MAD DOG UNLEASHED: ROGER CLEMENS AND THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM

Two supplied screen recordings, transcribed with timestamps relative to each clip.
Program identification is visible in the supplied recordings: Mad Dog Unleashed,
episode “Rays Sting the Yanks.” The second clip shows “Clemens Medal/Calls.”
The original broadcast date has not been independently established.

These are machine-assisted transcripts checked across two local speech models.
Punctuation and proper-name spelling are edited for readability. Uncertain wording
is marked rather than invented. No human listening or independent review is claimed.
The transcripts reproduce the speakers’ remarks, including allegations and factual
slips; those remarks are not presented as verified findings. Factual context follows.

CLIP 1 | 2:05
Source: video_2026-10-09_14-32-13.mp4

[00:00–00:03] CHRIS RUSSO: [Clipped end of preceding discussion, partly unclear]
“…at the end of the day, that wears his team out.”

[00:03–00:09] RUSSO: “Here’s Brent in Texas. [Brief unclear words] Mad Dog
Unleashed. Brent, good afternoon. How are you? Brent.”

[00:09–00:15] CALLER: “How you doing? How you doing? How you doing, Chris?
It’s Bret. [Name spelling unclear] Bret.”
RUSSO: “Okay.”

[00:15–00:35] CALLER: “Yes. I’m in Central Texas. I just want to kind of put
out, I heard some news about, oh, you’re great on the frigging Major League
Baseballs and keeping up and stuff. But I heard news about Roger Clemens
receiving the Medal of Freedom from the president. I don’t know if you heard
anything about that.”

[00:35–00:37] RUSSO: “Yeah, [that’s/it’s unclear] the dumbest thing I’ve ever
seen in my life.”

[00:38–00:45] CALLER: “And, well, back in, well, he did get Yankees [unclear
connecting words] World Series back in ’99 and 2000.”

[00:45–00:48] RUSSO: “Yeah, hold on, now. Well, he’s also cheated.
He did steroids.”

[00:49–00:51] CALLER: “I don’t know. Yeah, yeah.”
[Brief overlapping speech]

[00:51–01:00] RUSSO: “Who’s next, Barry Bonds? Why don’t we give Sosa a
Congressional Medal [brief wording unclear]. I mean, bring McGwire in.
How about Rafael Palmeiro? Let’s give him one.”

[01:00–01:08] RUSSO: “I mean, and then for the president to say he’s the
greatest pitcher of all time. What is he, nuts? No, he’s not. He’s not the
greatest pitcher of all time.”

[01:08–01:10] RUSSO: [Brief sign-off wording unclear] “Good call.”

[01:10–01:20] RUSSO: “I mean, you know, listen, I’m not going to, you know,
Clemens, I did a Q&A with him a few years ago up there in Mohegan Sun.
He did an excellent job.”

[01:21–01:36] RUSSO: “But the bottom line is, you know, him and that McNamee,
that trainer, I mean, Clemens cheated. He did the steroids. He lied about it.
He didn’t get into the Hall of Fame. He did not deserve to be in the Hall of
Fame. He was on the ballot for 10 years. He never got, what, 50-something
percent of the vote.”

[01:37–01:46] RUSSO: “He and Bonds are together. And to give him the
Congressional Medal of Honor, to me, is asinine. To me. And then to sit
there and say he’s the greatest pitcher of all time.”

[01:46–01:54] RUSSO: “I mean, listen, Clemens was very good. I mean, he’s a
legit Hall of Famer. Don’t get me wrong. Steroids [or/are unclear] no
steroids. But he’s not the greatest pitcher of all time.”

[01:55–02:03] RUSSO: “I mean, that might be one of the dumbest things.
Again, that’s somebody who says something and knows nothing about the
history of baseball. I mean, that’s just all there is to it.”

[02:03–02:05] RUSSO: [Time-check wording unclear] “We continue.”


CLIP 2 | 1:03
Source: video_2026-10-09_14-32-21.mp4

[00:00–00:03] [Clipped sponsor audio]: “…NordVPN. Connect and protect.”

[00:03–00:07] RUSSO: “Presidential Medal of Freedom for, for Roger Clemens.”

[00:07–00:20] RUSSO: “I don’t know how you wake up in the morning and say
to yourself, you know what? I got an idea today. Let’s give a guy, and I,
listen, Clemens was a hell of a pitcher. Don’t get me wrong. But let’s
give a guy who did steroids, never admitted it, never got [in/into unclear] the Hall of
Fame…”

[00:21–00:33] RUSSO: “…so cheated the sport, never came clean with it,
like Andy Pettitte did. Never came clean with it, and Pettitte did steroids
with Clemens, never came clean with it, and, and…”

[00:33–00:51] RUSSO: “…you know, basically concussed Piazza because he was
mad that Piazza hit home runs left, left and right on him. Took a [unclear
adjective] bat and threw it at Piazza on a ground ball in a World Series,
and you wake up one day, and this is the guy you say, you know what? I got
an idea. Let’s bring [Rog/Roger unclear] to the White House and give him the Presidential
Medal of Freedom. I mean, you gotta, I mean, really, I mean…”

[00:52–01:00] RUSSO: “…and that is, to me, I don’t care who the president is.
I mean, I try to make it [unclear phrase involving “political”], but that
is just, that doesn’t make any sense to me. I’ll tell you that.”

[01:00–01:03] RUSSO: “Vinny in Brooklyn, he’s on Mad Dog Unleashed.”
[Clip ends]


FACTUAL CONTEXT

The honor announced by Trump was the Presidential Medal of Freedom, not
the Medal of Honor. The October 7, 2026 rally announcement did not itself
constitute a medal presentation ceremony. Trump’s wording was “maybe the
greatest pitcher of all time.”

Clemens has denied using performance-enhancing drugs and was acquitted
on all six charges in his 2012 federal trial concerning his testimony to
Congress. The transcript preserves Russo’s accusations as his remarks.

Clemens received 65.2% of the BBWAA vote in his final writers’ ballot in
2022, rather than a peak of “50-something percent.” The election threshold
was 75%.

Pettitte publicly acknowledged using human growth hormone. The transcript
preserves Russo’s different wording without treating it as proof of the
claimed shared steroid use.

Piazza was struck in the head by a Clemens pitch in July 2000. The
World Series Game 2 broken-bat incident occurred after a foul ball,
not a ground ball. Russo’s assertion about Clemens’ motive is his claim.

Sources:
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-speech-midterm-political-rally-san-antonio-texas-october-7-2026/
https://www.investing.com/news/general-news/trump-awarding-former-baseball-star-clemens-the-presidential-medal-of-freedom-4937818
https://www.mlb.com/news/clemens-juror-among-those-talking-after-trial/c-33635652
https://baseballhall.org/news/david-ortiz-elected-to-hall-of-fame
https://www.mlb.com/news/richard-justice-confession-is-key-to-forgiveness-for-performance-enhancing-drug-use/c-40981434
https://www.mlb.com/video/clemens-beans-piazza-c25509099
https://www.mlb.com/amp/news/2000-world-series-recap.html
https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/oral-history-of-the-2000-yankees
https://www.mlb.com/news/roger-clemens-q-and-a