Piazza’s Return Is Not Pleasant for the Dodgers

The New York Mets arrived at Dodger Stadium Friday night with the second-best record in baseball, a solid grasp on the National League wild-card berth and the menacing possibility of ending Atlanta’s domination in the East.

They also arrived with Manager Bobby Valentine and General Manager Steve Phillips unsigned beyond October, a potentially unsettling and distracting situation that has attracted almost as much attention as Mike Piazza’s bid for the most-valuable-player award or Al Leiter’s bid for the Cy Young Award or the impressive nature of the Mets’ overall play.

Consider that the New York Daily News is even asking Internet users whether Valentine and Phillips “have done enough to be rehired,” which seems to be a superfluous question considering that 1) the Mets are 24 games over .500 this year and 75 over in the three-plus seasons since Valentine was hired and that 2) Phillips keeps improving an improving team, getting rid of malcontents Bobby Bonilla and Rickey Henderson, acquiring Mike Hampton, Derek Bell and Todd Zeile before the season and adding Mike Bordick, Rick White and Bubba Trammell during it.

Now, however, Phillips has left Valentine dangling and co-owner Fred Wilpon has left both dangling, and while neither wants this to detract from the Mets’ playoff drive, it has to be weighing on both, or as Tony Attanasio, Valentine’s longtime agent, put it:

“To say Bobby is not disappointed with the absence of an extension is a gross understatement. If the name of the game as a manager is to win, he’s done it. If the name of the game as a manager is to be a walking, talking billboard for your team, he’s been that.”

Some have suggested at times that Valentine is a walking, talking billboard for himself, but he is en route to leading the Mets to a second straight playoff appearance, which would seem to make him a hot commodity if the Mets wait too long or are not appreciative enough at the end of a season that could find Dusty Baker, Lou Piniella, Davey Johnson, Felipe Alou and Buck Showalter among the big-name managers who are also available.

Valentine has family and business in his hometown of Stamford, Conn., an easy commute from Shea Stadium, but he maintains a year-round residence in Arlington, Texas, where he managed the Texas Rangers for eight seasons, and he has an inherent connection to the Dodgers, with whom he began his pro career under Tom Lasorda, still a friend and mentor.

In fact, it was at his Hall of Fame induction in 1997 that Lasorda was asked who he would select as a manager if he had the opportunity.

And it was without hesitation he answered Valentine, taking what was perceived to be a sideways shot at then Dodger manager Bill Russell.

The influence of Lasorda, now a senior vice president with the Dodgers, on club Chairman Bob Daly is uncertain, but if Johnson is fired as expected, it is not a stretch to believe an available Valentine would be considered, along with Baker and Kevin Kennedy, as a possible successor.

Valentine wouldn’t address that possibility Friday night, but of his unresolved situation he said:

“It would have been nice if something had been done at the end of last year. I mean, when you’re sitting around the dinner table talking about what was accomplished and the rewards you received for the accomplishment, it would have been nice to have had that to talk about. But once that was put to rest with the decision that nothing would be done until the end of this year, it doesn’t bother me any more now than it did when that decision was first made. Is it a distraction? Who knows? We live with all kinds of distractions, but it’s only there when I have to talk about it, and I don’t think it bothers the players one iota.”

Indeed. If the players have been caught up in the Valentine and Phillips scenarios it hasn’t been evident.

The Mets faced the Dodgers with a 72-49 record, second only to Atlanta’s 74-46.

There has been no need for Valentine to challenge himself or his team, as he did with 56 games left last year, saying he should be fired if the Mets didn’t reach the playoffs.

“If you play long enough, there’s nobody guaranteed to be here, contract or not,” third baseman Robin Ventura said. “Given that reality, we enjoy playing for Bobby and like Steve, but all we can do is go out and try to win games and hope the situation gets resolved. That would be the same even if they were extended. It doesn’t change our job or objective.”

The Mets went to the regular-season wire last year, ultimately beating Cincinnati in a wild-card playoff.

At that point, Valentine said in reflection, he had a group of weary and wounded warriors. Now there is some concern about a rib injury that forced Hampton to leave Thursday’s start after only three-plus innings, but better balance and depth--”We have a very good blend of veteran and younger players and the younger players have all made contributions,” Valentine said--has enabled him to give his veterans more rest, particularly Piazza.

“We’re not leaning on or relying on any one part of our game now,” Valentine said. “If one slips, we can win with another, and our bullpen has been terrific. We’ve been playing good, and we’ve been playing it to the end of the game. It doesn’t matter who’s leading off. We think we can score the runs we need in the last inning.”

It is going to the end for Valentine and Phillips. There will be no decision until the final out of the final game, but as Phillips said in the visitor’s clubhouse Friday night: “The tendency in the last year of a deal is to be motivated or paralyzed. I know we’ve been motivated in my office and that Bobby has been motivated as well.” Will Wilpon be motivated? The Dodgers may be among those waiting and watching.