If you know one thing about Mike Piazza's beef with Roger Clemens, it's probably the moment in Game 2 of the 2000 World Series when Clemens threw a chunk of Piazza's broken bat right back at Piazza. That's definitely the climax of the feud, but it wasn't an isolated incident.
Clemens vs. Piazza is best understood within a few contexts: First, the surprisingly recent history of the Yankees-Mets rivalry. Second, baseball's strange, unwritten justice system wherein pitchers sometimes throw right at batters. Above all else, you need to remember the way intention and fate interacted to create that climactic moment in 2000. We saw a flurry of increasingly embarrassing homers, a beanball that led to a concussion, a possibility of "karate," and a lot of back-and-forth in the media before the bat shattered that night. And after that moment, there's a lot of unresolved tension between two baseball legends. It's pretty awkward.
Clemens vs. Piazza is best understood within a few contexts: First, the surprisingly recent history of the Yankees-Mets rivalry. Second, baseball's strange, unwritten justice system wherein pitchers sometimes throw right at batters. Above all else, you need to remember the way intention and fate interacted to create that climactic moment in 2000. We saw a flurry of increasingly embarrassing homers, a beanball that led to a concussion, a possibility of "karate," and a lot of back-and-forth in the media before the bat shattered that night. And after that moment, there's a lot of unresolved tension between two baseball legends. It's pretty awkward.
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00:00So often, baseball beef revolves around the ball itself.
00:05The unwritten rules and traditions of the sport
00:07leave room for you to express yourself
00:10by throwing a baseball at someone.
00:12Roger Clemens tested the limits of that construct
00:15when facing Mike Piazza.
00:17It led to one very, very weird moment
00:20and a long-lasting beef.
00:22This episode is presented by T-Mobile,
00:24America's largest 5G network.
00:27Believe it or not, the New York Mets of the National League
00:29and the New York Yankees of the American League
00:32didn't face each other in actual, regular-season games
00:35that counted until 1997,
00:38when interleague play was introduced.
00:40From then on, the New Era Subway Series
00:43became an annual MLB tradition
00:46and the launchpad for a new beef.
00:48In 1998, the Mets upped the competitiveness of that matchup
00:52by adding a hard-hitting star catcher, Mike Piazza.
00:57The Yankees still ruled New York, though,
00:59and went on to win that year's World Series.
01:02Then they got even mightier.
01:04In 99, the Yankees traded
01:05for one of the fiercest pitchers ever,
01:08a bit past his prime, but still a force,
01:10Roger Clemens, the Rocket.
01:13So here was a new superstar showdown.
01:15Clemens and Piazza had scarcely faced each other,
01:18since Clemens had only played in the AL
01:21and Piazza only in the NL,
01:23but now they were part of an annual interleague matchup.
01:27On June 6th, 1999, Piazza and Clemens faced off
01:32for the first time as Met and Yankee.
01:34Piazza hit a double off Clemens
01:36and then a two-run homer over the Yankee Stadium wall.
01:40On July 9th of that season,
01:42Clemens started against the Mets on the road at Shea Stadium.
01:45Piazza got him with a three-run, tie-breaking homer.
01:49The trend intensified the next season.
01:51June 9th, 2000 at Yankee Stadium, sold-out crowd.
01:54Clemens on the mound,
01:55trying to find himself after a rocky start to the year.
01:59No such luck.
02:00This Piazza grand slam to dead center
02:03highlighted another dismal Clemens' performance.
02:06The Rocket was humiliated.
02:08Some wondered if he was losing his stuff.
02:11Now, here's a thing everyone knew to be true
02:13of Roger Clemens.
02:15He antagonized batters.
02:17Specifically, he would brush you back
02:19with a fastball inside for basically any reason.
02:23Any grievance, any frustration,
02:25and Clemens would throw a pitch extremely near
02:28or even right at a batter.
02:30The Yankees themselves had seen this tendency
02:32up close in 98, when Clemens had a bad day
02:35pitching for the Blue Jays and, it seemed,
02:38took his discontent out on Scott Brocious' back.
02:41When Clemens became a Yankee,
02:43his new teammates teased him by taking batting practice
02:46in full protective catcher gear.
02:49So, it was fair to wonder if Piazza hitting five for eight
02:54with three homers off Clemens in Subway Series play
02:57might provoke retribution from the ornery Rocket.
03:01Especially after Roger promised to be, quote,
03:04"'more aggressive' pitching to Piazza."
