Saturday, September 08, 2012

Box Score of the Week

Let's go back to the 2002 season. Interleague play between the Yankees and Mets on June 15th that year.

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In a 2000 regular season game in the Bronx, Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens hit Mets' batter Mike Piazza in the head with a pitch. As a result, over the next couple of Yankees-Mets matchups in the Mets' home park of Shea Stadium, Clemens was skipped in the rotation so as to not to have to face Mets pitching and thus receive retribution for his hitting Piazza. 

But this 2002 game, Clemens did indeed get the start at Shea. When he came to bat against Mets pitcher Shawn Estes, it was expected that Clemens would finally get what was coming to him. Instead, Estes threw behind Clemens, causing the home plate umpire to warn both benches and putting an end to the bean ball war. A lot of the "old school" baseball minds were disappointed that Estes didn't take the opportunity to bury a fastball into Clemens's behind. 

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