Top 106 Baseball Players: #10 - Roger Clemens*

Roger Clemens

Roger Clemens was a great pitcher over a very long period, and won more Cy Young awards than any other pitcher in history, but his career has been tainted by allegations of steroid use.

Clemens was called up to the Red Sox in 1984, and after pitching sparingly but well in his first two seasons, he jumped straight to superstar status in 1986. That year he led the league with a 2.48 ERA and 24 wins, with only 4 losses, and won both the Cy Young and the MVP. He also set the record for most strikeouts in a 9-inning game, when he sat down 20 batters in an April game, a number that has been matched twice since (3 if you count Randy Johnson's game that went to extra innings without him pitching).

The Red Sox reached the World Series that year, but Clemens did not pitch well enough to get Boston their first title in decades. He led the league in wins, complete games, and shutouts in 1987, and won another Cy Young as well. Though he still pitched just as well in 1988, he failed to win the Cy Young when his record fell to 18-12, though he did win his first strikeout crown that year.

From 1990 to 1992 he led the league in shutouts and ERA, and finished in the top 3 of the Cy Young voting each season, winning the award for the third time in 1991 when he took home the strikeout title as well. He struggled for the next four years, though he did win another strikeout crown in 1996, but it appeared that his best years were behind him, and when Boston did not offer him the contract he wanted, he signed with Toronto as a free agent.

He pitched 2 seasons for the Blue Jays, winning the pitching Triple Crown and the Cy Young award each time, but he grew tired of Toronto's mediocrity, and asked to be traded to a contender. He got his wish before the 1999 season, when he was traded to the Yankees, who had just won the World Series.

His numbers took an immediate nosedive when he reached New York, but he got his wish in the postseason, as he was a member of the championship team for the first time. He was better in 2000, especially in the playoffs. In his appearance in the ALCS, he pitched a complete-game one-hit shutout with 15 strikeouts against Seattle, then pitched 8 innings without giving up a run against the Mets in the World Series, earning him his second ring.

In 2001 he got off to a great start, becoming the first pitcher ever to start a season 20-1 and was awarded his 6th Cy Young award after the season. He pitched well through the postseason as well, and he held the Diamondbacks in check through 6 innings of Game 7 before Mariano Rivera blew a postseason save for the first time in his career, costing them the title.

Clemens pitched 2 more seasons for the Yankees, announcing before the 2003 season that it would be his last. During that season, he reached 300 career wins and 4000 strikeouts, doing both in the same game. Before the 2004 season started, he changed his mind on retiring, signing on with the Astros for a season, and he ended up with an 18-4 record and a 7th Cy Young, more than any other player in history, and he also became the oldest ever to win one at age 42.

He changed his mind about retirement again before the 2005 season, signing the largest contract ever for a pitcher, and had one of his best season, setting a career low in ERA at 1.87, but due to terrible run support his record was only 13-8. In April he pitched three straight shutouts that his team ended up losing 1-0 in extra innings.

Two months into his third retirement, he returned to the Astros again and pitched a decent season, then did the same thing the following year, pitching one final partial season with the Yankees before retiring from the Major Leagues for good, though he has pitched in the minors a few times since.

The biggest controversy of his career is the alleged use of steroids, which followed him for years. He was named in Jose Canseco's book on steroid use in baseball, as well as the Mitchell Report, and was indicted for lying to Congress about his use of steroids, though he was never convicted, and has never failed a drug test. The feeling among most fans and media members is that he probably did use PED's, and that has prevented him from being elected to the Hall of Fame, even though his career is first-ballot worthy.

In addition to the record 7 Cy Youngs, Clemens is one of 3 pitchers in the live-ball era to reach 350 wins, along with Greg Maddux and Warren Spahn, and is #9 among all pitchers in history in wins. He is also #3 in career strikeouts, behind Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson. Even with the probable steroid use, there is no doubt that Clemens is one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

Top 106 Baseball Players: #20 - Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson was the greatest leadoff hitter in the history of baseball, and he is the owner of numerous all-time and single-season records.

Rickey first played for the Athletics in 1979, and in his second season, he was already setting records, breaking Ty Cobb's AL record by stealing 100 bases, becoming just the third player ever to reach that number. Two years later, he broke Lou Brock's Major League record by stealing 130. He had 84 steals by the All-Star break, a number no other player has reached in a full season since, let alone the actual record. He also had at least 100 runs, steals, and walks in 1980, 1982, and 1983, and he is the only player in the modern era to ever achieve that even once.

He was traded to the Yankees after the 1984 season, and his first season in New York was the best of his career. He led the league with 146 runs and 80 steals, and the runs scored were the most by any player since 1950, and he was the first player since 1939 to have more runs scored than games played.

In 1989, he was traded back to the A's at midseason, and he led them to the playoffs after leading the league with 113 runs, 77 steals, and 126 walks. He was very proud to have become Nolan Ryan's 5000th strikeout victim during that season as well. He was named the ALCS MVP after setting a postseason record with 8 steals in a 5-game series, while also batting .400 with 7 walks and 2 home runs. He then hit .474 in a World Series sweep of the Giants as he earned his first title.

