Five years after he retired from Major League Baseball, fifty-year-old Roger Clemens threw 3 1/3 shutout innings for the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League on Saturday night. Clemens gave up just one hit and struck out two. Most importantly, Clemens' command was as good as ever: He did not give up a walk and threw an efficient 37 pitches.
ABC News reports that scouts from the Houston Astros and Kansas City Royals were on hand. The Astros have previously stated they would be "monitoring" the Clemens comeback.
After the game, Clemens left the door open to making another start for the Skeeters:
"We'll visit and if we can do something special down the road, we'll do it again for some of the people that couldn't get here," Clemens said. "I'm definitely open to it if they want to do it. It was a great deal of fun for me now that it's over and I stayed healthy."
Clemens was found not guilty of obstruction of, and lying to, Congress in June, criminal charges tied to allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his playing career. There has been speculation that Clemens' comeback is an attempt to rehabilitate his image following the trial and possibly delay his eligibility for the Baseball Hall of Fame, in the hopes he would not meet the same Hall of Fame fate as other players accused of using PEDs during their careers.
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