Former Major League Baseball star pitcher and diehard Donald Trump fan Roger Clemens voiced his astonishment that the president could both golf and take phone calls at the same time in an interview with Fox News’ Will Cain on Tuesday.
“He wasn’t just golfing, by the way. He was working the entire three hours on the golf course,” said Clemens. “He was answering phone calls, he was talking to head of states!”
Clemens told the 79-year-old president that he believed he could easily defeat former President Joe Biden, 82, in a head-to-head golf game, telling him: “President 47, you’ve gotten better!”
Clemens, 63, went golfing with Trump on August 23, if the president’s Truth Social account is to be believed. On August 24, the president posted that he had golfed with Clemens the day before and demanded the scandal-ridden former baseball star be added to Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame, an honor that has eluded the former New York Yankee for 12 years.
Clemens certainly has the resume to make the Hall of Fame, but his involvement in the Mitchell Report steroid scandal that rocked baseball in 2007 has turned people off from voting for him.
Clemens is alleged to have used steroids between 1998 and 2001, during which time he was one of the Yankees’ best pitchers. He testified to Congress that he didn’t use anabolic steroids, but in 2010, a federal grand jury indicted him on perjury charges. These were later thrown out, but the scandal has haunted his post-baseball life. Clemens has yet to achieve the 75 percent vote threshold needed from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) to make the Hall of Fame.
Trump has used his platform as president to advocate for things he wants to see in sports. He often posted about wanting to see the late Pete Rose, the all-time leader in base hits, inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. Rose was banned from the game—and thus the Hall of Fame—for gambling on games as a manager. Baseball recently did reinstate Rose, and the late Cincinnati Red will be eligible for Hall of Fame recognition in 2028.
The BBWAA votes for Hall of Famers for the first 10 years of their eligibility, after which time, a committee of Hall of Famers, executives, media members and historians can elect a player if 12 of 16 members vote for them.