The hallowed halls of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown are where every player sets their sights when they make their way to the big leagues. Being part of that select few, that cream of the crop, the best of the best is an intoxicating pursuit that all endure and most, sadly, fall short on.
The Boston Red Sox, as a franchise, have had 44 separate inductees that have BOSTON A.L. written on their plaques, with 12 of them using the Red Sox as their primary team on the plaque (i.e. which hat they're wearing), most recently being David Ortiz in 2022.
While it is amazing to think of the droves of legendary talent that has come through Fenway Park for the home team, a lot of fans like to harken on the ones who should be placed in the same echelon as those who have been inducted. In an age where the qualifications of who is a sure-fire Hall of Famer is in flux and more advanced statistics are being used to determine who deserves the call, let's take a look at three guys who deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.
No. 1: Roger Clemens
Now, before anyone says anything about Clemens' PED usage and dives into the never-ending debate of whether players who used PEDs deserve to be included in the Hall of Fame, I will offer you a compromise. It has been reported that Clemens first took HGH in 1998 (if he did take any sort of steroid) in the infamous Mitchell Report, so let's take all of Clemens' stats post-1997 out of consideration, and look at the case built by the stretch of his career from 1984 to 1997. I'm going to compare Clemens to another pitcher who is in the Hall of Fame, and go from there.
HOF Pitcher: 165-87 record, 2.76 career ERA, 2,396 strikeouts, 53.1 career pitching WAR, 3 Cy Young awards, 1 MVP award, 6 All-Star selections
Roger Clemens, 1984-1997: 213-118 record, 2.97 ERA, 2,882 strikeouts, 92.7 pitching WAR, 4 Cy Young awards, 1 MVP award, 6 All-Star selections
Just looking at the statistical breakdown, Clemens should be a Hall of Famer just based off of his pre-steroid output. With far more wins, strikeouts, pitching WAR, and an extra Cy Young, the case against Clemens being in the hall because of reported usage after this period should be a moot point. That mystery Hall of Famer? First-ballot inductee Sandy Koufax. Of course, comparing across baseball eras is a slippery slope, but just looking at the numbers, it makes no sense why Clemens (and any of the steroid guys, to be honest) shouldn't be considered based off their numbers pre-usage.