White Plains Sports Page

CityLine: Eastview School, October 23

Even though most Eastview Middle School Students could not stay up to see the end of Game Two of the 2000 Subway Series between the Yankees and the Mets, unfortunately too many saw the beginning.

In the most bizarre baseball bat incident since Juan Marichal hit John Roseboro over the head with a baseball bat in 1965, Game Two was marred by Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens apparently deliberately throwing a broken bathead at Met slugger Mike Piazza in the first inning. Mr. Piazza had fouled off a pitch, breaking the bat, and sending it spinning towards Clemens on the mound.

My daughter, Juliana Bailey, a sixth grader in Eastview, said, the bizarre baseball incident was the talk of the halls and lunchroom today. She reports both Met and Yankee fans she talked with agreed that Clemens should have been thrown out of the game on the spot, and suspended.

She said the young Yankee fans she knew said that Clemens, since he has been with the Yankees, has ruined the Yankee reputation by his attitude. Other Bomber fans, she reports, said that Clemens hitting Piazza in July "could have been an accident, but that the throwing of the bat wasn't, and was unacceptable." She said Met fans were "just mad."

Restraint of Piazza noted.

This reporter admired the self-control of Mike Piazza for not immediately charging the pitcher's mound last night, which has been irresponsibly suggested he should have done by columnists in today's sports press.

But Piazza is not a hothead.

Had Piazza done that and charged Clemens, the World Series would have had its only bases clearing brawl in its history. (I do not remember any fights on the field over the last 96 years the World Series has been played.) Mr. Piazza, for the second time this season, fought back the urge to retaliate, setting a tremendous example for the youth watching the game.

Mr. Piazza is the "Flip Side" of Mr. Clemens.

Mr. Piazza refuses to make excuses, keeps trying, and never quits, and treats persons with respect no matter how they treat him. He rises above violence and tries to let his bat and glove do the talking. As a Yankee fan, I'd be glad to have him on the Yankees.

Since the July incident, Mr. Piazza has been very restrained in playing down his July beaning by Clemens, but more than this he has heard virtually every day charges by New York press and radio "personalities" that he cannot come through in September, that he is not a big time player, and is a poor defensive catcher.

In the face of unrelenting criticism of him on every phase of his game by the New York media for the last two years, Piazza has always granted interviews, always talked politely with journalists.

No excuses this time.

As usual, our children have got this one "right." As my daughter reports, many said " the beaning could have been an accident, but that the throwing of the bat wasn't, and was unacceptable."

The children always know what is right and wrong when they see it, and what is really happening. But so often, adults in charge make excuses for unacceptable behavior by other adults.

Mr. Clemens has a history of being unable to control his emotions on the field and excuses away his performance and his conduct no matter how unacceptable. Clemens was doing this in the news conferences last night, saying first that "I thought it(the bat) was the ball," then being quoted as swearing "There was no intent."

Prior to the game, many Yankee fans, including this one, thought Clemens was on the verge of refuting media charges that he could not come up "big" in a big spot. But, in one incredible act of pique, Clemens lost something much bigger than just a ball game.

Was anybody watching?

That Clemens' behavior last night did not result in immediate ejection from the game was a disgrace. The Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig, saw it. Frank Robinson, one of Selig's executives responsible for reviewing conduct of players saw it. Charlie Reliford, the home plate umpire saw it. Did either of them, automatically give Roger the thumb? No.

In fairness to Reliford, I think he did not eject Clemens because it did not occur to him, since his authority as an umpire was not being challenged. Usually players only will be thrown out for fighting or challenging an umpire too aggressively on a call.

In 1989, a major league umpire had the courage to toss Clemens from an American League Championship Series game for arguing a strike call, upholding the rules that you cannot argue ball and strike calls.

In 2000, Roger Clemens threw a piece of baseball bat at Mike Piazza and got away with it, disgracing the game, in my opinion as much as any comments by John Rocker, the Atlanta Braves pitcher.

Should Clemens be suspended? Yes. The kids are right.

Will he? I don't think so. The adults in charge of baseball are wrong.

But he has already suspended himself forever.

Beyond "hard-nose" baseball.

In one-second of machismo, disgust, out-of-control emotion, or disrespect, or ill-considered attempt at intimidation, whatever it was, Clemens created the defining moment of this World Series. He lost self-control. Should the Mets go on to win, or the Yankees close it out, that will not be remembered or matter.

Instead of the riviting Game One, what will be remembered most about the Subway Series of 2000 was when Roger Clemens threw a bat at Mr. Piazza.

In throwing that bat, Clemens shattered 75 years of New York Yankee tradition of winning with professionalism and class. When the Yankees have won World Series, they always won with dignity, without braggadocio and treated opponents with respect. When they lost Series, they did not make excuses or whine.

Last night Roger Clemens shamed that Yankee tradition, much in the way Billy Martin's actions with the pine tar incident involving George Brett did. Clemens disgraced his ball club, and disgraced himself. He broke the camaraderie that binds ballplayers together, where worthy competitors compete hard, but respect one another.

Instead of a legacy as one of the great workhorse righthanders, he will be forever remembered as the pitcher who threw a broken bat at a player. He joins another great right-hander, Juan Marichal, who is now more recalled as the player who hit Johnny Roseboro over the head with a baseball bat, than the premier righthander of the 1960s.

The headline on Roger Clemens' obituary most likely will read: "Rogers Clemens: premier righthander, threw bat at Piazza in 2000 World Series, dies."

It is what we will remember most about Roger Clemens 100 years from now.

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