Hall of Fame Poll: Roger Clemens

The next two on a ballot are Aaron Boone and Tony Clark, and while both were pretty decent players, neither rates as a Hall of Fame type.

Boone played 12 seasons, had a .263/.326/.425 line with 126 home runs, 555 RBI. He made 1 All-Star team and he had that big home run, in the 11th inning of game 7, of the 2003 ALCS against the Red Sox, ending Grady Little's time as manager of the Sox and getting the Yankees into the World Series, only to lose to the Marlins. He played for the Reds, Indians, Nationals, Yankees, Astros and Marlins. His career WAR is 13.5.

Clark played 15 seasons, had a .262/.339/.485 slash line, with 251 home runs, 824 RBI. He made 1 All-Star appearance and came in 3rd in Rookie of the Year balloting in 1996. He played for the Tigers, Red Sox, Mets, Yankees, Diamondbacks and Padres. He retired with a 12.5 WAR.

Rogers Clemens, on the other hand, had the stats of a a first ballot Hall of Famer, if you can ignore the fact that he used PEDs and that he is a giant (what's the technical term, oh right) asshat.

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 and played in 11 All-Star games. Baseball Reference has him at a 133 WAR which is 3rd all-time for pitchers.

His numbers mark him as a Hall of Fame type, but then he's one of several on the ballot who used PEDs, which, generally, I don't think should be a deal breaker for making the Hall. Clemens, as is his nature, was a particular jerk about it. When he was caught having human growth hormones delivered to his home, he blamed his wife, trying to tell us that it belonged to her. That's incredibly scummy. A man should be protecting his wife, not throwing her under the bus. He also lied to congress about it. but then who hasn't lied to congress.

There really is no end to the examples of his jerkism, including throwing at Mike Piazza, with both a ball and a bat and there was the affair with an under aged, future country singer,  Mindy McCready.

Clemens is a very tough call for me. I don't think PEDs should necessarily be reason for to keep someone out of the Hall. Nor do I think being a lousy human being is reason to be excluded from the Hall. There are many lousy people in the Hall. Unless we we  want to go through and remove all the crappy people from the Hall, it doesn't make sense to me to exclude new candidates from the Hall for being a lousy person.

But it is Roger Clemens.

I couldn't vote to give Roger Clemens any kind of award or honor.

This is Roger's third time on the ballot. He's had 37.6% and 35.4% of the vote. I see very little chance that he could mount a campaign that would convince enough writers to get him on the 75% of their ballots before his name come s off the ballot.