Almost 11 years later and Roger Clemens still hasn’t gotten any smarter. When he threw a bat shard at Mike Piazza in the 2000 World Series, he made the excuse that he thought it was the ball. Certainly no one understands why Clemens would throw the “ball” at Piazza and not to first base. Maybe Clemens mistakenly believed that he was no longer pitching in the World Series but rather that he was back on the playground in middle school playing dodgeball.

With that in the past, you would think that Clemens would be smart enough not to bring it up again. Well unfortunately you thought wrong.

This past weekend, at a charity event, Clemens was asked about the incident. Clemens responded by saying, “”I just remember my form being really good when I threw the bat, my form was impeccable. I fielded it perfectly. My arm angle when I whistled it on-deck was a little low.”

One has to wonder what was going through Clemens mind when he decided that a joke would be the best way to address this incident. It would not be unreasonable to consider the incident an attempted battery, as it appears Clemens was trying to hit Piazza with the bat. A joke is certainly not the way to respond to such a serious question.

Even before the links were made in the Mitchell Report, people believed that Clemens’ actions might have had something to do with “roid rage”. This could be another explanation for why Clemens made this tasteless joke and also for why he has never admitted why he would have throw a ball at Piazza as he was running to first base.

It is also interesting to note the divergent paths that the two players involved in this incident have taken after their careers have ended. Clemens has been connected to performance enhancing drugs, been indicted on six felony counts related to his testimony in front of Congress, and has been accused of having extra-martial affairs. Piazza on the other hand has eased into an early retirement. He was also brought into Citi Field to catch the first pitch at the new stadium.

It is becoming more and more obvious that only one of these two players will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Let’s just hope that Roger Clemens doesn’t have anything else to say about this incident after Mike Piazza’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony.