PHILADELPHIA – As Mike Piazza finished up batting practice, a little girl in the front row of Veterans Stadium held up a sign that said, “Go Mo!”
There were no signs, as far as one reporter could tell, that rhymed with that.
Although Philadelphia fans are notoriously tough on everyone from Santa Claus to hometown star Kobe Bryant, Piazza, who also grew up in the Philly area, was spared any cheap shots in the hours before last night’s game.
After Piazza finished taking his cuts (with manager Bobby Valentine yelling, “That’s you,” after Piazza hit an opposite-field bomb), a reporter came up to him talking about news that the body of Chandra Levy was possibly found. The Post writer said it was a pretty big story, besides the other thing dominating New York radio shows and tabloid pages.
“What other news?” Piazza said, jokingly about his Tuesday proclamation concerning his sexual orientation.
Was Piazza’s infamous press conference Tuesday a distraction or a harmless one-day diversion? When the 33-year-old Met catcher declared, “I’m not gay,” did it nip a controversy in the bud or perpetuate a media-generated monster?
ESPN, which made no mention of the story Tuesday night, was teasing the story as early as four hours before SportsCenter yesterday.
Met teammates have zero interest in further comment on the subject, however, and Piazza also is hopeful the issue will go away soon. But the damage to him has already been done, some will argue.
And all this is happening in the middle of the Mets’ crucial 16-game divisional slate, with most of those games on the road. Buckle your seatbelts, Mets fans. It’s going to be a long, wild ride through the NL East.
Although Piazza seemed to shake off any repercussions from the furor about his sexual preference, he was 0-for-3 with two double plays in the series opener. But until he hits his next bomb or drives in three, some critics will state this is affecting him.
Piazza seemed relaxed when he arrived at the ballpark early yesterday, carting in boxes of hoagies and multiple pizzas for his teammates.
“I’ve been doing it for a few years,” said Piazza, who was born in nearby Norristown, PA, and graduated from Phoenixville (PA) High School. “I missed it one day and [ex-Met] Lenny Harris said, ‘Where’s them samwiches?’
“The guys love them.”
Actually, Piazza was told it was the four-year anniversary of his trade to the Mets from the Marlins, and he recounted how teammate John Franco took him in and let him crash on Staten Island for a few days.
“When I found out it was the Mets, I was beaming,” said Piazza, who was also pursued by the Cubs and Orioles at the time.
If you didn’t notice when you picked up the paper this morning, four teams were separated by two games in the NL East entering yesterday. The Mets were on top by one game, and the Phillies were bringing up the rear five games back.
The Mets are in a make-or-break stretch of the season, playing 15 more games (including last night’s) against NL East competition, with nine of those games on the road. A chance to sweep the Phillies was already squandered on Tuesday night when they wasted Jeff D’Amico’s excellent pitching performance in a 4-0 loss.
Even before the series began, Steve Phillips struggled with the truth that there is more of an onus to win these games, without any additional distractions.
“I don’t know if there’s more onus, but I think certainly because we’re playing teams 19 times in our own division, it can go further than a team out of your division if you beat them,” Phillips said. “So I guess it puts more onus on them.”