The Scratch Main : Mets and Dodgers Staged a Memorable Clash in May, but One Principal Says There Will Be No Rematch

It may have been the best play Cesar Cedeno ever made as a Dodger.

Reliever Tom Niedenfuer was on the bottom of a pile of Mets and Dodgers, someone’s fingernails raking across his face, while his nostrils were being yanked north by northwest.

About the time Niedenfuer was wondering how it would feel to have a mustache on his forehead, Cedeno jumped into the pile and pulled Niedenfuer’s assailant off.

“When you’re on the bottom of the pile and can’t move, it’s a pretty helpless feeling,” Niedenfuer said.

It’s also a little tough to check the manicure of the guy trying to irrigate your cheeks. Only afterward did Niedenfuer find out which Met was responsible. Cedeno, Niedenfuer said, told him it was Darryl Strawberry.

That was in May at New York’s Shea Stadium, during a skirmish that began when Niedenfuer hit Ray Knight with a pitch following George Foster’s grand slam.

The Mets and Dodgers haven’t seen each other since, and the thought has occurred to more than one person that Niedenfuer might want to give something to Strawberry. Besides nail clippers, of course.

In such cases, pitchers like to deliver baseballs with a message attached (“This one’s for you”), usually designed to cause a hitter to evacuate the batter’s box immediately, unless he likes the idea of wearing a baseball as an earring.

But Niedenfuer said he has no plans of retaliating against Strawberry.

“The situation we’re in, there’s no sense in causing any problems,” Niedenfuer said Sunday. “We’re nine games back, they’re 16 1/2 up. Why create something when there isn’t anything there?

“What’s done is done. There’s no sense in carrying anything too far.”

Sure, Niedenfuer doesn’t like the Mets, their cockiness and their posturing. Outside of New York, who does? But Niedenfuer says it’s nothing personal.

“You hate teams that win,” Niedenfuer said. “I hate the Dallas Cowboys, and I don’t know one guy on the team.

“They (the Mets) are a good team, and they let you know it, too, in the way they act.

“But when you’re on a team like that, you ought to enjoy it while you can. You may not like it if you’re on the bottom of the pile, but we’ve been on the other side, and it’s the best feeling in the world.

“Sure, every player hates ‘em, but every player would love to be in that situation, too.”

For the record, Niedenfuer still insists he wasn’t throwing at Knight last May.

“I must have watched the replay a thousand times,” Niedenfuer said. “And that pitch was only a foot inside, at most. I try to pitch Ray inside, and that pitch wasn’t that far inside.

“It was just the timing of when it happened.”