All this moved Clemens to such an emotional state that when he caught the bat barrel, even after he surely knew it was wood not cowhide, he reacted in anger. And no less august and discrete a publication than The New York Times weighed in with a suggestion that Clemens' frenzy may have been the result of drugs. Columnist Harvey Araton drew a gauzy veil over his accusation. Unstable was the key word, and no one doubts that of Clemens. His rap sheet is long and frightening, and the Piazza beaning this summer was only the most recent entry.
Free agency makes strange bedfellows.
The Piazza confrontation was not even Clemens' first World Series breakdown. A decade ago with the Red Sox, he was thrown out of an ALCS game in the second inning for cursing home plate umpire Terry Cooney after being told to shut up. Oh, one thing more, a bit of esoterica. It's not only bizarre behavior that Clemens has in common with lunatic boxer Mike Tyson. Like Tyson, Clemens wears a mouthpiece to work.