At 43, the Rocket faces his greatest challenge yet

	Roger Clemens had the best ERA in the game (1.87) last summer -- but won only 13 games in 32 starts. Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images
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To doubt Roger Clemens and what he can accomplish in the game of baseball is to be foolish, stupid or, probably, both.

Still, what he's trying to do now is something so different in the Rocket's rich and decorated career -- very, very rich after Wednesday's news -- that it's hard to ignore some gnawing concerns. What Clemens is attempting is something few pitchers ever have tried. Certainly few of Clemens' caliber.

So if you're asking yourself some questions today, if you're wondering if it's OK to wonder, it's all right.

Even the great Clemens has his doubts.

"I'm going to give it a shot," he said in a rambling press conference Wednesday announcing his return to the Astros. "Not necessarily that I know I need to, or want to. But I'm committed."

It was hardly a full-speed-ahead kind of pronouncement. But for the Astros, and for Houston fans, it's good enough. After months of apparent waffling on whether to stay in relative retirement or play again, Clemens chose to stiff the Rangers, Red Sox and Yankees for another summer with the Astros, the team he helped push to its first World Series last year.

If everything goes as planned in the next few weeks, after three warmup starts in the minors Clemens will make his 2006 debut with the Astros on June 22 at Minute Maid Park against the visiting Twins. That will give him, providing he stays healthy, somewhere around 20 starts in '06. For that, the Astros have decided to pay him a pro-rated salary of $22 million, or about $12.6 million.

Is he worth that? Can a 43-year-old erstwhile retiree, nearly broken down at the end of last season, drop relatively cold into the middle of a season and be good enough to justify spending $630,000 per start?

Really. It's OK to ask.

"I gotta believe he's still got it," Atlanta starter John Smoltz said when he heard the news of Clemens' return Wednesday afternoon. "He's one of the greatest, if not the greatest, power pitchers to ever throw. He's gotta know.

"If he's coming back, he's going to be Roger."

Doubting Clemens, of course, is not something anyone wants to do, given the seven Cy Young awards and 341 career wins. But wondering what kind of an impact he can have on the NL Central race, in a little more than half a season with so much going against him, is certainly reasonable.

Nobody Clemens' age ever has won more than 18 games, and that was over a full season. (Jack Quinn won 18 games in 28 starts for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1928.) Clemens, remember, won only 13 games in 32 starts last year, when he had the best ERA in the game (1.87). The Astros were 15-17 in his starts.

And when he throws his first pitch, if his minor league stint runs on schedule, Clemens will not have faced live major league hitters in exactly eight months.

Given all that, how many games can he be expected to win? Ten, maybe? Twelve, at the outside? Can the Astros, with a popgun offense that ranks among the worst in the National League, break even in the games he starts?

Is Clemens up for that?

"I think it would be tough for anybody other than Roger," said the Braves' Chipper Jones, who buddied up to Clemens at the World Baseball Classic this spring, the pitcher's most recent legitimate competition. "If he comes out dealing like we all know he can, then they go from a pretty good staff to a really good staff. And if they have a second half like they did last year [45-30], there's no doubt he can have an impact."