Angry? You Bet They Are, and It’s All Butler’s Fault

So Brett Butler pleads not to know how or why his slanderous comments regarding Mike Piazza found their way into print? Consider which is the more compelling story: Journeyman scrub ballplayer now coaches his son’s Little League team . . . or bitter journeyman scrub ballplayer who bounced around to five different teams and never won diddly-squat slams the best player on his former team?

Bill Plaschke obviously knows the difference between a real story with some heft and yet another feeble piece of spring training fluff.

JIM MALLON

San Luis Obispo

*

Hey, Brett, bug off! I’m surprised you had enough energy to backstab Mike Piazza. Because you sure didn’t have enough to get off your face and pick up the damn ball last year as Tony Gwynn and the Padres were circling the bases. You chose to lie in left field and play the sympathy card (again) instead of the game, in the middle of a pennant race.

Take your ‘80s, holier-than-thou, self-centered attitude and go where that other phony, disliked ex-Dodger went . . . to work for the Braves.

RENE GUERRA

Long Beach

*

Let me see if I’ve got this straight: Butler the Christian engineers a snubbing of a third baseman trying to provide for his family, fills a roster spot last spring better left open for a player capable of helping the Dodgers, backstabs Piazza and questions Piazza’s leadership from the safety of his home in Atlanta.

Piazza has done what most players haven’t done in the ‘90s . . . work his tail off, prove his worth first, then negotiate his contract. Butler’s hypocrisy and comparison between Piazza and Barry Bonds is better left to people who know Bonds better . . . such as his abused ex-wife.

CHRIS STRICKFADEN

Manhattan Beach

*

What was the point of Bill Plaschke’s article on Brett Butler bashing Mike Piazza? It must have been a slow news day for Plaschke to waste time typing that garbage when it’s spring training! I want to read all about how the Dodgers are going to win the pennant, and how this is going to be their year, not this dreck! If I didn’t know better, I’d swear I read this article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

S.K. BLEEDEN

Los Angeles

*

Mike Piazza moody and self-centered? Not in my experience. Nor in the experience of hundreds of sick, injured and disabled children.

In my 2 1/2 years as director of marketing and public affairs at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, I accompanied Mike Piazza on three visits to the hospital.

The last time I saw him there was just before Christmas. Even though he had to leave directly from the hospital to make a plane, he stayed longer than he promised and took the time to sign autographs, pose for photos and assure frightened parents that things would work out all right.

Maybe not Brett Butler’s definition of a team leader, but certainly an unselfish, caring human being.

RON YUKELSON

Santa Monica

*

For Butler to feign surprise after the excrement hits the fan is insulting to our intelligence. The responsibility for all the fallout rests with him, not Plaschke, and perhaps he needs to apologize to Piazza and the rest of the Dodger team for speaking out of place. And, after all, that would get his name in the paper once more, right?

PAUL ERKEL

Adelanto

*

If the Dodgers could put nine players of Piazza’s caliber on the field for every game, they wouldn’t need a leader. They wouldn’t need a manager or a coaching staff either. All they’d need is Rupert Murdoch sitting in the office signing those big checks.

ALLEN E. KAHN

Playa del Rey

*

My personal feeling on the Butler-Piazza controversy is that I believe what Brett Butler says. I also believe Dodger fans pay $2 for parking and stay in their seats until the final out of the game.

PAUL ECKER

Diamond Bar

*

That white streak in Brett Butler’s hair shows what a skunk he really is.

WOODY McBRIDE

Santa Fe Springs

*

Will the Dodgers be planning a “Brett Butler Day” at Fox Field this year?

PAUL ZIMMELMAN

Santa Monica