>Mike Piazza, Dodger Great

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Good piece in the L.A. Times about one of the great Dodgers of all time.

The great ones should not bid farewell via e-mail. Mike Piazza deserved to tip his cap and bask in the applause, secure in his place as one of the Dodgers’ brightest stars.His place would have been between Tom Lasorda and Sandy Koufax, on opening day, at the end of the Dodgers’ stirring parade of players through the decades. Dodger Stadium went nuts when Koufax appeared, and the place would have gone only slightly less berserk with Piazza in the house.

It is difficult, even to this day, to make peace with the idea that Piazza did not play out his career with the Dodgers, that they traded perhaps the greatest hitting catcher in history — and Lasorda’s godson, no less. The Dodger Way was no more. It is a decade later, and the Dodgers have yet to recover the tradition, the loyalty and the championships.

>Don't Retire Piazza's #31

>Dodgers Hall of Famer Mike Piazza should not have his number retired by the Mets.

Are you going to put a statue of him outside Citi Field?

Are you going to retire 31 without retiring 17?

If you retire those why not 16?

What about Ron Darling (pick a number of his).

While we’re looking at fan favorites how about Buddy’s 3?

A great player yes

Hall of famer yes

An iconic ‘Met?’ No.

(Perhaps he can take Lee Mazzilli’s spot on SNY when Lee takes his rightful place in the Mets dugout as manager.)

>Lee Mazzilli, next manager of the Mets

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Dear Fred and Omar,

You have a manager that isn’t going to make it. You have a cranky fanbase you need to appease so you can sell tickets at the fancy new ballpark (and how much will those cost by the way).

Time to find a fan favorite who has managerial experience. He already works for you and Fred you’ll like this, he’s from Brooklyn.

The Hire Wally Backman Blog has this to say:


Lee Mazzilli is a possibility. On his post-game analysis for SNY after the Vargas fiasco, Maz made what I perceived as some veiled and valid criticisms of the Mets’ manager, which already makes him preferable to Randolph in my book. I have no idea how good Maz was in Baltimore, since I don’t really follow AL baseball. Some say he got a raw deal, that he’s a good manager. He’s got to be a step up from Randolph. A Big Mouth Billy Bass would be a step up from Randolph.

Th rest is of that article is here: http://hirewallybackman.blogspot.com/

And here’s some more folks who agree:

http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Alt/alt.sports.baseball.ny-mets/2008-05/msg00933.html