Reese Kaplan -- Mike Puma's If These Walls Could Talk Part 2 of 9

As you begin the first chapter of Mike Puma’s If These Walls Could Talk: New York Mets, you quickly descend into the long-ago cultural issue with the New York Mets between then-manager Bobby Valentine and then-GM Steve Phillips.  For all of our collective recent memory about how awful the Wilpons were and the many actions they took (or didn’t take) that impacted the record of the ballclub, in those days they were a bit more behind the scenes with this dynamic duo drawing headlines and competing for public acclaim while engaging the media to ridicule the other.  

Valentine’s first flirtation with this for-him-or-against-him mentality came during the 1998 series with the Yankees when he chose to bring in right handed reliever Mel Rojas to face dangerous and capable lefty hitter Paul O’Neill.  As they always say, hindsight is 20-20, but all Mets fans can remember that O’Neill crushed the very first Rojas pitch over the wall for a late three-run homer to put the game away.  Many wanted to know why he didn’t engage a lefty Brian Bohanon’s arm to face the lefty O’Neill.  Valentine was always much more driven by what we now refer to as advanced statistics than by gut instinct and he was quick to point out some righties are more adept at getting out lefties.  Back then, of course, that whole concept was ridiculed and he was treated rather harshly by the fans in the papers and on WFAN.  

The following day the Mets found themselves in almost an identical situation late in the game and this time Valentine called upon southpaw Bill Pulsipher.  O’Neill drove the ball into the outfield for a run scoring single and Bobby Valentine saluted the press box who had crucified him (though he neglected to use four of his fingers when doing so).  

Some players were effusive in their praise of Valentine for his knowledge of the game and his ability to get the most out of his players.  Puma quoted Edgardo Alfonzo who said, “My experience with Bobby was good because he let me play and he trusted me...when you get to know him you understand this guy is for real.  He’s a real smart guy and he taught me a lot.”

Not everyone held him in the same high regard.  Mike Piazza was very critical of the way in which Valentine needled him incessantly about things he did not do instead of praising what he did.  He had a similar relationship with Tommy Lasorda, so it was not a new experience but he was probably expecting something different when he came to New York.  Piazza said, “Sometimes as players we get too comfortable and sometimes you need someone to shock the system a little bit, even if you don’t agree with it.  There were times I wanted to kill (Valentine), he would call me out on certain things and I didn’t think it was warranted, but nonetheless I had to keep my nose down and just deal with it.”

Gary Cohen, then of Mets radio, was a big fan.  He said of Valentine he “loved that kind of competition between himself and the other managers.  In my opinion, he probably did know more than anybody else.  He sometimes was a little self-defeating in the way he presented it, but he was brilliant as far as being a baseball technician.”

For the 1998 season the Mets were struggling.  They had acquired Al Leiter during the winter to anchor the pitching staff, but their catcher Todd Hundley was down for Tommy John Surgery.  The lineup had some good bats in John Olerud and Edgardo Alfonzo, but others who were expected to do more like Carlos Baerga and Butch Huskey were not performing as expected.  They were missing a key bat and it was the trade of Preston Wilson with some benchwarmers to bring Mike Piazza to New York that changed things dramatically.  

Initially the fans were a bit rough on the future Hall of Famer as they felt he was probably just riding out the rest of the season until free agency hit.  Piazza said, “We as athletes have to sort of do things to survive and try to change the energy in a way, so my natural instincts were to sort of go into my shell and I wasn’t very approachable.  I knew I had to refocus and maybe I wasn’t the most friendly guy.”

The shift in fan perception could be traced to a Colorado game during which the Mets were trailing with Piazza coming to the plate after reliever Chuck McElroy loaded the bases.  He lashed a double to drive in all three runs enroute to a 6-3 victory.  Piazza said, “From there I felt the energy changing.”

The 1999 team was better.  Nelson Doubleday pushed hard to get the Mets to sign Mike Piazza to a then remarkable 7-year $91 million contract.  The club asked Edgardo Alfonzo if he would move to 2nd base to open up third for the available Robin Ventura.  They added powerful hurler Armando Benitez to head up the bullpen with the returning John Olerud manning 1st and slick fielding Rey Ordonez at shortstop.  After a very slow start and the firing of three of his coaches, Valentine declared if we don’t win 40 of the next 55 games, then I shouldn’t be manager.  He did.

It was also during that crazy season that Valentine was tossed from the game for arguing a catcher’s interference call against Mike Piazza.  Rather than leaving the dugout, he returned in disguise with a fake mustache and a sweatshirt over his uniform jersey, but he was outed because the players he’d counted on the run literal interference and block the camera’s (and Blue Jays’) view of him -- Orel Hershiser and Robin Ventura -- weren’t adept at doing so.  The incident caused Valentine to be suspended for two games and fined $5000, but the image is a part of Mets lore forever.  

The Mets made it to the playoffs that year and in another forever-remembered moment, substitute catcher Todd Pratt hit a dramatic home run against the Diamondbacks that looked initially like it had been caught but the deft Steve Finley, but it was beyond his reach and Piazza’s backup was the hero to advance the Mets to the NLCS against the Braves where their postseason hopes ended.

The 2000 club was different.  Mike Hampton and Derek Bell joined the team from the Astros.  John Olerud was replaced (badly) by Todd Zeile.  Rickey Henderson was released in May, leaving Valentine to shuffle multiple outfielders every day that included Benny Agbayani, Derek Bell, Jay Payton and Timo Perez.  

In the nightcap of a home-and-away doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, Roger Clemens beaned Mike Piazza leading to concussion-like symptoms.  When Clemens eventually phoned the Mets to check on how Piazza was doing, the catcher was direct in his response to the clubhouse guy informing him that the pitcher was on the phone.  Piazza declared, “Tell him to go fuck himself!”

The rest of Puma’s chapter deals with the crushing blow of the 2000 World Series, perhaps best remembered for the broken bat that landed near Roger Clemens who picked it up and fired it back at Piazza.  It’s moments like that one which suggest the key difference between Yankee fans and Mets fans.  The Yankee fans reveled in that kind of bad sportsmanship and the Mets fans took the high road.  The Mets didn’t win but were a classier bunch by a wide margin. 

The book also spent some time revisiting the 9/11 events, the break from baseball, the logistical confusion of getting around the city, and how the players reacted. He then went into the dramatic return to Shea Stadium and the still surreal detached feeling people had about what were normal things in their lives until late in the game when Mike Piazza hit a home run to put the Mets out front and allowed the people attending the game who were watching the players in FDNY and NYPD caps for that moment forget their sadness and anxiety. They just got absorbed in something good and something normal happening again.