CANTON — One of the biggest names in the history of pitching brought warmth to a dinner honoring a legendary Canton catcher Thursday, Aug. 20.

Emcee Mike Gallina got the Thurman Munson Catcher Scholarship Dinner rolling with some trivia about speaker Roger Clemens.

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In the sellout crowd at the downtown DoubleTree was Lenny Barker, who famously pitched a perfect game for Cleveland on May 15, 1981. As Clemens and Barker made eye contact, Gallina noted that “The Rocket” made his first Major League Baseball start against Cleveland on May 15, 1984.

Clemens couldn’t get Andre Thornton out in a 7-5 game, taking the first of his 184 MLB losses. He is better known for 354 wins – 192 of which came with Boston. His two World Series rings came with the New York Yankees.

Munson is revered in The Bronx to the extent his “15” is one of the Yankees’ retired numbers. When Thurman’s widow, Diana, addressed the dinner crowd for a few minutes, she recalled returning to Yankee Stadium one year on the anniversary of Thurman’s death in a 1979 plane crash.

That day’s tribute to her late husband got to her.

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“I was in the dugout,” Diana said. “I stepped back and all of a sudden this big pair of arms wrapped around me. I turned and saw that it was Roger. He said, ‘Hold on. I got you.’ It meant the world to me. I thank you to this day, Roger.'”

Clemens, 64, spoke for more than half an hour, handling questions from Gallina and then several from the audience. He came off as a genial, perceptive fellow with intelligence and wit.

The audience learned a lot about him, just not how he feels about his exclusion from the National Baseball Hall of Fame. It was stipulated in advance not to go there. More on that below.

Here’s a sampling of where Clemens did go.

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He spoke of his sons, Koby, Kory, Kacy and Kody, who reflect the fact their dad ranks third all-time in “Ks” behind Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson.

A week earlier, Roger walked out of the corn during the Twins-Phillies “Field of Dreams Game” in Iowa. Kody played second base for the Twins and, after the game, played catch with Roger, as in the father-son scene from the movie.

“Two of my grandsons were there,” Clemens said. “They call me ‘Papa Rocket.'”

Clemens grew up in Vandalia, Ohio, an hour west of Columbus.

“My pop died of a heart attack when was I was 9,” Clemens said. “It was devastating. I had two brothers and three sisters. I was raised after pop died by my mother and grandmother. My mother was a stickler for education.”

The family moved to the Houston area when Clemens’ older brother got a military assignment at Fort Hood.

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“Mom worked three jobs in Houston,” he said. “I helped her stock coolers in a convenience store.

“In high school, I was probably a better defensive end than I was a pitcher-first baseman.”

Clemens saw Reggie Jackson hit three home runs for the Yankees in a postseason game and got it in mind he wanted to pitch to “Mr. October” some day. Jackson was Munson’s most prominent teammate on Yankees teams that won World Series in 1977 and 1978.

“The thing I like when I see videos of Thurman is a calm nature in a high-pressure situation,” Clemens said. “I would love to have pitched to Thurman. He made good people around him better.”‘

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Clemens was scheduled to pitch against the White Sox in Yankee Stadium on Sept. 11, 2001, but terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center early that day.

By then, Clemens was a friend of then-President George W. Bush.

“When the President came out to throw the first pitch before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series, I was warming up in the bullpen,” Clemens said. “I turned to our pitching coach, Mel Stottllemyre, and said, ‘Mel, you’ve got to watch this.’ Then ’43’ (Bush) threw a strike for the ages.”

The Yankees beat the Diamondbacks 2-1 that day, behind Clemens.

Clemens played numerous home games in two fabled old parks, Fenway and Yankee Stadium. His last career game was a 2007 playoff loss to Cleveland in the old Yankee Stadium, which was in its next-to-last year.

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“New Yankee Stadium is like going to a mall and there’s a baseball stadium there,” Clemens said.

Clemens pitched for the Red Sox from 1984-96. The Yankees, Boston’s traditional rival, suffered some their worst years in that span.  

“The Yankees weren’t a big rival because they pretty much sucked,” Clemens said.

The rivalry became more of a thing when Clemens pitched for the Yankees from 1999-2003 and again at the end of his career.

Clemens shared some interesting thoughts on opponents.

• He told a funny story about actually facing an aging Reggie Jackson.

• He said Barry Bonds was “by far the best hitter I’ve ever seen.”

• He said he tells Greg Maddux that in this age of worshipping 100-mph fastballs Maddux “wouldn’t even have gotten drafted.”

• Maddux leads Clemens on the all-time wins list, 355-354.

• Clemens called Mariano Rivera “the greatest closer of all time.”

• He said he “faced Cal Ripken 150 times and saw eight different batting stances.”

Dinner co-chairman Steve Fettman says keeping Munson’s name alive as a Baseball Hall of Fame candidate is a big reason for the annual dinner, which sold out for a sixth straight year.

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The two scholarships are presented to local high school catchers.

Thursday’s baseball recipient was Jakeb Beard, who was a senior standout at Louisville this past spring and will make his next baseball stop at Malone (Lenny Barker’s son Jake is a pitcher at Malone.)

The softball winner was Avery McMahon, who is heading into her senior year at Central Catholic, where she already is the career leader in home runs.

Late in the program, Fettman and Canton Mayor William Scherer updated plans for a statue on Munson to be placed in downtown Canton. A goal is to unveil a statue by early next summer.     

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Landing Clemens was a feat, in that his public appearances have been infrequent since his last hurrah, the playoff start against Cleveland on Oct. 7, 2007.

He allowed an RBI single to Ryan Garko in the first inning, a home run to Trot Nixon in the second and a walk to Travis Hafner to lead off the third, but he sensed a hamstring problem while striking out Victor Martinez and left the game.

Cleveland won that series three games to one. Clemens’ next appearance in the public eye came on Feb. 13, 2008 when he testified to a Conressional Committee about performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

His denial of using banned substances led to a 2010 indictment on charges including perjury. He eventually received a not-guilty ruling in 2012. He became eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2013, but he hasn’t come close to making it.

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Thursday’s elephant in the room was the absence of these topics. On the other hand, it wasn’t the time or the place.

Clemens agreed to speak at the prompting of Cheryl John, wife of Tommy John, the famous pitcher who died last weekend. John is a past speaker at the dinner and continued on as a big supporter.

Thursday’s dinner program included a letter from John, who anticipated he would not make this year’s dinner, and wrote:

“The day I left for my first job as a pitcher, my father looked at me and said, ‘Good luck, Tommy. Just remember one thing. Whether you make it in the big leagues or you don’t, you’ll always be Tommy John from Terre Hautre, Indiana.”

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John won 288 MLB games. He and Munson formed a bond as Yankees teammates in 1979, the year Munson died in a jet-plane crash near Akron-Canton Airport.

Diana Munson got choked up at the podium as she paid tribute to John, at one point asking the crowd to “give Tommy and Thurman an ovation they can hear in heaven.”

The crowd seemed happy to comply. Later, it said good night to Clemens with a standing ovation.

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

This article originally appeared on The Repository: What Roger Clemens said, didn’t say, at Munson dinner in Canton