On the mound, Roger Clemens was “The Rocket.” Few major league baseball pitchers can match his accomplishments. He won 354 games. Eleven times he was an all-star. Seven times he won the Cy Young award as the best pitcher in the American League and twice he was a World Series champion. His career, which most notably included the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays, lasted 24 years.
Off the mound, Clemens was a constant source of controversy, both during his playing days and after. One of his Major League managers would pronounce him “a complete asshole.” During the 2006 World Baseball Classic, he made this comment about Japanese and Korean fans: “None of the dry cleaners were open, they were all at the game, Japan and Korea. So we couldn’t get any dry cleaning done out there, but I guess the neatest thing is that 50,000 of them were at Anaheim Stadium.”
But the biggest source of controversy concerning Clemens’ career is the question of whether he used performance enhancing drugs. In 2017, the Mitchell Report, the conclusions of a Congressional investigation into the use of PED’s by Major League baseball players, identified Clemens as a user of anabolic steroids. This was based on testimony given by his personal trainer Brian McNamee. Clemens claimed he never failed a drug test and never used PED’s. After testifying to that effect before Congress he was charged by the Department of Justice with six felony counts of perjury, false statements and contempt of Congess. After one mistrial, he was found not guilty in a second trial.
Clemens sued McNamee for defamation. The suit was thrown out. McNamee sued Clemens for defamation. Seven years later Jay Schreiber of the New York Times (March 18, 2015) reported “Lawyers representing Clemens and lawyers for his former trainer Brian McNamee reached a settlement in McNamee’s long-running defamation suit against Clemens…
“As a result, McNamee will receive an unspecified payment from Clemen’s insurer, AIG.”
There was no admission of wrongdoing, but the issue of Clemens drug use never seems to go away. Forbes carried this story by Christian Rec (Dec. 23, 2020):
“Two former federal authorities who were central to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) steroids trafficking case, and who later helped compile much of the damning evidence in the Mitchell Report on baseball’s doping past, say that there is no doubt two of baseball’s biggest names — Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens — cheated with performance-enhancing drugs during their major league careers.
“‘We had DNA evidence in the Clemens case, with Clemens’ DNA and an anabolic steroid within a needle that was used to inject him,’ said (Jeff) Novitzky (Criminal Investigator for IRS).”
Clemens personal life was no less free of controversy. The New York Daily News published this story by Teri Thompson on May 2, 2008:
“Roger Clemens carried on a decade-long affair with country star Mindy McCready, a romance that began when McCready was a 15-year-old aspiring singer performing in a karaoke bar and Clemens was a 28-year-old Red Sox ace and married father of two, several sources have told the Daily News.
“Contacted by the Daily News Sunday through his lawyer Rusty Hardin, Clemens confirmed a long-term relationship but denied that it was of a sexual nature.”
An AP story from Nov. 18 of that year included McCready’s comments:
“Country singer Mindy McCready claims she broke off her relationship with Roger Clemens when the baseball star wouldn’t marry her, according to an interview set to air Monday on the syndicated TV show ‘Inside Edition.’
“McCready told “Inside Edition” she met Clemens when she was 16, not 15, as reported by the Daily News in April. She told the TV newsmagazine they met in a karaoke bar, that her relationship with the pitcher didn’t turn sexual until several years later and that the relationship lasted for a decade.
“‘Carrying on a relationship with him is not something I’m proud of,’ she said, according to a partial transcript released by the show. ‘Roger Clemens is one of the most wonderful men I’ve ever known. … He treated me like a princess.’
In 2013, McCready, at age 37, committed suicide.
Since 1984. Clemens has been married to Debra Lynn Godfrey. The couple had 4 sons, including some ballplayers. Koby, 37, after being drafted by the Houston Astros in 2005, had a nearly 10-year minor league career. Kody, 27, made it to the major leagues in 2022 with the Detroit Tigers. He has since been traded to the Philadelphia Phillies and is currently playing for their AAA minor league affiliate. Kacy, 29, was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2017 and had a two year minor league career.
Like their father, a couple of the Clemens’ boys were no strangers to courtrooms.
A story in USA Today (by Scott Boeck Feb. 29, 2021) reported:
“Roger Clemens’ son, Kacy, and his friend Conner Capel were awarded $3.24 million in their lawsuit against a bar in Houston.
“The two minor leaguers sued Concrete Cowboy in 2019 claiming they were assaulted by bouncers at the bar after complying with their request to move away from a waitress station on New Year’s Eve in 2018.”
