Funny I was talking to Brian that if I was Piazza I'd do this
Rocca: The NL's dead battery
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
BY LAWRENCE ROCCA
Star-Ledger Staff
HOUSTON -- Forget American League vs. National League. Don't bother with U.S.A. vs. the World. The best way to spice up the All-Star Game is to make it Mike Piazza vs. Roger Clemens every year.
After Clemens melted down while pitching to Piazza, allowing six runs and two homers in the first inning last night to essentially hand the American League a 9-4 victory, it's now abundantly clear that the pair cannot make it through an encounter uneventfully. We've had the beaning, the bat-toss, the errant retribution pitch, and now, maybe finally, Piazza's best revenge: public humiliation of Clemens in his hometown.
And all because of the pitches Piazza instructed him to throw.
Maybe Clemens couldn't see Piazza's forehead clearly enough through his catcher's mask for a pitching target. Maybe Piazza flustered Clemens by flashing the wrong finger for the fastball. Okay, that didn't happen, but something sure did, although Piazza denied it was that he was tipping off the AL hitters, a la Crash Davis.
"No, no, no," Piazza said laughing.
It was one of the very few times Piazza smiled while discussing the game with reporters. Mostly, Piazza was the dutiful catcher, offering alibis for his pitcher by saying Clemens had "great velocity," that he was unlucky because of some misplayed balls in right field and that Alfonso Soriano's homer, which made it 6-0, was not particularly well-struck.
Perhaps Piazza was feeling newfound affection for Clemens because of his pregame conversation with the pitcher in the trainer's room. Piazza said it lasted a few minutes and that it was "amicable," and not only pertaining to the pitches Clemens would be throwing to him in the game or in the pregame warm-up session in the bullpen.
"We talked and got a lot on the table," Piazza said, clearly referring to their past history but refusing several times to disclose the contents of the conversation. "It was personal."
Clemens described the pregame conversation as "private" and friendly, but likewise refused to divulge the particulars while talking to WNBC-TV before leaving in the middle of the game.
The touchy-feely moment might have been good for the players' souls, but it did nothing for Clemens' stuff, which was almost as bad as that of the fan who won a million bucks by managing to throw five balls in 30 seconds through a huge target at home plate before the game.
And although Clemens and Piazza made nice on the field and in the clubhouse before the game, they had yet another dispute, one that directly contributed to the disastrous night for the Rocket and the National League.
Before Manny Ramirez shattered the suspense with a homer four batters into Clemens' outing, the pitcher shook off Piazza's signs so many times that Ramirez stepped out of the batter's box. Even after Ramirez got back into the box, Clemens shook off Piazza again, then, after agreeing on a selection, stared at Piazza for an inordinate amount of time before delivering a dull slider, which Ramirez crushed into the left-field stands for a 3-0 lead.
Piazza said he and Clemens had decided that the catcher would "roll through all his pitches and he would stop me when he wanted to," a strategy that might have ruined Clemens' rhythm against Ramirez.
"We were a little indecisive there," Piazza said. "I went through every pitch. I went to a pitch, it was a front-door breaking ball. He put a good swing on it. He's a great hitter."
It was the third hard-hit ball of the inning, which started with a double off the right-field fence by Ichiro Suzuki and continued with an RBI-triple off the same fence by Ivan Rodriguez.
It didn't help Clemens that Sammy Sosa played both balls like he was running on artificial knees, or that second baseman Jeff Kent made an error on Jason Giambi's grounder for what should have been the third out. Derek Jeter followed with a single and then Soriano bashed his homer.
Piazza didn't help Clemens too much either, striking out to end the first inning with two runners on and a chance to get the NL back into the game and Clemens off the hook.
Piazza has not hidden his personal dislike for Clemens in the past, but he made the appropriate show of frustration on the field after each of the homers and even said before meeting Clemens in the pregame that he planned to collect some souvenirs from their shared experience.
"I might get him to sign a ball with me," Piazza said. "That would be pretty cool, a ball with both our autographs."
They can say what they want, but they both seemed to steer clear of each other except for the moments they had to talk, not surprising considering they're both stubborn and proud guys. Even if there's no lingering animosity between them, we might as well all benefit.
Maybe next year, they could each pick an All-Star team -- the Piazza Pies vs. the Clemens Rockets? -- and decide who gets the home-field advantage by arm wrestling before the first pitch. Maybe they could turn the All-Star Game into something like those old Battle of the Network Stars competitions, with Piazza and Clemens directing the players through crazy obstacle courses.
No matter what happens, Piazza doesn't have any illusions that last night ended the public's fascination with their shared history.
"Probably not," Piazza said. "It's just one of those things that took on a life of its own."