03:07And here it was.
03:09On July 8th of 2000, Clemens drilled Piazza in the head.
03:14Piazza had to leave the game with a concussion
03:16and miss that year's All-Star game.
03:18Clemens insisted, with support from other Yankees,
03:21that he didn't mean it.
03:23A fastball just got away from him
03:25and he reportedly called Piazza to apologize,
03:27but Mike wouldn't pick up the phone.
03:29Instead, Piazza responded with a press conference.
03:33Mike was unequivocal.
03:34Clemens hit me in the head on purpose.
03:37Clemens, he said, had too much control
03:40to claim Butterfingers.
03:41In a way, Piazza found it flattering
03:43that Clemens felt compelled to bean him,
03:45but he had lost all respect for Clemens because of it.
03:49He wasn't gonna accept any call or apology.
03:51Piazza agreed with an assertion
03:53that Clemens' act was cowardly.
03:56If you're gonna hit someone to send a message,
03:58hit them in the back.
03:59Don't threaten someone's livelihood.
04:01The only remaining question was, what now?
04:06Piazza writes about his thought process in his memoir.
04:09He researched famous instances
04:12of batters charging the mound.
04:14He called up a friend of his, a karate guy,
04:16to talk through the strategy of fighting a pitcher.
04:19Now, Piazza later told Devin Gordon
04:21these were playful exercises.
04:23They were kinda tongue-in-cheek.
04:25But they did occur.
04:26Mike did study Robin Ventura charging Nolan Ryan.
04:30He did actually chat with his karate friend.
04:33However jokey it was, Piazza knew he needed a plan
04:37in case Clemens threw a baseball at him again
04:40the following season.
04:41Turns out that plan failed on two counts.
04:44First of all, the rematch happened sooner than anticipated.
04:47In 2000, for the first time ever,
04:50the Yankees and Mets met in the World Series.
04:53And second of all,
04:55Clemens didn't throw a baseball at Piazza.
04:58Clemens started World Series game two at Yankee Stadium.
05:02Before this unscheduled showdown,
05:04both pitcher and batter insisted
05:06they were focused on winning the game, not the beef.
05:09And their interaction might have followed suit
05:12if not for a strange fluke.
05:14Piazza met Clemens in the first inning.
05:17First pitch, inside corner called strike, typical.
05:20Next one, same thing, just a great pitch.
05:24Third pitch, down and away, one and two.
05:27Pitch four, Piazza made contact
05:30and started toward first base.
05:32Live on the broadcast,
05:33all you saw was a broken bat foul
05:35and then cut to benches clearing.
05:39Nobody threw punches, but everyone was worked up.
05:41It was confusing.
05:43Replay showed the intervening incident.
05:45One shard of Piazza's bat tumbled toward the mount.
05:49Clemens caught it, then threw it,
05:52pretty close to Piazza's legs.
05:54Did he do that on purpose?
05:56Both announcers thought so.
05:57That is all Roger Clemens there.
06:00A moment started by, created by Clemens.
06:03That's a blatant act.
06:04Foolish, foolish.
06:06And clearly, some players thought so.
06:08Both sides settled
06:10and the rest of the at-bat and game
06:11continued without further drama.
06:13Afterward though, all anyone could talk about
06:16was the thrown bat shard.
06:18Some observers were surprised and even upset
06:21that Piazza didn't just fight Clemens,
06:23including his own teammates.
06:25Piazza justified his restraint
06:27by saying it was a lose-lose situation.
06:29Clemens had seemed apologetic and confused
06:33and what good would fighting do anyway?
06:36Piazza's only real beefy words were,
06:39yeah, maybe Roger needs to get his head checked.
06:42Clemens, meanwhile, made a weird mishmash of excuses.
06:47He thought it was the ball
06:48and when he realized it was the bat,
06:50he said he was just tossing it out of the way.
06:52Doesn't really make sense,
06:54but the league fined Clemens
06:55and the Yankees ended up winning the World Series
06:58in five games,
06:58meaning Clemens didn't have to start
07:00another World Series game.
07:02Everyone moved on.
07:03Well, kind of.
07:05There remained the matter of retaliation.
07:08Twice now, Clemens had come after Piazza.
07:11In both instances, Piazza had either been too concussed
07:15or too perplexed to do much besides shout back.
07:19Mike didn't do any karate.
07:21So what about his teammates?
