Piazza didn't defend his manhood against Clemens

Or so says ex-teammate Darryl Hamilton in an excerpt from Jeff Pearlman's latest book on Clemens, found in a typically gossipy Deadspin post.

I know I was personally hoping for Piazza to go ape and stab Clemen's head off with that chunk of broken bat, but I think the restraint Piazza showed was definitely the wiser decision. Also, Darryl Hamilton? That was the best player willing to dish on Piazza? Not terribly impressed by your source work, Pearlman. Also, die Clemens.

almost 3 years ago kendynamo 13 comments 1 recs |

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A New Yorker Article

on the Torre book describes how Mel Stottlemyre went looking for Clemens in the clubhouse after the bat throwing incident; he found him crying hysterically. Here is the passage, which includes an additional bizarre Clemens tidbit :

Clemens, who picked up his sixth Cy Young Award with a 20–3 season in 2001, used to slather his entire body, including his testicles, with a fiery salve just before taking the mound; aflame with concentration while pitching to the Mets’ slugger Mike Piazza in the second game of the 2000 Subway Series, he fielded a shattered bat fragment, weirdly mistaking it for a ground ball, and, on discovering his misapprehension, nearly whacked Piazza with the foot-long shard, up the line, as he irritably flung the thing away. Mel Stottlemyre, seeking him out in the clubhouse later, found him weeping uncontrollably.

"Since we became accelerated readers, we never leave the house." - Los Campesinos

by Shomov on Mar 23, 2009 12:39 PM EDT reply actions

well i think the uncontrollable weeping part

is thereby explained.

I.M. Forme
"When you get yourself into trouble is when you feel you have to do something, and then you get yourself in trouble." --Omar Minaya

by itsmetsforme on Mar 23, 2009 5:46 PM EDT up reply actions

"mistaking it for a ground ball"

What a load of bullshit that is. If he’d mistaken the bat shard for the ball then he would’ve thrown it to the 1B, since that’s what you do with a ground ball. That must’ve been a whole lot of steroids and icy-hot to make Clemens mistake a bat shard for a ball AND forget how baseball works.

by JoshNY on Mar 23, 2009 6:23 PM EDT up reply actions

If he didn't do steroids, no one did.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Mar 23, 2009 7:47 PM EDT up reply actions

It's true

Piazza should have gutted Clemens and dragged his entrails around the stadium for all to see. It was the only reasonable response.

'Oh yes, I know all about that duty-of-a-citizen stuff. It doesn't go. There are exceptions to every rule, and this was one of them. When a man risks his liberty to come and root at a ball-game, you've got to hand it to him. He isn't a crook. He's a fan.'

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Mar 23, 2009 1:49 PM EDT reply actions

That would have been nice, but I don’t know if (in the words of the recently eliminated Fran Healy) the Big Guy, would have been up to it. Clemens was a roided up psycho. Even with that little chunk of bat in his hands, I think Mike would have had a hard time with Clemens.

The time has come for someone to put his foot down. And that foot is me.

by sireric on Mar 23, 2009 2:27 PM EDT up reply actions

I suppose

But, hey, if you believe cranky old Murray Chass, bacne, combined with the absence of Mike Piazza as a celebrity endorser of Proactiv, is proof-positive that Mike was also roided-up, so maybe it would have been a relatively fair fight.

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Mar 23, 2009 2:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Exactly right!

I have also never endorsed Proactiv; therefore, I must also be a steroid user.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Mar 23, 2009 7:48 PM EDT up reply actions

Jeff Pearlman

is a sniveling weasel and one of my all-time least favorite writers. I’ve never read his book on the ‘86 Mets, but I went to the same college as he did (a few years later) and he’s never written a positive word about the school and pretty baselessly accused them of racism for never playing a predominantly black school in the state in football.

That said: yea, Piazza should have gone all ‘Uma Thurman in Kill Bill’ on Clemens after the bat incident.

by cjmulrain on Mar 23, 2009 2:56 PM EDT reply actions