By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner whose legacy has been tainted by accusations of using performance-enhancing drugs, should be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Trump’s social media post about Clemens came the day before the hall is scheduled to announce new inductees chosen by its Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee. The committee considers retired players who are no longer eligible for election by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA), which nominates recently retired players.
Clemens is among eight nominees on the ballot for the committee. Trump on Saturday dismissed accusations of Clemens’ performance-enhancing drug use as “erroneous allegations.”
“The only reason he is not (in the Hall of Fame) is because of rumors and innuendo, which were not proven,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Clemens was acquitted in 2012 of federal charges that he had lied to Congress during a 2008 investigation when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs.
The Hall of Fame, Major League Baseball Commissioner’s Office, White House and Clemens did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Others under consideration for the contemporary era committee include Barry Bonds, another former baseball star accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. Like Clemens, Bonds ultimately was cleared of criminal charges related to a steroid investigation.
Clemens and Bonds were named in the 2007 Mitchell Report, which investigated illegal drug use in baseball. Clemens has maintained that he did not use the drugs. Bonds has said he never knowingly took banned substances.
In 2022, his last year of eligibility on the BBWAA ballot, Clemens received just 65.2% of the vote, failing to meet a 75% threshold.
The former star pitcher is not the first baseball star whom Trump has touted as a Hall of Famer despite scandal. Trump earlier this year called for the induction of career hits leader Pete Rose, whose gambling-related ban from baseball kept him out of the hall for decades.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred ended Rose’s ban after a meeting with Trump.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
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