With or without Clemens, Astros fired up for 2007

	In his three seasons with the Astros, Roger Clemens went 38-18 with a 2.40 ERA. Bob Rosato/SI
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KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- The dynamic in the Astros' training camp, in ways subtle and strong, is different this spring. It's early yet, so there's plenty of time for that dynamic to shift, for the personality of this team to morph again -- maybe dozens of times -- before the months-long monstrosity that they call a baseball season is over.

But these Astros clearly no longer revolve around Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, or Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. This team is moving on without Bagwell and without Pettitte. It's willing to accept much less from Biggio, the aging second baseman in maybe his last spring camp.

And the Astros, most telling of all, finally look ready for life without Clemens and all the ambient noise that comes with him.

The daily breathless buzz about whether Clemens will retire for good or pitch again, and for whom? When it finally goes away, no tears will be shed in Houston's clubhouse. The forced acceptance of a teammate -- any teammate -- who chooses when he wants to begin a season? There won't be any missing that, either.

The whispered uneasiness about the so-called "Rocket Rules," those one-of-a-kind, bend-over-backward accommodations that the Houston front office has made for the 348-game winner? The Astros will be only too glad to live without them, too.

If Clemens returns to the Astros, of course, his teammates and the entire organization will greet him with a roomful of smiles and a hundred claps on backs. We are, after all, talking about maybe the greatest pitcher alive, a Cy Young threat even at 44 years old. That's hard to pass up, for any reason.

Still, the Astros would like to think that they're ready to win without Clemens and all that nonsense around him, that they're bigger than one man, even one as legendary as the Rocket. And you know what? They might be better off in the end for trying.

"You have to treat it like he's not going to be here. I mean, who knows what he's going to do?" asks Lance Berkman, in his first spring as the team's official starting first baseman now that Bagwell has retired. "Obviously, we'd all love to have him back.

"But if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen."

Berkman and others on the team all spout the right things publicly, and there's every reason to believe what they say. Yes, they'd welcome back Clemens. A rotation topped by Clemens, Roy Oswalt, Woody Williams and Jason Jennings would instantly become the best one in the National League Central, and maybe one of the best in the league.

Yet it's no secret that living under the Rocket Rules is trying once in a while. Over the course of a season, players spend much more time with each other than their families, which makes it difficult to see a teammate -- even someone of Clemens' stature -- given such preferential treatment. Last year, Clemens didn't sweat through the six weeks of spring training in Kissimmee like the other Astros did. He didn't fight through the aches and pains of a regular-season April and May. He didn't make his first start until he was good and ready, on June 22. Then, once his season began, he didn't have to travel on many road trips.

That led to some mostly private, but definitely real, grumbling from his teammates. It grew when Clemens -- who was allowed the perks, ostensibly, to spend more time with his family -- ended up playing golf on some of those off days.