Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 20, 1991 TAG: 9104200230
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
For the moment, the five-game suspension and $10,000 fine imposed on Clemens by American League President Bobby Brown has been labeled all but moot, thanks to a little-used appeals tactic provided by baseball's basic labor agreement.
Clemens carried his appeal to Commissioner Fay Vincent, as is the right of any player fined more than $500. According to Vincent, the agreement also requires that Clemens be allowed a new hearing.
Vincent said Clemens does not "have to persuade me to overturn the decision; we just start over."
The pitcher contends he is being unfairly punished for an ejection, which he says should have never occurred, during last year's playoff series with Oakland. Clemens was ejected from Game 4 by the home-plate umpire, Terry Cooney,who said Clemens had directed a stream of obscenities at him.
Clemens has denied any such tirade, a point he continued to try to prove Friday with the help of Deborah Copeland, a professional lip reader who works for the New York Society for the Deaf.
She spent more than an hour interpreting a slow-motion tape of Clemens that was filmed by a camera set up behind home plate in the Oakland Coliseum by CBS-TV.
"What the slow motion shows is Roger from the moment he walked Willie Randolph to the moment he was ejected," said Clemens' agent, Randy Hendricks. "It never strayed from his face."
Though neither Clemens nor his attorneys would say what Copeland's interpretation was, Hendricks said what was proven was that "not only did he not say what was alleged, it was also not personal."
The pitcher, who hopes a favorable ruling will not disrupt a season in which he has won his first three decisions, said after the hearing: "I was very optimistic and hopeful. The commissioner was very open-minded."
That Clemens had asked is a precedent in itself. No such appeal of a suspension or fine by a league president has ever been heard by a commissioner, although players have long had that right if they are hit with suspensions of 10 days or longer or fines of $500 or more.
Calling both the hearing as well as the new appeal unusual, Vincent said, "In a sense, the basic agreement puts me in position to act as an arbitrator would if a team were to file a grievance."
Vincent could well echo Brown's decision, which the league president justified by emphasizing the actions of Clemens following the ejection more than the alleged obscenities.
Those incidents included Clemens' shoving umpire Jim Evans in an effort to get to Cooney, something the pitcher does not deny.
by CNB