Roger Clemens, pitching for Team USA last spring, seems a little more than disingenuous when he insists that he wants to be retired from baseball but that people just keep dragging him back to work.

AP / TED S. WARREN TED S. WARREN

TORONTO — Beginning Sunday afternoon, Roger Clemens began blotting out the sun, overshadowing everyone and everything else in baseball. As a larger-than-life figure, Clemens has that capacity. Add the fact that his surprise announcement involved the Red Sox and Yankees, and his domination of the news is entirely predictable.

Figure that will last again for another day or so, then intensify again later this month as he prepares to make his return in pinstripes.

For now, a few thoughts on Clemens’ decision and the ramifications for both teams:

Since his team was ushered out of the playoffs last October, general manager Brian Cashman vowed to make the Yankees younger and cheaper. He shipped out overpriced, aging performers such as Gary Sheffield and Randy Johnson and reveled in the prospects he obtained in return.

After seven seasons without a championship and failing to get out of the first round of the playoffs in 2005 and 2006, Cashman said the Yanks had learned the error of the ways. No longer, he said, would the Yankees be swayed by high-priced All-Stars. Goodbye to Kevin Brown, Sheffield and Johnson.

Instead, the Yankees needed to stop tying themselves to big-ticket veterans and begin the process of restocking for the future.

The Yankees’ new philosophy, however, didn’t last long. As soon as they had a chance to land a (soon-to-be) 45-year-old pitcher for $4.5 million per month, they tripped over themselves cutting the check.

Apparently, when the Yankees say they’re through spending money, it’s about as believable as Clemens saying that he’s unsure whether he’s going to pitch again.

Clemens runs the risk of sounding foolish when he says things like: “I expect to perform like I was 25. Anything short of that would be a disappointment.”

The very fact that Clemens has, for the last two seasons, deliberately cut short his season as concession to age disproves his own point. No matter how remarkable his late-career performance has been, Clemens is neither as dominant nor as durable as he once was. His last playoff appearance, in the 2005, was cut short by a hamstring injury that dogged him the last few weeks of that season.

It’s not about to get any easier for Clemens, either. Returning to the American League and the A.L. East in particular represents a huge step up in competition for Clemens.

Consider: When Clemens last pitched in the American League, from 1999-2003, he twice had an ERA over 4.00 and never had an ERA below 3.51. In that season, Clemens was a mere 38; now that he’s 44, its a stretch to think he’ll be as effective as he was the last three years in Houston, safely housed in baseball’s worst division.

Clemens has taken disingenuousness to an art form in recent years, but nothing is as irritating as his penchant for suggesting that he’d like to retire if only others would let him.

Last year, he “blamed” Alan and Randy Hendricks for his return, even as he willfully participated in a shameless tour of the three interested teams, designed of course, to prime the bidding pump.

On Sunday, he told the crowd at Yankee Stadium “(The Yankees) came and got me out of Texas,” as if Cashman and George Steinbrenner had stormed his home in Katy and abducted him against his will.

Enough, thanks. Clemens continues to pitch because he loves the competition, the attention and money and not necessarily in that order. It’s entirely his right to keep doing what he does best and amassing tens of million in income, but spare us the tale of the man who would prefer to sit on his porch.

It’s bad form for Red Sox’ ownership to carp about how the negotiating was conducted. USA Today reported that the Red Sox were “incensed,” presumably because they weren’t given a chance to tweak their offer and because Clemens adjusted his timetable at the last minute.

But the Red Sox weren’t about to come close to matching the Yankees’ $28-million winning bid. They discussed what they could afford for Clemens and presented Randy Hendricks with their $18-million offer.

Hendricks went to the Red Sox first because he knew the Yankees were his client’s best (read: most desperate) bet. If the Sox had bid $28 million, Hendricks would have demanded more from the Yankees.

As for Clemens’ shifting timetable, that was devised to dovetail perfectly with the Yankees’ sense of desperation. With Phillip Hughes out for another month or more, Carl Pavano gone for the season and the Yankees trotting out yet another rookie for his major-league debut last night, the timing couldn’t have better.

smcadam@projo.com