SPORTSPGH .COM

Pittsburgh Sports News
STEELERS PIRATES FORUM PENGUINS POLLS
Front Page

Mesa, Vizquel soap opera at PNC

“ The eyes of the world were focused on every move we made," Vizquel wrote. "Unfortunately, Jose's own eyes were vacant. Completely empty. Nobody home. You could almost see right through him. Not long after I looked into his vacant eyes, he blew the save and the Marlins tied the game."

 ---Omar Vizquel, from his autobiography, on Jose Mesa

BY Magoo
When the Pittsburgh Pirates face the San Francisco Giants this weekend all eyes in the world of sports will be watching Jose Mesa. It won't be because of Mesa's recent landmark accomplishment of 300 saves either. This will be the first time Mesa could face his former teammate, Omar Vizquel, since his book "Omar! My Life On and Off the Field", was released in June of 2002.

Vizquel's book begins in 1997, the stage is game 7 of the World Series. Mesa, who pitched for the Cleveland Indians, was inserted into the game in the bottom of the ninth to protect a 2-1 Indian lead. Mesa gave up a ground ball single to Moises Alou. Mesa then struck out Bobby Bonilla. With one out, Charles Johnson then singled Alou to third. Craig Counsell tied the game with a sacrifice fly.

Mesa pitched into the 10th inning recording two more outs. The Indians lost the game in the 11th inning because of a miscue by second baseman Tony Fernandez that led to the the Marlin triumph.

Yet, after the game Vizquel seems to be placing the blame for the Indian's loss on Mesa.

"What's so hard is that we were one pitch, one batter, however you want to put it, from winning," Vizquel told reporters after the game. "We were so close. It's just so hard to describe."

But in his book, Vizquel suggests that Mesa had no interest in nailing down the game. In fact he believes that the last place Mesa wanted to be was in that game in the ninth inning on that fateful night.

"The eyes of the world were focused on every move we made," Vizquel wrote. "Unfortunately, Jose's own eyes were vacant. Completely empty. Nobody home. You could almost see right through him. Not long after I looked into his vacant eyes, he blew the save and the Marlins tied the game."

Understandingly, Mesa, when informed of the quote by Vizquel in his book, was angry.

"If he comes to apologize, I will punch him right in the face. And then I'll kill him. If you're a writer and you want to write a good book, you don't write a story about somebody else."

Vizquel contends that he never meant to hurt anyone... But Mesa doesn't see it that way.

"I will not forgive him," Mesa said. "Even my little boy (Jose Jr.) told me to get him. If I face him 10 more times, I'll hit him 10 times. I want to kill him."

Over this weekend the Pirates will face Vizquel and the Giants. Certainly there will be a potential showdown between the ex teammates.

Vizquel, would like to downplay the feud between he and Mesa. "I don't know if that's really what he meant when he said that," Vizquel said , after hearing of Mesa's words. "Sometimes we would say in Spanish, 'I'm gonna kill you.' But in the translation, that's not really what we meant."

Since 2003 Mesa has not talked about the media about what he might do if placed into the game where he had to face Vizquel. This certainly adds a lot of drama to this weekend at PNC