I put word to page today to attempt something both daunting and exciting: do justice to the career of Roger Clemens. How does adequately describe greatness on an almost unfathomable level? Those who never watched him pitch will cannot truly understand the mastery he exhibited over opposing hitters, and those who were fortunate enough to witness it know that.
Roger Clemens Hall of Fame Profile
The Records:
Numbers alone cannot paint the full picture, yet they must be mentioned. Over his illustrious twenty-four-year career, The Rocket, as he was known, played four four teams: the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Houston Astros. For those four teams, he won a combined 354 games, compiled a 3.12 ERA, and struck out 4,672 batters. His wins total ranks ninth all-time, and his strikeout total ranks third.
Clemens earned eleven appearances in the All Star Game, won two World Series titles, and captured seven Cy Young Awards, more than any other pitcher in baseball history. Clemens threw hard and intimidated his opponents. Based on his numbers alone, they were right to be afraid.
The Career:
Clemens was drafted 19th overall in 1983 by the Boston Red Sox, and made his major league debut in 1984. He spent twelve seasons in Boston. In 1986, Clemens had perhaps the greatest single season of any pitcher, ever. That year, he won the American League Cy Young Award the first of his seven), the American League Most Valuable Player Award, and the All Star Game MVP Award. On April 29 of that year, he became the first pitcher to strike out twenty batters in a single nine-inning game against the Seattle Mariners, which to this day remains an unbroken record (Kerry Wood tied it, and Randy Johnson struck out twenty in a game that went into extra innings. Tom Cheney struck out twenty-one in sixteen innings).
When Clemens was named AL MVP, Hall of Fame slugger Hank Aaron said that pitchers should not be eligible for the award. Clemens, never one to back down or stand for disrespect, responded, “I wish he were still playing. I’d probably crack his head open to show him how valuable I was.” Clemens was always a battler in his career, and took any challenge offered by an opponent and threw it right back at him at 95 miles per hour.
Clemens is the only pitcher to strike out twenty batters in a single game twice. On September 18, 1996, he fanned twenty against the Detroit Tigers on the road in Detroit. Rogers is tied with the great Cy Young himself for the Red Sox franchise lead in wins with 192. He is the franchise’s all time leader in strikeouts with 2,590. In honor of his unquestioned greatness, no Red Sox player has worn Clemens’ No. 21 since he left the team in 1996.
After spending the first half of his career with Boston, he spent two seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays. In both years, he won the pitching triple crown by leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts.
Prior to the 1999 season, the Jays traded Clemens to the New York Yankees for David Wells, Homer Bush, and Graeme Lloyd. He was the anchor of the Yankee staffs that won the World Series in 1999 and 2000, but his best year with the team came in 2001. That season he became the first pitcher in the history of the game to start the season with a record of 20-1. He would finish the season 20-3 on his way to winning his sixth Cy Young Award. He remains the last Yankee pitcher to win the award.
In 2003, Clemens announced that he was bringing his historic career to a close. However, he still had a few moments of greatness left to give to the game. On June 13, 2003, pitching at home against the St. Louis Cardinals, Clemens recorded his 300th win and his 4,000th strikeout. He is the only pitcher to reach both milestones in the same game. That day, he became the 21st pitcher to record at least 300 wins, and just the third to record 4,000 strikeouts. The rest of that second list included legendary hurlers Steve Carlton and Nolan Ryan at the time. Randy Johnson later joined the club. Clemens finished his final season with the Yankees by making one more run at a third World Series title, although the Yankees would eventually lose the series to the then-Florida Marlins.
Clemens came out of retirement in 2004 to sign a one-year deal with his home-town Houston Astros. Following that season, he won his seventh Cy Young Award at age 42, and is the oldest player to ever win the award. He returned to the Astros in 2005 and somehow won thirteen games despite receiving little run support. He posted a 1.87 ERA, the lowest in the majors that year and the lowest of his career.
Clemens would pitch parts of the 2006 and 2007 seasons (with the Astros and Yankees, respectively) before finally hanging up his glove. Fittingly, his final regular season start came where it all began for him: against the Red Sox in Fenway Park.
The Aftermath:
His numbers make him a Hall of Famer at the very least, and it would not be a stretch to say they make him the greatest pitcher of all time. Yet here we are, about to witness Clemens fourth attempt at enshrinement. Unfortunately, not long after Clemens retired for the final time, allegations arose that he had used anabolic steroids in the later portion of his career. He was named in the infamous Mitchell Report, but denied those allegations under oath.
However, that only began the controversy surrounding Clemens. In three years later, a federal grand jury indicted Clemens on six counts involving perjury, contempt, and making false statements. Clemens pleaded not guilty and, following a mistrial due to prosecutorial misconduct in 2011, was found not guilty on all counts in 2012.
HoF Prognosis:
Yet, as it has been for most players named in the Mitchell Report, Clemens has not been able to escape the cloud of suspicion surrounding him. Baseball has always been about preserving its legacy and integrity, and the writers who vote for the Hall of Fame seem are the leagues greatest agents in that endeavor. Most of them, like the league itself, seem to believe that the best way to move part the steroid era is to pretend it never happened. To that end, they have thus far excluded the majority of the players who played during the steroid era.
Never mind that its likely that most players were on something during that time, meaning that anyone who was on something gained little, if any, competitive advantage. Never mind that most of the known, and unknown, steroid users never came anywhere near a prayer of matching Clemens’ numbers. Clemens is an all-time great, and maybe the greatest ever. The steroid era happened, and baseball needs to accept that and move on. Clemens deserves to be in Cooperstown at least as much as any other player, and more than most. However, it seems likely at this point that he will have to wait at least one more season.
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