"I'm not the man they think I am at home. Oh no, no, no, I'm a rocket man. Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone." - Sir Elton John.
The legendary singer may not have had the legendary pitcher in mind when he wrote "Rocket Man," but the lyrics are applicable now. No one is quite sure who Roger "the Rocket" Clemens is, or what he's thinking as this postseason goes on.
All we know is that he's pitched two of the greatest games of his life in his last two starts, but has burned his fuse, so to speak.
Most know the story of how Clemens hit Piazza in the head in a July interleague game. No one is really sure what Clemens' intentions were at the time. To me, Clemens was throwing at Piazza with the intent to hit him. I would like to believe that no professional would throw at another's head and attempt to end his career, so I'll hope that the ball slipped when Clemens threw it, but who knows - Piazza had hit a grand slam off of Clemens earlier in the season.
So, in the first inning of Game Two, Clemens had struck out the first two batters of the game before enticing Piazza to foul off a pitch and break his bat. Part of the shattered bat bounded toward the Rocket Man, who picked it up and threw the bat aggressively in the direction of the Mets' catcher.
"Aggressively" is a carefully selected term. It appeared that Clemens was miffed that the bat rolled out towards him, and it appeared that he took out that anger on the splintered lumber. The bat was never in danger of hitting Piazza, but the violent move confused Piazza, the crowd on hand, and the rest of the baseball world.
In press conferences following the game, Piazza said that he was bewildered by Clemens' actions. Yankee skipper Joe Torre was indignant, asking reporters why Clemens would have tried to get himself kicked out of Game Two in the second inning. Well, I think that's the question everyone wanted to know. If a pitcher of less stature but the same history (beaning Piazza) threw a bat at him, don't you think he would have been ejected?
Probably, which raises the question, what the hell was Clemens thinking? Ask the source. Clemens first claimed he thought it was the ball, which is odd, because not only are there very few similarities between a baseball and a splintered piece of wood, but why would Clemens toss the ball towards the bat boy? But right after Clemens said he thought it was the ball he had picked up, he claimed that he was just throwing the bat towards the dugout. If you buy this, you have to assume that Clemens thought the bat had to get to the dugout in a hurry because he threw it like Jorge Posada had just called for the ol' heater.
I'm not trying to get Oliver Stone on you, but Clemens' explanation of the event doesn't satisfy me. His other excuse was that he was intense, which is fine, but everyone in a World Series game is intense, and not everyone throws sharp objects at rivals.
Clemens has been handed a $50,000 fine and, in my opinion, is lucky to have avoided a suspension, for two reasons. One, Frank Robinson, the man in charge of disciplinary action in the Major Leagues, has been very willing to suspend people this season, and second, Clemens' act, to put it as mildly as possible, was questionable.
A batter getting hit in the head is as scary a moment as you'll see in baseball. It's something that Piazza won't ever forget, but for Clemens to seemingly mock the rivalry by throwing a dangerous object in Piazza's direction is inexcusable.
So the whole thing then boils down to question marks. We don't know why Clemens did what he did, or what he was thinking. We don't know if he tried to hit Piazza in the head earlier in the year, or if he meant to at all.
But the more you look at Clemens in the postseason, the more question marks you come up with. In the infamous Bill Buckner game in 1986, Clemens had started the affair but was replaced in the seventh inning. The Red Sox manager at the time, John McNamara, claimed that Clemens asked out of the game because of a blister. Clemens was angry with McNamara for making such a comment. Another question mark.
In the 1990 ALCS, which the Oakland A's won over the Red Sox, Clemens was thrown out of a game for arguing balls and strikes. Another blemish on an already dirty playoff record.
Clemens is one of the greatest pitchers of all time in the regular season, but it seems like every time he steps on the mound in a big game, no one is sure if he's going to throw a no-hitter, get in a fight, or get thrown out of a game - or all three. Roger is intense, and that's a part of his game that helps him, but Clemens can never be regarded as one of the greatest pitchers ever, because to fit into that category, you have to be able to take the ball in Game Seven. The way Clemens' psyche seems to be right now, I don't know if the Rocket Man deserves the ball.
