As Tommy DeVito pointed out in Jersey Boys, “Everybody
remembers it in the way they need to.”
That is the only way to describe Mike Francesca’s stunning
claim that he and former WFAN colleague Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo are the
reason the Mets swung a deal with the Florida Marlins to get Mike Piazza to New
York.
In the most recent clip published by Sirius XM Sports,
world-renowned actor, and long-time WFAN caller, Chaz Palminteri, interviews
Mike and the Mad Dog, and brings up Piazza’s trade to New York in 1998.
Mike pontificates that if it weren’t for them the Mets never
would have swung a deal for Piazza.
He claims that Piazza’s agent called the WFAN office and
told the radio duo that Piazza was heading to the Cubs, but really wanted to
play in New York. They wanted Mike and Chris to assure a detour to the Big
Apple.
“I said we can relay the message. Steve Phillips comes on
our show and says under no circumstances are we interested in Mike Piazza. …
After he leaves Dog and I got on a tangent. (Shea Stadium) is empty. I drove by
the stadium there were only 13,000 people inside. These idiots won’t fill the
stadium … .” Francesca claims.
Even Russo is seen just sitting there, listening to Mike's tangent.
This is not a new story.
Mike and the Mad Dog have thrown that claim out there before, and were
taken to task by Daily News writerBob Rassman, who quoted former Mets General Manager Steve Phillips, vehemently
denying the claims.
While Mike and the Mad Dog had a huge impact on the New York
sports scene and can take credit for putting pressure on many of the cities top
stars, while creating the sports debate that we all enjoy on a daily basis; the
very idea they were the reason Piazza came to the Mets is dubious at best.
There is no way in the world that Steve Phillips would
confide in two sports-talk radio hosts that he is trying to work out a deal
that hadn’t been completed. Such a move would be considered tampering.
It is also unlikely that Mets co-owners Nelson Doubleday and
Fred Wilpon would turn on the radio, hear Mike and Chris rant that the Mets
should get Piazza, and think, ‘Hey, they’re right, let’s do it.’
It wouldn’t happen, not when there were too many variables
involved. Keep in mind Dave Dombroski, who is now known as one of baseball’s
top executives for his work with the Tigers and Red Sox, was the Marlins GM at
the time. He didn’t have to send Piazza within the division, and he certainly
didn’t care what ‘Mike and the Mad Dog’ thought. All he cared about was the
compensation.
At the time, the Mets were trying to build a winner, and
they knew (without outside help) that a player like Piazza would help get them
over the top. Such a move came with
great risk. Piazza was scheduled to be a free agent; there was no guarantee he
would even stay beyond the 1998 season. The Mets were also sending Preston
Wilson, the son of beloved former Met Mookie Wilson, to the Marlins. To say
that it was an easy move is not fair.
And to say that it took Mike and the Mad Dog to make sure it
happened is not fair at all to the men who actually did make it happen in the
Mets and Marlins front offices.
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