ROGER CLEMENS took to the stage on Wednesday and thanked New York Yankees fans for turning out in their thousands for Pinstripes in the Park, an annual event that some diehards must have attended under sufferance. On the big screen in Manhattan, Joe Torre’s team ended a five-game losing streak with a 10-5 win at the Toronto Blue Jays, but backstage Clemens acknowledged the obvious. “It’s not good,” he admitted. “We all know that.”

One of the best pitchers of his era will make his first appearance in the uniform of Mantle, Ruth and DiMaggio since leaving the Bronx for the Houston Astros in 2004 when he starts tomorrow night in Chicago against the White Sox. For a 44-year-old veteran whose prerogative it will be to skip road trips when he is not scheduled to pitch, the remuneration is handsome, a $28,000,022 salary having been agreed in the early days of May. Whether the move will work is another matter, for Clemens has returned to a clubhouse short on hitting prowess and short on confidence, with a suspect bullpen and a rotation some way removed from formidable.

Meanwhile the Yankees, who have not won a World Series since 2000, when Clemens was part of an all-conquering team, are in the midst of a crisis, eclipsed by their cross-town rivals, the New York Mets, who lead the National League East, and by the Boston Red Sox, who lead their dishevelled American League East foes by 13 games. The Yankees cut into the deficit on Friday night at Fenway Park when a battling 9-5 victory lifted them out of bottom place in the division, but any revival will need to be sustained.

Can Clemens inspire a revival? After throwing 89 pitches, 57 for strikes, for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre against Toledo last Monday he declared himself happy. “I’m not where I would exactly like to be but I’m moving forward,” he declared. But whether he can remain sufficiently healthy to make more than 20 starts remains in doubt. It is also likely that he will encounter more resolute hitters in the American League East than he did playing for the Astros in the National League Central, for American League teams hit .275 last season compared to .264 for teams in the National League.

Certainly, he cannot be expected to bring to the Yankees what Daisuke Matsuzaka, pictured above, has the capacity to offer the Red Sox. The 26-year-old Japanese pitching sensation persuaded the Boston hierarchy to part with $103.1m, including a $51.1m fee to secure his negotiating rights, to lure him to New England. His work ethic is prodigious. With the Seibu Lions in Japan, he regularly participated in bullpen sessions in which he threw 300 pitches and he has twice-weekly long-toss sessions with the Red Sox, throwing balls 300ft for 20 minutes when the average pitcher will throw only half that distance. The preparation has translated into game-winning performances, such as the 7-1 Red Sox win over the Detroit Tigers in which he pitched for all nine innings.

Significantly, the Red Sox were also in the market for Clemens, a former Boston player, but did not want to bring him in until late June or July. “We met with [Clemens’s agent] Randy Hendricks earlier this week and, at Randy’s request, made an offer to Roger Clemens,” the Red Sox revealed in a statement. “We offered a substantial salary and suggested, for health purposes, that Clemens return on approximately the same timetable as last year. Then we learnt from Randy that Clemens had signed elsewhere.”

The pitcher’s reintroduction to the Yankees coincides with the announcement that designated hitter Jason Giambi could miss the remainder of the season with an injury to his left foot and more revelations about third baseman Alex Rodriguez. “ARod” has allegedly been accompanied by an exotic dancer on trips away while his wife remained at home. Clemens’s first trip for the Yankees could be set up for more positive headlines, though he will need to secure them regularly if the Yankees are to turn around their season.