 
03/11/2003 7:12 PM ET
Mesa vs.Vizquel
Ex-teammates have fighting words
| By Ken Mandel / MLB.com |
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CLEARWATER, Fla. -- By the time Jose Mesa took the mound for the eighth inning against the Indians, Omar Vizquel had already taken the rest of the afternoon off.
Whether that was by design or just a Spring Training coincidence, it spared what might have become an ugly escalation of their feud -- which now has prompted an inquiry from the commissioner's office.
Mesa had guaranteed to unleash a fastball aimed at Vizquel with the intent of drilling the All-Star shortstop and former teammate.
"If I face him, I'll hit him," Mesa said. "If I face him 10 more times, I'll hit him 10 times."
"I'll be waiting for him," said Vizquel. "Whatever he wants to do. That's his job."
What gives? These guys were teammates with Cleveland from 1992-98. They lockered together, ate together. Their wives shopped together. They got to and lost two World Series together. By all accounts, they were the closest of friends.
Now this? Mesa was quoted several times in the Bucks-County Courier Times as saying he wants to "kill" Vizquel.
Because of that comment, Bob Watson, vice president for on-field operations in the commissioner's office, is conducting his own inquiry into the feud.
"We're looking into it," Watson said. "I don't know how long this will take because I don't have all the facts right now."
Mesa has said that he would not accept an apology for comments Vizquel had made in an autobiography released last spring. Vizquel believes Mesa made the threats in the baseball sense.
Appearing affable with an easy smile, Vizquel didn't appear to take Mesa's words to heart.
Jose Mesa
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Phillies general manager Ed Wade said he spoke to Mesa about his comments and said the closer understood the situation.
"We don't want a volatile personal issue to become a team issue," Wade said before the game. "We don't need the complicating factors of a suspension if he follows through on it."
Major League Baseball was also made aware of the situation. Either way, the opposing managers made sure the two couldn't continue their feud.
"Omar got his three at-bats. That's all we had planned," said Indians manager Eric Wedge. "The entire situation is unfortunate, but what are you going to do?"
The relationship between the two began to deteriorate during Spring Training in 1998, when during an intra-squad game, Vizquel hit a homer off Mesa and did a cartwheel while crossing home plate. Mesa didn't appreciate a teammate showing him up, regardless of whether the game counted, and told Vizquel he would drill him the next time he saw him.
With Seattle in 1999, Mesa brushed back Vizquel during a game and the two had words. The situation boiled over last season when Vizquel's autography, Omar! My Life On and Off the Field (April 2002) recalled the date of Oct. 26, 1997 -- Game Seven of the World Series -- and wasn't kind:
Jose Mesa, our ace reliever, had come in to protect a one-run lead. All we had to do was get three outs and we'd win the ultimate title. The eyes of the world were focused on every move we made. Unfortunately, Jose's own eyes were vacant. Completely empty. Nobody home. You could almost see right through him.Jose's first pitch bounced five feet in front of the plate, and as every Cleveland Indians fan knows, things got worse from there. Not long after I looked into his vacant eyes, he blew the save and the Marlins tied the game.
With the Phillies in Cleveland on June 12, Mesa came on to preserve a four-run lead in the bottom of the ninth. With one out, he plunked Vizquel square in the back, and was later fined $500.
Omar Vizquel
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Most, including Vizquel, thought the situation had run its course. Mesa didn't like the book, let Vizquel know about it and now the two can go on with their baseball lives, right?
"I don't know. Some people have problems," said Vizquel. "I don't have any problem. I think it's kind of ridiculous, but if that's the way he wants to take
care of business, that's him. Some people think differently. I guess he took (the book) personally."
Still does.
"Sometimes people are stupid, and (what he wrote) was a stupid idiotic thing," said Mesa. "Anybody who watched the game that day knows I was trying to do my job. Coming out of him, that hurt me because he knows how hard I work. I couldn't believe the BS he wrote about me."
Vizquel stressed that he didn't intend to single out Mesa in the book and said the Indians wouldn't have gotten to the World Series without Mesa.
"We would not be in the World Series without Jose Mesa," said Vizquel. "He got us there. I have no hard feelings against Jose. He felt bad about how the book
came out. I didn't mean to write it with that intent, but it's too late now. He was one of my best friends on the Indians."
Mesa apparently is still seething and wants to fight Vizquel. They didn't fight on Tuesday and, pending one of them getting traded, it can't happen again this season unless Philadelphia plays Cleveland in the World Series.
Should they fight, Vizquel, at 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds is much smaller than the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Mesa. Still he thinks anything can happen and referenced a boxing match earlier this month when Roy Jones Jr. defeated John Ruiz, despite being outweighed by 33 pounds.
"If that would make him happy, I will fight him," said Vizquel. "Anything can happen. When Jones fought Ruiz, everybody went against the odds. But everybody says I have soft hands so I don't know."
If nothing else, Vizquel learned an important lesson, a lesson that Yankees pitcher David Wells may also want to learn.
"I guess you have to wait until you retire to write a book," he said.
Ken Mandel is a reporter for
MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball
or its clubs.
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