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Donald Trump thinks he can do a lot of things, but getting Roger Clemens into the Hall of Fame probably won’t be one of them.
That won’t stop him from stumping for the seven-time Cy Young winner.
“I played Golf yesterday with the Great Roger Clemens and his son, Kacy. Roger Clemens was easily one of the few Greatest Pitchers of All Time, winning 354 Games, the Cy Young Award seven times (A Record, by a lot!), and played in six World Series, winning two! He was second to Nolan Ryan in most strike-outs, and he should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame, NOW!” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“People think he took drugs, but nothing was proven. He never tested positive, and Roger, from the very beginning, totally denies it. He was just as great before those erroneous charges were leveled at him. That rumor has gone on for years, and there has been no evidence whatsoever that he was a ‘druggie.’”
Trump doesn’t want Clemens to be in a similar situation to Pete Rose, who got reinstated to MLB from his betting ban by commissioner Rob Manfred in May after he died last September.
“This is going to be like Pete Rose where, after over 4,000 Hits, they wouldn’t put him in the Hall of Fame until I spoke to the Commissioner, and he promised to do so, but it was essentially a promise not kept because he only ‘opened it up’ when Pete died and, even then, he said that Pete Rose only got into the mix because of DEATH,” Trump wrote. “We are not going to let that happen in the case of Roger Clemens. 354 Wins — Put him in NOW. He and his great family should not be forced to endure this ‘stupidity’ any longer!”
Clemens recorded 354 wins over his 24-year career and amassed 4,672 strikeouts, second only to Nolan Ryan.
The former Yankees and Red Sox star appeared in six World Series, claiming two championships in the process, cementing his status as an all-time great — at least, it appeared that way.
His accomplishments since have been marred by allegations of using performance-enhancing drugs, enough to keep him out of baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Clemens was linked with steroid usage by the famous Mitchell Report in 2007.
Clemens was indicted on six counts of felony perjury, false statements and obstruction of Congress, though he was later acquitted of all charges in 2012.
Still, many believe he used anabolic steroids despite not actually being found guilty in a court of law, which is the case with other baseball players of similar stature.
Two key former federal authorities linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) steroids trafficking case — and also helped piece together revelatory reporting in the Mitchell Report of 2007 — maintain that Clemens unequivocally used performance-enhancing drugs.
Matt Parrella, an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of California, who was the lead prosecutor in Barry Bonds’ 2011 steroid case, said there’s no doubt Clemens and Bonds were users.
“The only question is, did they use steroids? The evidence is incontrovertible,” he told Forbes in 2020. “It’s scientifically certain, and corroborated by the surrounding facts and circumstances.”
Jeff Novitzky, who was a criminal investigator for the IRS and later for the Food and Drug Administration, was also the lead agent in the BALCO case, and said Clemens’ DNA proved him to be guilty.
“We had DNA evidence in the Clemens case, with Clemens’ DNA and an anabolic steroid within a needle that was used to inject him,” he said.
Clemens first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2013 and remained eligible for 10 years.
During that period, he consistently received support but never reached the 75 percent threshold needed for induction, ultimately falling off the ballot three years ago.
Clemens received 37.6 percent of the vote in 2013, his debut year, and from 2015 on, he gradually gained more votes, topping out at 65.2 percent in 2022 — his final year on the ballot.
