Family Ties Didn’t Matter to Piazza : Baseball: The Dodger manager is his godfather, but the club’s top prospect worked hard to earn a promotion to the major leagues.

From the moment Tom Lasorda stood beside Mike Piazza’s parents during a baptism ceremony in Norristown, Pa., nearly 24 years ago, it seemed that Piazza’s path to the major leagues was neatly paved.

But when Piazza joins the Dodgers within 10 days as their top prospect, what will make him proudest is that he took the dirt road.

“People are going to say what they want to say . . . but I know what I have been through,” said Piazza, who had a .351 batting average with 23 home runs and 88 runs batted in after 123 games at double-A San Antonio and triple-A Albuquerque.

Lasorda may be his godfather, but what has shaped Piazza as the Dodgers’ future catcher are the times the Dodger manager wasn’t there.

--Lasorda wasn’t there when Piazza, as a 62nd-round draft pick in 1988, was begrudgingly given a tryout by the Dodgers’ scouting department.

He got the tryout a month after the draft, and only after agreeing to pay his way to Los Angeles.

Lasorda was shooed from the field because other Dodger officials feared that he would try to influence their thinking.

But when Piazza hit several balls into the seats, the scouts didn’t need Lasorda to lead their cheers.

--Lasorda wasn’t there when Piazza, a first baseman who wanted to enhance his value by becoming a catcher, enrolled in the Dodgers’ academy in the Dominican Republic in the winter of 1988.

He was the first and remains the only player from the United States who has lived in that dormitory in the rural outskirts of Santo Domingo.

After more than two months, he had lost 25 pounds and suffered prolonged bouts of homesickness.

But he learned to catch.

“Because of his relationship with Tommy, I think he has been under a lot of pressure not to fail,” said Vince Piazza, his father. “He had endured things others have not had to endure. But he has done what it takes.”

--Lasorda wasn’t there when Piazza decided to spend last winter in Mexico, playing in the most uncomfortable of the winter leagues.

He played so well--16 home runs and 45 RBIs in less than two months--that Dodger officials chartered a plane to Mexicali to see what all the fuss was about.

OK, so Lasorda was on that plane.

--Lasorda couldn’t go to the plate with him in spring training, when Piazza faced mostly big league pitching for the first time.

In 26 at-bats, he hit three homers and had 11 RBIs.

--Ironically, Lasorda also might not be there during Piazza’s first full major league season next year because of Lasorda’s relationship with Piazza’s father.

Vince Piazza, a self-made millionaire and one of Lasorda’s closest friends, is among the investors who have agreed to buy the San Francisco Giants and move them to St. Petersburg, Fla.

It is expected that once the deal is approved by major league baseball, Piazza will try to hire Lasorda as the manager or general manager.

The elder Piazza will not comment on his possible interest in Lasorda, just as Lasorda rarely comments on his interest in Piazza’s son.

“I don’t have to say anything,” Lasorda says about Mike. “All anybody has to do is watch him.”

And soon, much of the baseball world will be watching Piazza as he makes the move from Albuquerque after rosters are expanded Sept. 1.

“This is the guy who should probably be their starting catcher next year,” said Dick Williams, a former major league manager who scouts the Pacific Coast League for the San Diego Padres. “If the Dodgers are hoping to use Mike Scioscia as a backup and a mentor, like I hear, then this kid is the guy they want.

“Nothing against Carlos Hernandez, but we’re talking about a player here who is ready.”

Bill Evers, manager of the triple-A Phoenix Giants, anticipates Piazza’s recall with the fervor of a Dodger fan.

“The guy has played well against us all year,” Evers said. “He is going to be a No. 1 catcher for somebody.”

Although Piazza is best known for his long home runs, his 25-game hitting streak earlier this season was the second-longest in Albuquerque’s 21-year history.

And although his catching skills were considered suspect before the season started, scouts say he now has major league talent. Most say he has an average major league arm and above-average ability to block balls.

“The only thing left is for him to learn how to work with pitchers, and that is happening with time,” Evers said. “He needs experience putting down the right numbers, but this year he is getting that experience.”

Earlier this season he blocked a 55-foot curveball in the ninth inning with the tying run on base, then called for the same pitch again. It bounced again, he blocked it again. On the next pitch, the batter struck out.

A Dodger scout was so impressed, he phoned club Vice President Fred Claire to tell him of the incident.

“I don’t find one serious flaw defensively,” Williams said.

Like Scioscia, the Dodger catcher of the last decade, who is also from the small Philadelphia-area town, Piazza reacts to praise with shrugs and stoicism.

“Whether I can play in the big leagues remains to be seen,” he said the other day. “I still consider myself an unpolished player.”

Nobody would have argued that point several years ago, when Piazza was a slow first baseman for Miami Dade North Community College with seemingly no future in the game.

But after watching Piazza fooling around behind home plate with Dodger coaches one afternoon at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Lasorda had an idea. He phoned the Dodgers’ scouting department and asked then-director Ben Wade to consider drafting Piazza as a catcher.

Strictly as a favor to Lasorda, Piazza was taken as the club’s last pick. When nobody phoned him for a month, Piazza shrugged and concentrated on playing for a local semipro team.

“I was thinking, ‘Hey, at least getting drafted will look good on my resume,’ ” Piazza said.

When the Dodgers eventually called and asked about Piazza’s plans, he quickly offered to fly to Dodger Stadium if they would only give him 15 minutes of their time.

That 15-minute tryout led to four years of steady advancement. As Piazza’s reputation grew, so did his body. He now packs 200 pounds on his 6-foot 3-inch frame.

The Dodgers knew they had something special when he hit eight home runs in 57 games at Class-A Salem, Ore., in 1989.

They were sold last season, when he hit 29 home runs and drove in 80 runs in 117 games at Class-A Bakersfield.

But what everyone in the organization remembers most is Piazza’s trip to the Dominican.

“Players willing to pay that price will catch my attention,” Claire said. “That says to me a player is willing to do anything to advance.”

For Piazza, that price included long nights with only his Walkman, with its hard-rock tapes, as company.

“Uncle Tommy has done a lot for the game, and I’m not going to shy away from how I feel about him,” Piazza said. “But I know I’ve worked very hard.”

And he knows he is very close to hearing somebody utter the three words about his relationship with his godfather, three words that he has spent the last four years hoping to hear: It doesn’t matter.