WASHINGTON (AP) -Paul Lo Duca has an idea of what sort of reception he’ll get when he returns to Shea Stadium as a visiting player.
He also knows how he’ll choose to hear it.
“I’ve got a great last name, because if they’re booing me, I can say they’re saying, ‘Duc,”’ the Washington Nationals’ catcher said with a laugh Sunday. “I really don’t care. To be honest with you, I really don’t care.”
Lo Duca played two seasons with the New York Mets before signing a $5 million, one-year deal with the Nationals as a free agent this winter.
The Nationals open a three-game series at the Mets on Tuesday. Lo Duca thinks he’ll be in the lineup that night, although his right hand was bruised when he was hit by a pitch in the third inning of Washington’s 5-4 victory over Atlanta on Sunday.
He said he had a hard time gripping the bat when he hit in the fifth inning – he flied out to right – and he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth.
“Unless this is broken, I’m playing,” Lo Duca said. “My hand – it better get better.”
Asked his feelings about how his time in New York ended, Lo Duca said: “Water under the bridge. I mean, I learned a long time ago you can’t carry stuff around with you and hold grudges against people.”
“I’m a brutally honest person, and I tell it like it is. You don’t like it, so be it,” he continued. “And they didn’t like it.”
Lo Duca had only good words for the Mets’ fans, saying: “They stuck by me. I owe a lot to them.”
Now, the Mets? That’s another story.
“I want them to lose every game,” he said.
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