Piazza Insists Diversity’s Not A Good Excuse For Losing Dodgers Star Hedges Remarks Hinting At Problems On Multi-Cultural Squad

Dodgers All-Star catcher Mike Piazza tempered remarks attributed to him in a newspaper article regarding differences in culture and language that might be affecting the team’s performance on the field.

“The whole point I’m trying to get across is that, no matter where you’re from or what your background is, your goal should be to win,” Piazza said before the Dodgers played the San Diego Padres on Thursday. “And we cannot use our diversity as an excuse for not getting the job done on the field.

“That’s the thing that I think unfortunately wasn’t said very clearly. There’s never been a problem, as far as accepting a teammate or anything, as far as his background or anything like that. I merely stated that our bottom line should be to win.”

The article in Thursday’s Los Angeles Times quoted Piazza as saying diversity has had an impact on performance.

The Dodgers, who have qualified for the playoffs each of the last two years but were swept in the first round each time, were 38-41 after Saturday’s loss to the Padres. They trail the N.L. West-leading San Francisco Giants by 7-1/2 games.

Most of the players on this year’s team were on the previous two teams.

” … I have to say that’s where not only Peter (O’Malley, team owner) but the fans should realize that because of the (diversity) … there’s going to be problems, just as far as guys being able to relate to each other on a daily basis,” Piazza was quoted as saying.

“You would like to think everybody has that same common goal to win, but there may be guys just interested in staying here, guys just interested in putting certain numbers up, and that’s just natural.”

Piazza said he would rather lead by example than be an outspoken clubhouse leader for a team that includes many nationalities, among them Dominican, Mexican, Japanese and Korean players.

Several players and manager Bill Russell repeated what they have been saying the last several weeks - that there is no chemistry problem on the team. And, they said, diversity isn’t causing problems.

“There’s nothing that a 10-game winning streak wouldn’t solve,” first baseman Eric Karros said. “We had great chemistry in 1992 and we lost 99 games.”

Third baseman Todd Zeile said he’s always thought the chemistry issue “was very much overplayed.”

“I haven’t had a problem with chemistry at all,” said Zeile, in his first year with the Dodgers. “This is an interesting group of people, a diverse group of people. Everyone wants to win. And like Brett (Butler) says, winning breeds chemistry.”