As all of you baseball fans know by now, in last night’s game, Roger Clemens winged a big piece of broken bat at/towards Mike Piazza. Among the many excuses made for/by Clemens, was this one: “It was just an emotional reaction.”
Forgive my ignorance, but I don’t understand why Clemens should have gotten emotional at that point. Piazza’s bat broke-Can a batter do that on purpose? If a batter can do that on purpose, why would he, and why would it make the pitcher angry?
I know that Clemens and Piazza have “a history,” but what exactly did Piazza do last night that would have provoked Clemens?
The point is Piazza didn’t do anything to Clemens. A batter can’t plan to break his bat unless he is going up with a bat that is already cracked and that would be stupid.
Piazza’s goal would have been to hit a home run. Instead, Clemens threw a pitch inside that he couldn’t do anything with except break his bat with it and hit foul. That was a sign of Clemens’ effectiveness.
Why Clemens did what he did can only be explained by saying that he snapped emotionally.
Makes me wonder about him (Clemens). I mean, all things considered, what does Clemens have to be upset about? I can see if Piazza had some violent outburst towards Clemens, you could chalk it up to revenge. But WTF is Clemens mad about? “I’ll teach you to get up after I plunk you in the head with a fastball…”
The media have been harping on the potential Clemens-Piazza “confrontation” since before both teams were even officially in the World Series. Even if these two guys had no problem with each other, there’s no way to ignore the fact that the whole world would be watching when they faced each other again. (Luckily for Clemens, it didn’t happen at Shea, or he would’ve had to come to bat and a Mets pitcher almost certainly would’ve sought retribution for their fallen comrade…) Clemens is famous for working the inside, and he risks accidentally hitting a batter occasionally (as is almost certainly what originally happened with Piazza). Clemens knew he had to curb that urge with Piazza, because he didn’t want to hit him again. So not only is he in the World Series trying to win, but he has to abandon his normal style when facing a power hitter like Piazza, and the world would be watching. So needless to say, emotions are at a peak.
Now, the incident itself - I don’t think there’s any indication that Piazza did something to piss off Clemens. Clemens himself has given several explanations:
1.) “He thought it was the ball.” He actually said this. I can only assume this is an indication of the state of mind he was in.
2.) “I was emotional” This I DON’T take to mean that he was angry at Piazza; see #3
3.) “He didn’t see Piazza/there was no intent” - this, I think, is possible - sort of. Emotions were riding high, Piazza fouled and his bat broke (due to Clemens doing exactly what caused Piazza to get hit, only less so), Clemens threw the piece toward the on-deck circle, not thinking that Piazza would be running on a foul ball!
Granted, from the newspaper picture, it sure looks as if Clemens has a clear view of Piazza running, but he may not have been paying attentionn - and this is all the media’s fault anyway!!
No, he didn’t. He was throwing it to the batboy… err, no, wait, he thought it was a baseball and he naturally did what all pitchers do when a ball is hit toward them, he threw it toward the first base line… err, no, wait a minute…
Oh, well. I think it’s safe to say that only Clemens knows why he threw that chunk of bat, and he ain’t saying. I hope he’s not scheduled to pitch when they play at Shea.
I’ve heard a number of explanations from the media here in the NYC area (it’s all the sports station was talking about this afternoon, actually).
Some people say Clemens actually looked at Piazza before flinging the lumber at the ground 2’ in front of him.
From what I remember, Piazza’s bat shattered, and he wasn’t sure where the ball had gone, judging from the movement of his head and eyes. He took off for first, in case of a fair ball, and Clemens trapped the barrel of the bat instinctively as he fell off the mound following his delivery. Clemens then took a step toward the first base line, where Piazza was sort of trotting toward first, and flung the bat toward the ground in Piazza’s path.
It certainly looked deliberate to me, especially given the time elapsed between Clemens actually handling the bat and his throwing it. Keep in mind, also, that this was not the only place Clemens could have discarded the bat shard, unless he wanted to put it in the runner’s way. He could have held onto it, dropped it on the infield grass or walked over to either dugout to hand (or toss) to the batboy.
I think Big BobT is close to the mark:
It was a fluke play in a very emotional game against a player Clemens doesn’t like much. Intentional or not, he let his emotions get the best of him, and, IMO, disgraced the game and his team, however briefly.
I think he was showboating,flinging the bat as if to say “I sawed off your bat,what are YOU gonna do about it!” I don’t think he tried to hit him,just tried to “Show him up”.
A slight sidetrack: is this right? I thought the DH rule alternated year by year, not stadium by stadium.
This is right. And it is not “lucky” that This happened in Yankee Stadium as they have scheduled it so that Clemens will not have to bat and can therefore pitch inside without fear of retribution.
I think Clemens should be suspended for the balance of the World Series.
Yes, they most certainly did it on purpose! What I meant was it was FORTUNATE for Clemens that they did it that way…
I tend to agree that he should be suspended - but I think the Mets would disagree! They are more determined than ever to win at least two games at Shea, to make the series go back to YS, where Clemens will be pitching Game 6, so they can face him again! (I presume, to beat him - at baseball that is, not physically…)
I have to dispute that claim. Not the part about it being stuipd, which I fully agree to, but the part about not being able to plan to break a bat. I’ve done it myself.
See, when there was, in my family’s eyes, a perfectly good bat around, there was no way I would get a new one until the old one was unusable.
Simply enough, turn the brand on a wooden bat toward the ball. Put some torque on that puppy, and you can break it quickly.
And this from a teenaged punk. Imagine what a pro baseball player can do.
Although I don’t think that Piazza would ever try to pull that off, I guess he could be capable, if bent enough
To add a question: why did the Yankee fans boo Piazza when he came to the plate? What did he do to get booed? Interfere with his head with their guy’s pitch?
I can’t help but note that this topic seems be wandering somewhat. I don’t mind having a general baseball thread active, but could we keep the subject matter GQish, please?
