Piazza's Memoir

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yes I agree. At least a few writers publicly said they'd wait and see what Piazza's book says on steroids when it comes out, but they didn't say how they'd react. But to me it didn't matter. If he admitted to juicing they'd hang him for that and if he didn't they'd hang him for lying.

This sounds like a terrible book by an uninteresting guy. If he's not going to spill the beans on his pop's mob connections and drug use, what's the point?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Anybody here read the book yet? It's available for shipping on Amazon as of today.

So's this one:

[Benjamin Grimm]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: This sounds like a terrible book by an uninteresting guy.

Harsh, but probably true. I don't expect that I'll ever read this one. I used to read all Mets related books, but when Lenny Dykstra "wrote" a book and I couldn't bring myself to read it, it broke the spell for me.

[batmagadanleadoff]

This sounds like a terrible book by an uninteresting guy. Harsh, but probably true. I don't expect that I'll ever read this one. I used to read all Mets related books, but when Lenny Dykstra "wrote" a book and I couldn't bring myself to read it, it broke the spell for me.

I buy most of them, eventually, especially if the player appears on the cover in a Met uniform. But this is mostly out of habit and my collectiblilty bug. I don't read all of them. Here's a few that I own and might never get around to reading:



The Yogi book is mostly Yankee-centric. After the Mets acquired Yogi in '65, an extra chapter was added to reflect Yogi's new association with the Mets, a new Metly cover replaced the original MFY version, and the new edition was rushed to release.

[A Boy Named Seo]

"Major League Dad" sounds like a shitty PG movie starring Tim Allen.

[G-Fafif]

If Piazza played on the '62 Mets...

MIKE TO CHACON:
YO NO LA TENGO!
Catcher demands SS
learn to say 'I got it';
Mets swept in twinbill

[Edgy MD]

I don't think the book hurts him. I expect the writers to be as lazy as ever and not string Piazza up, seeing as he didn't do what they were hoping he'd do and save them the trouble by stringing himself up. He admitted what was already known, if not widely circulated, and reverberations so far have been minor.

Unless somebody has the noive to take him to task for being an anti-immigrant tool, or he makes a nuisance of himself by campaigning like Gary Carter, he's in on next year's vote. Book it.

[G-Fafif]

Excerpt, excerpt, read all about it! Conked Catcher Crushes Clemens!

Mike's interview with Jon Stewart was pleasant, with Jon asking the only question that matters: When you eventually go into the Hall of Fame, Mets or Dodgers? "Mets, I would think," Piazza said, though he allowed what a boost it was to be coached coming up by Roy Campanella, Johnny Roseboro, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax. Stewart said if you'd come up with the Mets, you could've been coached by Choo Choo Coleman. Piazza laughed good-naturedly (at a funny name he sort of recognized, I think, not because Choo Choo was Choo Choo) and tried to think of nice old Mets he'd met along the way and amiably came up with three: Mookie Wilson, Ed Kranepool and Felix Millan, while Stewart was realizing Piazza wasn't getting or going along with the "no, I mean catchers who weren't Roy Campanella-caliber" thread he was trying to unspool and threw in J.C. Martin.

Jon also congratulated Mike on coming to the Mets and not suffering a broken femur.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Anyhow, Matthews had plenty of company. My teammate Darryl Hamilton questioned my pride. Even my pitcher, Mike Hampton, suggested that I should have gone after Clemens and it shouldn't have mattered if it were Mike Tyson. I guess Hampton figured he had proven his manhood by nipping David Justice in the elbow pad five innings later. He told the Post, "I think we should've fought, to be honest with you. But that's not my call. You can't make something happen if guys aren't going to defend themselves."

Yeah, fuck you, Mike Hampton. The whole bat-throwing incident conveniently obscures the fact that the snotty coward pitched like shit in that game, including the first inning when instead of drilling somebody in the ribs like he should have instead walked half the team and gave up a shit ton of 2 out runs. FU Mike Hampton!

[TransMonk]

I'm a little under halfway through it (up to 1997). So far, he comes off as a self-absorbed tool (maybe my perception changes once he becomes a Met and he matures a little...we'll see).

