A Newsday report claiming seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens had signed a one-year deal with the Astros was shot down by Astros general manager Tim Purpura as well as Astros owner Drayton McLane Jr. Clemens was not available for comment.

"Absolutely not true," Purpura said when asked to confirm the report that Clemens, 43, had signed a one-year deal with Houston. "There's nothing to it at this point. We had some discussions with his agents (Randy and Alan Hendricks) over the weekend but we're waiting for Roger to make a decision."

Newsday reported the contract is believed to be worth about $3.5 million per month or approximately $10.5 million for the season, depending on when Clemens returns to action.

"I can assure you a deal has not been done," McLane said. "The Hendricks have said to us all the way through that 'the first decision is Roger has to tell them, and he'll tell us if he wants to come back.' They said that as late as last week. They have not gotten back to us. We're waiting on them."

In Arlington, Rangers owner Tom Hicks said he'd been told by Randy Hendricks that Clemens will not be signing with his team.

"We gave it our best shot," Hicks said. "I got a call from Randy Hendricks on Friday and he'd been asked by Roger to convey his thanks but he would not be pitching for the Rangers.

"I'm not sure where he's going. I was told we were not the only team that was getting that call. I was told the family played a large issue so I assume he'll be pitching for Houston."

Clemens, who turns 44 in August, helped the Astros reach the World Series last fall following a season in which the right-hander led the Major Leagues with a 1.87 ERA. The Astros declined to offer him salary arbirtation last winter, forefeiting the right to re-sign him until May 1.

Since then Clemens, who lives in Houston, has indicated if he does return it would be for one of four teams: the Astros, Rangers, Red Sox or Yankees.

The Astros hope to lure Clemens back and are optimistic they will convince him to return for another season. Purpura said no timetable has been given but that he expects an answer soon.

"He knows we'd love to have him back, and I think our chances are as good as any if he does decide to play another year," Purpura said. "I think we'll know something soon one way or another."

McLane was in Temple, Texas and was also surprised at the report.

"I've been confident since January," McLane said. "We waited on them and they said they would get back to us. I talked to Tim about an hour and a half ago. We're very very optimtistic, but we knew that we have to wait to hear back from them. That has not happened yet."

Funniest quote I heard

"A home run to win a World Series game in extra innings--are you kidding me? It's not exactly a long list."

Sox infielder Geoff Blum, asked where his 14th-inning homer to win Game 3 of the World Series ranked on his list of memorable hits.

Second-guessing myself

I'm sorry I never got to meet Al Lopez. He was a baseball giant in Chicago, especially on the South Side, and his death came just four days after the White Sox completed their World Series sweep. I hope he enjoyed it.

My favorite story

The White Sox, from April through October. Before the World Series I was asked to write a piece for the Tribune's Perspective section on what it meant to have the World Series in Chicago. I tried to write it through the eyes of the greatest Sox fan I ever had known, my late father. Judging from the response, a lot of people came to baseball through the White Sox and their own fathers' attachment to them.

Best game I covered

There wasn't a single clunker among the Sox's 12-game postseason run, but Game 3 of the Boston series was tops for high drama. Orlando Hernandez sprinting to the mound in the sixth inning, then strutting off like pitching royalty after artfully working his way through a bases-loaded, no-out jam in a one-run game . . . "El Duque," indeed. "I knew he would bring cold blood," Ozzie Guillen said.

Play of the year

Juan Uribe going into the hole to throw out Coco Crisp on a bang-bang play at first base to preserve a 5-5 tie in the ninth inning of a Sox-Cleveland game on Sept. 20. The onrushing Indians would have swept the series and cut the Sox's lead to 1 1/2 games with a victory, but Joe Crede delivered a walkoff homer in the 10th and the entire South Side resumed breathing.

Most telling moment I saw off the field

Running into Mayor Daley in the Houston airport mere hours after the White Sox's World Series-clinching victory. He looked a little tired, and hired-truck and patronage scandals were nipping at his ankles, but the man could not stop smiling. The Sox had that effect on a lot of people I know.

A different team won the World Series for the fifth straight year. This is not much for dynasty-making, but this sport, through revenue sharing and the payroll tax, is trying to head in the opposite direction, toward greater parity. The five teams winning give evidence of more open opportunities. And the fact that the last two teams that won -- the Sox both Red and White -- had waited what seemed like eternities for the renewal of championship festivities gave a genuine, touching quality to the proceedings.

"In 2004, you broke the Curse of the Bambino," said Bud Selig. "And I say that not facetiously. There is the emotion of people. I remember in Fenway Park, second game of the World Series, a woman stopped to tell me that while the Red Sox hadn't won yet, she was confident, although extremely nervous. But what had she done that day? She had gone to the cemetery -- now, she's telling me this very seriously, with tears streaming down her face -- to tell her mother and dad that their beloved Red Sox had won the pennant. And I got chills when I heard that. Now, she told them that after the Red Sox won the pennant. Imagine what she must have done after they won the world championship.

"In Chicago this year, my goodness, I heard one story after another about the emotion that people had. The stain of 1919 is wiped out, and all the heartache of the White Sox over the years. And it goes again to serve as a rather dramatic manifestation of how important our sport is, how popular our sport is, and what a deep impact it makes at every level of society.

"But this year, the interest in baseball was just stunning. There are a lot of reasons for it. Certainly, the changing of the economic landscape is No. 1. We have more parity today than ever before. I'm very proud of that. There was a lot of anger and a lot of frustration in the '90s as we fought to change the system. But those days are over now. And we still have work to be done. But you can see the effects of parity. There's better competitive balance."

This year was another example in favor of an argument that Selig has been making for several seasons. Baseball's "Golden Era"? It is here and now.

"Today, it's obvious to people that something has changed, and the game is flourishing," said Selig. "I have attendance figures in my desk that go back to 1901, and the difference is stunning. Go back to the postwar era, which has always been regarded as the 'Golden Era' of baseball. So in the 'Golden Era' of baseball, in 1950, we drew 17,462,975, and the average team averaged 1.091 million. In 1952, it was 914,000. In 1953, even with the Braves coming [to Milwaukee] and drawing a lot of people, it was 899,000. In 1954, the average team drew 996,000. And it didn't change much until the late 1970s, early 1980s.

"The idea was that baseball was moribund. It was not the pastime, it was past its time, you've heard all that. You don't hear that anymore. This year, the average club drew 2.497 million. And that's an amazing story, an amazing story."

A litany of the great individual performances of 2005 cannot be risked here for fear of leaving out even one worthy performance. But this much has become clear: The game is better now because the talent pool is wider and deeper, with the influx of increasing numbers of players from Latin America and Asia.

And as we close Baseball 2005, its successor season is already rich with promise, starting with the first World Baseball Classic. The Classic will both recognize and celebrate the international growth of the game

"And now we have the World Baseball Classic," said the Commissioner. "I don't think people begin to understand the impact that this is going to have, not only on the sport in America, but even more so internationally, which is our great horizon. We're getting great player cooperation, which I'm grateful for. And it's going to be just spectacular."

All the issues and alterations aside, what makes baseball is the unchanging, elemental appeal of the game itself. To some of us, it remains, without blushing at the threat of overstatement, one of noblest inventions of humankind.

"The more you watch it, the more you understand what a great game it is," said Selig. "It produces drama, tension that you just can't imagine. You watch it. There's nothing like it.

"Yes, the grand old game is just really clicking along."

The Commissioner gets to say that because it is true. Yes, there was a difficult start for baseball this year, but the game overcame some serious issues and yet retained its essential quality. That could be one definition of a successful season. In fact, that should be one definition of a successful season.