Clemens Fine a Head-Scratcher

In the often contradictory world of baseball discipline, the $50,000 fine levied on Roger Clemens on Tuesday for rifling the barrel end of a splintered bat in Mike Piazza’s direction in Game 1 of the World Series seemed to be just that--contradictory.

Consider:

* Discipline czar Frank Robinson described it as a reckless act but not reckless enough to demand a suspension.

* He said he can’t get into a person’s head but concluded from his interviews and investigation that Clemens didn’t intentionally aim for Piazza, although intent wasn’t the issue anyway, only the action.

Lost?

To be fair, Robinson had a difficult task and whatever ruling he made or didn’t make was going to be subject to debate or criticism.

The bottom line? There is more than one:

* Clemens, who earned $6.35 million this year, has seven days to appeal and certainly will do that, although he issued a statement in which he said he will not consider the question of an appeal until the Series is over.

“I want to stay focused on the task at hand, helping my team win the World Series,” he said.

* Precedent suggests that the fine will be overturned or reduced on appeal. The most recent example of that was the $20,000 fine and 28-day suspension levied on John Rocker for his insensitive comments in a Sports Illustrated article. An arbitrator reduced the fine to $500 and the suspension to 14 days.

* It would be foolish to think this is the end of animosity between Piazza and Clemens, and the Mets and Clemens. It may only be the end of it as it relates to the World Series.

Clemens is not scheduled to pitch again until Game 6 at Yankee Stadium, and the Mets will need more than the 7 train to get back to the Bronx.

They took the first step Tuesday night, returning to Shea Stadium, where they had baseball’s best home record this year, to score a rousing, 4-2, win over the Yankees, closing to 2-1 in the best of seven Series.

The Mets, of course, knew that a 0-3 deficit was death, but their adrenaline was additionally stoked by the Clemens furor and questions about their heart after they failed to respond aggressively when he threw the bat.

Those endless questions and the tabloid consuming coverage of the incident obviously have wearied Piazza, although he has contributed to that coverage in a daily diary in the New York Post and he delivered an expletive-deleted diatribe about Clemens in Tuesday’s editions.

However, when asked his reaction to the $50,000 fine, he said:

“It’s irrelevant. It doesn’t matter. I have no opinion.”

Should Clemens have been suspended? Mets Co-owner Fred Wilpon said he supported the decision.

“I don’t want to beat the Yankees without Roger Clemens,” Wilpon said. “I don’t want their to be an asterisk. I want to win fair and square.”

General Manager Steve Phillips offered similar sentiment.

“I think the umpires made the appropriate decision on the day of the game, and I think it was appropriate for baseball to evaluate it,” Phillips said. “If they came back and said, ‘We’ve considered it and we’re not going to fine him,’ that would have been their prerogative and we would have had to live with it. I mean, I don’t think any of our players or staff were looking for him to be suspended, so if they deemed it appropriate to fine him, so be it. We’re ready to move on.”

The decision, Robinson said, was made after he talked with everyone involved, watched the tape and read the umpires’ report.

The discipline czar stood by the batting cage early Tuesday evening as dozens of reporters battled to hear his explanation in a cramped area as the Yankees attempted to take batting practice--baseball lacking the foresight to put him behind a microphone in the interview room.

“After looking at the videotape and examining the information I thought it necessary to invoke a fine,” Robinson said. “My conclusion was it was inappropriate conduct. He threw the bat in the direction of someone and could have injured someone.”

Robinson added, however, that he didn’t think a suspension was in order despite the fact that he personally was “numb” when he saw Clemens dispatch the bat and he credited the umpires for defusing “what could have been a very nasty incident.”

Robinson said that in his conversation with Clemens “he never said he did anything wrong and I wasn’t looking for him to say he did. I have a feel for these situations . . . and I don’t think the intent was the important thing, just the action of the player. I mean, how can I prove that he intentionally threw the bat at Piazza. I just don’t think he did.”

Maybe not, but to believe Clemens explanation that he was so high emotionally that he initially thought the bat he fielded was a ball is to believe the fine will have an impact on his intimidating approach.

He defeated Seattle in Game 5 of the American League championship series, giving up only one hit with 15 strikeouts and knocking Alex Rodriguez off the plate, and he defeated the Mets by making them so angry after the bat incident that they tended to swing at anything, collecting only two hits off Clemens in eight innings.

“In Roger’s last two starts he’s pitched inside again and he needs to do that,” Yankee relief pitcher Jeff Nelson said. “He threw inside to A-Rod and that showed the Mariners he’ll throw inside to anyone, and that’s what he did to Piazza [in July]. You can throw inside to the eight and nine hitters and it doesn’t mean anything. If you throw inside to the three and four guys that means everything because it sends a message to everybody else in the lineup. Hitters have all the advantage right now. We have to do something.”

Clemens may do a little too much, detracting from his wonderful skill. However, Nelson said the fine was ridiculous, the incident overblown and that, “If he gets fined $50,000, why don’t they fine [Met pitcher] Mike Hampton for hitting [David] Justice [in the same game]? It was the sixth inning, we were ahead, 4-0, and they were just trying to prove a point.”

The fine will prove little and probably will be reduced. Met Manager Bobby Valentine had the best idea.

“Unless they’re sending it to my favorite charity, I don’t really give a darn,” he said. “I’ll be glad to give the address and credible numbers, if that’s what they wanted to do.”

TIP MONEY

Roger Clemens, whose average salary is $15.45 million, was fined $50,000 for his actions in Game 2 of the World Series. That is .32% of his salary, which means it is the equivalent of someone earning $50,000 a year being fined $161.81.