- [Narrator] Omar Vizquel wrote something kind of mean
about Jose Mesa in a book one time.
Mesa spent the rest of his career
throwing baseballs at him.
(upbeat music)
- Our story begins, as many beefs do,
with a couple of teammates who were close friends.
Vizquel was Cleveland's star shortstop.
Mesa was a former mediocre starting pitcher
who'd found new life as a an All-Star-caliber closer.
Vizquel and Mesa were close.
And on October 26th, 1997, they were three outs
away from winning the World Series together.
Mesa took the mound in the bottom of the ninth inning
of Game Seven, with Cleveland holding a two-one lead
over the Marlins, but then he gave up a leadoff single
to Moises Alou and later a sacrifice fly to Craig Counsell
that drove Alou home to tie a game the Marlins
would eventually win on a walkoff in the 11th inning.
- [Bob Costas] Game Seven of the World Series is tied.
- Mesa just needed a save
to be a World Series hero, but he blew it.
And then Cleveland blew the whole thing.
That hurt.
So Jose was a little touchy for a little while after.
And by a little touchy for a little while
I mean extremely touchy basically forever.
Mesa's post-collapse sensitivity became apparent
in spring training the following year.
During an intrasquad scrimmage, Vizquel homered
off Mesa and kinda hammed it up.
He did a cartwheel while rounding the bases, then tipped
his cap to the imaginary crowd when he reached home plate.
At any prior time, this would have been
harmless fun between friends.
Months removed from a brutal World Series collapse,
Mesa did not take it well.
He just clearly wasn't going to fit in Cleveland anymore,
so in July they traded him to the San Francisco Giants.
The following season, Mesa joined the Mariners,
in the American League, meaning Mesa
would have to pitch against Vizquel.
And between 1999 and 2000, he did so six times.
The first four of those meetings were uneventful.
A few outs and a walk, no drama.
You can tell because I specified that
that there's gonna be some drama.
In August of 2000, Vizquel got his first hit
off his old friend since they separated.
And perhaps stirred by giving up that hit,
Mesa decided to send a message a few days later.
He threw his first two pitches inside,
nearly hitting Vizquel.
Vizquel started walking toward the mound, shouting at Mesa.
Benches cleared.
The two were separated before anything serious happened.
There was clearly some unfinished business,
but in late 2000 Mesa became a free agent
and signed with the Phillies,
back in the National League, where he'd almost
never face his former teammate.
And with zero interaction, the beef went quiet
for about a year and a half, until.
So in 2002, Vizquel released an autobiography.
I got it right here.
It's called Omar! My Life on and off the Field,
by Omar Vizquel, and on the first page of the book,
in an intro about that game against the Marlins,
Vizquel says this.
"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."
This is the first page of the book.
This wasn't the only spicy thing in the book.
Vizquel pissed off Albert Belle
with a whole chapter about him
being difficult and corking his bats.
But unlike Belle, Mesa was still an active player
and as fate would have it, interleague play gave him
an opportunity to pitch against Vizquel
just months after the book release.
And Jose hit him.
Mesa's first pitch just missed Vizquel's elbow.
The second one drilled him right in the back.
Vizquel considered charging the mound, but then he
considered the weight classes in that fight
and thought better of it.
Mesa didn't talk about that plunking.
He almost never spoke to media,
but Vizquel told reporters he thought it was retribution
for one thing or another.
The league agreed and tried to cut off
the beef by fining Mesa, and MLB wasn't the only force
trying to thwart Mesa's revenge plot.
Cleveland and Philadelphia happened to play
spring training games in 2003,
but the managers of both teams made sure to pull
either Mesa or Vizquel out of the game
before they'd have to face each other.
Well, if Mesa wouldn't get opportunities to throw
baseballs at Vizquel, he was gonna have to break
his silence, and boy did he.
Jose was like, I'm gonna hit him.
And if he charges me, I'll kill him.
Omar suggested that, you know,
maybe something got lost in translation.
Surely Jose didn't mean it like that.
But now, he did mean it.
(upbeat music)
Which once again had Vizquel envisioning the size
difference in a hypothetical fight.
While the league investigated, Mesa's teammates
teased him with a Vizquel bobblehead
and then realized they should stop doing that.
But the beef stayed off the field for a while simply
because Mesa and Vizquel's teams never played each other.
That changed in 2005, when an again Vizquel
ended his decadelong stint in Cleveland
and joined the San Francisco Giants over
in the National League.
Mesa was still in the NL with the Pirates at this point,
which made Vizquel really hope the beef was over.
But if they faced off, he'd wear extra armor just in case.
Fate wouldn't bring Mesa and Vizquel onto the same field
until 2006, when Mesa was a Colorado Rocky.
Four years after he took a fastball to the spine,
Omar Vizquel stepped into the batter's box
and faced his former friend again.
And Mesa nailed him, again.
This was the one.
Giants Manager Felipe Alou lobbied unsuccessfully
for Mesa to be ejected.
Vizquel complained afterward that Mesa's
revenge tour was getting old.
And the next day, both teams went wild.
The Giants retaliated by plunking Colorado's
very first batter, and things just escalated from there.
Multiple people got hit, including Vizquel,
although it wasn't by Mesa, and multiple people
got ejected in an absolute mess of a game.
And even though Mesa hadn't done anything
in that second game, the league knew his grudge
had started this whole stupid battle
the prior day and suspended him.
Only then, nine years after the World Series collapse,
and four years after the book passages about it,
did Mesa announce he was done throwing at Vizquel.
Vizquel didn't really believe him, but Mesa kept his word.
They faced three more times in 2006,
and the pitches stayed over the plate.
Vizquel even ended his career
against Mesa with an RBI single.
Mesa retired not much later
after a final stint with the Phillies.
And Vizquel left he game in 2012 at the age of 45.
Neither got to win a World Series and make up for '97,
but Vizquel has always gotten a warm reception
when returning to Cleveland.
Mesa, maybe not so much.
Asked about the feud in 2014, Vizquel said the two
still hadn't smoothed things over
and he sounded regretful.
Mesa failed Vizquel and his teammates
on the brink of a championship in '97, yes.
But was rubbing that in with a book worth it?
Was it worth the end of a friendship?
Was it worth getting drilled with multiple baseballs
over a period of several years?
Perhaps not.
Perhaps if you have nothing nice to say, then don't say it.
Or, if you don't have anything to say,
wait until the portion of your life in which
people throw baseballs at you has ended to say it.