Rocket returns: Roger Clemens throws out 1st pitch to son Kody at Fenway

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Rocket returns: Roger Clemens throws out 1st pitch to son Kody at Fenway

2026-05-23 09:11 Last Updated At：09:20

BOSTON (AP) — Roger Clemens let loose a fastball from the mound at Fenway Park again.

Only this time with his son kneeling behind home plate.

The Red Sox's career leader with 2,590 strikeouts fired his latest offering just slightly off the right side of the plate to 30-year-old Twins utility player Kody Clemens in a ceremonial first pitch before Minnesota's matchup with the Boston Red Sox on Friday night.

With family members, including his grandchildren in the stands to witness it, that was just fine by the 63-year-old grandfather.

“A little two-seamer. Didn’t slip, didn’t tear anything,” Clemens said. “Home plate seems to get farther and farther away every year. I don’t know what that’s about. But it’s kind of like the Ted Williams seat. I think we know no one’s going to hit one there and it keeps going up one row every year.”

Fans were also given a special edition Roger Clemens bobblehead to commemorate his latest return to Fenway.

It was the latest father-son moment for the elder Clemens. He exchanged pregame lineup cards with Kody in 2025 before a spring training game between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies. Roger was working with New York, and Kody was playing for Philadelphia.

Roger also played alongside his oldest son, Koby, in the minors in 2006 when a 43-year-old Roger was making a rehab start while with the Houston Astros in what proved to be his penultimate major league season.

Roger said whenever he gets together with Kody on the field, his family often reminds him of the baseball exploits he’ll never have over his son.

“They’re always messing with me now because they said he’s done two things in professional ball that I never will: strike out (Shohei) Ohtani and hit a home run here at Fenway,” Clemens said.

There is another thing the elder Clemens doesn’t yet have: a retired major league jersey. The University of Texas made their former star the first player to receive that honor in 1993.

While he’s not officially on Boston’s row of honor, since Clemens left following the 1996 season no other full-time Red Sox player has worn the No. 21.

He said he's open to the idea of seeing it retired by the Red Sox, the franchise for which he played the bulk of his career.

“I don’t have any control over that, but I had 13 wonderful years here. I love that number,” Clemens said. “I thought it was really cool when I came out at Texas that they had it hanging in my locker. So, it’s been a great number for me. I went to 22 a little bit, and a lot of family members had that number, too. So both solid numbers.”

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SpaceX launches its biggest, most beefed-up Starship yet on a test flight

SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight Friday, an upgraded version that NASA is counting on to land astronauts on the moon.

The redesigned mega rocket made its debut two days after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he’s taking the company public. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites that were released midway through the hourlong spaceflight that stretched halfway around the world.

The spacecraft reached its final destination — the Indian Ocean — despite some engine trouble, before erupting in flames upon impact. That last part was not unexpected, according to SpaceX.

Musk called it “an epic” launch and landing.

“You scored a goal for humanity,” he told his team via X.

It’s the 12th test flight of the rocket that Musk is building to get people to Mars one day. But first comes the moon and NASA’s Artemis program.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman flew in for the launch, saying Starship is now one step closer to the moon.

The last of the old space-skimming Starships lifted off in October. SpaceX’s third-generation Starship — a souped-up version dubbed V3 — soared from a brand-new launch pad at Starbase, near the Mexican border. Last-minute pad issues thwarted Thursday evening's launch attempt.

SpaceX was hoping to avoid the fireworks it experienced during back-to-back launches last year when midair explosions rained wreckage down on the Atlantic. Earlier flights also ended in flames.

There was no fireball this time until the very end. The spacecraft plummeted upright into the Indian Ocean under seemingly full control, then toppled over and ignited.

While the liftoff itself went well, not all of the engines fired as the booster attempted a controlled return. The spacecraft also had to make do with fewer engines, but kept heading eastward 120 miles (194 kilometers) up. A pair of modified, camera-equipped Starlinks ejected from Starship provided brief views of the spacecraft in flight — a remarkable first.

At 407 feet (124 meters), the latest model eclipses the older Starship lines by several feet (more than 1 meter) and packs more engine thrust.

The revamped booster sports fewer but bigger and stronger grid fins for steering it back to Earth following liftoff, and a larger and more robust fuel transfer line to feed the 33 main engines. This fuel line is the size of SpaceX's Falcon 9 first-stage booster. The retro-looking, stainless steel spacecraft also has more of everything — more cameras and more navigation and computer power — as well as docking cones for future rendezvous and moon missions.

Starship is meant to be fully reusable, with giant mechanical arms at the launch pads to catch the returning rocket stages. But on this latest trial run, nothing was being recovered. The Gulf of Mexico marked the end of the road for the redesigned first-stage booster, and the Indian Ocean for the spacecraft and its satellite demos.

NASA is paying SpaceX billions of dollars — and also Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin — to provide the lunar landers that will be used to land Artemis astronauts on the moon.

The two companies are scrambling to be first.

While Starship has reached the fringes of space on multiple flights lasting an hour at most, Bezos' Blue Moon has yet to lift off, although a prototype is being readied for a moonshot later this year.

NASA is following April’s successful lunar flyaround by four astronauts with a docking trial run in orbit around Earth planned for next year. For that Artemis III mission, astronauts will practice docking their Orion capsule with Starship, Blue Moon or both.

A moon landing by two astronauts — Artemis IV — could follow as soon as 2028 using either Starship or Blue Moon, whichever lander is safer and ready first. It will be NASA’s first lunar landing with a crew since 1972’s Apollo 17. The goal this time is a moon base near the lunar south pole, staffed by astronauts as well as robots.

SpaceX is already taking reservations for private flights to the moon and Mars on Starship.

The world's first space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito, and his wife signed up 3 1/2 years ago for a flight around the moon. The timing is uncertain.

This week, another wealthy space tourist — Chinese-born bitcoin investor Chun Wang — announced he will fly to Mars on Starship's first interplanetary mission. Wang previously chartered a SpaceX polar flight in a Dragon capsule last year and, along with his hand-picked crew, became the first to orbit above the north and south poles.

No price tag or date was revealed for his Mars cruise.

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