Former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens expressed amazement this week at former President Donald Trump’s ability to juggle both golf and work during a round together. Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner and longtime Trump supporter, spoke about the experience in an interview with Fox News’ Will Cain on Tuesday.
“He wasn’t just golfing, by the way. He was working the entire three hours on the golf course,” Clemens said. “He was answering phone calls, he was talking to heads of state!” Cain reminded Clemens of his earlier claim that Trump “hit all the fairways.” Clemens quickly clarified, “Every fairway but one. He missed it by six inches!”
The former New York Yankee, now 63, told the 79-year-old Trump that he believed he could defeat President Joe Biden, 82, in a head-to-head golf game. “President 47, you’ve gotten better!” Clemens said. Clemens and Trump golfed together on August 23, according to Trump’s Truth Social account.
A day later, Trump confirmed the outing and called for Clemens to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, an honor that has eluded him for over a decade. Despite his storied career, Clemens’ legacy remains overshadowed by the 2007 Mitchell Report, which linked him to steroid use between 1998 and 2001, when he was among the Yankees’ top pitchers.
Clemens denied using performance-enhancing drugs in testimony before Congress. In 2010, a federal grand jury indicted him on perjury charges related to that testimony. Those charges were dismissed, but the controversy has lingered throughout his post-baseball career.
Clemens has never reached the 75 percent vote threshold from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America required for Hall of Fame induction. His only remaining route is through the Hall of Fame committee, which consists of 16 members, including Hall of Famers, executives, media figures, and historians.
A candidate must receive at least 12 votes. In 2022, Clemens fell far short, receiving fewer than four votes. Trump has often used his platform to weigh in on baseball. He previously called for Pete Rose, the game’s all-time leader in hits, to be enshrined in Cooperstown.
Rose was banned from baseball for betting on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds. Although Major League Baseball reinstated Rose posthumously, he will not be eligible for Hall of Fame consideration until 2028.
For now, Clemens remains outside the Hall despite his 354 career wins and 4,672 strikeouts. With Trump lobbying for him and his own accomplishments on the mound, Clemens’ case may once again draw attention, even as the steroid cloud lingers.