Commentary: Clemens’ Toss Foolish, Not Malicious

Everyone is up in arms about Roger Clemens firing a chunk of bat at Mike Piazza the other night. It was a bizarre scene, and Clemens acted foolishly when he threw the bat, but I really think it’s a stretch to accuse him of throwing the bat AT Piazza. Clemens is a fiery player. He gets fired up when he pitches. When Piazza’s bat went flying at Clemens, he thought it was the ball. How can you tell? Have you ever seen any player actually try to field a broken bat? No, they jump out of the way. But Clemens saw something coming at him, caught it in his glove, saw it wasn’t the ball, and because he was so jacked up, fired it out of play. Now, it was stupid to throw the bat like that, no matter what his intentions were. But I don’t think Roger Clemens knew Piazza was there. People should forget how the Rocket threw the bat, and focus instead on how he’s been throwing the ball. In his last two outings, Clemens has gone 17 innings, allowing three hits and two walks, and wiped out the reputation that he can’t win in the post-season.