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Quick Facts
- NAME: Roger Clemens
- OCCUPATION: Baseball Player
- BIRTH DATE: August 04, 1962 (Age: 50)
- EDUCATION: San Jacinto Junior Community College, University of Texas, Spring Woods High School
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Dayton, Ohio
- Full Name: William Roger Clemens
- Nickname: Rocket
- Full Name: Roger Clemens
- ZODIAC SIGN: Leo
Best Known For
Former Major League Baseball player Roger Clemens, of the Red Sox, won 7 Cy Young Awards and recorded 4,672 strikeouts. He was indicted for perjury in 2010.
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Play NowRoger Clemens. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 10:31, May 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/roger-clemens-272751.
Roger Clemens. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/roger-clemens-272751 [Accessed 19 May 2013].
"Roger Clemens." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 19 2013, 10:31 http://www.biography.com/people/roger-clemens-272751.
"Roger Clemens," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/roger-clemens-272751 [accessed May 19, 2013].
"Roger Clemens," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/roger-clemens-272751 (accessed May 19, 2013).
Roger Clemens [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/roger-clemens-272751.
Roger Clemens, http://www.biography.com/people/roger-clemens-272751 (last visited May 19, 2013).
Roger Clemens. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/roger-clemens-272751. Accessed May 19, 2013.
Synopsis
Roger Clemens was born on August 4, 1962, in Dayton, Ohio. In 1983, he joined the Red Sox. In 1986, he achieved a 24-4 record, earned the Cy Young Award and was named Most Valuable Player. In 2004, after stepping out of retirement, he pitched for the Astros. Over the next three years, he led the club to its first-ever World Series. He returned to the New York Yankees in 2007 for his final season.
Quotes
"Everybody kind of perceives me as being angry. It's not anger, it's motivation."
Early Years
One of the most dominating pitchers in Major League Baseball history, William Roger Clemens was born on August 4, 1962 in Dayton, Ohio. The youngest child born to Bess and Bill Clemens, Roger was just 2 years old when his mother packed up her kids and left an unhappy marriage.
Shortly thereafter, Clemens's mother married second husband Woody Booher, a tool- and die-maker who stepped in to play the father role for Roger. But Booher's health was unstable, and in 1970, he died from a massive heart attack. It was just one of many obstacles thrown at the young Clemens. For a period of six years, beginning at the age of 7, Clemens attended six different schools in three cities.
Desperate for some stability, in the middle of his freshman year of high school, he moved to Houston to live with his older brother, Randy Clemens. From a young age, Clemens showed the kind of physical drive that he would carry throughout his professional baseball career. He worked out constantly, sticking to a strict regimen of weightlifting, calisthenics and running that he'd devised himself.
"I had certain rules to follow when I was young, and discipline just became a habit," he told Sports Illustrated in 1988. "I always wanted to be strong—not just mentally, but physically."
At Spring Woods High School, Clemens was good enough to be the team's number two pitcher, but went undrafted upon graduating in 1980. That fall, he enrolled at San Jacinto Junior Community College and showed enough improvement that, in 1981, he was drafted by the New York Mets. Clemens, however, spurned the team's $30,000 contract offer and enrolled at the University of Texas, where he spent two seasons and led the team to the NCAA title. In 1983, the Boston Red Sox selected Clemens in the first round.
Major League Success
After taking just a year to reach the big leagues, Clemens experienced a trying first couple of years in Boston that were slowed by injuries and tough losses. In 1986, however, everything came together for the young pitcher, as he assembled a 24-4 record, earned the Cy Young Award and was named Most Valuable Player, a rare accomplishment. It was the start of a period of dominance for Clemens that would see him win two more Cy Young Awards, in 1987 and 1991, respectively, while playing with the Red Sox.
Following the 1996 season, Clemens, who was perceived to be out of shape and close to the end of his career, left Boston via free agency for a lucrative deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. In his first year with Toronto, a newly rejuvenated Clemens once again dominated opponents, finishing the season with an American League best of 21 wins and his fourth Cy Young Award.
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