New York Mets: Top three Subway Series moments
2. 2002: Estes Avenges the Rocket
This revenge had been in the works since the year 2000. Everybody knows what happened to lead up to this. In 2000, there was the day-night doubleheader when during the night game, Roger Clemens hit Mike Piazza in the head with a fastball on a night he had pinpoint control. At the time, Clemens claimed accident but everyone drew their own conclusions, and the event nearly cleared the benches.
Then we have the famous incident from the World Series. The broken bat situation will live in infamy as long as these two teams face each other. Benches cleared, nobody was ejected and no punches were thrown, but it didn’t exactly curb the tension between these two teams. If they didn’t like each other before they really didn’t like each other after. The next century was bound to be interesting.
The world knew the Mets wanted revenge, but they had to wait for a game at Shea Stadium against Roger Clemens so he would come to bat. It finally happened in 2002 when Shawn Estes took the hill to face Clemens. Fans wanted blood but settled for a pitch behind the wanted man:
No, it didn’t drop Roger to the ground. It did send the message that it was intended to send, both benches were warned and the game moved on.
The real revenge, however, came on the scoreboard and at the plate. Estes homered to help his own cause and the Mets went on to win the game in convincing fashion, 8-0.
No, Clemens didn’t feel the same pain that Mike Piazza did, but they got him back where it hurt the most.