Rivalry revisited

Chris Girandola at Mets.com writes about Guillermo Mota, the locker he now has and three years ago:

Newly acquired reliever Guillermo Mota sat at his locker for the first time on Tuesday, trying on his uniform pants to see if they fit right. Little did he know who sat in the same place last year.

But when a reporter asked Mota if he knew it had been Mike Piazza's locker, Mota leaned back in his chair and grinned from ear-to-ear. Then the 6-foot-6 reliever pounded his chest two times with his fist, pointed at the locker as if his nemesis still stood in place, and jokingly said, "Yeah? That's my friend. Piazza. Yeah."

The irony couldn't have been scripted any better. It was a little over three years ago in Spring Training when Mota nailed Piazza with a pitch and had the former Mets catcher seek him out in the Dodgers clubhouse, yelling, "Where's Mota, where's Mota?"

In 2002, Piazza and Mota had another run-in when Piazza chased the pitcher after a Spring Training game in which Mota nailed the catcher with a fastball.

"Hey, I have a good sense of humor, so it's all good," Mota said, smiling.