He walked away from the game after his Yankees' loss to the Marlins in the 2003 World Series. But didn't stay away for long, following his friend Andy Pettitte to Houston.
It turned out to be a great move for the Astros, as Clemens logged 214 innings, won 18 games, struck out 218 and brought home his seventh Cy Young award.
He was equally dominant in 2005, although a lack of run support limited him to 13 victories.
There is little left for Clemens to prove, but he keeps on pitching, and in 2006 at the age of 42, he is as good as ever. About the only thing he doesn't have is Nolan Ryan's unreachable strikeout record of 5,714.
So with that in mind, NBCSports.com offers this decade-by-decade look at one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history.";
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RogerClemens[i-1].body = "The Rocket blasts off
After teasing the Red Sox with his promise in his first two seasons, 1984 and '85, Clemens exploded on the scene like a rising fastball in 1986. He went 24-4 with a 2.48 ERA and 238 strikeouts in 254 innings. He won the first of his record seven Cy Young Awards as well as American League MVP honors for pitching Boston into its first World Series since 1975.
On April 29, 1986, Clemens established a major-league record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game when he fanned 20 against Seattle in a 3-1 victory. He went 20-9 with a 2.97 ERA in 1987 to win his second consecutive Cy Young Award. In 1988, Clemens led the majors with 291 strikeouts and closed out the decade by leading the AL with 230.
By the end of the '80s, Clemens had evolved from a fastball-curveball pitcher (no disgrace, since that was Sandy Koufax's entire repertoire!) into a three-pitch demon. He learned the split-fingered fastball from teammate Al Nipper, which he nicknamed Mr. Split, and honed it after a meeting at a Texas golf tournament with Houston Astros' split-master Mike Scott.
As if that wasn't enough, his pitching coach, Bill Fisher, taught him a slider. Suddenly, every pitch Clemens threw registered in the upper-80s on someone's radar gun. His fastball? Pure Texas heat - upper 90s.
He appeared twice in the postseason with Boston, in 1986 and 1988, going a disappointing 1-1 with a high ERA. He admitted years later that he was overzealous in his early playoffs.
\"The only time that I would experience any uneasy feeling was my first couple of post-season games when I was young,\" Clemens said, \"because I really didn't know what to expect, and I didn't really know how to channel my emotions or the adrenaline and everything that comes with it.\"
He was well-focused in the regular season, however, closing the decade with four consecutive 200-plus strikeout seasons, a streak he would extend to seven, matching the best in American League history. It wasn't the last time his name would be in the record books.
Roger Clemens' Pitching Line (1984-89)
| G | CG | SH | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | W | L | ERA |
| 175 | 58 | 21 | 1284.2 | 1088 | 476 | 437 | 95 | 371 | 1215 | 95 | 45 | 3.06 |
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Roger Clemens began his second decade in spectacular fashion, posting a 21-6 record in 1990 with a league-leading 1.91 ERA, the best of his career. He also pitched the Red Sox back into the playoffs.
In 1991, Clemens won his third Cy Young Award after an 18-10 season in which he led the AL in ERA, strikeouts and innings pitched. He followed that up with an 18-11 1992 campaign, winning his third straight ERA title and extending his streak of consecutive seasons with 200 or more strikeouts to an AL record-tying seven.
He was the toast of Beantown, until it all came crashing down during a four-year stretch riddled with injuries, fan and media criticism and a rift with general manager Dan Duquette. In 1996, the front office told Clemens' agent, Alan Hendricks, \"You don't give a 34-year-old starter a four-year guaranteed contract.\"
The Red Sox let him become a free agent and the Blue Jays grabbed him. In Toronto, the Rocket returned to orbit. He won back-to-back Cy Young Awards in 1997 and '98, becoming the first pitcher ever to win five such honors.
On his return to Fenway Park on July 12, 1997, he struck out 16 batters and stalked off the mound defiantly, glaring at the press box as he left the field. Washed up? Hardly.
\"When he went downhill in Boston, he wasn't in as good a shape and had lost some zip on his fastball and was over-using his splitter,\" Yankees broadcaster and long-time major-league pitcher Jim Kaat observed. \"Going to Toronto gave him incentive to prove everyone wrong. He went to Toronto and got back in shape.
\"The battles he had with Duquette took a lot out of him. He was a more driven pitcher, mentally and physically, when he went to Toronto,\" Kaat added. \"Those two years let him look at the Seavers, the Ryans and the Carltons and say, 'They're within reach.' The years in Toronto put him in a position where he could start looking at a Hall of Fame career.\"
Roger Clemens' Pitching Line (1990-99)
| G | CG | SH | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | W | L | ERA |
| 305 | 57 | 24 | 2177.1 | 1829 | 813 | 731 | 139 | 731 | 2101 | 152 | 89 | 3.02 |
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After accumulating enough individual honors and statistics to put him on the road to Cooperstown, Roger Clemens realized there was one thing missing from his resume: a World Series ring. A student of baseball history, the Rocket was thrilled when he was dealt to the Yankees before the 1999 season.
He struggled for acceptance on a team that had won a record 125 games in its championship season of 1998. He went only 14-10, though he did win the clinching game of the Yankees' four-game World Series sweep of Atlanta. Roger had his ring.
Next came his return to dominance. He was the Yankees' best pitcher for most of a modest 87-win 2000 season (13-8, 3.70 ERA). In the LCS, he pitched a career-defining masterpiece, one-hitting the potent Mariners and striking out 15 at Safeco Field.
In 2001, Clemens won his sixth Cy Young Award, finishing with a 20-3 record. He became the first major-league pitcher ever to start a season 20-1. Along the way, he passed Walter Johnson, Gaylord Perry, Don Sutton, Tom Seaver and Bert Blyleven on the all-time strikeout list. And he became the oldest pitcher ever to start an All-Star Game.
In 2002, he compiled a 13-6 record with a 4.35 ERA. He ranked second in the AL with 192 strikeouts. However, a groin injury put the Rocket on the disabled list in July. He had one postseason outing, in Game 1 of the divisional series against the Angels. He failed, however, to get the decision in the Yankees only victory in the series.
There were still detractors, however. Though Clemens is 3-0 with a 1.56 ERA in the World Series, most people only remember the bat he threw at Mike Piazza in 2000, not the many blazing, accurate pitches.
\"The only thing I can say, for a pitcher as great as Roger has been, he's really had to defend himself a lot,\" Torre said after Game 3 of the 2001 World Series, when Clemens beat the Diamondbacks with the Yankees trailing the Series, 2-0. \"And after this game, I don't think he will have to defend himself again. He was dynamite. Dynamite.\"
Clemens retired after the Yankees lost to the Marlins in the 2003 World Series, but he then decided to pitch for his hometown Houston Astros in 2004 with his friend Andy Pettitte. He proved that he was far from washed up at the age of 41, going 18-4 with a 2.98 ERA and winning an unprecedented seventh Cy Young award. He also nearly took the Astros to the World Series, as they lost to the Cardinals in a 7-game NLCS.
He was equally brilliant for most of 2005, compiling a 1.87 ERA. He was only 13-8 in the regular season, however, as he received little run support from a youthfull Astros lineup.
After skipping spring training and the first third of the season in 2006, Clemens returned to the Astros on a pro-rated contract, taking one more shot at another World Series ring.
Roger Clemens' Pitching Line (2000-2005)
| G | CG | SH | IP | H | ER | HR | SO | W | L | ERA |
| 192 | 3 | 1 | 1242.0 | 1080 | 464 | 113 | 1186 | 94 | 38 | 3.36 |