in a Houston uniform for the 2005 season.
Clemens' $18 million salary for next season will be the highest ever paid to a major-league pitcher. It dwarfs by more than $3 million the payroll for the entire 25-man Astros roster for 1992, the season before McLane bought the ballclub.
But consider how far the Astros have come. Also-rans amid the Astrodome's fading splendor in the early 1990s, they came within a victory last year of bringing Houston's first World Series to downtown's gleaming Minute Maid Park.
And the 42-year-old Clemens sounded Friday as if he were determined to make the difference in 2005.
"Like Drayton says, it's time to do it again," Clemens said. "And who's to say we can't?"
Certainly not McLane.
"(Clemens) can make more of a difference for the Houston Astros than any player in baseball," the owner said. "There is only one Roger Clemens. We have some magnificent players here who have played great. But it was his personality, his championship attitude, that lifted us last season.
"It was the greatest season in the history of the Houston Astros. But I like to draw the line. That's done. We've got to move forward."
For McLane, the Astros and their fans, Clemens' decision to return to baseball for a 22nd season takes some of the sting out of losing free agent Carlos Beltran's two weeks ago to the New York Mets.
$18 million commitment
That long-ago $18 million commitment paved the way toward building the domed stadium that gave Houston its first national identity as a big-league city. The latest investment gives the Astros a chance to continue the momentum that began last January, when Clemens ended his short-lived retirement for what he thought would be one last season with his hometown team.
After finishing 87-75 and out of the playoffs in 2003, the Astros were 92-70 in 2004, closing the regular season as baseball's hottest team to claim the National League wild-card berth. They won a playoff series for the first time in franchise history, beating the Atlanta Braves in the NL Division Series, before losing a seven-game series to the St. Louis Cardinals for the NL championship and a berth in the World Series.
After drawing 2.4 million fans in 2003, the Astros saw attendance zoom to 3.08 million last season. Season-ticket sales climbed from 15,000 to 20,000 for 2004.
Average attendance for the 21 games Clemens pitched at Minute Maid Park was 39,359, almost 1,500 higher than the average crowd on days he didn't pitch. And he gave everybody their money's worth for last year's $5 million salary (plus $1.825 million in bonuses),posting an 18-4 record to win his record seventh Cy Young Award.
Agent Randy Hendricks said signing Clemens gave the Astros a chance to dispel the small-time aura that some tried to attach to the team in the wake of the failure to sign Beltran.
"I told (the Astros) that particularly in light of the Beltran situation, why don't you just graciously and easily put him on top of everybody, because he deserves it and it's a great statement?" Hendricks said. "It shows that's not always about nickels and dimes. He did it for you last year; you do it for him this year.
"It's a good marketing move, they did it, and they don't become the discounted Astros."
Before Clemens arrived, said consultant David Carter with the Sports Business Group in Los Angeles, "you didn't hear any buzz surrounding the Astros. He particularly enhanced their notoriety among the next generation of fans, who previously had no reason to follow the Astros.
"I would say his value to the team was 50-50, comparing what he brings on the field and off the field. That's very rare. There are very few athletes who can bring that sort of distinction, who can assume a brand and give it maximum value."
For evidence of that new cachet, visitors to Minute Maid Park need look no further than the gap between the two light standards in left-center field. The brick-colored sign advertising the 2004 All-Star Game has been replaced by a sign advertising Citgo, which moved its corporate headquarters to Houston last year and recently became the Astros' newest corporate partner.
Clemens noticed it. After all, he began his major-league career in Boston, where the 40-year-old Citgo sign in Kenmore Square beyond the Green Monster is one of the signature landmarks of an evening at Fenway Park — home of the 2004 World Series champion Red Sox.
He fell short of bringing the World Series to Houston. But in what he thought was his final season, Clemens noticed the buzz he helped bring to his hometown team in 2004.
"The everlasting thing that I take (from 2004) is how loud it was at this stadium," he said. "(Yankees legend Reggie Jackson) said he hoped I could bring home a little bit of the magic and excitement I felt at Yankee Stadium. In the middle of the playoffs, I called him and said, 'You need to get down here and hear this stadium. It's loud.'
"When I wasn't out there performing, I asked the veteran players if things were like this a few years ago. They said absolutely not."
Clemens the fanAs the season progressed, not only was Clemens a player, he was an Astros fan.
And it was as an Astros fan, he said, that he began working last week toward his decision to play in 2005.
In the wake of Beltran's move to New York, Chronicle columnist Richard Justice on Jan. 10 wrote that the Astros should stick with younger players, "trust their judgment and move ahead." At least one reader agreed with him.
"I was thinking about what these guys were going to go through and was already distancing myself a little bit from performing," Clemens said. "Then I looked at the (proposed) lineup and read the column, and I thought it was nice. As a fan, I thought it was all right. We accept it; let's move on and see how we can do."
And move on the Astros will, bolstered by one of baseball's greatest righthanded pitchers in the starting rotation.
"I take a deep breath, and here we go again," Clemens said. "We'll try to bring some smiles to some more hometown fans' faces. I'm ready for the challenge."
david.barron@chron.com
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