Hall of Fame Poll: Roger Clemens

The next player on the Hall of Fame ballot is Sean Casey, but, as much as I liked Casey, he isn't a Hall of Famer by any standard. He played in the majors for 12 years, had a really nice slash line, .302/.367/.447, with 130 home runs and 735 RBI. He didn't have the power you'd like to see out of a first baseman (25 home runs were the most he'd hit, he was only over 20 twice), but he kept a high batting average and got on base well. I always liked guys that got on base a lot.

Roger Clemens is a guy that did have a Hall of Fame type career, if you are willing to overlook the substances he injected into his body.

In 24 seasons, Clemens had a 354-184 record, 3.12 ERA in 707 starts. 1580 walks, 4672 strikeouts (3rd all-time) in 4916 innings. He won 20 games in 6 different seasons.

He won 7 Cy Youngs, including 2 as a Blue Jay. He won 1 AL MVP award. Played in 11 All-Star games. Baseball Reference has him at a 133 WAR which is 3rd all-time for pitchers.

Roger was found not guilty of lying to Congress in 2008. Personally, lying to politicians seems like a strange thing to be put to trial over.

We have a few guys on the ballot that are believed to have used steroids, Roger, well he was a jerk about it. When he was found to have human growth hormone delivered to his house, he blamed it on his wife. To me that's as lousy a move as there is, guys are supposed to protect their wives, not use them as an alibi.

There are other things in his past that might cause the BBWAA to leave his name off the ballot. Throwing at Mike Piazza, with the ball and a broken piece of bat. And his affair with an under-aged Mindy McCready doesn't exactly speak to his good citizenship.

And, of course, Roger is the only person that, on this site, we are allowed to call a fuckhead, because, of course, he is.

Roger is a tough call for me, because I figure keeping keeping someone out for using PEDs is unfair because we we don't know every player that was using. We know Roger was using but how many guys get voted in that we don't know. Is it fair to keep him how just because he was stupid enough to get caught? But then, Clemens is such a perfect example of walking fertilizer, that it is hard to get past what a lousy person he was.

There are lots of lousy people in the Hall, but do I really want add another?