Hall of Fame or Hall of Shame? It looks like the latter for Roger Clemens after the star pitcher’s testimony this week failed to convince either the public or politicians that his brilliant performances had not been boosted by the use of illegal drugs.

This should be one of the most eagerly anticipated times of the year for baseball fans, with players reporting to spring training camps before next month’s season openers. The sport, though, remains in the grip of steroid allegations that have done much to sour the reputation of America’s so-called national pastime.

Allegations that Clemens was one of more than 80 Major League Baseball players to have used steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) surfaced in December in the Mitchell Report, the results of a lengthy inquiry by a former US senator into drugs in baseball.

They follow claims that Barry Bonds, the most prolific home-run hitter of all time, also used illegal substances. Like Bonds, Clemens’s performances have defied his age. He has remained a powerful and feared pitcher even into his Forties. Now 45, he pitched for the New York Yankees, the club where he enjoyed huge past success, last season.

His 354 career wins and seven Cy Young awards made Clemens a certainty to be voted into the Hall of Fame — until now. While he protests his innocence, his deeds seem to be irrevocably tarnished, like those of other great players in the 1980s and 1990s such as Mark McGwire.

Clemens is accused by his former trainer, Brian McNamee, who said that he injected Clemens at least 16 times with performance-enhancing drugs between 1998 and 2001. The pitcher denies the allegations and Congress is trying to decide which of the men is lying. On Wednesday, during almost five hours of questioning in Washington, Clemens testified that he never used illegal drugs.

However, Clemens’s former Yankees team-mates, Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, admitted to being injected with substances by McNamee. Pettitte’s affidavit stated that Clemens told him about a decade ago that he used HGH. “He misremembers,” Clemens said.

His denials were met with scepticism. “You’re one of my heroes, but it’s hard to believe you,” one House of Representatives member told him. The hearing was televised nationally and one large opinion poll suggested that the man nicknamed “Rocket” had misfired, most of the public siding with McNamee.

Baseball banned steroids in 1991 but did not start testing for them in 2003. The committee is still to decide whether to instigate a criminal investigation.