Clemens shrugs off Piazza's comments about beaning

HOUSTON -- Roger Clemens shrugged off Mike Piazza's comments in his autobiography that he took karate lessons after getting hit by Clemens in the event they had another confrontation.

The former Mets catcher discussed Clemens in his autobiography "Long Shot," which was published last Tuesday.

Clemens, at spring training as a special instructor with the Astros in Kissimmee, Fla., discussed the book Sunday. "He needs to go get with Jesse Owens or somebody on his speed, I think," Clemens told the Houston Chronicle. "He chased some dude around the spring training site one time, didn't he, or something?"

The altercation Clemens apparently was referring to came during an exhibition game when Piazza was with the Mets. After Guillermo Mota hit him with a pitch, Piazza tried to confront Mota after leaving the field.

Piazza wrote about the tension between him and Clemens in 2000, when Clemens beaned him during a regular-season game in July and threw a broken bat at him in the World Series.

Clemens said Piazza wasn't the only player who had a problem with him -- including some of his own teammates, who had been hit when he pitched for Boston and Toronto. "He'd have to stand in line,'' he said. "I think there was about three guys on the Yankees that wanted a piece of me more than [he] did."