NEW YORK — Roger Clemens got here again to Yankee Stadium on Saturday, and so did the questions on his bat-throwing incident with Mike Piazza within the World Sequence 25 years earlier.
Piazza was batting in opposition to Clemens within the first inning of Recreation 2 of the 2000 World Sequence when his bat shattered alongside the first-base line. Clemens picked up a part of it and fired it towards the Corridor of Fame catcher.
Clemens made his debut within the Yankees’ Previous-Timers’ Day sport on Saturday and confronted 4 batters within the first exhibition sport of the occasion since 2019. His supervisor on the 2000 championship staff defended the pitcher’s actions in that at-bat in opposition to Piazza.
“There’s nonetheless a query with the damaged bat, with Piazza and the entire thing in Recreation 2,” Joe Torre mentioned on the podium proper as Clemens walked in. “I feel if Mike knew that the ball was foul, he would not have been beginning to run to first base. That ball went over the primary base dugout, was foul immediately. He did not know the place it was, so he began operating.”
Clemens made his first look because the Yankees honored the 2000 staff, the final staff to win three straight titles. Clemens heard a pleasant hand from the group as a montage of his highlights performed on the middle discipline video board — however omitted his well-known toss at Piazza.
“I did not know he was operating and Mike mentioned that very same factor, too,” Clemens mentioned. “He did not know the place the baseball was. So my first intuition after I shattered that bat in about 4 items, I assumed it was a baseball coming at me.”
The Yankees went a mixed 22-3 within the 1998 and 1999 postseasons, however struggled at occasions in 2000, shedding 15 of their closing 18 regular-season video games, earlier than outlasting the A’s by successful a Recreation 5 on the street within the Division Sequence. After beating Seattle in a six-game ALCS, the Yankees beat the Mets in a five-game Fall Basic the place each sport was determined by two runs or fewer.
Clemens joined the Yankees in a commerce with Toronto throughout spring coaching in 1999. He was 14-10 with a 4.60 ERA in 1999 after which 13-8 with a 3.70 ERA in 2000. Through the postseason, Clemens received three video games, together with Recreation 2 in opposition to the Mets.
“When he was on the opposite staff, you did not like him very a lot,” Torre mentioned.
After two seasons of an on-field query and reply session with radio broadcaster Suzyn Waldman, the sport returned and Johnny Damon hit an RBI single off Clemens.
Clemens was amongst a number of 2000 Yankees on the occasion that didn’t function former captain Derek Jeter. Jeter delivered a taped video message after Mariano Rivera was the ultimate participant launched.
“He was in spring coaching,” fellow pitcher Andy Pettitte mentioned of Clemens. “So it was good to see him in spring coaching after which in fact right here. An enormous a part of our 2000 staff and it was good.”
The one former participant not launched was present supervisor Aaron Boone, whose staff entered Saturday with six losses in seven video games.
A seven-time Cy Younger Award winner, Clemens went 354-184 with a 3.12 ERA and 4,672 strikeouts, third behind Nolan Ryan (5,714) and Randy Johnson (4,875). In two stints with the Yankees, Clemens was 83-42 with a 4.01 ERA and retired after the 2007 season.
He was named within the Mitchell Report in December 2007 and has denied PED utilization. In his closing yr on the BBWAA Corridor of Fame poll in 2022, Clemens obtained 257 votes (65.2%).
Moreover members of the 2000 staff, Willie Randolph, Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss, Ron Guidry, Bucky Dent and Mickey Rivers have been launched as members of the 1977 and 1978 World Sequence groups.
The widows of five-time supervisor Billy Martin, captain Thurman Munson and Bobby Murcer have been additionally launched as a part of an occasion that started in 1947 when Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth first appeared.