So Roger Clemens wants to go in the Hall of Fame as a Yankee. Thankfully, the Hall took back the decision over what hat is on the plaque after the controversy over Dave Winfield basically auctioning off his hat to the Padres.
Now, if Clemens said “Blue Jays,” you might consider it reasonable. Maybe. But Clemens’ HOF ticket was fully written by the time he came to NY. I mean, seriously:
Clemens’ career in Boston: 192-111 (.634), 3.06 ERA
Clemens’ career in Toronto: 41-13 (.759), 2.33 ERA
Clemens’ career in NY through 2002: 60-27 (.690), 4.01 ERA
Clemens’ best ERA in NY has been 3.51, half a run higher than his career ERA before he arrived in NY. Nobody can seriously think he should enter the Hall in a Yankee hat, and it’s pure spite against his old teams that Clemens would even consider such a thing.
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I look forward to Clemens going in wearing a BoSox hat (to be honest, to this day I think of him as a Boston player) and throwing a bat at Mike Piazza in protest. 😉
Nobody can seriously think he should enter the Hall in a Yankee hat? Well it seems that Roger Clemens does. And really, shouldn’t he have the final say. It’s his career. It’s his picture that is going to be immortalized. This whole issue of taking the decision away from the player entering the Hall is ridiculous. Even if that player wants to auction off that picture to the highest bidder, it is within his rights to do so.
Here’s a player who was told he wasn’t wanted on a team that he had spent his entire career with to that point. He walked away angry at that team, why should he have to be inducted into the Hall of Fame wearing that cap? The decision shouldn’t be left up to someone who had nothing to do with that player’s career. If Carter wanted to go into the Hall as a Met, he should have had final say. So, if Ricky Henderson says he wants to go into the Hall as a Newark Bear, then let him!
I completely disagree. The Hall of Fame voters decide if you get in the Hall in the first place, not the player. So it makes sense to me that the Hall should have the final decision as to which team the majority of your accomplishments were with.
Players seem to always favor the team that gave them their most recent free agent contract or whoever simply gave them the most money. That shouldn’t be the criteria.
The Hall should decide – its their plaque and its their building so let them make the rules.
Roger will have won a Cy Young, two World Series rings and his 300th game in pinstripes. He *wants* to go in as a Yankee. They didn’t want him in Boston. They didn’t want him in Toronto. So, tell me again why it’s so important that he *not* wear a Yankee cap in Cooperstown?
It’s not like Babe Ruth wearing a Boston Braves cap into the Hall.
To begin with, that Cy Young he won was a joke. Clemens wasn’t even close to the best pitcher in the AL that season.
Playing for good teams (the two WS rings) should neither help nor hurt a player’s hall credentials.
The 300th victory has typical round-number sentiment to it, but really is it all that much more significant than number 299?
His best years were as a Boston pitcher. Ultimately, I don’t really care what cap he’s wearing. But the tendency of anybody who played for five minutes as a Yankee to want a Yankee cap on their plaque is getting more than a bit silly.