Long Shot by Mike Piazza & Lonnie Wheeler

Author:Mike Piazza & Lonnie Wheeler [Piazza, Mike & Wheeler, Lonnie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781439150221
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2013-02-12T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Like a lot of people in the game, my impressions of Bobby Valentine had not been favorable. When he managed the Texas Rangers, he had been called the most hated man in baseball. Opponents found him arrogant, smug, annoying, and sneaky. Valentine had been known to stand on the top step of the dugout—Chris Wheeler, the Phillies announcer, called him Top-Step Bobby—and cuss at players on the other team. There were rumors that he had a spy planted in the visiting clubhouse. He was the ultimate micromanager, the intuitive type who had his hand in every pitch and every twitch, it seemed like. The year before I got to New York, he used 131 different lineups. Nobody questioned that Bobby was smart; they just wished he didn’t remind you at every opportunity. Or sweet-talk the media the way he did.

I was probably more inclined than most players to cut him some slack, because he reminded me so much of Tommy; but I’d had my own little run-in with Bobby. It was during the last spring training before I was traded to the Mets. They were crushing us one day. I think Rico Brogna had three home runs. One of their guys stole a base, which is considered bad form in that situation, and Billy Russell gave Bobby a hard stare from the other dugout. Bobby responded with something like “I’m trying to do you a fucking favor and get you some fucking outs!” Then I glared at Bobby with that “what an asshole” look—I was catching at the time—and he glared back at me with a “what are you looking at?” look. A week or two later he approached and said, “You’re not still mad at me, are you?” Whatever.

But he treated me well when I joined the Mets. I’m sure that Todd Hundley wasn’t as thrilled with him, but I certainly had no complaints. For one thing, I was pleasantly surprised to find that he didn’t try to call the game for me when I was catching. My only issue with Bobby was the incestuous relationship he maintained with the media. The players were frequently puzzled by leaks that we couldn’t trace to any other source. Of course, the writers and broadcasters loved Bobby. He understood the way New York operated and was only too happy to play that way. He embraced it. In fact, that was part of the reason why he embraced me.

I think the team needed somebody like Mike. We needed to be able to have that celebrity status because, a) we were in New York, and b) we were competing on a daily basis with a celebrity team across the borough. There was no other chance for us to compete on Page Six [the New York Post gossip section] or on talk radio without the celebrity status of Mike.

It was a very demanding situation for him. I’m not sure that anyone deserved to be put in such a role of responsibility. He was being

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