On paper, Roger Clemens simply is one of the best to ever toe the mound in a Major League Baseball game.
“The Rocket” is ninth all-time in wins (354), third in strikeouts (4,672) and his seven Cy Youngs are the most ever.
But Clemens, 56, remains on the outside looking in when it comes to the Baseball Hall of Fame because of his relation to the PED scandal that dominated baseball in the early 2000s.
The dominant right-hander received 59.5 percent of the vote in the latest ballot, still well below the 75 percent necessary for induction.
Clemens was at the University of Texas on Saturday playing in an alumni game at his alma mater (and looking pretty good on the mound). Clemens was asked about his most recent rejection and noted he’s not really concerned about being enshrined in the Cooperstown, N.Y. museum.
“I didn’t play baseball to make the (Baseball) Hall of Fame. I played baseball, the first couple of years, to make a fantastic living … and after that it was about winning championships,” Clemens told reports, via Austin, Texas NBC affiliate KXAN.
“Really, the Hall of Fame, it’s a self kind of deal, a beat your own chest type of deal,” Clemens added. “You don’t get to have a career like I did, 24 years, without fantastic teammates, fantastic catchers back there paying attention to detail. I tell them thank you all the time … that’s what means the most to me.”
Clemens has until 2022 to be voted in by the writers before being removed from the ballot.
