Who is Roger Clemens?

It isn't often baseball fans can watch a player considered one of the top 100 players of all time. Those honors are usually reserved for players whose careers have ended, offering a chance for reflection and comparison with the Hall of Famers such acclaim is usually reserved for.

But in the case of New York Yankees' pitcher Roger Clemens, it's no secret. In fact, it's fairly obvious. Clemens is THE dominant pitcher of his generation.

He turned pro, signing a contract with the team that drafted him, the Boston Red Sox. A skilled basketball player, Clemens piqued the interest of some NBA teams but wisely chose baseball, where his blazing fastball was already impressing big league scouts.

Clemens spent the second half of the 1983 season at Winter Haven, Florida in the Red Sox minor league system. He played only a few games with Pawtucket in 1984 before being called up to the Red Sox. He won a total of 16 games in 1984 and 1985 before exploding onto the major league scene in 1986.

'86 was a magical year for the Red Sox and Clemens, but one that would end in disappointment. Clemens led the American League with 24 wins and a 2.48 Earned Run Average. He set the league on its collective ear with a record-setting 20-strikeout performance against the Seattle Mariners one night, more than anyone had ever fanned in a nine inning game. Showing it was no fluke, Clemens would do it again 10 years later. He won both the Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards, a combination rarely accomplished in the annals of history. Clemens was leading the New York Mets in game six of the 1986 World Series when he was pulled for a relief pitcher. The Red Sox would lose the game on the famous error by Bill Buckner and then drop game seven to keep their long-running string of Series futility going.

Clemens would win the Cy Young award again in 1987 and follow that with a third in 1990. His career slowed a bit in 1993 and the "slump" contined through 1996. Some thought Clemens' fastball, and career, were slowing down. Feeling underappreciated by the Red Sox, Clemens would depart Boston as a free agent in December 1996.

It seemed to turn his career around. The man they called "The Rocket" was flying high in Toronto.

Pitching for the Blue Jays in 1997 and 1998, Clemens won 41 games and lost just 13. He reached 3,000 strikeouts without allowing 1,000 walks --a feat accomplished by only one other pitcher, Ferguson Jenkins. He won his fourth and fifth Cy Young awards in Toronto, more than any pitcher in history.

Clemens enjoyed the personal success, but was still missing a World Series ring. He was traded to the New York Yankees in February of 1999 and helped the defending World Series champs to a championship. Despite a mediocre regular season, Clemens would win Game 4 of the World Series, completing a four-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves. He pitched well again in 2000, and was tough in the Series again as New York captured it's third consecutive title.

The Subway Series did find Clemens in the middle of controversy for an incident with Mets' catcher Mike Piazza. The two had a bit of a history stemming from a Clemens pitch that struck Piazza during an interleague game earlier in the year. In the Series, Piazza's bat shattered, with the barrel end careening out toward Clemens. He scooped up the bat and fired it near Piazza as the catcher began running to first (the ball was eventually called foul). Tense moments and some shouting between the two followed, but the incident only underscored Clemens' fierce nature.

He was named to Baseball's All Century Team in the summer of 1999, as one of the game's best 100 players. Fans chose him as one of the six greatest pitchers ever. Clemens continuesto rack up records and with two more strong seasons will eclipse the 300-win plateau for his career. That would be just another milestone in a career already destined to end with election to the Hall of Fame.