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MLB WORLD SERIES: METS v YANKEES

October 22, 2000

Bobby Valentine

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Game Two

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Bobby Valentine.

Q. In a regular season game, would Roger Clemens have been ejected for throwing the bat at Piazza?

BOBBY VALENTINE: That's a good start. (Laughing.) I wish I saw it. I did not see it. I heard about it. I was looking for the ball. So I saw the swing; I didn't see the ball. I thought it was over third and then I thought it was over the first baseman's head. Next thing you knew, everyone was running out of the dugout.

Q. Are you saying if you had seen it, you might have talked to the umpire about an ejection?

BOBBY VALENTINE: Well, what is it -- my guys thought he threw it in the direction. Did he throw it at Mike?

Q. It certainly looked like it.

BOBBY VALENTINE: It looked like he threw it at Mike? Well, I certainly would have had to say something if he threw it at Mike.

Q. The thought process, sticking with Abbott there in the bottom of the ninth.

BOBBY VALENTINE: He just hit a ball off the wall last night. Right-handers hit him very good. I had Bubba ready to hit and on deck.

Q. This is now a hypothetical because of your answer, but if you had seen that play and the umpires did nothing about it, could you have called Piazza back from the plate and said, "I'm not going to let my man hit unless you do something about that pitcher"? It's a World Series game.

BOBBY VALENTINE: We had a meeting with all the umpires and the Commissioner of the league and both General Managers before the series started, and we were asked to allow the umpires to use their good judgment in all plays that concerned their judgment. Like I say, I was running out -- I wasn't even running out on the field. I was asking what happened. It's my screwup, I guess, if I should have protested the game or something. I still don't know where the ball went.

Q. It was the bat, not the ball.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I know, but that's what I was looking for. For me, to get crazy about something that I didn't see, I was talking about it for an inning afterwards, asking, "Did he through it at him? Was it at his feet? Was it behind him? Was it at him?"

Q. He was just pitching tight with the bat.

BOBBY VALENTINE: With the bat.

Q. Let's see if we can get past this question, because we're going to continue to ask it. What is the feeling of your team since the matter happened? What's the feeling of your team right now?

BOBBY VALENTINE: Right now?

Q. Yeah. Because of the incident. What is the feeling of your team?

BOBBY VALENTINE: I don't think there's anything about the incident. I thought that we were a little frustrated. Roger threw the ball really well tonight, and we didn't hit him. All we wanted to do was win this game. That was another crazy situation that happens, it seems like it happens with New York teams or whatever, maybe my team -- I don't know. But it was a situation. I thought it was kind of over with after it happened, because a lot of the guys -- it was split in between. People I talked to, whether he was throwing it at him or just reacting or whatever he was doing, from what we heard. Roger pleaded his case to the umpire and said, "I swear, I swear, I swear, I was just reacting to the bat, catching the bat."

Q. You said that you spent the next inning talking to people in your dugout about what happened. Can you share with us what the consensus was?

BOBBY VALENTINE: It really wasn't a consensus. That's what I mean. Some of the guys thought he just flung it in that direction. Some guys thought he threw it at Mike.

Q. What did Mike say? What did Mike say to you?

BOBBY VALENTINE: Mike said, "What the heck's going on?" Something like that.

Q. But isn't the situation with Roger and Mike -- I mean, we can't like say it's not happening or deny something's happening here, can we, at this point?

BOBBY VALENTINE: Well... I guess. I don't know.

Q. Regardless of what happened there, it seemed that your team did, if not lose composure, at least play rather loosely. After that, there were a couple of errors, whether that had anything to do with Mike's lack of control. But it did seem to loosen composure for a while. Could you comment on that?

BOBBY VALENTINE: I don't know. I thought we were going to come in and talk a little more about the game. I don't know how much that had to do with it, guys and gals. I have no idea about that stuff.

Q. Talking about the game, you now are down 0-2, going against a pitcher who's undefeated in post-season. What did you say or have you said yet to your team to look forward to Game 3?

BOBBY VALENTINE: Well, we have our work cut out for us. No one said it's going to be easy. I think they know it's not going to be easy, too. We're going to make it as tough as possible for them.

Q. O'Neill has been moved to seventh in the Yankees' line-up from third. You had your two best left-handed pitchers against him in this series. You intentionally walked Posada a couple times to face him, and he's gotten four pretty big hits and a big walk in this series. Can you talk about what he's done against you and whether you were expecting him to be such a big factor?

BOBBY VALENTINE: Yeah, I think he's a really good hitter. I just have to go with what I think is best. If he wins the bat, he's doing a good job.

Q. Can you talk about the ninth inning and what happened there and if the ball went out it could have been a tie game?

BOBBY VALENTINE: Just another close play. In the series, a lot of close plays that we had here. It seemed the wind was blowing pretty good and it held it up.

Q. I hate to keep bringing this up, but if he threw the bat in his direction or at him, does it make any difference?

BOBBY VALENTINE: I don't know. I don't think so. You would think not. I mean, if he was throwing it towards him --.

Q. I guess what I'm saying, given the chance the bat could have bounced --?

BOBBY VALENTINE: It sounds to me like you should be asking this of the umpires. It seems like all these questions should be -- if you want to know if this was something that was handled properly or not, I think you should be talking to the people, the only people that have control over what they saw. First off, I didn't see it. Secondly, I have no control over how it's going to be judged and ruled on. I think you should direct those questions to the people who have those controls. If you wanted me to then direct my pitcher to hit the next four hitters or something because that was happening, I can tell you I didn't do that. I don't think that that would have been proper. I'm just trying to win a ball game.

Q. Do you have an enforcer, so to speak, on that team? Is there somebody who can make Roger Clemens pay for intimidation?

BOBBY VALENTINE: I didn't think there was intimidation. You think that's why we didn't get any hits? I think it was a 95-mile-an-hour fastball, a hell of a split with control.

Q. He lives by intimidation?

BOBBY VALENTINE: I didn't see one hitter who was intimidated tonight. I saw good at-bats; I didn't see any intimidation. I saw a guy with good stuff. I have to tip my hat to a guy with good stuff, in particular to him, but he sure had it tonight.

End of FastScripts....

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