He mentions his back acne twice during the first few chapters as a major problem he's dealt with all his life (truth? who knows?). He's got a chip on his shoulder about the perception that he only got multiple chances to succeed based on his dad's relationship with Lasorda (not all together untrue based on the way he tells it). He also comes off as bitter at not winning the MVP in 1995 and 1996. Overall, he is much more cynical and narcissistic than I thought he would be. I understand that pro athletes are competitors and like to be rewarded when they do good things. Piazza is no exception to this. There is not a lot of humility described during the first several years of his pro career.

Stylistically, the writing is about as basic as you'd expect with some of the same old baseball cliches...a few that barely make sense in the context he is using them. His references to music are downright painful.

[Vic Sage]

you don't think he actually WROTE the book, do you?
I'm dubious that he's even read it.

[TransMonk]

Literal-ized for Vic:

TransMonk wrote: Stylistically, the writing is about as basic as you'd expect with some of the same old baseball cliches...a few that barely make sense in the context [that Mike Piazza's ghost writer] is using them. [The ghost writer's] references to music are downright painful.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The ghost is a sportswriter from the Cincinnati Post named Lonnie Wheeler.

[metirish]

After reading the thread I have no interest in reading this, he sounds like a compete asshole, not how I want to remember him.

[Centerfield]

I love the Rickey story.

I remember how all the Rickey critics during his prime accused him of being money driven. Rickey insisted it wasn't about the money and instead, about respect.

I believe Rickey was one of the few crazy enough to be telling the truth here. I loved hearing those same guys try to justify that argument when he was playing in independent leagues after his MLB career.

[Fman99]

metirish wrote: After reading the thread I have no interest in reading this, he sounds like a compete asshole, not how I want to remember him.

This. I don't care what your politics are, just hit the ball and/or throw strikes, for fuck's sake.

[Farmer Ted]

Shit, this has me more on edge. The good old days.

http://observer.com/2000/10/as-mets-head-toward-the-playoffs-mike-piazza-has-his-own-playmate/

[G-Fafif]

Legend-on-legend crime: Mike claims Vin Scully had it in for him. And takes on the briefest of Met teammates.

Mike Piazza has not set foot in Dodger Stadium since his retirement. When the Dodgers offered to honor him with a bobblehead night last season, Piazza declined. "He doesn't want to come back because he thinks the fans will boo," former Dodgers Manager Tom Lasorda, the godfather to Piazza's brother, told The Times last month. Piazza did himself no favors on that score in his new book, "Long Shot." In the book, he blames iconic Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully for turning fans against him during the contract stalemate that preceded his trade to the Florida Marlins in 1998. Piazza, who was eligible for free agency after the 1998 season, said he hoped to stay with the Dodgers but set a deadline of Feb. 15 to reach a new contract. In the book, Piazza wrote that Scully asked him about the deadline in a spring interview. "He wasn't happy about it," Piazza wrote. "And Scully's voice carried a great deal of authority in Los Angeles." Piazza wanted $105 million over seven years. In the book, he said the Dodgers made a take-it-or-leave-it offer of $76 million over six years, said he would have signed at $79 million, and suggested the team leaked that it had offered $80 million. At $80 million -- or even at $76 million -- Piazza would have been the highest-paid player in the game. Dodgers fans took notice that spring, as Piazza wrote. "The way the whole contract drama looked to them -- many of whom were taking their cue from Scully -- was that, by setting a deadline and insisting on so much money, I was demonstrating a conspicuous lack of loyalty to the ball club," Piazza wrote. "I understood that." Piazza ripped the Dodgers in a 1998 opening day interview with The Times. In the book, he said that interview did not play well with the L.A. fans, and neither did the fact that he failed to drive in a run as the Dodgers opened the season with a four-game losing streak. "On top of that, Vin Scully was crushing me," Piazza wrote. Scully flatly denied he maligned Piazza. "That's not true at all," Scully told The Times in a telephone interview Wednesday. Scully said he could not recall the interview in which Piazza said the contract deadline was discussed. However, Scully said, he never would criticize a player about contractual negotiations. "As God is my judge, I don't get involved in these things," Scully said. "I can't imagine I would ever put my toe in the water as far as a player and his negotiations. "I have no idea where he is coming from. I really have no idea. I can't imagine saying something about a player and his contract. I just don't do that, ever. I'm really flabbergasted by that reference." Piazza retired via email on May 20, 2008. No team had signed him for the 2008 season, although he heard from Lasorda that the Dodgers might be interested. Ultimately, the Dodgers signed Gary Bennett to back up Russell Martin. "Even to the end, ten years after they'd traded me, the Dodgers were still jerking me around," Piazza wrote. "If they'd brought in Pudge Rodriguez, sure, I could understand that. But Gary Bennett?"

