President Donald Trump is going to bat for Roger Clemens — announcing that the pitching legend, still shut out of Cooperstown, will receive the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Speaking at a campaign rally in San Antonio on Wednesday night, Trump said he plans to award Clemens the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He also renewed his push for the seven-time Cy Young Award winner to enter the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
“I’m pleased to announce that we are taking it into our own hands. Forget about the Hall of Fame; he’ll get there someday. I mean, I don’t know how they can keep him out,” Trump said, according to The Hill.
The president described the Medal of Freedom as a “big step up” from the baseball honor that has repeatedly eluded Clemens.
A Presidential Salute To “The Rocket”
Clemens had introduced Trump at the Freeman Coliseum rally, where the president was campaigning for Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton ahead of November’s election. Trump praised the retired pitcher as “one of the greatest athletes and maybe the greatest pitcher of all time,” UPI reported.
The Texas-raised baseball star returned to the stage after the announcement, thanked Trump and called the recognition a “huge honor,” according to The Hill.
“There wouldn’t be another president I’d want to get it from,” Clemens said.
Earlier, Clemens had praised Trump as a “man that loves our country” and urged the crowd to remember that “he put his life on the line for us.”
Known as “The Rocket,” Clemens compiled numbers that place him among baseball’s most accomplished pitchers. He finished his major league career with 354 victories, 4,672 strikeouts and a 3.12 earned run average. His seven Cy Young Awards remain a record, according to the Hall of Fame’s own career profile.
A Career Overshadowed By Allegations
Those achievements have yet to secure Clemens a place in Cooperstown.
Allegations involving performance-enhancing drugs have dogged his Hall of Fame candidacy for years. Clemens has denied using them, and a federal jury acquitted him in June 2012 of all six charges stemming from his testimony to Congress. The charges involved obstruction of Congress, perjury and false statements — rather than a prosecution for drug use itself.
The Houston Chronicle reported that Clemens failed to win election during his years on the baseball writers’ ballot and was passed over again in the most recent era committee vote.
Trump had publicly pressed for Clemens’ induction in December, arguing that allegations should not outweigh his career achievements and pointing to his acquittal. In a Truth Social post quoted by The Hill, the president called Clemens’ exclusion a “total travesty.”
Wednesday’s announcement gives that support a new dimension: a pledge to recognize Clemens with an honor Trump can bestow himself.
If presented, the medal would put Clemens alongside other sports figures Trump has honored, including Tiger Woods, Mariano Rivera, Roger Staubach and Lou Holtz, the Houston Chronicle reported.
