Bobby Valentine expects his former team, the New York Mets, to make it back to the NLCS against the … More
Former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine expects his former team to return to the NLCS this season.
Valentine is best known for leading the Mets to a World Series during the 2000 season in the “Subway Series” against the New York Yankees. If there’s anyone who knows what it’s like to thrive under the highly pressurized market of New York, it’s Valentine, who managed for seven seasons in New York and spent two years as a player in the Mets organization.
Valentine has high expectations — like everyone else — after the team made the biggest move of the offseason in signing four-time All-Star Juan Soto to a 15-year, $765 million deal. The 74-year-old predicts that the NLCS will be a repeat of last season’s series between the Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
”I think this has been coming since Steve Cohen bought the team,” says Valentine of the Mets potentially winning a World Series in a one-on-one interview. “He said that they’ll bring a championship and it was close last year and the signings and the deals that they made are to make it even closer this year.
“I think there’s a real good team on the other coast in the Dodgers and they have a team that hasn’t been assembled like this in a long time,” Valentine continues to say. “It should be an interesting season and I think the Mets and the Dodgers are going to face each other to determine who goes to the World Series — and I hope it’s the Mets.”
As everyone knows, the MLB season is a long one. There’s 162 games in a season and the ones that take place in April mean very little towards the end result in October. There are teams that can be great in the first few months of the season and not come close to making it to the World Series and then there are teams that can be mediocre during the first few months only to make it to the World Series.
However, it’s clear the Mets are all-in on winning a World Series with a robust payroll of $321 million, the second-highest in the MLB, only $10 million behind the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers, who currently feature $700 million two-way star Shohei Ohtani on their team.
Valentine refers to Ohtani as the “greatest thing” he’s ever seen in a baseball uniform.
“162 games, you see how the players’ health holds up and in particular the Dodgers,” says Valentine. “See how their three Japanese players mesh with the rest of the team and perform on that big stage. Shohei Ohtani is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in a baseball uniform. The two pitchers that they have to go along with ’em are pretty darn good too.”
Bobby Valentine Reflects on Mike Piazza-Roger Clemens Feud on ‘The Grudge’
Valentine recently had the opportunity to reflect on one of the most notable player feuds, one that involved his former Mets star Mike Piazza and former New York Yankees ace Roger Clemens on an episode of the new Vice TV series, “The Grudge.” The TV series details and recounts the most intense feuds between players and teams with interviews from relevant figures.
During the 2000 World Series, the most notable moment occurred early in Game 2. That’s when a foul ball hit by Piazza resulted in a broken bat which then saw Clemens hurl a piece of the broken bat towards Piazza’s direction.
The sequence was bizarre in itself and became even weirder when Clemens tried to defend the action following the game by saying he thought it was the ball and that he was attempting to make a play.
When factoring in Clemens’ history against Piazza up until that point, it just added fuel to the rivalry between both of the Empire State’s top stars and was already an emotional rivalry between two of New York’s baseball teams. Clemens had previously bean-balled Piazza in a regular season game in 2000, leaving the All-Star catcher concussed.
”I don’t know. I don’t think so,” says Valentine when asked if Clemens’ pitch was intended to hit Piazza in the head. “Everyone knew that it was intentionally inside. I don’t know that it was intentionally at his head. Roger might have had that kind of control, but it seemed like it got away from him. He wanted to throw it up and in, he wanted to knock him down. Throwing 90-something at his head, I’m not sure that’s what he was doing. You’d have to ask Roger.”
Valentine says that brawls in baseball are not common, but says there probably “should have been” between the Yankees and the Mets in the “Subway Series.” He calls Clemens’ hurled bat at Piazza a “spotlight moment.”
”There should have been big-time brawls and things, but there weren’t,” says Valentine. “And then the World Series comes up, everyone’s supposed to be on their best behavior, and Roger picks up a piece of the bat and throws it towards Mike. That was a spotlight moment. Regretfully, the bad guys always won.”
Piazza went 5-for-9 with two home runs in interleague play against Clemens prior to their World Series matchup and the seven-time Cy Young Award winner had to hear all about it in the New York newspaper headlines.
”Mike and and Roger were the top of their class, batter and a pitcher, both on All-Star teams, both headliners,” says Valentine. “Mike kind of had Roger’s number. He could hit him. He could hit him and hit him hard. Roger was a great competitor, Mike was a great competitor, and eventually the ball that was supposed to be inside — which is where you pitch Mike Piazza — got too far inside one time in 2000 and hit him in the head.”
Valentine once again says its “regretful” because not only did the Yankees win, Clemens did something wrong twice — the beanball and the throwing of the bat towards Piazza — and was never punished for it.
”I think it was regretful because the bad guys won,” says Valentine. “He did something wrong twice. He didn’t get thrown out of the game. He wasn’t punished for it. We came up on the short end of the stick.”
