Reigning Parent of the Year and former Major League player Adam LaRoche has organized a team comprised of 24 ex-Major League Baseball players to compete in the National Baseball Congress World Series that begins at the end of the month. Generally, the NBC World Series is for amateur players, mostly college aged, but LaRoche and former Tigers pitcher Nate Robertson decided to see if they could get their buddies to play on a team and relive the glory days. Eventually word made its way to Roger Clemens—who is 53 years old, nine years removed from pitching in the majors, and four years removed from competitive play—and he signed up.Other notables include Roy Oswalt, Josh Beckett—who recruited Clemens—Tim Hudson, Brad Penny, Ben Sheets, Carl Everett, Dan Uggla, and Rick Ankiel. Clemens's son Koby is also on the squad. Koby is the only player on the team who didn't play in the Majors. It sounds like it's going to be a slightly more talented Beer League team, but Clemens is still apparently a nutbag, so who knows."We're kind of getting guys prepped to go three innings, max," Robertson said. "I've heard Roger is going to come in here and try to throw five. I guess he's still a machine.Laroche's brother Andy played on a team with Robertson last year and got Adam interested in building what would eventually be the Kansas Stars. He started texting former teammates and it spread like wildfire. He said he was "blown away" by the response.Here's a little bit of information about the tournament itself, from its website:The National Baseball Congress and its now well-established World Series were the brainchild of Wichita sporting goods salesman Hap Dumont in the midst of the Depression. Dumont hatched the idea after watching a Sunday baseball game between circus clowns in Wichita for the week and local firemen. While the circus wasn't allowed to perform on Sunday due to the blue laws of the day, the clowns in the baseball game drew a large crowd. Dumont figured he had stumbled onto something.The Stars' first game of the tournament is scheduled for August 6th, during the second week of the tournament.[Wichita Eagle]
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