I remember this well and early reports were that both pieces of the bat were given to a reporter from ESPN who was a collector.

The auction house says the barrel of the bat was consigned by Jeff Mangold, who was the Yankees' strength and conditioning coach from 1984-88 and 1998-2006. Mangold took the bat piece after the game that night.


This says the barrel came from the equipment manager which probably means nothing except the original story is wrong and where's the handle?

I can't find the original story where I thought the reporter had it, but will share my story where I put together a 2000 WS display piece from the subway series and a broken game used Piazza bat from the 2000 season with the photo of Clemens throwing the barrel towards Piazza would be the central piece of the display.

I took the bat to Clemens to get him to sign it at a Tri-Star show and his handler didn't want him to sign it at first but Clemens then said and I will paraphrase, "No I want to sign this" and laughed about it.

I then needed Piazza to sign it. A good friend of mine in Atlanta was friends with a Braves player who was buddies with Piazza and he would get it signed for me. Weeks later the bat was returned to me unsigned by Piazza and the message I got was that Piazza refused to sign it with Clemens signature on it. I was concerned for a while there that I wouldn't get the bat back. There you go.