The next season he led the league in runs, stolen bases, and on-base percentage, and finished second to George Brett in batting average, and finally won an MVP award, though he deserved a few earlier in his career. The A's returned to the World Series, but this time were victims of a sweep against the Reds, though Henderson batted .333 for the series.

In 1991 he broke the career record that is most associated with him when he passed Lou Brock to become the all-time leader in stolen bases. By the time he finished his career, he had a total of 1406, more than 50% above Brock's second-place total.

He was traded to the Blue Jays near the end of the 1993 season, but struggled after breaking his hand just a few games into his time in Toronto. The Blue Jays did reach the World Series that year, and Henderson scored on the final play of the series to win his second title, though he did little else to contribute to the win.

He was a nomad for the rest of his career, never spending more than 2 consecutive seasons with the same team again, and he had 2 more stints with the Athletics, even leading the league in steals and walks with them in 1998. In 2001, while playing with San Diego, he broke a couple more career marks, Ty Cobb's career runs record and Babe Ruth's walk record. He is still the leader in runs and unintentional walks, though Barry Bonds has more total walks. With all the records he holds, and his amazing performance in his first World Series run, he definitely needs to be remembered as one of the greatest players of all time.

Top 106 Baseball Players: #55 - Paul Molitor

Paul Molitor

Paul Molitor was a great hitter and baserunner for a long time, and after overcoming the injuries that slowed him early in his career, he became one of the best players in the league late in his career.

Molitor first played for the Brewers in 1978, but injuries kept him from becoming a star very quickly. Between 1980 and 1986 he spent time on the DL 6 times, mostly with elbow and hamstring injuries, but he showed great promise when healthy. In his first full healthy season in 1982, he got 201 hits and led the league with 136 runs scored, and he got the team to the World Series, where they lost to the Cardinals in 7 games, despite his .355 average.

In 1987, Molitor was in the national spotlight as he embarked on a long hitting streak, eventually hitting safely in 39 straight games, the longest by anybody since Pete Rose reached 44 in 1978, and a number no player has reached since. Late in the streak, a columnist jokingly said that the most amazing thing about the streak wasn't that he had hit in 33 straight games, but that he had played in 33 straight games.

Molitor had one of his strongest seasons in 1991, when he led the league in runs, hits, and triples, but when he hit free agency a year later, the Brewers wanted him to take a pay cut, so he left to join the defending champion Blue Jays, who offered him a nice raise.

The 1993 season was a special one for him. He led the league in hits again, with 211, but he also had 111 RBI's, making him the oldest player ever to reach 100 for the first time in his career, being 37 at the end of the season. The Blue Jays returned to the World Series that year, and Molitor had an historic series. He tied series records with 10 runs scored and a .500 average, and became the first player ever to record 2 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 homers in the Series, and he won the MVP for his efforts.

He was having a career year in 1994 before the season was cut short by strike, but struggled in 1995 when baseball returned, and he was not resigned. He joined his hometown Twins for the 1996 season, and he ended up leading the league in hits with 225, becoming only the second 40-year-old to reach 200.

Thanks to his late-career surge and that World Series MVP, Molitor was able to shake off an injury-ridden start to his career to become one of the all-time greats. He is one of only 5 players with 3000 hits, 500 stolen bases, and a .300 average, and he is the only one of those 5 to reach 200 home runs. He may have played in smaller markets and out of the spotlight for much of his career, but he deserves to be a part of this list.

Top 106 Baseball Player: #67 - Frank Thomas

Frank Thomas

Frank Thomas, nicknamed "the Big Hurt," was a superstar as soon as he reached the Major Leagues, and he was historically good in his first 7 seasons, and had a few more very good seasons over the following decade.

Thomas reached the Majors in 1990 at age 22, and hit .330 over the course of 60 games. In his first full season, he led the league in walks, which he would do 4 times in his first 5 full seasons, and he finished #3 in the MVP voting, the first of 7 straight years and 9 overall that he would be in the top 10.

He was the best all-around batter in the AL in 1992, the first of 5 times he would do this, leading the league in walks and doubles while batting .323 with 115 RBI. In 1993, his numbers dropped in almost every category, except for home runs and RBI's, and was awarded the AL MVP after becoming just the 5th player ever (the others are Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, and Ted Williams) to have 100 runs, RBI's, and walks, along with 20 home runs and a .300 average in three straight seasons.

The 1994 season was cut short by the strike, but he still managed to keep that streak alive, reaching 101 RBI's and leading the league in runs and walks on his way to a repeat MVP award. He continued at that torrid pace through 1997, when he even led the league in batting average, making it 7 straight seasons with those stats, breaking Ted Williams' record of 6 in a row. It's especially amazing considering that the other 4 who had done it at least 3 straight times had done it at least 50 years earlier, and no one has done it since.

After a couple of down years, he rebounded at full strength in 2000, winning the Comeback Player of the Year Award after hitting those markers again, but he would never bat .300 again and would only play 4 more full seasons, though he would remain in the league until 2008.

