Roger Clemens is getting inducted into the Hall of Fame…the PawSox Hall of Fame, that is
The former Red Sox pitcher will be in Pawtucket for the ceremony later this month.
Roger Clemens, one of the greatest pitchers in Major League Baseball history almost any statistical measurement, is finally headed to the Hall of Fame.
Not in Cooperstown — at least, not yet — but in Pawtucket.
The PawSox announced Friday that Clemens had been selected as the sole 2019 inductee into the team’s four-year-old Hall of Fame.
The 56-year-old former pitcher — who played for the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Yankees, Astros, and Yankees (for a second time) — will be enshrined during a pre-game ceremony at McCoy Stadium on Friday, June 21, before the PawSox 7:05 p.m. game against the Indianapolis Indians.
The team is also selling limited tickets ($40 for adults, $25 for children 12 years or younger) to a meet-and-greet with Clemens before the game. The event, which includes all-you-can-eat barbecue and admission to the game, begins at 5:45 p.m. in the Shady Pines area of the White BBQ tent at the stadium. Clemens is also expected to be available for photographs with regular ticket holders in the ballpark’s main concourse from 7:45 to 8:30 p.m.
After begin drafted by the Red Sox with the 19th overall pick in 1983, Clemens pitched in seven games in Pawtucket the following year, posting a 2-3 record and a 1.93 ERA. In 24 Major League seasons, Clemens won a record seven Cy Young Awards, one American League MVP Award, and two World Series trophies. He is also the only MLB pitcher with more than 350 wins and 4,500 strikeouts.
“The PawSox Hall of Fame celebrates our franchise’s most legendary figures,” Dan Rea, the team’s vice president of real estate development and business affairs, said in a statement Friday.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame has thus far eluded Clemens, due to allegations of steroid use. In six years of eligibility, the pitcher has failed to receive more than the required 75 percent of the vote from members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. The PawSox Hall of Fame is voted on by a 14-person panel, including club executives, media members, longtime fans, and historians.
While Clemens has seen his support increase over the last six years, time is running out. His final year of regular Hall of Fame eligibility is in 2022.
“If it happens, it’s great,” he said last August. “It’s not going to change my life one way or another.”
For now, Clemens will have to settle for a modest plaque on the concourse by the McCoy Stadium food court.
