Dallas Morning News: Clemens and Pettitte fuel fever of Astros, fans

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KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The hardest thing for veteran Houston Astros players this spring is to suppress the smiles, to walk past the two adjoining lockers nearest the clubhouse door and keep from bursting out in girlish giggles of joy."Obviously, this game revolves around pitching," Astros outfielder Lance Berkman said. "Whenever you look over and see Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte in uniform for your team, you feel good about the way you look going into the season."

Much of the New York Yankees' might the last five seasons was derived from that very sight. But this spring, relocated to those adjacent stalls in Central Florida, are The Rocket and Lefty, twin pillars upon whose broad shoulders and thick legs rest the hopes and dreams of the giddy city of Houston.

Behind young aces Roy Oswalt and Wade Miller, last year's Astros held a share of first place after 159 games. But they lost two of their last three to lowly Milwaukee and finished one game behind the Chicago Cubs in the National League Central race.

To many jaded Astros fans, it was just as well. This franchise, after all, hasn't won a playoff series in seven appearances between 1980-2001. Why allow hopes to rise again before the inevitable disappointment?

But to the shock of many, the outlook started turning decidedly brighter Dec. 11. That was when Pettitte, a 21-game winner the Yankees only belatedly tried to keep, decided to leave the organization where he had spent his first 13 professional seasons. He signed a three-year, $31.5 million deal with his hometown team, the Astros.

"I never would have signed here if I didn't think we had a good chance to win," Pettitte said. "I thought Roy, Wade and Tim [Redding, the No. 5 starter] had good power arms. And I thought as long as they were here, I could fit in nicely with them, and we could win a lot of ballgames."


Pettitte moves first

The ink was hardly dry on Pettitte's contract before the first questions arose about his best friend and fanatical workout partner.

All Pettitte knew was that Clemens, a fellow Houston-area resident with 310 career wins and a record six Cy Young awards, had sincerely planned to retire after his final pitch in Game 4 of the 2003 World Series. That held true right up until Pettitte bolted the Bronx for South Texas.

"I called him after I signed and he said, 'Well, everything's changed now. I didn't expect you to come here,' " Pettitte recalled. "And I knew then that he was really wanting to do it. There was no way I was going to try to take him away from his family, knowing how badly he wanted to be at home. But he wanted to play. That's all there is to it."

Clemens, who turns 42 in August, consulted his family. His mother, wife and four sons started warming to the idea over Christmas and during a January vacation in Hawaii with Pettitte's family.

"It's been emotional for everyone involved," Clemens said. "There were some evenings I didn't sleep well thinking about it."

A celebrity golf tournament gave Clemens the opportunity to consult with sports stars Michael Jordan, Emmitt Smith and Johnny Bench. Each advised him to keep playing if that was where his heart was.

It was. On Jan. 12, Clemens ended a 78-day "retirement" by signing a one-year deal with the Astros worth $5 million. Attendance-related bonuses could pay another $1.4 million. Already, more than 1.6 million advance tickets have been sold by a team that has surpassed 3 million only once. The season-ticket base has swelled from 15,000 to 18,000 and counting.

"We have to play well to get to 3 million," Astros owner Drayton McLane said. "But we plan to play well."


The playoff pitch

In the five years Clemens and Pettitte were teammates in New York, the Yankees went to the World Series four times and won two championships. They combined for 159 regular-season victories – more than any pair in that span – and went 16-8 in the postseason. So expectations are soaring in Houston.

"A lot of people are already talking World Series and stuff like that," Pettitte said. "But we just want to try to get to the playoffs and win the franchise's first playoff series, then go from there. Hopefully, we can do something here this year that's never been done."

Clemens, 17-9 last season and soon to be second on the career strikeout list, is ready to carry his share of the load, though he will be permitted to attend his sons' games on days when leaving the team won't affect his routine.

"Obviously, I still feel I have a lot to give," he said. "That's the only reason I came out of retirement, if you can call it retirement. There was so much more good to it than bad, and I'm just excited about how it's made our town of Houston so excited. We're going to go at it extremely hard and see what we can do."

The sky is the limit, as every new teammate realizes when walking past those lockers, stealing glances at gifts that still seem too good to be true.

"There's a sense of excitement," Astros catcher Brad Ausmus said, "that we haven't had before."