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Actually, I think if the Mets Face Clemens in Yankee Stadium, Valentine should bat Vaughn 3rd, Piazza Cleanup, and tell his first three hitters, to swing for the fences, Not just put the ball in play. With any luck, you get a Homer or 3 outs. Get out in the field, (start a lefty that works the outside of the plate ..this is key.....) Plunk Jeter in the thigh in the bottom of the first.

This accomplishes several things. 1. The umpires will immediately, given the history of the two teams, issue the appropriate warnings, thus you protect your best hitter, before he gets to the plate, secondarily, you also take the Inside to a degree, away from Clemens, tilting the edge, to Piazza, and your Pitcher, in the Head to Head... Thirdly, (almost as an added Bonus, it'll keep Jeter from taking off every time he gets to first.

Actually, I think if the Mets Face Clemens in Yankee Stadium, Valentine should bat Vaughn 3rd, Piazza Cleanup, and tell his first three hitters, to swing for the fences, Not just put the ball in play. With any luck, you get a Homer or 3 outs.

Except for two small details: a) Yankee Stadium's shorter right field just begs for a lefthanded cleanup hitter if you've got one - and that means Vaughn; and, b) the Mets' top-of-the-order guys aren't exactly fencebusters. Show the Yankees guys who aren't fencebusters trying to swing for the monuments or the seats and you're showing the Yankees dog meat, and against the Yankees you can't afford to waste outs. The way for the Mets' top of the order guys to do it is to go toward that deep left center field, just get the bat on the ball and get their asses on base and don't take the bats out of Piazza's and Vaughn's hands. And don't be stupid on the bases, either, Posada has a better arm than Piazza does. Just get on base and let the big bats do their thing - they've proven they can hit Yankee pitching when they're bearing down on them. If there's one thing Yankee pitching can neutralise without even trying, it's the fencebuster-wannabes. Let those guys swing for the fence and you're playing right into the Yankees' hands.

Get out in the field, (start a lefty that works the outside of the plate ..this is key.....) Plunk Jeter in the thigh in the bottom of the first. This accomplishes several things. 1. The umpires will immediately, given the history of the two teams, issue the appropriate warnings, thus you protect your best hitter, before he gets to the plate, secondarily, you also take the Inside to a degree, away from Clemens, tilting the edge, to Piazza, and your Pitcher, in the Head to Head... Thirdly, (almost as an added Bonus, it'll keep Jeter from taking off every time he gets to first.

Bad strategy on several counts:

1) You don't want Jeter - or whomever else might be the hot bat in the Yankee lineup - until you have taken the message right to Clemens first. You want every break you can get to take the inside away from him; besides, you're not looking to skull the Yankee lineup or even just their most marquee player, you're pitching with a purpose - you want Clemens to cut the crap, remember the difference between pitching tight and decapitation, against your side. And, since he can't bat in Yankee Stadium because of that assoholic DH rule, you start by getting the Yankee DH on that day's lineup.

2) Since you can't afford to waste umpire warnings any more than you can afford to waste outs against the Yankees, that is a more compelling reason to do nothing until the Yankee DH bats. Neither the Yankees nor the umpires would expect it anywhere near where they might, in theory, expect Jeter to go down first.

3) Buzz the DH first, whenever he comes up to hit (it won't be leadoff or even second in the order) and you just might get away with it without a warning, long enough to give you a shot at nailing that hottest Yankee bat next go round, in the event that a no-warning gives Clemens a little extra licence to be bold - and he won't even think about aiming for a head in that circumstance, because he'll know damn well he doesn't want to be the one getting thrown for retaliation even without the warning. And you can still flip the hottest Yankee hitter at the moment (it may not necessarily be Jeter but who cares?), andthen out come the warnings...and you neutralise Clemens, assuming buzzing the DH didn't give him the hint the first time, and you've got the advantage.