Swipe from Gothamist. Sounds like that good Bucks County Eye-talian Country Club racism toward Latinos, AND he got mushed in the mouth by the post-Pam chick from Tool Time.

http://gothamist.com/2013/02/10/the_6_best_quotes_from_mike_piazzas.php

The 6 Best Quotes From Mike Piazza's Memoir: "If I Was Gay, I'd Be Gay All The Way"

There's no way to be objective about this: Mike Piazza is one of our favorite baseball players of all time. The heavy metal-loving, Playboy bunny-marrying slugger was a 12-time All-Star and undoubtedly the greatest offensive catcher in baseball history—and he gave the Mets some of his best years. At the same time, rumors that he used steroids have haunted him his whole career, to the point that he narrowly missed making the Hall Of Fame on his first try, despite never being directly linked to PEDs. A month after that snub, Piazza is about to release a memoir, Long Shot, and the NY Post got a sneak peek—below, we've picked out our six favorite quotes, about everything from his hatred for Roger Clemens to yelling at Axl Rose to those persistent gay rumors.

Mike Piazza Fucking Hates Roger Clemens: After Clemens almost beamed Piazza with a 98-mph fastball to his helmet during a July 8, 2000 game (“I truly believe that if I hadn’t gotten my head down at the last instant, Clemens’ two-seamer would have struck me in the eye and possibly killed me”), Piazza literally planned to get his revenge. “I would approach with my fist pulled back. I figured he’d throw his glove out for protection. I’d parry the glove and then get after it,” Piazza writes. He even took karate lessons in anticipation! But in the end, he couldn't go through with it when he got his chance during Game 2 of the 2000 World Series. "I stood a pretty fair chance of getting my ass kicked in front of Yankee Stadium and the world. That was a legitimate concern."

But Mike Piazza Isn't Afraid To Yell At Axl Rose: After a Guns N’ Roses concert, Piazza, who was drunk on vodka, yelled at Axl Rose for wearing Rangers, Knicks and Yankees jerseys on stage during the show...but not the Mets. “I’m obliterated. I go, ‘Hey, yo, Axl! What the f--k, man? Like, you know, you think you could’ve mixed in a Mets jersey?’ ”

Mike Piazza Didn't Do Steroids, Because He Didn't Want To Go To Prison: While he admits to taking was androstenedione, a muscle-building supplement bought over the counter that was popular with many baseball players in the '90s, he denies taking anything stronger. “I was into power, not prison," he noted. He also admits to taking non-PEDs, like Vioxx: “I used Vioxx because it was an intense anti-inflammatory and it made me feel good.”

Mike Piazza Is Not Gay, Because If He Were Gay, He'd Be Really Gay And Proud: Piazza isn't sure how the gay rumors started, although he thinks it was maybe an ex-teammate and his manager who started it. Either way, it annoyed him a lot: “I found it hugely insulting that people believed I’d go so far out of my way — living with Playmates, vacationing with actresses, showing up at nightclubs — to act out a lifestyle that would amount to a charade,” he writes. “If I was gay, I’d be gay all the way.”

Mike Piazza Dated The "Tool Time" Woman, Until She "Waffled" Him: Before he married Playboy playmate Alicia Rickter in 2005 (they have two kids now), Piazza dated a lot of women, including Debbe Dunning, the actress who played the “Tool Time” girl on Home Improvement. They had a rough break-up on Halloween one year though: “There was screaming and crying and then the Tool Time girl waffled my ass,” he recalled. “I hadn’t taken a punch like that in a long time.”

Mike Piazza Is A Little Paranoid About Hispanic Players: Piazza has some strong opinions about the influx of Latin players in the MLB; he thinks they need to learn English, not the other way around. But it gets weirder: Piazza describes “some kind of weird Hispanic conspiracy against me, almost like a secret brotherhood, a Latin mafia-type of thing.”

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Photo zine(some images NSFW): http://bit.ly/USaSPhoto

"This (and every, actually) conversation needs more Chesterton and less Mike Francesa." - Walleye

it would really be "tool time" ifyouknowwhatimean

-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.

>“There was screaming and crying and
>then the Tool Time girl waffled my ass,” he recalled. “I
>hadn’t taken a punch like that in a long time.”

--------

not a good look

> Piazza
>literally planned to get his revenge. “I would approach with
>my fist pulled back. I figured he’d throw his glove out for
>protection. I’d parry the glove and then get after it,” Piazza
>writes. He even took karate lessons in anticipation! But in
>the end, he couldn't go through with it when he got his chance
>during Game 2 of the 2000 World Series. "I stood a pretty fair
>chance of getting my ass kicked in front of Yankee Stadium and
>the world. That was a legitimate concern."

wtf

not literally, but he crumpled in a heap, and it was scary as shit. thought there was gonna be a riot in the stands

*Jews you*

"this is okp tho, reading is completely optional" (c) desus

Proceed with caution. I am overtly racist.

