Lexington Legends

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The Lexington Legends, who play in Lexington, Kentucky, are a Class A minor league baseball team affiliated with the Houston Astros, in the South Atlantic League. They play their home games at Applebee's Park, located in an industrial area on the northeast side of the city just inside New Circle Road (the city's inner beltway).

The team won the South Atlantic League championship in its first year (2001) when it led 2-0 against the Asheville Tourists in a five-game series, with Games 3 and 4 scheduled in Asheville, when the season was cancelled by Minor League Baseball in the wake of terrorist attacks.

On May 31, 2006, it was announced that Roger Clemens would be coming out of retirement for the third time to pitch for the Houston Astros for the remainder of the 2006 season. Planning to keep himself to a strict 60-pitch count, Clemens returned to baseball with the Legends in where his oldest son, Koby, plays. Father and son quashed reports that Koby would catch his dad for the return. "He doesn't listen to me," Roger Clemens said. "We'd be shaking each other off and arguing too much." Bailey, Rick [“Pitch and catch at the park, Clemens style FATHER, SON 'GET AT IT' IN 90-MINUTE SESSION”] Lexington Herald-Leader June 02, 2006 He threw 62 pitches, allowed no walks and only the one run while striking out six in three innings of work with the Legends, who won the game, leading 5-1.

Recently, the team came into the national spotlight for a second time as a result of events that occurred during a game with the Asheville Tourists on June 25, 2006. In the fifth inning of that game, Tourists manager Joe Mikulik went on an extended tirade after being ejected from the game following an argument with an umpire. This tirade was shown on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, ESPN's Pardon the Interruption and SportsCenter, and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

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