Mike Piazza's revenge against Roger Clemens involved taking karate. The latest comes straight out of Piazza's book as the former MLB catcher as the autobiography is set hit the shelves on Tuesday. Did Piazza really take karate lessons and seek revenge against the Rocket? Here's what he said.
Wait, no. Before we get to what he said, let's fill in the newbies with the history of Piazza and Clemens. Their names have been mentioned together a lot this winter because both are considered greats in the game, but are also affiliated with PEDs and many believe neither will make it to the Hall of Fame.
This is a quick recap of the incident just so you can know the entire story.
This is a recording of the World Series incident. Surprisingly, there is no legit recording on YouTube.
You can fast forward to :25 seconds to see the first pitch to Piazza from Clemens. It was almost like the perfect story written. Piazza is plunked during the regular season and then the next time the two meet it's in the Subway Series in 2000.
As you can see, there's no way Piazza could have done that on purpose. He was extremely shocked and was probably caught off guard when Clemens threw the broken bat his way.
Piazza was probably waiting for an obvious moment to get back at Clemens a hit by a pitch or make an extremely hard tag if both men were racing to touch first base. So when Piazza found himself face to face with Clemens, he didn't know what to do.
"I would approach with my fist pulled back. I figured he'd throw his glove out for protection. I'd parry the glove and then get after it," Piazza writes.
Yeah, things didn't map out that way exactly for Piazza. In fact, after the two meet on the Yankee Stadium infield, Piazza noticed how big of a man Clemens was and it sounded like he was intimidated.
"There were complications," he recalls. "The least of them was the realization that Clemens was a big guy, and I stood a pretty fair chance of getting my ass kicked in front of Yankee Stadium and the world. That was a legitimate concern."
Piazza had already been knocked out flat on his back in Yankee Stadium when the two met during the regular season, so there was no need for it to happen again.
Piazza's book "Long Shot Mike Piazza" will be available in all bookstores and is currently available on Amazon.com