<-- In Pigpen we trust

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Photo zine(some images NSFW): http://bit.ly/USaSPhoto

"This (and every, actually) conversation needs more Chesterton and less Mike Francesa." - Walleye

Was Clemens that much of a Yankee that he felt he had to beef with Piazza since he was seen as a cornerstone Met player at the time? I find that hard to believe seeing how much Clemens moved around for his career.

___________________

Mar-A-Lago delenda est

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA200006090.shtml

I was at this game*. Piazza hit a grand slam off Clemens in the 3rd en route to a 12-2 blowout. Maybe time has massaged the memories some, but I remember Piazza styling pretty hard on the follow through. Clemens got worked something fierce, and got pulled after Fonzie hit a two-run HR with Piazza on deck. Having given up 7 runs already, one gets the impression that Clemens wanted to face Piazza again, presumably to cave in his greasy wop dago skull with an HGH-special, high and tight.


*As president of the Italian Club at a Bronx-based school for nerds, it fell on me to continue the years-long tradition of a club outing to Yankee Stadium. I'm from Queens though, so fuck that noise. I waited until the Mets were in town, and proceded to be "that guy" in the bleachers as they fucking mollywhopped the Yanks. I had about 15 classmates decked out in dark blue Yankee hats, just staring daggers at me as partied. One of the underclassmen caught the brunt of the beer that someone threw at me too, like a good little secret service agent. Such a good memory.

__________
YARDS

>*As president of the Italian Club at a Bronx-based school for
>nerds, it fell on me to continue the years-long tradition of a
>club outing to Yankee Stadium. I'm from Queens though, so fuck
>that noise. I waited until the Mets were in town, and proceded
>to be "that guy" in the bleachers as they fucking mollywhopped
>the Yanks. I had about 15 classmates decked out in dark blue
>Yankee hats, just staring daggers at me as partied. One of the
>underclassmen caught the brunt of the beer that someone threw
>at me too, like a good little secret service agent. Such a
>good memory.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

>*As president of the Italian Club at a Bronx-based school for
>nerds, it fell on me to continue the years-long tradition of a
>club outing to Yankee Stadium. I'm from Queens though, so fuck
>that noise. I waited until the Mets were in town, and proceded
>to be "that guy" in the bleachers as they fucking mollywhopped
>the Yanks. I had about 15 classmates decked out in dark blue
>Yankee hats, just staring daggers at me as partied. One of the
>underclassmen caught the brunt of the beer that someone threw
>at me too, like a good little secret service agent. Such a
>good memory.

Bronx High School of Science? Was that trip totally funded by the school? Pretty nice if that's the case. Interesting tidbit I just learned from a brief wikipedia web search; there more more NYC specialized high schools other than Brooklyn Tech, Bronx High School of Science, Stuyvesant, and Laguardia. When I was of high school age, I was only aware of those four. Turns out there are five more. Times do change.

>Bronx High School of Science? Was that trip totally funded by
>the school? Pretty nice if that's the case. Interesting tidbit
>I just learned from a brief wikipedia web search; there more
>more NYC specialized high schools other than Brooklyn Tech,
>Bronx High School of Science, Stuyvesant, and Laguardia. When
>I was of high school age, I was only aware of those four.
>Turns out there are five more. Times do change.

Actually, I think we paid for tickets with the proceeds from the food fair. Italian Club ruled the food fair. AV club baking keyboard cookies and shit, getting run off the court by our boozed-up tiramisu.

Shit, I still think/thought Stuyvesant, BxSci and Brooklyn Tech were the only three. Didn't really know about Laguardia at that age.

__________
YARDS

Well done.

------------------
One Hundred.

__________
YARDS

from Piazza's book.

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Photo zine(some images NSFW): http://bit.ly/USaSPhoto

"This (and every, actually) conversation needs more Chesterton and less Mike Francesa." - Walleye

.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

under achieved...

rather than providing actual leadership...he and Eric Karros would make excusing like the reason the team wasn't together was because of the ethnic diversity on the team.

I knew then that those Dodger teams weren't going to advance because their so called leader had such a weak attitude.

He was never a leader and he was horrible defensively.

November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

had none of the qualities you look for in a catcher (thinking molina, chooch, et al) and seemed like he was just there to get his ABs and be out.

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

Whatever issues he had in LA, he sorted them out right quick in Flushing. Damn near singlehandedly lifted the city out of it's post-9/11 state of shock. (I'd link the video, but if you need to be reminded, then you're not qualified to be speaking on Piazza's intangibles in the first damn place.)

__________
YARDS

he was TERRIBLE at throwing out runners, but everything else he did pretty well.

