BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Snow Remembers Close Clemens Call

The Roger Clemens fastball that sailed over the head of Angel rookie Garret Anderson Tuesday night, sparking a beanball skirmish during Boston’s 6-4 victory, brought back a not-so-fond memory for Angel first baseman J.T. Snow.

Snow was tearing up the American League the first three weeks of his rookie season in 1993, batting .407 with six homers and 17 runs batted in when the Red Sox visited Anaheim Stadium on April 25.

That’s when Clemens, facing Snow for the first time, sent his first pitch a few feet over the rookie’s head and to the backstop.

The pitch put Snow on his back, and some felt Snow never recovered--he hit .124 in May and was in the minor leagues by July.

Snow swears that pitch didn’t send him into a tailspin. “I kind of took it as a compliment, that this guy thought I was such a good hitter he was going to try to keep me off balance,” Snow said.

But Snow and his teammates had no doubt the pitch had a purpose, just as they felt the one to Anderson did Tuesday night. Tim Salmon, who was hit in the hip by a Clemens fastball in the fourth inning, said Clemens came in high and tight to him when he was a rookie in 1993.

“He plays the intimidation game, and he tries to send a message to the young guys,” Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina said of Clemens. “I don’t know him personally, but when he’s on the mound he’ll do anything it takes to win. If he’s one of your teammates, you enjoy watching him pitch. When he’s on the other team, you wish he was on your team.”

Clemens claimed there was no method to his wildness.

“I don’t care if you’re a rookie or a 14-year veteran, I’ll continue to throw inside and hard,” Clemens said. “It has nothing to do with trying to intimidate a rookie.”

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Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said the proliferation of brush-back pitches and beanballs “might be one of the stronger arguments for the elimination of the designated hitter” in the American League.

If pitchers had to bat, they might think twice about throwing at a hitter. “That would cut these types of incidents way down,” Lachemann said.

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Spike Owen, thrown out of Tuesday night’s game for arguing with the umpires in the fourth inning, was asked if he’d ever been ejected from a game he wasn’t playing in. “I can’t say I have . . . well, I can now,” he said.

Clemens, who played for one season with Owen at the University of Texas, had a good idea what Owen was up to. “My buddy Spike was just trying to get me thrown out of the game,” Clemens said. “He knows it and I know it.”