He should have been ejected. The moment he flung the splintered bat barrel at a stunned Mike Piazza, he should have been sent to the clubhouse in search of his sanity.
He survived because he’s five-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, because he’s always been an early-game hothead, because superstar attractions don’t get thrown out of first innings of World Series games and because what he did was so unexpectedly psycho–even for New York–that no one appeared to know how to react.
Not the umpires. Not Clemens’ or Piazza’s teammates. Not a wincing-room-only crowd at Yankee Stadium.
What Clemens did was so bizarre that it shut down a New York crowd in almost the same way Bobby Thomson’s 1951 home run did. In Clemens’ case, he became the Snot Heard Round the World. From then on it seemed as if even Yankee fans were embarrassed to root for Clemens. “Pride of the Yankees” this one-time-hated Red Sox pitcher is not. Even as the home team jumped ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the first, the place remained as flat as Soldier Field during the fourth quarter of a Bears loss.
Lots of Yankees fans expected Clemens to throw a little “Summer Wind” under Piazza’s chin, just to show the Mets catcher he wouldn’t back off after beaning him on July 8. Lots of Mets fans wouldn’t have been surprised or disappointed if Piazza had thrown a bat at Clemens.
But nobody expected man to bite dog–Clemens to throw a bat at Piazza. After all, one reason Clemens didn’t start Game 1 was so he wouldn’t have to bat–to expose himself to retaliation–in Game 5 in the DH-less National League Park, Shea Stadium.
But as Elton John sings in “Rocket Man,” Clemens’ P.A. theme song, “I’m not the man they think I am at all.” No, the real Clemens is part Tyson, Romanowski and Rocker. Remember Game 4 of the 1990 AL Championship Series, Boston trying to avoid a sweep at Oakland? Out came Clemens as if prepared for guerrilla warfare, wearing thick black war paint under each eye and Ninja Turtle shoelaces. He was ejected in the second inning of what became a 3-1 loss for throwing a fit–and nearly a punch–at plate umpire Terry Cooney over ball-strike calls.
Clemens has been known to scream at hitters for swinging too hard and threaten them for questioning whether a pitch was a strike. In reality he has always been a 6-foot-3-inch, 240-pound Texas-bred bully with a lethal heater and hair-trigger temper. Part of his intimidating mystique has always been that the Rocket is no rocket scientist. Any man who insists on giving all four of his kids “K” names (Koby, Kory, Kacy, Kody) because it stands for strikeout has to be a little krazy .
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For postseason starts Clemens pumps himself up to dangerous, football-high levels. Sunday night’s third batter was Piazza. He took two 95-m.p.h. strikes on the inside corner, laid off a low pitch, then fought off a high, tight fastball that shattered his bat.
Part of it went foul, along with the ball. But the barrel helicoptered toward Clemens, bouncing into his hands. Clemens reacted as if Piazza had thrown it at him, shocking the baseball world by whipping it sidearm back at Piazza as he started to run toward first. Clemens led him perfectly. If Piazza hadn’t stopped, he would have been hit. At this Subway Series, this was no token toss. This was intended as a bean bat, even if it was aimed at Piazza’s feet.
As Piazza and Clemens walked toward each other, both benches cleared. Clemens’ irrational defense? “I thought it was the ball,” he told the ump. The ball? So why didn’t he throw it to first?
Clemens regained enough emotional control to get Piazza to ground to second. Then, probably realizing how fortunate he was to avoid ejection, Clemens apologized to plate ump Charlie Reliford, tapping himself on the chest and saying, “My fault.” Perhaps he was as embarrassed as most of the 56,059 fans were.
Though Clemens’ uncorked bat was no premeditated attempt at intimidation, it served as such. From then on the Mets had one psychological foot in the bucket, if not the grave. Clemens owned them, striking out nine and allowing only two hits in eight innings. He got Piazza on a foulout and a lineout. He left leading 6-0.
Piazza was able to relax and hit a two-run homer in the ninth. Todd Zeile nearly hit another out. Jay Payton did hit one. How different this Series might be if Clemens had been given no clemency.