Clemens' elbow injury not believed to be serious

An aching elbow will prevent Roger Clemens from making his next scheduled start for the Yankees, at the very least, at a time when Clemens may be in the last days of arguably the greatest pitching career in baseball history.

Clemens will have a cortisone shot Wednesday following his Monday start against Seattle that was cut short in the fifth inning. Clemens said he thought the elbow problem stemmed from a blister on his foot that caused him to alter his mechanics. He had a MRI exam after the game; the injury is not believed to be serious.

Clemens is confident he will be able to pitch for the Yankees again this season. Beyond then, who knows? He did not know exactly how long it would take for him to return to the mound and couldn't say whether the injury would require surgery at the end of the season.

Clemens won't decide until after the season about whether he will come back for a 25th year, and time and again, he has leaned toward retirement and then changed his mind. But many friends and associates who know Clemens believe privately that this will be his last season, because at age 45, the physical grind required to pitch every fifth day has worn on him.

Clemens started on Monday against a pitcher, Felix Hernandez, who wasn't even born when Clemens won his first game in the big leagues in 1984. He posted a 2.48 ERA in the first year of Joba Chamberlain's life, and a 2.30 ERA in the year that Chamberlain was drafted. He became the first pitcher in history to strike out 20 batters in a game in 1986, and became the second to do so, in 1995.

If he never pitches again, Clemens would finish his career with 354 victories, the most of any pitcher since Hall of Fame left-hander Warren Spahn, and almost as many as Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale combined. He has 4,668 strikeouts, more than anybody not named Nolan Ryan, and more than 1,000 more than Tom Seaver and about 1,500 more than Bob Gibson. Clemens is one of just three 300-game winners, along with Lefty Grove and Christy Mathewson, who has a career winning percentage of greater than .650.

Clemens has won a record seven Cy Young Awards in three different decades -- the first in 1986, and then in 1987 and 1991, and then four more after Boston general manager Dan Duquette suggested that Clemens was entering the twilight of his career -- in 1997, 1998, 2001 and 2004. He got MVP votes in 10 different seasons and won the award in 1986. He threw his first pitch in the big leagues when George Bush was vice president, and may throw his last pitch with George W. Bush as president.

Buster Olney is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. Information from The Associated Press also was used.

Source: ESPN.com