Next week Clemens will likely be the starting AL pitcher in the all-star game. Then he’ll return to Boston’s Fenway Park for his debut as a visiting player. Clemens says he expects the fans, as always, to be ““wonderful.’’ But he hasn’t forgiven his former employers for letting him leave town. ““The Red Sox,’’ he says, ““have gone from a team that stood for tradition and loyalty to one that’s strictly cold business.’’ Such resentment, Toronto general manager Gord Ash believes, may have fueled one of baseball’s great comebacks. ““Every athlete, no matter how much they earn, needs a personal motivation,’’ Ash says. ““And if one thing motivates Roger, it’s being challenged that he’s no longer what he once was.''

Clemens is not a man given to much public introspection. ““I’m exactly the same pitcher I always was,’’ he says, ignoring how he no longer relies on just his fast ball. Roger also insists his weight has remained constant, though he is visibly slimmer than in recent years. (Boston Globe columnist Will McDonough called him the ““Pillsbury Doughboy’’ at last year’s spring training.) And Clemens won’t even consider the notion that Toronto may be an easier place to perform than Boston, where baseball is the civic lifeblood. Erik Hanson, a teammate in both cities, knows better: ““Pitch a good game in Boston, it’s like you found a cure for cancer. But I’ve never seen a town so quick to turn on its stars.''

Clemens admits to noticing how the Canadian public seems ““very, very polite and very respectful of me when I’m with my family.’’ Family considerations played a major part in Clemens’s choice of the Blue Jays, a ball club that doesn’t seem to mind players’ kids scampering about the clubhouse. On a recent afternoon, Roger spent three hours in SkyDome’s batting cage with the two oldest of his ““K’’ boys, Koby and Kory. (Kacy and Kody stayed home.) Though Roger feels he could pitch into his 40s, like fellow Texan Nolan Ryan, he says, ““I don’t foresee it. Got my boys growing up who need me around.''

Roger lost his father when he was an infant and his stepfather when he was 9, so spending time with his kids is of paramount concern. ““My family has made a lot of sacrifices so I could have my career,’’ he says. So did his mom, Bess, whom he credits for his redoubtable work ethic - ““the 7 a.m. runs, the long workouts that you folks don’t see before I even get to the ballpark.’’ Clemens recalls: ““She worked so hard at so many jobs, even cleaning buildings at night to provide for us six kids. We were a middle-class family, maybe even a little lower, but I never felt deprived. I felt spoiled. I always had the best glove, the best cleats, the best of everything.''

Clemens doesn’t, however, have the best of teams right now, with Toronto nearer to last than first. Roger says he won’t really enjoy his success ““until there are some other people smiling around here.’’ Asked what he felt about opening the season with a team-record 11 consecutive wins, he said, ““Nothing’’ - and changed the subject to ““the team.’’ ““Sure it would be great to win 20,’’ Roger says. ““But give me my druthers and I’d rather be 5 and 5 with the team in the playoffs. I want to shoot for one of those banners.’’ He won’t get his druthers this year, but if he keeps throwing strikes, he’ll prove that pitching well is the best revenge.