Clemens, Roger

Roger Clemens, in full William Roger Clemens, (born August 4, 1962, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.), American professional baseball player who was one of the most successful power pitchers in history, thus earning his nickname, “Rocket.” He was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award seven times.

Clemens was raised in Texas and played college baseball for the University of Texas Longhorns before being drafted in 1983 by the Boston Red Sox. After only one year in the minor leagues, Clemens made his major league debut in 1984. In 1986 he had a record of 24 wins and 4 losses with a league-leading earned run average (ERA) of 2.48, and he helped the Red Sox to the American League pennant. He was awarded his first Cy Young Award and was also voted the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP), a rare double honour for a pitcher. Clemens went on to win two additional Cy Young Awards (1987 and 1991) while playing with the Red Sox.

Clemens left Boston to play with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1997 and once again won the Cy Young Award after winning his first career pitching triple crown by leading the AL in wins (21), strikeouts (292), and ERA (2.05). In 1998 he won a second triple crown (with 20 wins, 271 strikeouts, and a 2.65 ERA) to earn his record fifth career Cy Young Award. He was traded to the New York Yankees in 1999 and finally won a World Series championship that season. He had respectable seasons in 1999 and 2000, but he was back in top form in 2001, earning 20 wins and a sixth Cy Young Award. In 2004 he pitched for the Houston Astros, posting 18 wins and earning his seventh Cy Young Award (and his first in the National League). After three seasons with the Astros, Clemens returned to the Yankees in 2007, a year in which he started just 17 games and threw a career-low 68 strikeouts. Although he never officially retired, 2007 was his final season in the major leagues.

Clemens twice struck out 20 batters in a single game (in 1986 and 1996—at that time no pitcher had reached this record even once) and passed the 4,000-strikeout mark in 2003, the same year he picked up his 300th career win. Clemens suffered from shoulder problems during the latter stages of his career, but he remained a feared pitcher despite his age and the decreased velocity of his fastball.

In December 2007 Clemens was prominently mentioned in the report on steroid use in baseball by former U.S. senator George J. Mitchell. In it Clemens was alleged to have taken performance-enhancing drugs during the 1998, 2000, and 2001 baseball seasons; Clemens denied the allegations. In 2010 he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of perjury and making false statements to Congress for allegedly lying to a U.S. House of Representatives committee in 2008, when he denied having used performance-enhancing drugs. After a mistrial in 2011, Clemens went on trial again the following year and was found not guilty on all charges.