How nice to have camps open, so we can amuse ourselves with the big mouths of players instead of the owners' cooked books! Much as I love the centerfield camera view of Mighty Mike Hampton's butt, looks like he's carping about his long, expensive Colorado contract already:

Surprise! Hampton unhappy (NY Newsday)


Admittedly, this is a skewed New York perspective. How are Mikey's comments going over in Denver?

Thanks for the link Bill W. I have no pro/anti-Mets thing going on--OK, I can't stand Mo Vaughn but still--but I do have a real problem with players who sign huge contracts--as far as I can tell, no one puts a gun to their head to do so--and then when the situation doesn't quite work out the way they'd hope, blasts everyone in the papers.

I've never been a big Mike Piazza fan (I think he's a terrible catcher that should have been moved to first base 10 years ago) but this had me admiring him some: [quote]"I don't get it. It doesn't make much sense to me," Piazza said. "You make a commitment to be somewhere. It's like a marriage, for better or worse. It's 'I do,' but now it's 'I don't.' Or it's 'only on my terms.' So don't sign for eight years. Sign for two or three. You're paid to do a job. Just shut up and play baseball, it's not that hard. It's an integrity thing. I made a commitment for seven years, for better or worse. If the Mets did not do one thing over the winter, I'm hired to play baseball for the Mets. I'm going to do the best I can. That's what loyalty is all about. It's a two-way street."

---

His point is well taken: don't sign an 8 year contract; sign for 2 or 3 and if the situation blows, you can walk or, if its good, re-sign.

Some people.

[ February 19, 2002: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

Rejoice, Mets fans!!He's a loser!!!!HAHHAAHAHAHA!

I think the article shows that even though New York is the largest city in the country ... and one of the great cities of the world ... it still can be a very provincial place.

Somehow I don't think Hampton is sitting around thinking, "Geez, the Mets signed Jeromy Burnitz and Mo Vaughn. They're going to the Series and I'm stuck in some quiet, little, piss-ant, redneck, podunk, white trash, mountain town." So Hampy isn't happy about some of the moves the Rockies made and he expressed his opinion. Big deal. He wants his team to sign better players. Who wouldn't? He signed a huge contract but he didn't sell his soul. He's not a company whore. (See, e.g., A-Rod, Texas Ranger.)

And as far as Piazza criticizing Hampton goes, there's some history here. Remember that there was a whole lot of bad blood between the two when Hampton was a Met. Hampton was vocally non-supportive of Piazza during the notorious Roger Clemens thrown-bat-shard incident, basically questioning Piazza's masculinity for not charging the mound. So Piazza gets a two-fer: media quote whore and payback to a rival.

I think it's very telling that Piazza's the only Met quoted in the article. Maybe team leaders share Piazza's opinion, players like Edgardo Alfonso or ... or ... actually the Mets got rid of all the other clubhouse leaders in the off-season. But I got the feeling the Hampton was NOT just speaking for himself when he was critical of Piazza during that incident. So if it were put to a vote, at least among the few Mets still on the roster when Hampton was there ... I'm not sure Piazza even today would get a majority agreeing with him.

[ February 19, 2002: Message edited by: Charlie in the Trees ]

Gee Charlie tell us how you really feel?

Maybe Hampton's not jealous of the Vaughn/Burnitz moves but he's gotta be thinking that with Alomar/Cedeno, the Mets have improved from last year while Colorado hasn't.

As for provincial, New Yorkers are always puzzled when primadonnas like Hampton shy aways from bright lights and big city. Just like A-Rod who wanted to move to a major market but ends up moving from Seattle to Texas.

[ February 20, 2002: Message edited by: hanknyc ]