The Astros and their fans have twenty-two reasons to smile this Monday--one for every digit leading up to the number *22* that the newest Astro, Roger Clemens, will wear upon his back during the 2004 season.

In a press conference surprising for two reasons--it was held at least two days before anyone thought an announcement would be forthcoming, and it was held down on the field of the stadium itself--the Astros and Clemens put a "signed, sealed, and delivered" stamp on an acquisition whose possibility had been speculated about for nearly a month. The specific financial terms of the signing were not announced at the conference, but the one year, $5 million possible contract appears to be substantially accurate.

Why did Clemens come back? His principal stated reason was the opportunity to play with a fine team near his home and push that team toward the playoffs and the World Series. But as Astros fan Brent Friedman pointed out to me on Sunday, there are other, unspoken Clemens goals that just might be in play here. With just nine more wins, Clemens would move from 17th to 13th on the all-time win list. With fifteen, he'd pass Nolan Ryan for twelfth place. With eighteen wins (attainable this season or in a second season in 2005), he'd be in the top ten. Clemens needs just 38 strikeouts to pass Steve Carlton for second place on that all-time list behind Ryan. And the obverse of all this could be a factor, too: had Clemens stopped at 310 wins, there are four pitchers at least with a reasonable shot at passing Clemens' win total during the five years he'd be waiting to take his place in Cooperstown: Maddux, Glavine, Mussina, and Martinez and five if one includes Pettitte. Each of these men would have to pitch until he's 42, and each would have to average just over or just under fifteen wins a season until he reaches that age, but tough as that challenge is, one of them at least could do it. The Clemens comeback, and a successful one or two seasons with Houston, would effectively end any challenge, if such there be, to the Rocket's place in baseball history.

Three things, therefore, caught my ear as I listened to the conference. The first was that Clemens himself said that he would be an Astro for "at least" this coming season, leaving the door open, perhaps, to playing a second year in 2005. Nobody's asking him to play a second year, and that's probably not in anybody's head but mine right now, but big goals are still out there for him, and it was interesting that Clemens used the phrase "at least".

Second, agent Randy Hendricks complimented the Astros on "going the extra mile" in working out matters of concern to the Clemens family. Those "concerns" were not spelled out, but it would not surprise me if one of them was an agreement that Clemens pitch most of his games at home. If so, such an agreement would not preclude Clemens pitching on the road. It would simply mean that Clemens would pick his spots to work. I have no worries on this score. If there's a big game at Wrigley or at Busch (the Astros never play one of those there, do they?) and Houston needs him, Clemens will be on the mound.

Third, there was some good-natured joshing as the press conference began about what the Astros "do for an encore next week" in the light of today's signing and last month's signing of Andy Pettitte. All kidding aside, it seems to me that there could be an encore this winter for the Astros, although if one happens, it'll be relatively small, and it might not happen soon. Drayton McLane has extended his Astro-related financial resources this off-season to an extent we haven't seen since the signings of Doug Drabek and Greg Swindell, and Houston's owner is to be commended, both for that commitment and for his apparent willingness to expand payroll significantly in an effort to put together what everyone hopes will become the best Astros team in history. The payroll is, however, significantly over what it was a year ago, and the Clemens signing has now officially caused the logjam at the bottom of the rotation I pointed to in Astroday back on December 12.

If McLane is feeling a payroll pinch that he'd rather not show in public, the signing of Clemens might enable Houston to trade either Jeriome Robertson or Tim Redding in return, perhaps, for some bench help, which the Astros still need. A much less palatable alternative trade would be that of Wade Miller, who is more expendable than Roy Oswalt, if matters should ever come down to a choice between them. Hunsicker has already begun, as of last month, entertaining offers for Miller because of the Houston right-hander's potential future cost to the club, so a trade of him at some future point (not necessarily this season) is not out of the question.

I think, however, that in somewhat the same way Hunsicker and McLane have listened to the public and persuaded Clemens to give the Astros one more year, Hunsicker will also listen to the fans who, like me, want to see Miller kept if at all possible, and deal Robertson or Redding if anyone needs to be dealt at all. The front four of Houston's rotation--Clemens, Oswalt, Pettitte, Miller--is every bit as exciting a quartet as Richard, Niekro, Ryan, and Forsch were in 1980 or Scott, Knepper, Ryan, and Deshaies were in 1986; and, should any of these four go down with an injury, God forbid, as Richard did in '80, there are plenty of candidates to be this year's Vern Ruhle (the man who stepped in for Richard and went 12-4): whomever does not win the fifth spot in the rotation (Carlos Hernandez, Redding, Robertson--if he's here-- Brandon Duckworth), or someone who figures to begin the season at AAA (Kirk Saarloos, Jared Fernandez, Taylor Buchholz). My dream rotation is Oswalt, Pettitte, Clemens, and Miller, and I believe that's the way it will turn after the shakedown cruise of Spring Training and the month of April. I concede, however, that Clemens is an almost irresistible bet to open the season at home, and that's ok with me, as long as Miller remains at # 4 and available to kick some Brewer butt when the club goes to Milwaukee for the fourth game of the season. The important point is that the Astros will have the depth to withstand a major pitching injury, and they will also have the depth to deal for help, either now, before the season starts, or in July, when they might need it most.

There is one other player whose status the Clemens signing might have jeopardized, and that is Richard Hidalgo. I had written earlier this afternoon that all the logical teams to which Hidalgo might have been dealt seem to have taken care of their OF needs, but I forgot about yesterday's announcement that the Angels, of all teams, had signed Vladimir Guerrero, which leaves Baltimore still yearning for a solid RF. If the Orioles still want one, and if the Astros are feeling enough of a payroll bind this year, it wouldn't surprise me if Hunsicker talked about a trade with them.

Yet, this off-season has been like a great dream so far, and my dream, such as it is, is to keep the Astros we have now all together. Keep Miller, keep Hidalgo, keep everyone who appears to be a key component headed into camp. It's clear that Drayton McLane is drawing upon all the resources he can to make, if not his last, surely his best, run at the World Series since 1998, and arguably his best since he took ownership of the franchise. If you'll allow a bit of verse to account for my feelings since early December, the poet Andrew Marvell had a wonderful quintet of lines for what the Astros are doing. He writes:

Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness into one ball, / And tear our pleasures with rough strife/ Thorough the iron gates of life; / Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Marvell means, of course, much, much more than playing of any game, but find me a better description of what the signing of Pettitte and the signing of Clemens means than to "roll all our strength and all /Our sweetness into one [base]ball." And has there ever been a better compressed description of any baseball season than the time we "tear our pleasures with rough strife"? If anybody says "football," I'll clock ya. Baseball's fascinating infuriations are far more extended and complex. It's true enough, though, as Marvell says, we can't make the sun stand still. That is, we can't go back--not to 1980 or '86 or '98. (How often I've wished I could go back). And Roger Clemens isn't fooling anybody, least of all himself. The day will come when he will, at last, retire.

But that day is not today. He knows he can't turn back the clock. Time, which beats all of us in the end, has already declared its victory over him and over us, too. But Clemens has decided, along with his new teammates, to do something older baseball players often decide to do these days, to give the game, and the sun under which it is often played, a final try; to give time itself a last, bold run for its money. If that doesn't make you smile on this happiest of all days that have been in Astros history, nothing will.