Rich Coutinho took a look back on The Subway Series in his book Press Box Revolution. He shares that look back with us today on Metsmerized Online.
Growing up in New York I always heard my uncles talk about The Subway Series and how the 1950’s featured year after year of October World Series drama. Moments like Don Larsen’s perfect game, Jackie Robinson’s steal of home, the 1951 Shot Heard Round the World, and the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers reaching baseball nirvana. I marveled at their stories but had to be satisfied with the Mayors Trophy game between the Mets and Yankees which did not even count in the standings.
Those exhibition games were well attended and had interesting moments like the lowly 1963 Mets walking out of Yankee Stadium with a win but the games were missing a main ingredient—the result meant nothing other than a day of gloating in the neighborhood for the winner while the loser acknowledged this was no more than a spring training-like game.
The last contest was played in 1983 as scheduling make it very hard to play the game. The teams would occasionally meet in spring training with the only person actually caring about those games was George Steinbrenner who actually berated Billy Martin for losing to the Mets in spring training. George always had this THING about the Mets because when the he bought the team in the early 70’s all this city talked about was Tom Seaver and the Mets. He turned that all around in late 70’s but once the Mets were sold by the Paysons he knew the team was serious once they hired Frank Cashen who was the sport’s premier baseball mind.
So George felt he had nothing to gain by playing the Mets since they were the down team and so the game was eliminated. That all changed when inter-league play was introduced by Bud Selig primarily to increase interest in the game being coupled with introduction of the wild card playoff spot.
The first Subway Series was set to be a three-game encounter at Yankee Stadium in June of 1997. I thought the use of the term Subway Series was a misconception because that should be reserved for a World Series but the sponsorship opportunities with the Subway food chain made the naming convention a reality.
The entire week leading up to the game I was incredibly busy getting interviews from players to set up this historic series. Remember this was prior to social media and smart phone texting but sports talk radio was in full view. Ironically, this was also before both the Yankees and Mets owned their own regional sports networks so pre-game shows were not highly developed. Ironically, Cablevision owned by Jim Dolan had Cable TV rights for both teams—MSG had the Yanks while the Mets were on the secondary MSG Channel-Sportschannel NY.
That night was a strange one for sure as the Mets started Dave Mlicki while the Bronx Bombers went with Andy Pettitte. In a weird way, this game was minus the two main characters that would make this Subway Series percolate interest in this notion of “The Modern Subway Series”.
Those men were of course Mike Piazza and Roger Clemens who would not only divide the city’s baseball fans but the media as well. That was coming as both players were heading to New York but on this night it was JUST a baseball game.
The Mets jumped on Andy Pettitte and the reigning World Champion Yankees in the first inning plating 3 runs including a Todd Hundley steal of home and the Blue & Orange were never headed as Dave Mlicki tossed a shutout beating their cross town rivals 6-0.
The post-game media sessions were held in a small room at Yankee Stadium where both Bobby Valentine and Joe Torre said that they were cognizant of the significance of the moment.
The Yankees won the next 2 games winning the first Subway Series but the real winner was the NY baseball fans. I thought at that moment that our children and grandchildren would find it hard to believe it took 35 years for these 2 teams to play a game that counted in the standings.
As that 1997 season wore on, both teams had disappointing finishes as the Mets faded in the 1997 Wild Card race while the Yankees lost their first round playoff series to the Indians on a Sandy Alomar Jr. walk off homer off Mariano Rivera.
The Mets obtained Al Leiter after that 1997 season and traded for future Hall Of Famer Mike Piazza in 1998 while the Yankees fresh off another World Series title in 1998, added Roger Clemens to their staff trading David Wells to the Toronto Blue Jays in the winter of 1998. All the pieces were now in place for the reality show that was about to develop—Roger Clemens vs Mike Piazza.
You could not pick out two more different personalities. Clemens was a loner in many ways while Piazza was a regular guy who you could find having a slice of pizza at his favorite Italian joint. Once traded to the Mets, Piazza was set to become a free agent after the 98 season but instead of testing free agent waters, he asked the Mets to hit his price and when they did he signed the pact.
Clemens on the other hand, pinched every penny out of George’s pocket that he could as many years he’d wait until mid-season to sign with the Yankees, receiving full dollars for pitching no more than half a season.
