For my fellow Mike Piazza fans...

GO MIKEY!!



Mike won't take it anymore

Mets hint at revenge

By SAM BORDEN
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER


Day After: Mike Piazza looks like he got a lot off his chest Wednesday as he fools around with teammate Tony Clark before Mets play Marlins yesterday.

JUPITER, Fla. - Anger lives deep inside Mike Piazza, embedded beneath layers of goodwill and playfulness. But two nights ago, Piazza raged, showing a side few had ever seen.
He has been hit by pitches many times the past few seasons, including once last spring by Guillermo Mota — the same Dodgers pitcher who drilled him Wednesday night.

This time was the last straw: He went after Mota with a crazed look and his fist cocked, but Mota ran away as the benches cleared.

'I'll tell you what,' Piazza's father, Vince Piazza, said yesterday. 'I don't give a (****) if Superman is on the mound. If he hits Mike, I think Mike's coming after him. He's had enough.'

Piazza told the media through a Mets spokesman yesterday that he considered the Mota situation to be in the past and didn't want to comment further. Mets GM Steve Phillips and manager Art Howe said the same. But Piazza's teammates weren't done talking about how Mota plunked the All-Star catcher on the back of his shoulder Wednesday, and neither was his father.

Piazza called his dad Wednesday night, after he had left the Mets clubhouse at their Port St. Lucie stadium and gone looking for Mota in the visitors' clubhouse.

'He asked me what I thought of how he handled it,' Vince Piazza said. 'He did the right thing. I was very surprised — but I was happy he to see it. ... I don't think anybody is going to be coming after him anytime soon.'

Bob Watson, baseball's chief of discipline, said there likely wouldn't be a decision on the situation until early next week. He wouldn't comment on the incident, or say whether Piazza's expected punishment would be affected by his decision to enter the Dodgers clubhouse.

Watson did mention an incident last spring, when seven players were suspended or fined after a brawl between the Padres and Angels. Several of those suspensions were served at the start of the regular season.

And if you listen to the voices in the Mets clubhouse, this situation is far from over. The teams play two games this weekend in Mexico City — Los Angeles is keeping Mota home — and yesterday several Dodgers expressed concern that big hitters like Shawn Green and Fred McGriff would become targets.

Numerous Mets pitchers wouldn't comment on any planned revenge.

Minor-league pitchers worked the final three innings of Wednesday's game — and no Dodgers were hit. If the normal bullpen of Scott Strickland, David Weathers and Armando Benitez had pitched after the brawl, would things have been different?

'What do you think?' Strickland said.

Vince Piazza said it was obvious how much the other Mets cared about their star, and that he was particularly impressed with Jeromy Burnitz, Joe McEwing and Ty Wigginton. Burnitz and McEwing were inches away from grabbing Mota as the pitcher fled to the dugout.

'Mike's got to take those guys out to dinner,' Vince said.

The buzz around the Mets clubhouse was how out of character it was for Piazza to explode the way he did. He has been calm on so many other similar occasions — most notably during the infamous Subway Series when Roger Clemens threw a shattered bat at him — that it was surprising to see him charge Mota so viciously.

But Vince said that was a perfect example of his son knowing the situation. If Piazza had been suspended during the World Series, he would have been letting down his teammates. A spring training game is obviously a better time to make a statement.

'He let Roger know what he thought,' Vince said of the Clemens incident. 'But he wasn't going to put himself in a spot where he would miss important games.'

As to whether Piazza would miss any games this spring or at the start of the season as punishment, Vince admitted that Major League Baseball 'probably wouldn't be happy with' Piazza's trip to the Dodgers locker room. But he blamed L.A. manager Jim Tracy and the umpires for not diffusing the situation after Mota's first pitch to Piazza was a fastball inside.

Then he talked about a time when Piazza was a young kid and stood up to a bully who was being mean to one of his brothers on the school bus. Piazza got off the bus with the bully and defended his family. Two nights ago he defended himself, Vince said.

'That's the worst I've ever seen him,' Vince said of his son's anger, and then repeated:

'I think he had just had enough.'

Re: For my fellow Mike Piazza fans...

Go Piazza! The look on his face was awesome. He was pi$$ed!! Mota hit Piazza last year too, so he deserves what he gets. I know violence is wrong, but I love a good bench-clearing brawl!!! Remember back in the day when Ray Knight cold-cocked Eric Davis?

Re: For my fellow Mike Piazza fans...

I'm not for this crap in baseball, but it's about time Mike starting reacting...being Mr. Nice Guy has given him nothing, no one else wants to do it...why should he take it????

It's like a hockey game!

Re: For my fellow Mike Piazza fans...

Thanks Misty-some fun reading for me.

'and that he was particularly impressed with Jeromy Burnitz, Joe McEwing and Ty Wigginton.' - -
When I saw the brawl, they didn't show the third player close enough. I thought it was Ty but wasn't 100%.

Re: For my fellow Mike Piazza fans...

Totally agree! If everyone wants to take 'stabs' at him when they pitch to him, it is obvious they are all intimidated by him and have to take it out this way!! I say enough already too, it isn't far. I would have take the bat to Clemens head when that incident happened awhile ago, what a num nut!

Re: For my fellow Mike Piazza fans...

nymets.com has the full video of the brawl....

And Clemens is the biggest chicken s*** ever to play baseball. I HATE that moron.

Re: For my fellow Mike Piazza fans...

Clemens is a coward that has to try and hit Piazza to be a big man. Just pitch the game and stop trying to be mr tough guy. Can't stand him either!!! I would have cracked him with that bat!

Re: For my fellow Mike Piazza fans...

LOL Misty. I had the chance to meet Mike Piazza in August 2001. I talked to him for about 20 minutes. He was an absolute sweetheart, very gentlemanly - even after I told him he was a Yankees fan. He laughed and said 'That's perfectly allright. I'll still talk to you.' Unflexed, he had the biggest guns I have ever seen in my life. The circumference of that man's arms UNFLEXED was massive.

Re: For my fellow Mike Piazza fans...

I'd take those guns wrapped around me anytime.

He is such a gentleman, I love him!