In fact, let me allow John Dewan to elucidate

http://www.billjamesonline.com/should_mike_piazza_be_in_the_hall_of_fame_/


Relevant swipe:

If it was true that Piazza was not a good defensive catcher, I would be OK with him not getting into the Hall on the first ballot. I still think the best hitting catcher of all time should be in the Hall, but having to wait a few years wouldn’t be so bad. But, all the statistical measures suggest otherwise. In fact, they suggest that Piazza was an above-average defensive catcher.

The one thing that Piazza did not do well defensively was throw out basestealers. He allowed a 76.8 percent stolen base percentage in his career. Other catchers who caught the same pitchers as Piazza threw out 64.5 percent. However, nabbing basestealers is only a part of a catcher’s defensive responsibility and only a small part of Piazza’s overall game. It would be like saying that the best hitting second baseman of all time, Rogers Hornsby, shouldn’t be in the Hall because he didn’t steal a lot of bases in his time.

The most important part of a catcher’s job is handling his pitchers and in this area Piazza was superb. Here is one of the most telling statistics. In his career behind the plate, pitchers had a 3.80 ERA when Piazza was catching. If you look at all the other catchers who caught the same pitchers in the same year that Piazza did, they allowed a 4.34 ERA. That’s a major difference, much more important than a few extra bases stolen. (In fact, Piazza’s catcher ERA of 3.81 includes the run value of any extra stolen bases he allowed.)

Craig Wright wrote an excellent article in The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2009 called Piazza, Hall of Fame Catcher. He did a detailed sabermetric study that showed that hitters had a .723 OPS with Piazza behind the plate and a .748 OPS with other catchers. This 25-point differential is highly significant. In further studies that we did in The Fielding Bible—Volume II, we found that Piazza saved at least 20 to 70 runs more than an average catcher defensively, depending on the technique that we used."

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Photo zine(some images NSFW): http://bit.ly/USaSPhoto

"This (and every, actually) conversation needs more Chesterton and less Mike Francesa." - Walleye

he was not very good at that in LA. Honestly while here he gave off the attitude that he did not care about defense. Maybe the trade kicked him in the ass or it was just maturing. But LA Piazza and NY Piazza are completely different behind the plate.

November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

So I'd then be really interested in seeing the splits between the two.

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Photo zine(some images NSFW): http://bit.ly/USaSPhoto

"This (and every, actually) conversation needs more Chesterton and less Mike Francesa." - Walleye

he was replaced regularly because this pitcher liked having Carlos Hernandez or Tom Prince catch for them. Those ended up being his "rest" days.

November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

I thought he became better around the plate once he got to NY. Still not graet but did enough where I constantly found myself saying, "That's better than I thought he could do."

noodle ass arm though and there was constant speculation about a position change. that it never came works in his favor. i still wouldnt put him in the same breath as bench, campy, et al as an all around force. HOF'er no doubt that, likely should have been first ballot, too.

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

>) and seemed like he was just there to
>get his ABs and be out.

this book removes any remaining shred of doubt that piazza was a total pussy but the guy was heavily invested in the team and heavily invested in winning and had a truckload of clutch hits...

he singlehandedly revived the mets franchise. for whatever thats worth nowadays but it was a big deal at the time.

admittedly i saw a lot more of him in L.A. (plus i was more neutral watching him there, i did not yet despise the doyers).

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

I mean, those teams were right there.

I never understood why they chose to rest their team in 96 and not care about winning the division, and being fine settling for the wild card. Then they got murked by the Braves, when the Cardinals would've been an easier matchup. Dumb.

That pissed me off, and then in '97 that Brian Johnson HR knocked them out.....I thought they had a legit shot that year.

I put none of those clubs falling short on Piazza, in the big scheme. And the Dodgers didn't recover for years after trading him.

96 and 97. Of course 96 was the year of the great collapse the last week of the season versus SD. That was quality managing job by Bill Russell.

>I put none of those clubs falling short on Piazza, in the big
>scheme. And the Dodgers didn't recover for years after
>trading him.

we didnt have anything to recover from. We were shit with him and we were really shitty with out him. His trade was the big move by FOX. We entered the FOX era also known as the Kevin Malone era. They gave zero fucks about our team. The Dodgers were just a platform to push FOX Sports Net. Never thought we would have owners worse than FOX. Then came the McCourts.

November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

I mean, going to the playoffs more than qualifies as "decent" IMO....96 should've won the division but gave it away by not caring and took the wild card, 97 missed out the last weekend.

Piazza was only a Dodger for 5 years, 3 of those 5 were good teams. Even 94 was leading the division, though in a very week year as they were barely above .500.

I disagree with 1-2 decent teams in his era.....I say 3 good teams out of 5 years. Probably the only 3 legitimately good teams we had between 1991 and 2004.

<--- Big Baller World Order

that pretty much says it all about this guy.

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

fuck him

November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!