The 1999 Subway series was an interesting series of games as the Yankees won the first 2 encounters and after the second loss the Mets fired Bob Apodaca, the pitching coach as their season was in serious peril.
Bobby Valentine’s career as manager seemed to be in jeopardy and the next night Roger Clemens would try to sweep the Mets away. Their record sat at 27-28 and as I left the ballpark, I firmly felt things were getting out of control.
That night I also covered the Knicks playoff game vs. the Pacers at Madison Square Garden as Larry Johnson’s 4 point play gave the homestanding Knicks a win inching them closer to the NBA Finals.
The next day I got to the park early and ran into Mike Piazza in the hallway and he said to me season is still early but this night might be one of those games that could tell his team a lot about themselves.
This is the night this rivalry really began to take root as Piazza homered off Clemens giving his team a much needed win as they scored 7 runs off Clemens. After the game, Roger made us all wait so long to speak to him and when he spoke there were scripted answers but you could tell he got tense when the subject of Piazza’s homer came up while the Met catcher merely talked about how lucky he felt getting a big hit off a great pitcher.
Clemens was getting heat from the Yankee fans for his sub-par performances but the interesting thing is the division in the media about Roger. Remember I covered him in the 86 World Series where there was a debate as to whether he asked out of Game 6 or not. I have always felt as a player he was phony personified. If you asked him a tough question, he would glare at you and most reporters honestly looked intimidated when they asked him questions after a loss.
One night he glared at me after a tough question as Piazza continued to torment him. I looked right back at him and he gestured for me to go away as if my presence was insignificant. I did not take it personally but that was what Clemens did to people—if you were a reporter in his camp he’d talk to you.
That win proved to be a watershed moment for the 1999 Met season as it started a run in which the Mets went 70-38 in the final 108 games of the season giving them a 97-66 record—their best regular season record in 11 years and earning them a spot in the National League Championship Series.
The second Subway Series of 1999 took place at Shea Stadium and that first night Al Leiter and Roger Clemens battled at even terms until Mike Piazza went yard again off Clemens giving the Mets the win.
After this game, Clemens had to once again field Piazza questions and you can see he was getting annoyed. I remember going on the radio that night with a talk show host in town who was known to be pro-Yankee and he scolded me on the air for talking about Piazza as best hitting catcher I’ve ever seen. My response to him, “Please remember this conversation when Mike is inducted in Cooperstown.”
The media was beginning to take sides and it really surfaced the next day as a reporter saw me in the press box that worked on the Yankee broadcasts and told me that I was far too bold on the air the previous night.
I laughed it off as he called me a reporter with no baseball acumen. When he asked why I was laughing I responded, “I’m just a no-name reporter and you’ve built a great career—why did what I said last night bother you so much-Maybe cause it’s the truth.”
That day Piazza struck again nailing a long homer off Ramiro Mendoza to give the Mets the lead in one of the best regular season games I’ve ever witnessed. The World Champion Yankees took back the lead but a Matt Franco two-run single beat the Yanks and Mariano Rivera 9-8.
As I entered the locker rooms, the Mets were elated but all the Yankees could talk about was they thought Home Plate Umpire Jeff Kellogg missed the pitch prior to Franco’s hit that would have given the Yankees the win.
The rivalry had officially been registered front and center as the Piazza domination of Clemens coupled with both teams trying to reach the World Series made these games must see television. But the best was yet to come.
The Mets got to the NLCS losing in 6 games to the Braves after nearly forcing a Game 7 in a series they trailed 3 games to none while the Yankees won their 3rd World Championship in 4 years as Clemens finally seemed to find his way. As the 2000 season approached, the Mets added Mike Hampton to their pitching staff after nearly making a deal for Ken Griffey Jr. which Griffey refused to accept using his 10 and 5 no trade clause.
The first series was in New York and once again Piazza/Clemens took center stage — Mike hit a long grand slam homer off Clemens as the Mets plated 9 runs off Clemens in 5 innings of work. As Piazza circled the bases at Yankee Stadium and the contingent of Yankee fans booed while the Mets fans hollered you can tell Clemens was a seething time bomb on the mound waiting to explode. He had tried everything to get Piazza out-fastballs, splitters, curve balls but had no answers.