07:23It would be typical for a Mets pitcher
07:25to simply bean a Yankee, a little eye-for-eye justice,
07:28but they might have been waiting to hunt big game.
07:31See, in those days,
07:33the National League still didn't use a designated hitter.
07:36If Clemens pitched at Shea Stadium,
07:39he'd have to bat as well.
07:41This picture of him isn't relevant.
07:42I just wanted you to see it.
07:44Anyway, Clemens had a blog at the time
07:46and wrote about that possibility.
07:48What if someone threw at him?
07:50Big deal.
07:51What am I gonna do, hold a press conference?
07:53Oh, and the whole broken bat thing
07:55wouldn't have gone like that
07:56if Piazza didn't approach the mound.
07:58Clemens even accused Piazza of diving into the pitch
08:02that hit his helmet back in July
08:04and being rude when he tried to apologize.
08:07Okay.
08:08Clemens was practically demanding retaliation from the Mets.
08:12And the way the 2001 schedule shook out,
08:15that appeared to be on the table.
08:17The Yankees visited the Mets in mid-June,
08:19and Clemens' spot in the rotation
08:22lined up with the third game of the series.
08:24He would have to bat at Shea.
08:27Anticipating fireworks, ESPN picked up rights
08:31to the broadcast.
08:32Everyone braced for impact.
08:34But Yankees manager Joe Torre wouldn't have it.
08:37He didn't want baseball promoted like a prize fight.
08:40He scratched the Clemens start.
08:42Media scowled, but Clemens said it wasn't up to him.
08:45He was ready for anything.
08:47Piazza said he didn't care.
08:49Whatever the case, Clemens didn't pitch or bat
08:52against the Mets that season.
08:54The only time he faced Piazza was in the All-Star game,
08:56and nothing came of it.
08:58So 2001 passed without retribution.
09:01But that doesn't mean there was resolution.
09:04At a post-season awards event,
09:06people observed Piazza and Clemens avoiding one another.
09:09Some even heard Piazza might walk out
09:11when Clemens went up to accept the Cy Young Award.
09:14He didn't, but he also didn't applaud.
09:17Sooner or later, these catty little acts
09:19of passive aggression would have to give way
09:22to actual baseball.
09:23Indeed, the 2002 schedule and Yankee rotation
09:27once again aligned so that Clemens would have to pitch
09:30in June at Shea Stadium,
09:32and therefore also hit against Mets pitchers.
09:36Or maybe not.
09:37Days before the scheduled showdown,
09:39while the Yankees were playing the San Francisco Giants,
09:41Clemens hinted that he might bean Barry Bonds,
09:45and then he did it.
09:46Mets players accused Clemens of scheming,
09:49of deliberately trying to get himself suspended
09:52so he would have to miss his subsequent start against them.
09:56Everyone denied it, but it didn't matter anyway.
09:59Clemens didn't get suspended.
10:00The Rocket would finally have to stand
10:02in the batter's box against the Mets.
10:05ESPN's Joe Morgan came right out
10:07and said what many were thinking.
10:09It's time.
10:10Mets starting pitcher Sean Estes
10:12should bean Roger Clemens.
10:15Estes sounded unmoved.
10:17It's a moot point.
10:18It's got nothing to do with me.
10:20But then the moment arrived.
10:22The crowd was bloodthirsty.
10:24The announcers were bloodthirsty.
10:26I think the Mets have to hit and drill Roger Clemens.
10:31And despite what he'd said, Estes went for it.
10:34And, oops, threw behind Clemens.
10:39That was it.
10:40Both benches got a warning,
10:41so Estes couldn't go after Clemens again
10:44without getting ejected.
10:45The chance for formal retribution
10:48had passed in disappointing fashion.
10:50Although, I gotta say,
10:51I think this is a way funnier revenge.
10:54Estes, the pitcher, hit his only homer of the season
10:57off Clemens later in the game.
11:00Is this not the look of abject defeat you wanted?
11:03Piazza homered off Clemens that day, too,
11:06just like old times.
11:07And for the rest of their careers as opponents,
11:09the beef stayed off the field.
11:11In fact, their most compelling on-field interaction
11:14came as teammates.
11:16In 2004, when Clemens played for the Houston Astros,
11:19he and Piazza were forced to work as a battery
11:22for the National League All-Star team.
11:24This was clearly a tense arrangement,
11:26but they agreed to just do their jobs together.
