Paul Lukas, aka “The Uni-Watch” guy, wrote a column about Mike Piazza. Beginning with a thinly-veiled lead about hall of fame cap debates, the column devloves into character assassination.
Here are his points paraphrased for brevity.
Mike Piazza did not switch positions. He got angry with Art Howe for telling the media he would be playing first before telling him.
Piazza was a below average defensive catcher. His arm was not great. He ranked consistently near the bottom in CS%. However, his CERA numbers (despite the statistic being heavily pitcher dependent) were about average. His pitchers always defended him according to his baseball obituary in AP. He wasn’t that bad. His incredible offensive production more than made up for it. It was undoubtedly more valuable than Steroid Pudge’s ability to throw out 10% more baserunners.
As far as being upset with Howe, he had a legitimate gripe. Baseball handles things in house. So does the rest of the world. Any player, particularly one of Piazza’s stature, should have been at least notified of a position change.
Would Cal Ripken have been upset if the Orioles’ manager unilaterally announced he would be moving to third without telling him? Would golden boy Derek Jeter be upset if Joe Girardi announced to the media he would be moving to first before asking him? Piazza’s response was rational.
One would assume that the Uni-Watch guy would be upset if Page 2 reassigned him and announced it without discussion.
Piazza did not switch positions because he was obsessed with “that stupid record” (most home runs by a catcher). The only person who cared about it was “Hint:Rhymes with Mike Piazza.”
First, that record was mentioned in every Piazza game I watched during his later years. At least among crotchety baseball color analysts, it had some cache.
Second, “Hint:Rhymes with Mike Piazza” is a trite, punchless cliche. It also makes no sense as written. A word cannot rhyme with itself.
Mike Piazza is a horrible athlete.
For Lukas, the sole judge of athletic ability is how well you perform somewhere else after playing the most physically abusive position on the field for over a decade. Piazza was never the best athlete on the field, but, quite often, he was the best player, which should take precedence.
Mike Piazza did not use his “I’m not gay” press conference to say that it should not matter whether he is gay.
It would have been fantastic had Piazza taken that stand. It would have been noteworthy and courageous. But, you can’t chastise him for not being a hero. You can criticize someone historically for a bad decision, but it is ludicrous to do it for something most people would not have had the strength to do.
Mike Piazza is a hypocrite for becoming a DH at the end of his career, when he said in 2000 that the DH was bad for baseball.
Piazza made a valid point in the 2000 World Series, after being the victim of Roger’s roid-rage tantrum. The DH facilitates pitchers throwing at hitters, because they do not have to worry about retaliation. In that sense, it is bad for the game.
Piazza did become a DH for the A’s during his last season. Was he supposed to turn down millions of dollars to maintain the integrity of a quotation made in the heat of the moment seven years previously? Is he not allowed to change his mind?
Piazza “never fulfilled his potential as a star, in the truest sense of that term.”
I challenge anyone to explain to me what that means. It is an attempt at a closing line, but a poor one. What is this “truest sense” of the word “star”? If there is one definition of the word “star,” perhaps that should have been mentioned in the column, where the only unifying theme is that Paul Lukas has an irrational hatred of Mike Piazza.
I assume that the Uni-watch guy has not quite reached Mitch Albom-status and has some form of editor at Page 2. The fundamental question that said editor should ask about each piece is “if this writer used this article as a clip on his resume, would I hire him?” It would prevent lazy non-sensical crap like this from being published.
Posted by tyduffy