This is the day I am sure Clemens decided he was going to bean Mike Piazza. I have never been more sure of anything in my reporting life.
A rainout in the series forced the teams to play a day night doubleheader later in the season that would put this Piazza/Clemens rivalry in the history books and would also create a debate between the media that covered baseball in this town.
The doubleheader would feature a day game at Shea Stadium followed by a night game in the Bronx. In the opener, Doc Gooden pitched against his former teammates guiding the Yankees to a win as we headed to Yankee Stadium.
And then it happened-a 0-1 pitch to Piazza was a fastball aimed at his head and silence deafened the crowd. Even Yankee fans stood in disbelief as Piazza lay motionless until he got to his feet; He suffered a concussion which forced him to miss a few games, including the 2000 All Star Game.
In the radio press box, I uttered what we were all thinking, “I guess Clemens had exhausted every way of retiring Piazza and that’s all he had left so he beaned him.” A Yankee reporter turned to me and said Roger would NEVER do that on purpose. And a pretty fierce radio reporter’s debate ensued.
After the game Bobby Valentine spoke to us but I cornered him in the hallway to ask what he thought about the incident. He said to me, “You’re a smart guy-what do you think?” I replied, “All I know is Piazza stands far away from the plate and this guy can’t get him out.” He looked at me and gave me thumbs up sign.
As strange as all of this was, things got even stranger. Piazza was being treated for a concussion and word came out that Clemens tried to call him but Mike was being treated. Clemens took that as a form of disrespect and that was intensified when Piazza commented about the incident.
Here are the comments:
“I don’t want to say he intentionally hit me in the head, but I think he intentionally threw at my head,” a groggy Piazza said. “There’s no place for that in baseball.
“I have no respect or appreciation for his comments-. “Roger Clemens is a great pitcher, but I don’t have respect for him now at all.”
“I could respect the fact of his throwing inside. Getting hit in the ribs and body are part of the game. But he has very good control; he only walked one guy (in 7 1-3 innings). If he knew he had to come up and hit the next inning, I think he would have been more careful. I think it was very much an intentional pitch.”
There was more to come as the teams played a Sunday night game at Shea and rumors of retaliation were flying. The Mets refused to let the Yankees use their weight room and this had now become a full blown news story.
Radio Talk show hosts began debating this and for the first time I actually saw members of the media arguing loudly with each other in the press box on a news story. There were no more on the field incidents but the most interesting thing I took from all of this was the reaction from the Yankee players.
Joe Torre and his staff blindly supported Clemens which you certainly understood but his teammates did not give him a rousing show of support. Derek Jeter, who was a victim of Clemens while he pitched with the Jays, had no comment on it and to me that spoke volumes. I say that because the Yankee captain not only played the game the right way but also lived his life the right way.
He knew what Clemens was capable of and refused to give him blind support because he fell victim to it at one point. He was his teammate and understood his talent was needed to win it all but just could not just agree with what he did.
The stance on the Mets was they wanted to move past it but quietly many wondered why Mike Hampton did not retaliate on that Sunday Night game versus the Yankees. Off the record many of them said that to me because they felt Piazza needed that support. The Met catcher never said that was how he felt but I have a sneaking suspicion that he indeed felt that way.
The teams went on their merry way making the playoffs and heading for a crash collision course in the World Series. The Mets beat the Giants in the NLDS and manhandled the Cardinals in a 5 game NLCS series win. Meanwhile, the Yankees beat the Mariners in 6 games in the ALCS and so the Subway Series was REALLY finally here.
As a reporter, you really had to set up the moment as the Piazza/Clemens war was a huge story but there was so much more at stake here. I wondered if this series would be even better if inter league play was never adopted back in 1997.
Game 1 was an exciting extra inning contest that the Yankees took on an RBI single from Jose Vizcaino with the big story of the night being that Armando Benitez blowing a ninth inning lead that would have given the Mets the win.
The next day the sports reporting world was knee deep in thinking about what would happen when Clemens faced Piazza. Nobody could predict what happened next if we were a Hollywood script wtiter.
