BREAKING POINT

So, what were the New York Mets supposed to do? Take their fists to Roger Clemens? Plead with the umpires to eject him? Lobby Manager Bobby Valentine to pull his team off the field if he was allowed to continue pitching?

Nonsense.

Not only are the Mets winless after two games of the World Series with the New York Yankees, but they were in a no-win situation when it came to a response to what Mike Piazza accurately described Monday as the idiotic decision by Clemens to throw the barrel end of a broken bat toward him in the first inning of Sunday’s game.

Should the Mets have charged Clemens in a bravado display of manliness at the possible risk of injuries, ejections and suspensions, costing them any chance of beating Clemens in Game 2 or of coming back against the Yankees in future games?

Nonsense again.

As General Manager Steve Phillips said Monday: “We showed more strength by showing restraint. To have a fight at that point in the first inning might have knocked three or four players out of the game and Series.”

Some didn’t agree, and the Mets were bristling about that as much as about Clemens as they worked out Monday.

A New York Post column questioning their heart and courage in that first inning and any inning as Clemens pitched eight shutout innings on two hits was headlined: “MEEK THE METS.” The drop head said: “Piazza, teammates wimp out.”

When Wallace Matthews, who wrote the column, arrived in the Met clubhouse Monday, catcher Todd Pratt invited him into a private corner and verbally berated him.

“It’s amazing the things that some people are writing and saying out there,” Pratt said later. “When people say and write that we have no heart, that’s the biggest joke I’ve heard.

“What can you do when a guy is throwing a 99-mph fastball and a 92-mph splitter? The guy had great stuff and shut us down, but look at what this team has done the last two years.

“No heart? The guy knows nothing about the game, but he can write all the BS he wants. I mean, this whole thing happens and what do you expect us to do? Go out and tag-team him? It’s the World Series. If we go out there as hit men and get thrown out, everybody is going to say we’re stupid. If we don’t go out, they’re saying we don’t have any courage. There’s no way for us to win in that situation.”

The benches did empty, but as Met reserve Lenny Harris put it: “You couldn’t do much. I had three big Yankees in blue jackets holding me back like Clemens was in the witness protection program. If I had got to him, I would have grabbed him, looked him in the eye and asked him, ‘Why?’ Mike never did anything to him. What, you can’t hit a home run off the guy without going down?

“I mean, I waited 12 years to reach the World Series and to see this stuff is crazy. It’s the Series, not the World Wrestling Federation. Mike handled it professionally. I’d have charged the mound and been kicked out.”

It was no surprise that Clemens continued to insist Monday that he hadn’t intentionally thrown the bat at Piazza. He said he was so high emotionally he’d thought it had been the ball he fielded and didn’t see Piazza trotting up the line, to which Met pitcher Al Leiter said, “better have his peripheral vision checked out.”

Added Harris: “If he thought it was the ball, why didn’t he throw that dagger to Tino Martinez at first base? Look, give the guy credit. He’s a 20-game winner and future Hall of Famer, but you’ve got to have more class. You’ve got to control your emotions better. We’re all intense out there. We’re all trying to do the best we can. That zone he keeps talking about, he’s not the only one in it.”

Perhaps not, but the Mets will have to relocate it tonight when they face Orlando Hernandez, who is merely 8-0 in postseason play.

In preparing Monday, there was scant attention paid to “El Duque.”

It was still all about Clemens-Piazza to the point that Leiter was asked if the highly charged atmosphere could work in the Mets’ favor against a team that has won 14 consecutive World Series games.

“If we need something like Sunday’s incident to motivate us,” the veteran left-hander said, “then there’s something wrong with us. I have all the respect in the world for the Yankees because they know how to win, but are they that good? Are we that much in awe? It’s not that we’ve got our brains beat out. We just have to find a way to play flawless baseball against a team of that caliber.”

That hasn’t happened yet, and Clemens compounded the Met mistakes by driving them out of their game plan.

“We were so anxious to take his head off that we were swinging at anything,” Harris said. “Maybe that was his game plan.”

Maybe.

Maybe discipline czar Frank Robinson will now do what the Mets didn’t, taking a whip to Clemens.

One thing is certain: No one responded with more restraint than Valentine, who has had his share of run-ins with umpires.

The Met manager apologized Monday “if any of my players or any of our fans” expected more grandstanding and showmanship, but he said he was following the edicts of a pre-Series meeting with baseball officials in which behavior of players and managers was discussed and we were told to leave all incidents to the umpires and to “keep in mind the image we were presenting to the world.”

What kind of image did he think Clemens presented?

“I don’t think Roger was in that meeting,” Valentine said, drawing a laugh.

He added that he wasn’t a mind reader and wouldn’t accuse Clemens of intent in throwing the bat, but that after finally getting a good look at the incident on tape, it was obvious “he made a pretty good fielding play and came up in a mechanically sound throwing position.”

There was more laughter, after which Valentine said he’d never considered pulling his team off the field to force the umpires and baseball officials to take a stand, as one Met suggested should have been done. That would have been a farce to the game at any time, Valentine said, and to the World Series in particular.

“Needless to say it was a very bizarre incident,” Valentine added, “and it seems this year, more than ever, there’s been [discipline] placed on people because of their inability to handle their emotions.”

There’s precedent as well for an October suspension. Will Robinson discipline Clemens? We may know today.

In the meantime, the incident and the Mets’ response to it remained the talk of the town--and the tabloids.

As Piazza put it: “If we punch him and get thrown out, we’re selfish. If we don’t, we’re gutless. It’s damned if we do and damned if we don’t. It was just a very stupid situation.”

On that, there was and is total agreement.