Then on April 10, 2023, TMZ carried this story about Kory:
“Roger Clemens‘ 34-year-old son, Kory, has been arrested again for DWI, TMZ Sports has learned … and the allegations against the MLB legend’s kid are scary.
“According to court documents, Kory was busted by the Houston Police Dept. in Texas at 2:22 AM on April 7 following a car accident.
“In the docs, prosecutors allege Clemens struck another vehicle, which caused ‘heavy’ front-end damage. They also say Kory was throwing up at the scene and was ‘unsteady on his feet.’ They added in the documents that he reeked of booze, had bloodshot eyes and slurred his speech … and stumbled when he walked.”
Roger Clemens never really was able to pass by an available pitching mound.
ESPN reporated on Aug. 25, 2012: “Pitching for the first time in five years, Clemens tossed 3-⅓ scorelees innings Saturday night for the Sugarland Skeeters of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. Age 50.”
mlb.com wrote (Oct. 22, 2015): “Roger Clemens and Oil Can Boyd really did pitch against each other in a baseball game this week.
“The Men’s Senior Baseball League, the largest amateur baseball league in America, is in the midst of its 2015 50-and-up World Series tournament, and there were a number of stars on hand for this one as Clemens’ Houston Old Stars beat Boyd’s Boston Wolf Pack, 4-1.”
During the pandemic Hayden Bird of Boston.com (June 12 2020) caught up with Clemens:
“Roger Clemens will manage in a Texas baseball tournament: Though Major League Baseball continues to be on hold, fans in Texas may soon have the ability to see plenty of games this summer.
“The Sugar Land Skeeters, an independent league team, announced earlier this week their intention to form a four-team professional league to play from July 3 through August 23. After the new teams are formed in a player draft, all games will be played at Constellation Field (the Skeeters’ ballpark).
“Former Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens and his son, Koby, have reportedly committed to managing two of the four teams in the league. Clemens praised Skeeters owner Kevin Zlotnik.”
And it was only last month when Chron.com (by Dan Carson March10, 2024) filed this story:
“The traveling circus that is Savannah Bananas baseball took over Minute Maid Park on Saturday night, and Astros fans were treated to the sight of a franchise great taking the mound for the historic occasion.
“Seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens emerged from the Savannah dugout in the second inning to a standing ovation from the 41,000-strong sold-out crowd. Sixty-one years young and wearing the bright yellow uniform known around the nation for goofy, avant-garde baseball, the two-time World Series winner immediately went to work.
“The night was a mixed showing for Clemens, however. ‘The Rocket’ pitched well but was taken yard early by former Georgia Southern infielder Jason Swan, who sent a two-run bomb over the left field wall in the top of the inning. The two-time World Series winner ultimately got out of the frame on a comebacker ground out, ending his Bananas career.”
On the baseball diamond he was still “The Rocket” and there seems to be plenty of ballparks where they’re still willing to roll out the red carpet for him. Because of the PED suspicions, Clemens has been denied some of the honors that you would expect a player with his level of success to enjoy.
On the question of the Red Sox choosing not to retire his number, Clemens told boston.com (Deysha Smith, Aug. 23, 2019 ):
“It’s not going to change how great I was here. It was just meant to be that I’m tied with Cy Young for wins [354] in Boston.”
He was equally cavalier about his much-discussed failure to be elected to the baseball Hall of Fame. “I never played to make the Hall of Fame. My first couple of years I played to make a good living for my family. And after that, to win championships, which I was able to do. As far as Cooperstown, there’s a bunch of cool stuff of mine that is in there, and if they look at facts and do all that, they would know exactly where I stood.’’
In 2009 a group of Daily News reporters published a book about Clemens titled “American Icon.” A quote from a review of that book, which I found in the New York Times (May 11, 2009) best answers the question of Whatever Happened to Roger Clemens:
“The very qualities that once made Clemens a demigod on the mound, aggression, tenacity and a relentless need to win, were the very qualities that would sabotage him in real life, in the legal arena, on Capitol Hill and in the court of public opinion.”
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Whatever Happened To?
off the leash 
Thanks for an eye-opening report. The Cito Gaston comment, which I never had seen, really hit home.
As former Red Sox broadcaster Bob Starr said, “Most people place an athlete too high on a pedestal. They shouldn’t let respect be confused with idolizing because they could be very disappointed.”
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Very interesting article. I hadn’t thought about him in ages.
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