[Edgy MD]

That just comes out as somebody else's voice, doesn't it?

[Frayed Knot]

Maybe he'll later claim it isn't his voice; a move that certainly wouldn't make him the first sports star to throw out the idea that he was misquoted in his own autobiography.

[TransMonk]

Edgy MD wrote: That just comes out as somebody else's voice, doesn't it?

Very much so, yes.

I'm now up through the 2003 season. He has very few nice things to say about the Dodgers organization. His recounts of his years with the Mets, so far, are much more positive. He had some perceived slights by Valentine (who didn't), but overall was positive about him and he did not like dealing with the NY press (especially the whole "Piazza is gay" thing). But his descriptions of the years around the turn of the century were fun to read and were the main reason I decided to read the book. He goes into the Clemens and Mota feuds in much depth. He definitely has a hot head.

I've got a little less than a hundred pages left. It's gotten better (mostly because of the stories turning to Mets experiences rather than Dodgers)...but he still comes of as much more of a douche than I remember him. There were several passages that I literally cringed at while reading. I can't believe we would have THAT attributed to him in his autobiography!

[batmagadanleadoff]

I'm not necessarily taking sides here, whether it's Piazza against Vin Scully or Piazza against the MVP voters of '95 and '96, (although why he doesn't gripe about '97 is beyond me; I'da voted for Piazza as MVP in '97 no doubter) but for all of his outward politeness, Piazza strikes me as the spoiled kinda guy who can't cope with not getting what he wants. He probably never had a bad day in his life. He was raised fabulously wealthy, by a family rich enough to buy a major league baseball team. And then, Mike Piaza grew up to become Mike Piazza.

[TransMonk]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: ...or Piazza against the MVP voters of '95 and '96, (although why he doesn't gripe about '97 is beyond me; I'da voted for Piazza as MVP in '97 no doubter)...

I hadn't gotten to 1997 yet...he was pissed about that one, too.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: ...but for all of his outward politeness, Piazza strikes me as the spoiled kinda guy who can't cope with not getting what he wants...

Yes.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I agree that the cordial gentlemanliness may have been a mask on a more conniving and entitled person, but it makes whimpering about situations years (or even decades) later --- with the benefit of reviewing several rounds of proofs for consideration of how they read --- more perplexing.

I mean the period when you're waiting for Hall of Fame enshrinement is generally the time an athlete who came across as petulant and self-centered during his career puts on a suit, smiles, plays charity golf tournaments, says nice things, and tries to establish himself as a man of character in ways he never bothered to doing during his career. Piazza appears to be turning that paradigm on its ear.

[TransMonk]

I'm guessing that both Piazza and the publisher thought that he would already be elected by the BBWAA by the book's release date when it was set.

I'm surprised there is not an added chapter about how pissed he is about that too.

[MFS62]

TransMonk wrote: I'm surprised there is not an added chapter about how pissed he is about that too.

I remember when Rick Barry's book "Confessions of a Basketball Gypsy" had to add chapters and change the picture of the uni he was wearing on the front cover because he kept moving to new teams and leagues.
(I worked for the publisher, Prentice-Hall, at the time, and it drove the printers nuts)
Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

TransMonk wrote: I'm surprised there is not an added chapter about how pissed he is about that too.

That will probably be in the paperback edition.

[MFS62]

Ben, how long is the delay between when the hardcover and paperback editions are released?
IIRC, it used to be a year. If so, by that time, there could be more than one chapter added - his first ballot rejection and his second ballot success.

Later

[Edgy MD]

A year is still the standard, but pop culture bios often have a short enough shelf life as it is, so that figure could be contracted, and the paperback version could very likely be out by Christmas.

In the age of digital publishing destroying the book, "standard" isn't a very meaningful term. Everybody is trying to find a new model.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

IMG957584.jpg[/attachment:1kiwj5il]Mikey showing up for his book signing in Carle Place, NY (my daughter is there).