In tonight's spring training game against the Dodgers, he charged the mound after Guillermo Mota threw right at him up around the shoulder.

Now there is a history between these two. At the end of spring training last year Mota hit Piazza with a pitch and was approached by Piazza after the game. Piazza grabbed Mota by the front of his shirt with both hands and began shouting at him. There is some evidence that Mota wanted to get back at Piazza following that incident last season.

Well tonight was that night. After Mota himself hit a 3-run homer and was cruising in 10-1 rout he decided tonight was the night to go after Piazza. But Mota was such a coward. When you see the footage you will see Mota throwing his glove at Piazza and then running away. Check out Piazza's eyes as he was being held back by both Dodger and Met players. He looked insane. Not your typical spring training game tonight in Port St. Lucie. Not in the least.

[ March 12, 2003, 07:26 PM: Message edited by: amazin12 ]

Reportedly later in the game after both players were ejected, Mike Piazza went into the Dodgers clubhouse looking for Mota, yelling, "Where's Mota?" Baseball is indeed back.

Wow, I just saw a clip of this on the news. Piazza looked like a crazy person. Or maybe he was trying to prove he's straight again.

I love baseball!

I wish Roger Clemens was playing in this game, just to make it a three ring circus!

Sounds like Piazza is seriously concerned about that fact that, this spring, he has not been getting sufficient news coverage.

If that's his concern, then let's see some more reports on who he's dating, then... wink

After speaking with one of my peers who had worked the game, I was told Piazza went berserk only after Mota yelled to him, "Come on, Mike, admit it--you're just glad the Broadway strike's over."


I just HAD to say it. Sorry.

yes, he's straight. got a problem with that?

yawn!

jumping on every opportunity to diss mike and the mets.

[ March 13, 2003, 12:09 AM: Message edited by: Andre29 ]

Was Vlad (the Impaler) Guerrero attempting the same when he tried to harpoon Brad Penny with his bat the other day?

Piazza's history with the Dodgers and Mota seems to indicate he had reason to be pissed.

I think Mota is going to get a huge fine!!!

presented to him by his own team! When the benches clear and comes to "your" defense, as is costomary in pro baseball, you stand and fight along with your teammates. If you run backwards into the dugout, like huge coward, you should get fined by your own team. What a spineless jellyfish! He may find himself looking for another team; it is still spring training and teams are looking to cut down on rosters.

I wish everyone would leave Mike alone. Granted, when he first came on the scene, he was looked upon as a spoiled rich kid who's daddy got him into the big leagues. Everything seem to be easy for him, goodlooks, good body, rich, and a major leaguer...what esle can you ask for, right.


And granted, he's a major gay icon. If he's gay or not, I have no ideal, only dreams, but hasn't he been put through enough?

Hasn't Mike proven himself as a player. I don't where he ranks as a catcher, I'll leave that up to the more jockish of our group. I just like a good baseball game with players who play like they love the game and want to win one for with their team. Ok, hot looking, sweaty guys in tight baseball pants tend to catch my eye... Can anyone say Javy Lopez, Jeff Bagwell, Brad Ausmus, Jeff Kent... Oh...someone STOP ME....

Piazza seems to be a nice enough guy. I've never heard him speak ill of anyone or any group. Maybe he could have handle his straight outting better, but give the guy a break...


OH well, Just a thought...

P.S... Well, I've got run... Javy flew in from Fla to practice his cup-tapping for the new season... and then I have both Jeffs ah hemm coming over...hehe.....oh

Take me out to the ballgame...dum dum de da... wink

While I don't condone Piazza's behaviour, especially storming into the Dodgers' clubhouse, I think his initial reaction was understandable, if somewhat out of character. On 'The Jungle' yesterday, Jim Rome made the comment that the 'eye for an eye' mentality in baseball will likely mean that the Mets' pitchers will go after Shawn Green next time these two teams meet, not Guillermo Mota. The 'logic' being that Green is Los Angeles' best hitter.

I agree with Mike Wilbon when he said yesterday that Piazza should have charged this douche bag with bat in hand. What a chicken shit to intentionally throw at a guy and then run to the lockerroom quicker than another allegation arose about Jim Harrick.

I'm really tiring of this beaning crap and Herr Selig needs to hand out much stiffer penalties to nip this in the bud.

Stiff penalties? Whom are you kidding? Selig's too busy handing out 10-day suspensions against umpires for things they say, while players get suspended 3 or 5 days for things they do.

Don't forget, too: Any discipline against a player is subject to review on appeal.

Editor's Note: I am not condoning stupid or insensitive comments by umpires. We are better than that and deserve to be disciplined if we act unprofessional.

Today the League handed down suspensions in the Guerrero/Penny incident from last week that Bill W mentioned previously. Guerrero received a 3-game suspension starting Opening Day, Brad Penny will serve 5 games starting Opening Day and the Expos' Jose Macias, also involved in the incident, will serve a 2-game suspension starting April 4. All 3 players were fined an undisclosed amount of money.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Guerrero, an everyday starter, misses 3 games, while Penny will miss maybe one start. Huh?? We'll see what kind of suspensions Piazza and Mota get, but don't expect to see them on Opening Day. Not that you’d see Mota on Opening Day anyway.

And I gotta agree with George_vf (and his friend Wilbon) here. Sure, it's easy for Mota to chuck a 90 mph fastball at someone's head and then run into the dugout to avoid the retaliation. But if the "eye for an eye" rule was applied here, Piazza should be allowed to throw his bat right back at the pitcher, just to "brush him back" a little. So what if he gets a concussion, right? Really though, I think Mota should get a harsher suspension than Piazza in this case because of his history of throwing at Lil Mikey's head. He seems to be able to get the ball over the plate for every other batter he faces.

Let's say Guerrero would play 150 games (just giving him an occasional rest). Missing 3 out of 150 means he's missing 2 percent of his games. If Penny gets 35 starts on the season, missing 1 of 35 means he's missing 2.85 percent of his starts. Even if Penny were starting every 4 games (which is unlikely since every team uses 5 starters most of the season) that would mean he'd get 40 starts and miss one, or 2.5 percent. So these things are hard to judge in that way.

I just think that if MLB is serious about stopping mound-charging, they need to hand down much longer suspensions.

[ March 14, 2003, 07:26 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

What a load of crap! Piazza and Mota got the SAME suspensions and Piazza got a BIGGER fine. From ESPN.com:

I think Piazza's entering the opposing clubhouse was the reason for the severity of his punishment. MLB doesn't want to see that happen again.

That's a good point Bill. But I just feel like they should know that Mota intentionally threw at Piazza to start the whole incident. I'm tired of the retaliator being more severely punished than the instigator. And a pitcher being suspended 5 games is no where near the same as a position player.

And if Mota hadn't run off the field like a chicken shit, Piazza wouldn't have had to hunt him down. I'd be really interested to know what Mota's teammates really think of his actions.

Mota is such a wuss. He ran off the field like a girl. Piazza looked like a growling rabid dog as they held him back. :mad:

Would this mean:

Mota = A girlyman....

Pizza = A pretty dawg...rabid as he may be..

:cool: :cool:

Yet more proof that -- for whatever reason -- other major league baseball players just don't like Mikey Piazza.

Here's a quote from Pedro Martinez that I just saw on the ESPN site:
Maybe Pedro's just sticking up for a fellow skinny Latin pitcher, but still ...