Thomas did not experience much playoff success in his career, appearing in the playoffs only 3 times in his career, and only winning a series for the first time in 2006, when he was playing for Oakland. He was very good in his first playoff appearance, batting .353 and walking 10 times in a 6-game loss to Toronto in 1993. He did earn a World Series ring in 2005, but he didn't play due to injury.

Thomas finished his career with 521 homers, #20 all time, and is also #24 in RBI's, #10 in walks, and #4 in sacrifice flies. He was the best player in the AL for half of the 1990's, and was one of the only stars of that era to never come under suspicion of using PED's, and he was always a big proponent of random drug testing. His all-around greatness can't be ignored, so he has to be included on this list of the all-time greats.

Top 106 Baseball Players: #77 - Roberto Alomar

Roberto Alomar

Roberto Alomar was a speedy second baseman who was well-known for his solid all-around game and was instrumental in the only 2 World Series titles for the Toronto Blue Jays.

He reached the Major Leagues with the San Diego Padres in 1988, when he finished 5th in the Rookie of the Year voting, and within 2 years had reached his first All-Star team, but he didn't hit his stride offensively until he was traded to Toronto after the 1990 season.

The Blue Jays reached the playoffs in each of Alomar's first three seasons with the team, and he was one of the team's best players in each of those playoff runs, batting .373 over those seasons and leading the Jays to 2 World Series. In 1992 he was the ALCS MVP, when he hit .423 in a 6-game series against the A's while also stealing 5 bases.

After dominating the ALCS, he struggled a bit in the World Series, but he did end up scoring the winning run in the 11th inning of Game 6, The following season, he hit .480 in the World Series with 6 RBI's as the Jays repeated as champs by taking down the Phillies, marking the third straight year that Alomar was huge in the playoffs, and the second time that he finished the season with a championship ring.

Alomar played two more seasons in Toronto, but the team started to enter a rebuilding process, and he wanted to chase more championships, so he left as a free agent in 1995 to sign with Baltimore, but he left the Blue Jays as the franchise's all-time leader with a .307 batting average. He played 3 seasons with the Orioles, reaching the ALCS twice, but they were never quite able to break through to the World Series.

His time in Baltimore was marred by an incident near the end of the 1996 season, when he became angry after a called third strike and got into a shouting match with the umpire. In the course of the confrontation, Alomar spat in the face of the umpire, and was suspended 5 games for the incident. He claims that the umpire used a racial slur against him, but the two later settled their differences publicly before a game the next season.

Alomar signed with Cleveland before the 1999 season in order to play with his brother Sandy, and while with the Indians he had two of his best seasons. He led the league in runs with 138 in 1999 while setting a career high with 120 RBI's, then had a career-high 193 hits in 2001, along with 100 RBI's and 30 stolen bases.

He played another 3 seasons, but his production dropped off and he retired before the 2005 season. He first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2010, but fell 8 votes short, the closest anyone has ever come during their first season without being elected, and many feel it was due to the spitting incident, but he was elected easily the following season, and deservedly so.

Alomar finished his career with a .300 batting average and 2724 hits, and he made 12 straight All-Star teams. He was a major contributor to two World Series champions, and played really well in another ALCS, and though he was never the MVP or a full-fledged superstar, he was a very good player for a very long time, and one of the best players of all time.

Top 106 Baseball Players: #105 - David Cone

David Cone

David Cone was never the best pitcher in the league, and never really reached superstar status, but he was in the upper echelon of Major League pitchers for about a decade, even as he switched teams every couple of years, and he accomplished quite a few impressive feats over his long career.

One of the highlights of the early part of his career was a 19-strikeout performance he recorded for the New York Mets while facing the Phillies on the final day of the 1991 season, which is still tied for the second-most ever in a single game. He had joined the Mets in a trade immediately after their 1986 World Series title, but the team grew progressively worse over his time there, though it was the strongest phase of his career statistically.

He became a World Series champion the following year after a late-season trade to Toronto, but he was merely a serviceable starter during the championship run, despite having led the league in strikeouts for the 3rd consecutive season. He left for his hometown Kansas City Royals the next year, where he was awarded the AL Cy Young Award in the strike-shortened 1994 season.

After another short stop in Toronto, he was traded to the New York Yankees, where he earned four more World Series rings in his stay of just over 5 years. He did not perform well in his first and last World Series with the Yankees, but in 1999 he was very good, allowing only 1 hit in 7 innings of his start against the Braves.

Earlier that season he had joined a very exclusive club when he threw a perfect game against the Montreal Expos, one of only 23 players to accomplish that to date, and the circumstances were pretty special. That night was Yogi Berra night at Yankee Stadium, and Don Larsen, who had thrown a perfect game in the World Series for the Yankees years earlier, had thrown out the first pitch and was in attendance at the game. It is still the only perfect game in interleague play, other than Larsen's World Series perfecto.

His long career as one of the better pitchers in the league wasn't enough to impress the Hall of Fame committee, only receiving votes from 3.9% of the voters, which was not enough to keep him on the ballot for the next year. He is still the only pitcher to have a Cy Young, 19-strikeout game, and 5 World Series titles, and for that reason, he has earned the right to be remembered as one of the best baseball players of all time.