Spring Fling, IV

Evidently, Jose Mesa was misquoted when he said that he would kill Omar Vizquel.

Mesa now claims:

"I was hurt by remarks by a former teammate," Mesa said in a statement Thursday. "I would never injure anyone."

Boy, that sounds like the articulate Mr. Mesa. Obviously no one wrote that prepared statement for him.

Vizquel seems fine with it, saying that it was an idiomatic thing. You see kill in Spanish means I love that guy.

Yesterday, there was another plunking with Mike Piazza, or rather his left shoulder, being on the receiving end of a Guillermo Mota pitch. Piazza charged the mound and Mota threw his glove and called for his mommy, allegedly, as he backpedalled into the dugout.

Everyone concerned seemed to either state outright or hint that the pitch was intentional:

"If he wants to hit somebody he needs to stand there and fight," Mets manager Art Howe said. "He backpedaled faster than I can run forward."

Howe did steal only 10 bases in eleven years.

"It was intentional, and they knew it, too," Howe said. "It was a setup."

Howe continued, "You're out of order! The whole damn clubhouse is out of order!"

"Obviously, he remembers the fact that the guy reached up and tried to choke him a year ago," Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. "I'm sure major league baseball will sort this out. We'll sort this out and we'll move on."

Jim Tracy seems to be anticipating some fines and/or suspensions. He also seems to be the last reasonable person in baseball right now.
Then again, his player wasn't the one hit.