Clemens Plays by Own Rules

Roger Clemens can do whatever he wants. Even if it effects the people around him.

Clemens was named to the Team USA 30 man roster for the upcoming World Baseball Classic yesterday, but said that he won’t decide on his future in Major League Baseball until after the tournament.

Now I understand that Roger Clemens has achieved Brett Favre status in baseball. He is a legend who still has plenty of ability left. But unlike Favre, who seems to always toy with retirement because he doesn’t know if he can do it anymore, Clemens only waits to find out his monetary value.

Last season, it seemed like Clemens might give up the game after winning the CY Young award in 2004, but he came back because the Houston Astros gave him the highest one year contract in the history of the game.

Now, Clemens is becoming problematic in the decisions of as many as four teams.

Houston, the defending National League champion, will have to wait until May 1 if they want Clemens to pitch for them again. Over the past two seasons, he has held the Astros up with his outrageous contract and his unwillingness to take road trips with the team when he is not scheduled to pitch.

The fact that the Astros have won might suppress the issue, but at the very least, Clemens has been difficult to deal with. The team will now go into opening day missing the key component from one of the best pitching staffs in baseball over the past two seasons.

The New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Texas Rangers are the other teams that are going to give Clemens as long as he needs to decide whether he will come back.

The World Baseball Classic will give Clemens the biggest bargaining chip he could use. If he pitches well, maybe leading the USA to the championship, he will be able to demand what ever he wants from every team. Odds are each team will be willing to meet any of his needs.

If the classic doesn’t go the way he’d like, he’ll still want big money and if he doesn’t get it, he’ll retire.

That’s what happens when someone becomes bigger than the game. Roger Clemens doesn’t need the Astros, Yankees, Red Sox, or Rangers, but all four need him.

In the mean time, he’ll continue holding each team hostage.