Mets: The most memorable Amazin’ moments of the Subway Series

The Clemens-Piazza saga takes an ugly turn

One of the ugliest moments of the Subway Series occurred on July 8, 2000 when Roger Clemens hit Mike Piazza in the head with a fastball. The Mets and Yankees were back in the Bronx to make up a game that was rained out back in June.

I remember this being one of the scariest moments I’ve seen live on TV. As a 13-year-old I literally thought for a split second Piazza was seriously injured. He laid on the ground for a couple of moments and looked like he was seriously out of it. Thankfully Piazza would be taken out of the game, and he’d be okay going forward.

Once you realized that Piazza was fine, the immediate flood of anger followed at Roger Clemens. To this he’s still one of the players I despise the most. You can see in the video he looks upset, and maybe he was, I don’t doubt it. But Clemens is one of the best pitchers of all-time, and I find it hard to believe that he could have lost control that badly with a fastball on top of everything – maybe a breaking ball, but not a fastball.

Clemens’ ridiculousness would continue in the World Series that same year. While it’s not part of the regular Subway Series, the fact that he threw a broken bat in Piazza’s direction only made Mets fans hate him even more.