Home Fire

"Until then," Clemens says, "I planned on flying up to New York two weekends a month to play golf with Andy, do a little television for the Yankees, maybe pitch a little batting practice here [in Houston]."

Clemens figured his career had ended that night in Miami with Game 4 of the World Series, the cinematic flickering of hundreds of flashbulbs preserving his final pitch for posterity and his solemn reflection in Torre's office. One month and a day after Pettitte signed with Houston, for three years and $31.5 million, however, Clemens did likewise, for one year and $5 million. Astros owner Drayton McLane clinched the deal when he told Clemens he could stay home whenever he wanted to watch his son's games. Team elders Bagwell and centerfielder Craig Biggio gave their blessing to the arrangement, though that has not stopped them from fining Clemens in the team's kangaroo court.

"I get fined for missing games, and now they're fining me when I show up," Clemens says. "At this rate I think I'm going to break even by the end of the year between what Mr. McLane is paying me and what I'm paying in fines. One time I was home and the team was collecting fine money on the road, and [catcher] Brad [Ausmus] left me a message that I had eight hours to pay up or the fines would be doubled. I e-mailed him back, 'I'm thinking about staying home and retiring so I don't have to put up with this.' Now I'm going to get fined for talking about fines."

Certainly, the team's coffers have swelled since the arrival of Clemens and Pettitte. Attendance, for instance, will surpass the record 3.06 million fans the Astros drew in 2000. Clemens has been worth an average of 4,660 extra fans when he pitches, and he has started three of the team's five sellouts. Minute Maid Park has sold 1,600 Clemens T-shirts and jerseys since Opening Day. The stock sells out as soon as it arrives.

Just as important, the baseball culture in Houston has changed. "It's never been like this here," Bagwell says. "The other day they were cheering when [No. 5 starter] Tim Redding had two strikes on a batter. That stuff never happened here before.

"You have to understand how big the University of Texas and Texas A&M are here. And these people have watched and known Roger since he was at UT. And finally they get to watch him pitch at home, and he's not playing out the string but still pitching like he's in the prime of his career."

Says McLane, " Roger Clemens is a name brand, like Coca-Cola or IBM. It's been much better than I could have dreamed."

Clemens won his first seven starts of the season, becoming the oldest pitcher in baseball history to do so. He would have been 8-0 after Sunday, but closer Octavio Dotel blew a victory for him by serving up a game-tying home run to Mike Piazza with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning. ( Houston would lose 3-2 in 13 innings.) Clemens struck out 10 batters over seven innings while allowing two hits, one to the opposite field and the other a chopper to third base. He lowered his ERA to 1.72 and the batting average against him to .170, the best such marks in baseball. He even drove in a run with a sixth-inning single.

Clemens threw 74 fastballs (topping out at 95 mph) among his 106 pitches, delivered with the precision of a gem cutter and the guile of a magician. In the fifth inning, for instance, after Mets catcher Vance Wilson fouled back a 93-mph fastball, Clemens tossed the new baseball back to umpire Mike Everitt for another one, as pitchers often do when they don't like the feel of a ball. The stunt was a ruse to trick Wilson into thinking that Clemens wanted a ball with better seams to throw a breaking ball. Clemens promptly threw a 94-mph blowtorch past the hopelessly late swing of Wilson for a third strike.

"I didn't know how intense Roger was," Ausmus says. "Between innings he'll go into this little area down from the dugout. We call it the Rocket Hole. And he'll be cheering and pumping guys up and yelling. Sometimes I don't know if it's safe to go by him or not."