Pedro Martinez: Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds deserve to be in Hall of Fame
Pedro Martinez believes Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds belong in the National Baseball Hall of Fame despite their suspected performance-enhancing drug use.
"With all due respect to everybody that votes, I'll have to say Roger and Barry Bonds are two guys that I think had enough numbers before anything came out to actually earn a spot in the Hall of Fame," Martinez told ESPNBoston.com's Joe McDonald on Thursday. "I'm not quite sure 100 percent how close they will be before all the things came out, but in my heart, if you asked me before any of that, I would've said, 'Yes, 100 percent,' without looking back.
"It wasn't just the individual performances. [It was] how they dominated the time that they came up and stayed in the big leagues until those things happened. I believe they have a legit chance, and I think, with time, the voters will take into consideration what they did previously."
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Martinez, who has been outspoken about players accused of using PEDs in the past, was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame on Thursday with Clemens, Nomar Garciaparra and broadcaster Joe Castiglione. The three-time Cy Young Award winner is a likely bet for Cooperstown himself.
Clemens' seven Cy Young Awards are the most all time, while Bonds' 762 career home runs are also the most in baseball history.
Said Clemens on Thursday about the Hall of Fame: "I don't know if it's that important. It's not going to change me as a person. I tell people I've got bits and pieces of us there now. We go visit those people and they're great to us, but it's not something I sit up and worry about every day.
"I'm far too busy to worry about something like that. I know what I did in my career and how I did it, and I did it right. I can't control what people think or people that don't look at facts."
- Chris Mascaro
