"Even though I play a professional sport now, I love college baseball"
About this Quote
The intent is simple: praise the college game. The subtext is sharper. College baseball stands in for everything professional sports can sand down: regional identity, weird rivalries, loose edges, and the sense that players are still becoming themselves. Saying "even though" frames the majors as the supposed end of the story, then quietly rejects that hierarchy. It's a line that flatters the NCAA audience and broadcasts credibility: he isn't posturing as a distant celebrity; he's aligning himself with the culture that feeds the pipeline.
Context matters because Clemens lived at the center of modern baseball's contradictions: a sport obsessed with purity while increasingly defined by money, branding, and, in his era, moral panic about performance. In that light, college baseball becomes a safe container for authenticity. It's not "uncorrupted" exactly, but it feels closer to the raw motives that make fans and players fall in love with the game in the first place.
The line works because it's modest. No grand claims, just preference. That understatement makes it persuasive: it sounds like a truth that slipped out, not a speech designed to win anyone over.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Clemens, Roger. (n.d.). Even though I play a professional sport now, I love college baseball. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/even-though-i-play-a-professional-sport-now-i-110009/
Chicago Style
Clemens, Roger. "Even though I play a professional sport now, I love college baseball." FixQuotes. Accessed February 1, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/even-though-i-play-a-professional-sport-now-i-110009/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Even though I play a professional sport now, I love college baseball." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/even-though-i-play-a-professional-sport-now-i-110009/. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.


