No, these comments won’t surprise anyone, but Joe Torre said Sunday at Old Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium that Roger Clemens belongs in the Hall of Fame.
“He is to me,” Torre said. “I can’t make other people look at him that way. I can just tell you the way I feel. I was proud to have him play for me. He always gave you everything he had and I always respected that.”
Torre managed Clemens in New York from 1999-2003 and again in 2007. He said the former seven-time Cy Young Award winner was “like a son to me.”
“Unfortunately the question mark is always going to be there with him,” he added. “It’s something that’s sad for me. Because Roger Clemens, and the way that he went about his business, I disliked him like everybody else until I got a chance to know him.”
Clemens, who ranks ninth all-time with 354 victories and third with 4,672 strikeouts, will be eligible for the Hall for the first time this winter.
