The Yankees of the mid-2000s were a team that had grown long in the tooth, particularly in the rotation. A team already heavy on veterans largely on Mike Mussina, well into his thirties, and Randy Johnson, who had already blown out 40 candles. Ahead of the 2007 season, Johnson returned to Arizona, but the Yankees had brought back Andy Pettitte, entering his age-35 season, to take the Big Unit’s rotation spot.

So, what do you do when most of your best players are on the opposite side of 30? Sign a 44-year old starting pitcher a few months into the season. What’s one more?

Of course, said 44-year old was Roger Clemens, one of the most prolific and dominant starting pitchers of all time. The Rocket had won a pair of titles with the Yankees in 1999 and 2000, but was coming back for one last ride in pinstripes. After showing up out of nowhere in George Steinbrenner’s box at Yankee Stadium and announcing his return, Clemens put together a perfectly cromulent final campaign in MLB—but the Yankees would fall in the ALDS for the fourth consecutive season.

Roger Clemens
Signing Date: May 6, 2007
Contract: One year, $18.5 million

First, we have to talk about the spectacle at the Stadium that May afternoon. The Yankees had gotten off to their typical-of-this-era cold start, going 9-14 in April and entering their Sunday matinée with the Mariners two games under .500. They needed a morale boost. So, at the seventh-inning stretch, with the Yankees leading 3-0, Clemens made his dramatic re-entrance.

Clemens’ short speech was not an all-timer, but there was an undeniable show-business element to the whole affair that we rarely see in sports outside of pro wrestling. Of course, fans at the ballpark and watching on TV could watch the whole thing play out, but those tuning into WCBS’s radio broadcast of the game would need to be told what was happening.

Leave the honor to Suzyn Waldman.

Of course, we are big fans of Suzyn here on Pinstripe Alley, so it is with great appreciation that I say her introduction of Clemens was a bit much. “Oh my goodness gracious! Of all the dramatic things I’ve seen—Roger Clemens standing right in George Steinbrenner’s box, announcing he is back! Roger Clemens is a New York Yankee!” she proclaimed. It’s safe to say the former theater actress appreciated the drama of the moment, but the soundbite would take on a life of its own.

Clemens signed a one-year deal valued at $28 million, but prorated to $18.5 million since he signed late and did not make his season debut until June 9.

Let’s go ahead and fast forward to June 9. The Yankees were in a similar spot to where they were when Clemens announced he was back, sitting at 28-31 and battling Baltimore and Toronto for second place in the AL East, well behind the 39-21 Red Sox. Thankfully, the Rocket was in good form after the long layoff. With the Pirates in town, Clemens pitched six strong innings, allowing three runs on five hits while striking out seven batters in a 9-4 win.

After this game, the Yankees would go 65-37 the rest of the way, though not because Clemens was at the top of his game. To be sure, there were sprinkles of vintage Rocket here and there, like consecutive eight-inning, one run efforts to begin July—which helped pare down his ERA from 5.32 to 3.64, the lowest it would go during the year. The first of those, a victory over the Twins, was the 350th win of his MLB career.

But there were also some ugly nights, like August 2nd, where Clemens was chased from the game after allowing eight runs in the second inning—only three of them were charged as earned runs due to a two-out error by Robinson Canó.

Still, the Yankees’s second-half surge had begun in earnest, and they polished off the regular campaign by going 19-8 in September, securing the American League Wild Card spot. Clemens finished his final season with an even 6-6 record across 18 appearances (17 starts and one relief appearance) and 99 innings. He pitched to a 4.18 ERA (108 ERA+) with 68 strikeouts and a 1.313 WHIP—not too shabby for a guy who turned 45 during the year. His last regular season start, fittingly, came at Fenway Park, where he held his original team to one unearned run on two hits in six frames. The Yankees won, 4-3.

As the Wild Card team, the Yankees would travel to Jacobs Field to square off with Cleveland in the ALDS. Cleveland that year boasted an intimidating pitching staff led by AL Cy Young Award winner CC Sabathia and Roberto Hernández—then of course known as Fausto Carmona. But in Game 1, it was Cleveland’s bats who led the way, clobbering Chien-Ming Wang and the Yankee pitching staff in a 12-3 win. Then in Game 2, the infamous midge game, the Bombers were walked off by Travis Hafner in the eleventh inning.

So the Yankees went back to the Bronx fighting for their playoff lives as Clemens got the ball for Game 3. His start didn’t go as he might have hoped, with Cleveland scoring a run in the first and the second. In the third inning, after striking out Víctor Martínez with a man aboard, Joe Torre came to the mound. The trainer came with him, and Clemens subsequently exited with a hamstring strain, walking off a Major League mound one last time.

The Yankees came back to win Game 3 8-4, but fell 6-4 the following night to drop their fourth consecutive Division Series.

The surprise return of Roger Clemens to the Bronx had all the pomp and circumstance of a hero returning home, but the Texan flamethrower, fighting against Father Time, provided only a modest boost for a team already fully-stocked with late-career stars.

That 2007 playoff series was the last the old Yankee Stadium would ever host. In a few short years, there would be a new Yankee Stadium. Both Clemens and the old yard would enter baseball’s past together, and Clemens was acutely aware of just how little time he had left in the House that Ruth Built. After his first start of the season, he told reporters, “I’ve got to take a little deep breath now… this stadium’s not going to be around much longer. It sure is a joy.”