(FORTUNE Magazine) – This year's Major League Baseball All-Star game is being played in Houston on July 13, and the hometown Astros have been garnering all sorts of attention--even though they're nine games out of first place--with their new Yankees-in-exile pitching staff featuring Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte.

But it turns out that Clemens and Pettitte have been doing more than just throwing balls and (mostly) strikes. They've become owners too--minor-league owners, to be precise. The two have teamed up with current players Craig Biggio, Jeff Kent, Brooks Kieschnick, and former players Don Baylor, Bill Doran, and Terry Puhl to own a piece of the new Astros AA affiliate, the Corpus Christi Hooks.

According to the Hooks, Clemens and Pettitte et al. are the only current major leaguers to have an ownership interest in a minor-league team. The majority owners of the Hooks are none other than Hall-of-Famer Nolan Ryan and his sons, who are moving their AA team to Corpus Christi from Round Rock (where the team played at The Dell Diamond stadium, of course!) No word on whether Clemens wants to own a Major League team one day, but George Steinbrenner might want to watch his back. --Andy Serwer