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Look back at: Divisional Playoffs |
League Championship
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Tuesday, October 24
It's simple, expect the unexpected from Clemens
By Sean McAdam
Special to ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- Roger Clemens' brilliant career -- five Cy Young Awards, 260 career victories, over 3,500 career strikeouts -- is pockmarked by postseason failure.
Arguably the greatest pitcher of the last 20 years has just five postseason victories in 16 tries -- and two of them have come in the last 10 days.
But it's not just his decidedly mixed record in October; it's the bizarre backdrop against which his mediocre numbers have been achieved.
|  | | Roger Clemens completely lost control of his emotions in Game 2 when he flung a broken bat in the direction of Mike Piazza. |
In posting a victory in Game 2 of the World Series Sunday against the New York Mets, Clemens at once moved to erase the argument that he's incapable of pitching in big games while providing more evidence that he's incapable of reigning in his emotions under the October spotlight.
When Mets catcher Mike Piazza came to the plate against Clemens in the top of the first, there was already plenty of anticipation surrounding the at-bat.
The last time the two squared off on July 8, Clemens decked Piazza with a pitch that hit the beak of his helmet, sending the catcher sprawling and igniting a war of words that lasted from the All-Star break until Sunday night.
Such was the buildup to the Clemens-Piazza subplot that, had it not been for incessant Subway Series talk, the dynamics of their meeting would have been the most anticipated aspect of the Series.
As it was, flashbulbs popped in the stands to record Clemens' first pitch to Piazza. But it was the fourth one that proved memorable.
On a 1-and-2 offering, Piazza swung at a pitch low-and-way, shattering his bat in the process. The ball itself rolled foul, but the barrel of the bat, which was sawed off, headed in the direction of the pitcher's mound.
Clemens fielded the bat, then flung it angrily into foul territory on the first-base side. The splintered wood narrowly missed Piazza, who had started to first, only to slow when the bat nearly crossed his path.
"It's just so bizarre," said Piazza, in what would become the buzzword of the night. "I was trying to pick up the ball. I didn't know if it was a groundball or a popup to short."
When Piazza saw what Clemens had done, he looked toward the mound in astonishment.
"I kept asking him what his problem was," said Piazza. "He didn't say anything. I didn't get a response."
Clemens could be seen, through the magic of lip-reading, offering this by way of explanation: "I thought it was the ball."
"I might have said that," Clemens would say later. "I was so focused. It was coming at my shins. I didn't know if it was the ball or the bat ... My emotions were running extremely high. There was no intent there."
If Clemens was indeed convinced that the object coming his way was the ball -- admittedly, a stretch -- why did he then discard the "ball" into foul territory, instead of throwing it to first?
Why, while we're on the subject, could he be seen skipping to avoid the oncoming object -- a common reaction for a wayward bat, but not for a comebacker to the mound?
"Each time you see it," said Mets outfielder Darryl Hamilton afterward, "you're thinking, 'This is a new one.' I thought I'd seen everything. I've never seen this."
If so, then Hamilton hasn't been paying close attention to Clemens' checkered past.
In 1986, with the Red Sox on the verge of their first world championship in 68 years, Clemens apparently removed himself from Game 6 in Shea Stadium, complaining of a blister. Clemens has angrily denied this, as has former Boston pitching coach Bill Fischer.
But Red Sox manager John McNamara has told friends otherwise.
If the pitcher's actions were questionable in 1986, they were downright surreal in the 1990 ALCS. With the Sox facing elimination at the hands of the A's in Oakland, Clemens took the mound wearing massive amounts of eye-black and tying his cleats with Ninja Turtle shoelaces.
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I kept asking him what his problem was. He didn't say anything. I didn't get a response. ” |
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— Mike Piazza on Roger Clemens |
In the second inning, feeling he'd been squeezed by home-plate umpire Terry Cooney, he engaged in a heated shouting match from the mound, at one time telling Cooney "to put your (expletive) mask on and get back behind the plate," later threatening Cooney by saying, "I know where you live."
For that, he was suspended.
Only last weekend, Clemens found himself at the center of another postseason controversy, pitching Seattle's Alex Rodriguez up-and-in twice in a first-inning at-bat.
Clemens seemed to be sending a message of intimidation to the All-Star shortstop and his teammates. If so, it worked -- in perhaps his signature postseason game and one of the finest ever pitched by anyone, he tossed a complete-game one-hitter, striking out 15.
But as soon as the Mets appeared on the radar screen, the Piazza issue resurfaced. And when manager Joe Torre selected Clemens as his Game 2 starter, averting a Shea Stadium appearance and some trips to the plate to face Mets' starters and the music, both manager and pitcher were forced to defend the rotation.
Torre was on the defensive again Sunday night.
"Why would he do it?" demanded Torre of reporters. "He's angry at Mike Piazza because he hit Mike Piazza in the head. Give me an answer to that one ... He's angry with him, so he screws 24 other people on his team?"
Now, because it's October and Roger Clemens is on the mound, which means anything can happen.
Here's what most rational-thinking people long ago came to understand about Clemens -- that he's wound way too tight and is prone to erratic and boorish behavior, like the time he punched a hole in the Red Sox clubhouse wall because the media was allowed in before the team could celebrate a division-clinching victory.
After 17 years in the big leagues, the truth of the matter is that no one knows quite what to expect when Clemens heads to the mound in the postseason. Will it be retro Roger -- limiting the Braves to a single run in 7 2/3 innings to help the Yankees sweep Atlanta last October -- or an outclassed Clemens, lasting just a few innings against Pedro Martinez.
From one series to the next, not even his teammates can be sure. After getting the assignment as the Yankees' No. 1 postseason, he lost twice to Oakland in the Division Series and manager Joe Torre lost confidence in him, limiting him to just one start in the ALCS against Seattle. So what happens? Clemens tosses inarguably one of the finest games in postseason history. Go figure.
It's Roger Clemens and it's the postseason. Expect the unexpected.
Sean McAdam of the Providence Journal writes a major-league notebook each week for ESPN.com.
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