Piazza strode to the plate and he fouled an inside fastball off as his bat shattered with part of it traveling to Clemens. Roger proceeded to pick it up and threw it at Piazza. Sitting in the press box I could not believe my eyes—nor could I believe Clemens was not ejected.
Roger totally lost it much in the same way he lost it when Terry Cooney tossed him out of Game 4 of The ALCS. Piazza had a look of shock on his face but knew retaliating could only hurt his team. As much as I criticized Mike Hampton in that regular season Subway Series game, I just could not blame him here. After all, this is a World Series game.
The Yankees won the game but in the post-game press sessions things got downright comical. Joe Torre came into the interview room and naturally was asked about the bat throwing. Mark Kreigel grilled Torre and asked about it. Torre kept reiterating by saying “Why Would he do it?”
Finally, Kreigel just said to him “That’s what we want to find out-Why did he do it?” Torre stormed off but was ordered back to the podium by MLB. In a sense, he had to take the medicine for Roger.
MSG did a post-game show and Keith Hernandez was on the air on the show with a reporter known to have ties with both George and the Yankees. As the reporter went on that Roger did not mean it Keith finally just said, “Can you take your Yankee hat off just for a minute?” Classic Keith-he ALWAYS speaks his mind.
The explanation we heard from Clemens was he thought the bat was the ball and he threw it. I was asked on a national radio show what my perception of that was and will never forget what I said.
“Aside from the fact the ball is a different shape or size than a bat, all I can say if he thought it was the ball-why throw it at Piazza? Shouldn’t he be throwing it to first base?”
What we saw that night was roid-rage from Clemens-the world knows that now but many media members blindly supported Roger. I totally understood Torre doing that but media members—that I found hard to fathom.
One reporter came running up to press box telling me Todd Zeile told them that he knows Roger did not intentionally throw the bat. Hearing that I had enough—I went right to Zeile. He told me that he said he would hope Roger did not do it intentionally but it certainly appeared he did. I had that on tape and asked the reporter to produce their interview. They could not. That is one example of many instances of this Clemens/Piazza rivalry getting trash from some reporters.
The Yankees won the series in 5 games but I was working on a story I heard prior to Game 4 that if the Mets played Game 6 Lenny Harris would be inserted in the leadoff spot and bunt off Roger and charge the mound. I hear it from 2 sources but could never confirm it so I did not go with it. I am thinking in our current social media story this one would have had legs.
This story would go on for a few more years as Torre resisted pitching Clemens in games at Shea so he would not bat but finally relented in 2002 as the Yankees faced the Mets. Shawn Estes took the mound and in fairness to him he was not part of the 2000 team but he had to bear the brunt of retribution.
He threw the ball behind Clemens missing the target as Met fans groaned. They had waited so long for this moment and Estes did not come through. Both benches were warned and then the impossible happened—Estes hit a home run off Clemens and later Piazza did as well rounding the bases as he would any other home run finally putting this feud to rest once and for all.
Piazza said after the game, “I don’t really know what closure means.” And in a way he was right. But he also proved he was the class act in this whole situation and Roger Clemens was a pure thug. Media members who dispute that are in my opinion either on the Yankee payroll or so intimidated by Clemens they refuse to criticize him.
I really feel this whole story refuted the notion that sports media is totally objective-myself included. For those of you who think the media is, think again. We are all people that have opinions about the game we cover and the people we interview. And quite frankly, there is nothing wrong with that.
People like Joe Benigno have proven that. But that does not mean their take is wrong even if it is subjective. This past presidential election proved that as both candidates had supporters in the media. Giving the people you interview questions in advance is TOTALLY out of line but the take you have on responses to questions is what today’s media is all about.
Sports talk radio lives on that notion as do many of the TV debate shows that have people screaming and yelling at the top of their lungs to disprove arguments. If the truth be told, sports reporters have always done this. Howard Cosell told me that early in my career that objectivity does not sell and he honestly loved Muhammad Ali so he refused to just follow the media that hated him for no reason.
I saw the fact that subjective reporting sells in vivid fashion during the whole Piazza/Clemens war. You had a class act and a thug and to me blame was easy to discern but to others they wished they were more like the thug Clemens was. And this has set the modern tone for sports reporting as “LoudMouths” is not just a show on SNY—it is a sports reporting way of life.
