President Donald Trump announced Wednesday evening that he will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation's highest civilian honor — to former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens, calling him "maybe the greatest pitcher of all time" and declaring that the Baseball Hall of Fame has cheated him.
Trump made the announcement during a rally for Texas Senate nominee Ken Paxton in San Antonio, where Clemens introduced the president to the stage. According to the Washington Examiner, Trump revealed the honor while listing Clemens' career statistics before a cheering crowd.
"Forget about the Hall of Fame," Trump said, according to The Independent, before announcing he would give Clemens the Medal of Freedom. The president framed the honor as recognition that supersedes the sport's highest individual achievement.
Clemens, a two-time World Series champion with the New York Yankees and a seven-time Cy Young Award winner — the highest honor for MLB pitchers — was visibly moved by the announcement.
"This supersedes anything that obviously I've done in my playing career, and to get it from this man, this president, there wouldn't be another president I'd want to get it from," Clemens said at the rally, adding that Trump was a "winner" too.
The announcement places Clemens in rarified company. The Presidential Medal of Freedom has been awarded to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., the Apollo 11 astronauts, and other figures who shaped American life. Clemens now joins that list, a distinction the Hall of Fame has thus far denied him.
The Hall of Fame's Long Snub
Clemens' exclusion from Cooperstown has been one of the most debated storylines in baseball for more than a decade. In 2013, his former trainer, Brian McNamee, claimed he injected Clemens multiple times with steroids and human growth hormones from 1998 through 2001. Clemens has consistently denied those allegations, and they were never proven. Charges brought against him in federal court ended in acquittal in 2012.
Reuters reported Wednesday that Clemens' legacy was "soiled by steroid allegations," but noted the allegations were never proven. The Baseball Writers' Association of America has nonetheless kept him out of the Hall through its annual voting, with his final year of eligibility on the writers' ballot passing without induction.
Clemens has been a vocal supporter of Trump for several years, and his appearance in San Antonio was part of the president's broader push to boost Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections. According to The Independent, Trump has been traveling to red states to shore up GOP chances as Democrats look to gain ground.
A Bigger Fight Than Baseball
The Medal of Freedom is typically reserved for contributions to national security, culture, or public service. Presidents across both parties have used it to honor athletes, entertainers, and civic leaders. Trump's decision to award it to Clemens is being read by supporters as a direct rebuke of what they view as a corrupt and politically motivated sports establishment that has kept one of the greatest pitchers in history out of the Hall.
Clemens' career numbers are undeniable: 354 wins, 4,672 strikeouts — third all-time — and a record seven Cy Young Awards. He pitched 24 seasons for the Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, and Astros. His 20-strikeout games in 1986 and 1996 remain among the most dominant single-game performances in the sport's history.
The president's announcement came during a rally that also featured Paxton, the Texas attorney general running for the U.S. Senate. Trump did not provide a timeline for when the medal would be presented.
The award will be formally given at a later date, per the White House. Past recipients have received the medal in ceremonies at the White House or other sites chosen by the president.
Our Take
Patriots, let's be clear about what's happening here. Roger Clemens is being honored by a president who actually respects winners — not the scolds in sports media and the Hall of Fame voters who have spent twenty years pretending that unproven allegations are the same thing as guilt.
The man was acquitted in federal court. Accusers took their shot and missed. Yet the Baseball Writers' Association of America decided they'd be the final judge, jury, and executioner. That's not justice — that's a blue-check mob with a ballot.
Meanwhile, Trump did what Trump does: he went to Texas, stood in front of a crowd, and gave a legend the recognition the establishment wouldn't. That's the difference between him and the career politicians who wouldn't dare touch a story like Clemens' for fear of what the Washington Post editorial board might say.
Clemens deserved better from baseball. He's getting it from the only institution that still belongs to the people who built it. And the look on the faces of the self-appointed gatekeepers? Priceless.
The real question is this, folks: if the Hall of Fame can't honor the greatest pitcher of a generation, what exactly is it for? Americans are watching — and they know a rigged game when they see one.
