Fans Quickly Step Up to Mike in the Piazza Contract Mix-Up

The Dodgers just finished being shut out in their first game of the season and Mike Piazza, who will make $8 million this year, says he’s mad, confused and disappointed by the lack of progress on the multiyear contract extension he is seeking.

First of all, Mr. Butler, I apologize, you’re right. Second of all, Mr. Piazza, thanks for the memories.

PAUL ECKER

Diamond Bar

*

One loss into the Rupert Murdoch era and we read that Mike Piazza is ready to “think about having a future somewhere else after the season.” I was under the impression that he is already very well paid to contribute to the Dodgers’ success in 1998. If he is feeling in April that he might just “play the season out” for the Dodgers, I don’t care where he goes when his season ends prematurely (again) in October.

MICHAEL JENNINGS

Santa Monica

*

The Feb. 15 deadline passed without incident. And so the weeks passed and we anxiously waited. In mid-March the sale was finalized and still, we waited. The season opened March 31 and here we are, waiting in a kind of perilous limbo.

I am certain I speak for all Dodger fans when I say we are tired of waiting. We too are confused and disappointed the Dodger organization has yet to sign Mike Piazza. They say they are committed to signing Mike, but then Sam Fernandez, the Dodgers’ lead negotiator, says: “There is no good way for either side to accurately assess the level of compensation that a player of Mike’s caliber can command in today’s market.” What is that all about? And we thought the skies over L.A. looked ominous.

Show Mike how much you care. Show the fans of Los Angeles you care. Give Mike what he’s asking for. You know damn well he’s worth it.

VICTORIA CARLSON

Studio City

*

Being a Dodger fan for 40 years has been one of the defining elements of my identity. I’ve suffered with the acquisition of Dave Goltz, the Pedro Martinez-for-Delino DeShields debacle, losing an underappreciated star, Pedro Guerrero, for John Tudor, an over-the-hill pitcher whose services they ultimately had for about a month, their penchant for touting mediocrity like Mike Marshall and Greg Brock, and so on, but I’ve remained true. But if they blow this chance with one of the true candidates for baseball immortality, the Dodgers can count on one less loyal customer, and I’ll probably have company. I’m mad as hell.

Welcome to L.A., Mr. Murdoch. Why don’t you show us you intend to make the Dodgers an enterprise worth devoting ourselves to?

JOHN KOENIG

Los Angeles

*

Hey, Plaschke, zip it!

Need you be reminded of an Orlando newspaper’s fatal mistake during the sensitive re-signing of a certain star center for the Magic?

Mike Piazza is an accomplished and versatile player worthy of whatever contract our rich new owners can guarantee. Why must you lambaste Piazza for speaking his mind? Few of us “hard, silent workers” would find it easy to rest and perform our duties were our financial future at stake.

ALEX WAITE

Apple Valley

*

Get real, Piazza and all the rest of you fortunate airheads, and try to feel the real world of mortgages, payments on a good serviceable car, saving to put kids through school and never enough for a good vacation. And that’s if things are pretty good.

Get real and get out there and learn about the thousands of citizens right here in prosperous Los Angeles who struggle just to feed their kids and feel lucky if they have a substandard illegal garage to live in.

Respect, my foot! Piazza, play for your contracted $8 million and be content or don’t play. I really don’t give a damn.

MIKE FELDMAN

Northridge