11:29And then, Clemens got absolutely shelled by the AL hitters,
11:33to the point that people wondered
11:34if Piazza was deliberately tipping pitches
11:37to embarrass his All-Star teammate.
11:39That is a hilarious idea, but Piazza said no.
11:43If anything, I wish he pitched well,
11:46so he would have to give me some credit for it.
11:49In the long run of this beef,
11:51that awkwardness prevails.
11:54Strange as it is, baseball leaves room
11:56for its own form of combat
11:58with its own rules of engagement.
12:01Roger Clemens tested and perhaps broke those rules,
12:04but Mike Piazza and his teammates
12:06never quite exacted formal revenge.
12:09Never was the awkwardness more apparent than 2011,
12:12when Piazza and Clemens attended a charity golf tournament
12:16and a radio host seized the opportunity
12:18to surprise them with a joint interview.
12:21Roger Clemens is actually gonna sit down with us right now,
12:23right next to Mike as well.
12:24All right.
12:26Hey, Roger, thanks for...
12:27Hey, man, what's up?
12:28He thought it was joking.
12:29They tried to talk about anything but their beef,
12:32maybe golf instead.
12:35What comes to mind with you two guys
12:36is a bat-throwing incident in the World Series
12:38from back in 2000, the Subway Series,
12:40and Mike says, I don't think that...
12:41I forgot about that.
12:42Yeah, he said, I don't think he was throwing the bat at us.
12:44Far behind, it's way behind us.
12:46Hey, hey, actually, I heard he hit a good shot on 17 today.
12:49Piazza laughed along a little bit,
12:51addressed Clemens' steroid allegations, and then bailed.
12:55It's part of history, and I'll always know that,
12:59you know, as a player, how tough this game is.
13:01So, you know, that's just pretty much the way I feel.
13:04I'm gonna get going, man.
13:05Take care.
13:06Thanks, Mike.
13:07Clemens ended up getting pretty upset with the radio host.
13:10What I dislike when people make comment
13:12that I threw a bat at him,
13:14I didn't throw a bat at this guy,
13:15and I dislike when you guys say
13:16that I'm out of sight, out of mind.
13:18I'm not, I've been out doing my charity stuff,
13:20and I'm not gonna get worked up about it,
13:22but just choose your words carefully,
13:24because you influence a lot of people.
13:26And that was the shape of things thereafter.
13:28Piazza wished things went differently,
13:30but especially after writing his book,
13:32got comfortable just laughing about the beef.
13:35It didn't really dog him.
13:36He's not the one who threw stuff.
13:39Clemens only ever spoke about the beef if pushed to do so,
13:42and never with Piazza himself.
13:45He alternated between dismissive and defensive.
13:49When Piazza wrote about consulting his karate guy,
13:53Clemens joked about Piazza's foot speed.
13:56When Joe Buck put Clemens on the spot
13:58in a one-on-one interview.
13:59And Mike Piazza, there's no way you can sit there,
14:02and I don't ask you about Mike Piazza, so.
14:04You could see the awkwardness right on Rodgers' face,
14:07and he still tried to weasel his way
14:09out of accountability for the beaning.
14:11I never would want to mess around with guys
14:14and chance their livelihood, so.
14:16And the broken bat.
14:17I mean, the film here makes it look like
14:20it was right off his shoe tops,
14:21but he ended up saying that he didn't know he was running.
14:24Basically, I tell people,
14:26if I wanted to hit him with that bat,
14:27I would've hit him with that bat.
14:29When Piazza went on a podcast
14:31and joked about a charity boxing match with Clemens,
14:34Clemens joked back on Instagram,
14:36and then went on the same podcast
14:38without realizing it was the same podcast.
14:41Mike did some kind of podcast
14:43or something that came up,
14:43and he was having fun with it.
14:47But yeah, those celebrity matches are always fun.
14:49It was our podcast.
14:50You get roasted.
14:51It was this podcast.
14:52He came on, he was like, let's do it.
14:54He's like, that'd be fun.
14:55Yeah, he actually did say that.
14:59It's all just weird,
15:00but maybe therein lies the answer to this beef.
15:04This beef probably won't end
15:06with Piazza and Clemens becoming pals.
15:09All they really need is closure,
15:11Roger especially.
15:13It's like he needs to get hit just to close the loop.
15:17Now that everyone's old and retired,
15:19closure can't come in the form
15:20of a charged mound or a beaning.
15:23So maybe they really should just get in a ring
15:26and duke it out.
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