Playback Theater

[Edgy MD]

Mike Piazza goes all "Hulk smash!" during spring training. Hot sexy Fran Healy action too.

http://sammagonline.blogspot.com/2007/12/piazza-vs-mota.html

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Ted Robinson action too. I remember discussing this game as it happened with you people.

[ashie62]

Maybe it was roid rage..

[Ceetar]

Ashie62 wrote: Maybe it was roid rage..

on Mota's part? probably.

[metirish]

can't see it as it's blocked but I remember it well, Burnitz went ape shit too didn't he chasing down Mota.

[Edgy MD]

Burnitz, McEwing, and Wigginton all needed to be restrained.

What was amazing was that five minutes after the incident, the adrenaline was still rushing through Piazza. Four guys have him completely under restraint and he's got this blinkless death-stare into the dugout, no longer straining against his restrainers, but still pulsing his muscles, saving his energy for when just one of them might let up a little bit and he can break loose and get on with Operation Kill.

And then, when the mission seems impossible, his hand and eyes seems to flash some sort of ancient vendetta sign out of some hokey movie --- saying, "You don't want to do it here? Fine. Run away. I will chase you down. I will get you in your car. I will get you in your house. In front of your family. That's your choice."

Fran couldn't get over how unlike Piazza it was and he was kind of disturbed about it even as he's giving the account in that Randy, back-slapping, we're-all-fellas-here voice.

I'm not a hockey guy, but it was like watching Clark Gilles and Dave Schultz. There are 15 bodies between the two and they would somehow maintain this vicious focus on each other through the scrum, desperately looking for the opening that might possibly allow them to get at each other.

If he was juice-raging, Burnitz was shooting from the same syringe. They had him pinned against a wall, and his muscles were rippling with this "I realize I'm physically unable to move, but I really want to kill" vibe. His resignation also seemed tinged with a "We'll get him later" evil. Very chilling.

And all of it being indifferently led by Art Howe in those ridiculous orange pajamas --- as if it was just another day in the prison yard. Art would have done well to take his team off the field and call off the game. Piazza, I don't know, might not have had to go apeshit if the leadership was there.

It was Mota that Prince Fielder was trying to kill when he tried to crash the Dodger clubhouse, wasn't it? What a pariah that guy must've been.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: It was Mota that Prince Fielder was trying to kill when he tried to crash the Dodger clubhouse, wasn't it? What a pariah that guy must've been.

I'm good with blaming him for losing the 2006 NLCS and the collapse of 2007 if you are.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Piazza later that season would suffer a massive muscle tear while leaning away from a pitch. But, he wasn't using the roids.

[metirish]

Great recap, didn't Piazza go looking for Mota in the clubhouse after?

[Frayed Knot]

metirish wrote: Great recap, didn't Piazza go looking for Mota in the clubhouse after?

That was actually the earlier incident that Healy & Robinson were referring to.




Whoever the Dodger catcher was he didn't seem all that keen on keeping Piazza from getting to the mound - it's not like catching Mike from behind is all that hard but he always manages to stay just out of grasp range.
It's like he knew Mota pretty much deserved at least a good scare even if he then would have felt obligated to protect his pitcher from an outright beating.