First Is Last in Mind of Dodgers, Piazza

The debate litters the talk shows every day on your radio dial. You can hear it discussed in the stands and the clubhouse. Why, it has even surfaced on the playing field.

It arises every time Dodger catcher Mike Piazza does something special, and it took only moments Friday night after the Dodgers’ 6-1 romp over the San Francisco Giants in front of 44,565 at Dodger Stadium for the subject to surface once again.

Dodger starter Ismael Valdes pitched 8 2/3 shutout innings, Dodger interim Manager Bill Russell was booed for taking out Valdes, right fielder Raul Mondesi produced four hits, shortstop Greg Gagne hit a homer off the glove of Giant All-Star left fielder Barry Bonds, the Dodgers (49-42) moved to a season-high seven games above .500 . . . and the attention again is focused on Piazza, who hit his 25th home run of the season, drove in two more runs and raised his league-leading batting average to .362.

Again, inquiring minds wondered just how long Piazza plans to remain at catcher before switching positions, a subject that has become nauseating to him.

Piazza may be playing with torn cartilage in one knee and has a beat-up body from catching nearly every day, but as much as everyone speculates about him moving to first base, Piazza would love to stay put for four or five more years.

Give him an additional four or five years behind the plate, and Piazza could be remembered as the finest hitting catcher in baseball history.

“People don’t realize how much I like catching,” Piazza said. “I know I’ve got my deficiencies, but hey, our pitching staff [3.34 earned run average, second only to the Atlanta Braves] is doing a pretty good job with me back there. I’d like to think I have a little something to do with it.”

And just in case anyone has noticed, the Dodgers have an excellent first baseman in Eric Karros, who has 20 home runs and 54 RBIs.

“You get tired of hearing it,” said Karros of a Piazza move, “but unless it’s something that’s brought up by the organization, I don’t worry about it. I know Mike wants to catch. Eventually, Mike will move, no doubt about it, but I don’t see it happening now. There’s a reason he’s a catcher and there’s a reason I’m a first baseman.”

Besides, the Dodgers are playing pretty good baseball without changing a thing. They have won eight of their last 11 games, batting .332 with 21 homers and 81 runs during that time. The Giants (38-50) lost for the 17th time in their last 19 games, and their 12-game road losing streak is the longest in franchise history.

If this keeps up, the Dodgers may not even bother tinkering with their bench. Yet, just in case, they have begun exploratory talks with the Philadelphia Phillies in an attempt to acquire left-handed hitting outfielder Jim Eisenreich. He is hitting .338 with two homers and 22 RBIs in 73 games, and has a .415 batting average with six homers and 28 RBIs and a .695 slugging percentage against the Dodgers the last three seasons.

“If we need an experienced hitter coming down in August or September,” said Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice president, “that is one of the things we need to look at. Have we done some exploratory calls? Yes. But is something imminent or are we pressing to do something? No.”

The Dodgers were only one out from their sixth shutout of the season when Russell removed Valdes (10-5) after he yielded a two-out single to Stan Javier in the ninth inning.

Russell was booed when he brought in reliever Scott Radinsky and louder when Radinsky yielded a run-scoring single to Robby Thompson.

Yet Valdes had already thrown a season-high 136 pitches, and readily agreed with the decision.

“We wanted him to get his shutout,” Russell said, “but we want him for his next start too. We thought about not putting him out there in the ninth inning, but we wanted to give him a shot at the shutout. His arm is more valuable to us than a shutout.”

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