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Game 2: Hampton vs. Clemens
Updated: Sunday October 22, 2000 6:09 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Call it a Manhattan Moment. Mike Hampton, MVP of the National League Championship Series for the New York Mets and set to start Game 2 of the World Series against the New York Yankees Sunday night, told the story. "Near the building I live in, they're doing a lot of construction," he said. "I was walking by the construction site. One of the workers jumped out. He had a sweatshirt on. Underneath his sweatshirt, he had a Yankees shirt on." Now the worker introduced himself. "Ah! We're gonna get you again," he growled at Hampton. The pitcher jumped back. "That shocked me a little bit," he said. "I didn't know if I was getting held up." "He said, 'We got a lot of Mets fans here, but I'm a Yankee fan. We're gonna whip you.' "I'm like, 'All right, man, sounds good. You root for your team.' " The intensity of the Subway Series has the city in its grips and it should go up a notch when Hampton faces Roger Clemens Sunday night. Clemens angered the Mets during the season when he hit Mike Piazza in the head with his first pitch to the slugger of a game July 8. Piazza had hit a grand slam against Clemens a month earlier, the third straight game in which he had tagged the Yankees ace. Intimidation is part of Clemens' equipment. Yankees manager Joe Torre compares it to the way Hall of Famer Bob Gibson approached his work. "Part of his success is his ability to pitch inside," Torre said. "Intimidation is part of that. I go back to Gibson. He'd knock you on your rear end anytime. It's part of the package." The Mets believed the Piazza beaning was no accident. Hampton cooled the inflamed feelings the next day, shutting out the Yankees for seven innings in a 2-0 Mets victory. He said the incident is of no consequence any more. "I don't care about that," he said. "Mike's all right. He's healthy. He came back from that OK. As long as he has no hard feelings, then I think the focus is just to win these games." Torre said what happened to Piazza was unfortunate. "But I don't believe, the circumstances, other than the fact that he was successful against Roger, the circumstances didn't call for it." Clemens made no excuses. "Physically, I'm going to try and beat you; mentally, I'm going to try and beat you; and emotionally, I'm going to try and beat you," the five-time Cy Young winner said. "I try to go with strength and what I have. I don't concern myself with right or left-handed batters." The Mets lineup tilts to the right with third baseman Robin Ventura and right fielder Timo Perez the only left-handed bats. Manager Bobby Valentine could use Matt Franco, Darryl Hamilton or Lenny Harris -- all lefty swingers -- as the DH against Clemens and use Piazza to catch in place of righty-swinging Todd Pratt, who was behind the plate in the opener. Clemens was 13-8 in the regular season and pitched a one-hit shutout against Seattle in his last start during the American League championship series. Hampton went 15-10 and had 16 shutout innings in the NLCS against St. Louis.
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