Mike Piazza: “Not Really” Difficult Picking Mets Over Dodgers for Hall of Fame Induction | VIDEO
Newly minted Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza was on The Dan Patrick Show on Thursday, where he spoke about his recent induction into the MLB HOF. Piazza’s decision to go in as a New York Met instead of a Los Angeles Dodger has obviously been quite the controversy.
Since then, some Dodgers fans feel slighted that Piazza wasn’t a Dodger for life. During the interview, Patrick asked Piazza if it was difficult to pick the Mets over the Dodgers for the Hall of Fame. Piazza responded to the question very nonchalantly by saying “not really.”
Piazza then went on to talk briefly about the contract extension with the Dodgers and how neither party wanted to budge from the offer they thought was fair. This obviously soured the relationship between Piazza and the team before he headed to New York.
However, Piazza also made it known that he has no lingering hard feelings towards anyone in the Dodgers organization and in fact he has a pretty good relationship with most people, including former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda.
Welcome to the #HOF, @mikepiazza31. (via @baseballhall) pic.twitter.com/sS6W3zzsRN
— Tommy Lasorda (@TommyLasorda) July 26, 2016
Despite the controversy surrounding Piazza’s exit, his relationship Lasorda never went south, and Piazza even mentioned Lasorda in his Hall of Fame speech.
Dodgers fans will always be left wondering what could have been had the two sides been able to reach an agreement, but what’s done is done and we should still be appreciative for his years with the Dodgers.
Congratulations, @mikepiazza31! On this #HOFWKND, the #Dodgers salute your Hall of Fame career. pic.twitter.com/O48cfKrNEr
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 22, 2016
Check out a snippet from Piazza’s interview on The Dan Patrick Show below:
“….neither party wanted to budge from the offer they thought was fair.” This was just the ordinary back-and-forth when negotiating a multi year, multi million dollar contract.
If that lousy, dirty, know-nothing, mofo Chase Carey of Fox had not intervened without Fred Claire’s involvement, I think Mike and the Dodgers would have hammered out a contract and he’d likely have played all or all but the last year or two of his Hall of Fame career as a Dodger. And he’d be a legendary Dodger if we’d gone to a few World Series because of him!
I HATE that few (anyone?) remembers that it was not “the Dodgers” that traded him, it was Fox. I will ALWAYS hate Fox for that.