Buy Bat Roger Clemens Threw at Mike Piazza

You can now own one of the famous pieces of broken wood in history — the busted bat that Roger Clemens infamously threw at Mike Piazza in the 2000 World Series.

Heritage Auctions is selling the barrel of the bat that went flying Piazza’s way. It seems then-Yankees conditioning coach Jeff Mangold took the bat home after the game.

“I’ve had this for 13 years,” Mangold told ESPN New York. “It was just sitting in my office and very few people knew about it. But I think this is an article of sports memorabilia that has some substance to it.”

Internet bidding is underway, with the live auction to be held on February 22. The auction house thinks it could net upwards of $10,000. You can check the latest bidding here.

Clemens has never fully explained why he threw the bat. He seemed to think it was the ball, but even if that were true, why would he throw the ball at Piazza? Wouldn’t he just throw it to the first baseman?

After watching the video (below) again, it looks more like a frustrated Clemens picked up the bat and meant to throw it into foul territory, but Piazza was running up the baseline. It does not look like he was actually throwing it at him.

Still though, Mike Piazza had every right to be angry and would have been justified in punching Clemens in the jaw. Piazza took a lot of criticism for not doing just that, but Piazza said he knew he would have been thrown out of the game, and staying in a World Series game was more important that exacting revenge in Clemens.

The Mets tried to get their revenge when they finally faced Clemens again in 2002, but Shawn Estes could not hit his target, instead throwing the ball behind Clemens’s back. Estes did later hit a two-run homer off Clemens as the Mets crushed him, 8-0.