New York Mets: The best moments of Mike Piazza’s Mets career

The swing that lifted New York

On September 11th, 2001 New York saw the worst terrorist act happen right in front of their eyes. When the World Trade Center buildings were hit it ruined New Yorkers and everyone around the country. This act hit people physically, emotionally, and mentally and nobody knew how we would be able to fix ourselves.

Sports in New York were shut down after this tragic event until September 21st when the New York Mets restarted games against the rival Atlanta Braves. These two teams hate each other but for the night they were able to put their differences aside and stand united.

They did so as the two teams met to shake hands after the singing of the national anthem. It was a Friday night game against the Braves but the feel in the air was way different on this night.

The offense was very quiet all night which did not help the fans in a sold-out Shea Stadium who were still feeling emotions from ten days prior. Yes, baseball resumed but hearts were still aching.

When the eighth inning came the Mets were trailing 2-1 and then the magic began. Edgardo Alfonzo came up with one out and drew a walk to put the tying run on base with Mike Piazza looming on deck.

Piazza was the man of the New York Mets so if magic was to happen this is where the feelings were beginning. With Steve Karsay on the mound and a first ball strike to Piazza, the next pitch is a moment Mets fans and New Yorkers all over will never forget. The great Howie Rose was on the call:

“And it’s hit deep to left-center…Andrew Jones on the run….this one has a chance…HOME RUN! MIKE PIAZZA! And the Mets lead it 3-2!”

Piazza hit a deep shot left-center to give the Amazin’s a 3-2 lead and the team was able to hold on in the top of the ninth to win the game. The swing from Piazza yes it won the game but that swing was way more than just a win for the Mets; it was a win for all New Yorkers.

Shea Stadium erupted when that ball left the bat of Piazza but they erupted because it gave them a reason to cheer with all. The entire stadium was one that night and in that very moment, New Yorkers picked up their heads and knew there is no violent act that can keep this country down without a fight.

The ten run rally

Another Mets vs Braves rivalry game and here we find ourselves on June 30th, 2000. It was a Friday night and also fireworks night at Shea Stadium and the Mets brought nothing close to fireworks early in the night.

The Braves jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning after a bases-loaded walk that was set up by another walk to the previous batter. In the top of third, the Braves brought in another three runs off Mike Hampton after a walk and a couple of hits to set up bases-loaded once again.

Trailing 5-0 in the seventh inning the Mets struck to cut the Braves lead to 5-1 and have a little hope at a comeback. That hope was almost put away after the Braves scored three more in the top of the eighth to nearly to the Mets to bed for the night.

Fans stayed around only to watch the postgame fireworks because other than that the stadium might have started letting out at that point. Little did the fans know that they were about to get an early glimpse of fireworks but these fireworks were from the Mets lineup.

With one out and men on second and third Robin Ventura grounded out to second and brought in one run. The score was now 8-2 Braves but with two outs in the bottom of the eighth; here began the fireworks.

After back-to-back singles from Todd Ziele and Jay Payton the Mets cut the lead to 8-3 and here is where Braves pitchers imploded. After the Payton at-bat, Braves pitching combined to walk four straight batters to bring in another three runs. After another two-run single to tie the game at eight, up came Mike Piazza with two men on and Shea Stadium rocking.

Terry Mulholland still on the mound for the Braves and his first pitch to Piazza was the icing on the cake with Gary Thorn on the call:
“Piazza rips it, will it stay fair? Goodbye Home Run! Mike Piazza a three-run homer 11 to 8!”

Piazza ripped a scorching line drive down to the left-field pole that got out in just seconds. Shea Stadium was already rocking from the seven-run comeback especially the six with two outs. Now it was just pure mayhem inside Shea.

Of all people to finish off that comeback, there was nobody better than Mike Piazza to finish off the job and what better team to do so than against the Braves again.

All-time home run king for catchers

Mike Piazza was known for his powerful bat and he did much of that throughout his entire career. On May 5th, 2004 he added to his future hall-of-fame resume.

At the time Carlton Fisk held the record for most home runs by a catcher with 351 where he spent his twenty-four-year career with the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox. On April 27th, Piazza hit his third home run of the season which was his 351st as a catcher to tie Fisk’s record and was just one long bomb away from the history books.

With being one away Piazza struggled for the next few games. Following his record-tying home run over the next six games, Piazza went just 5-for-17 at the plate and all he needed to do to break out the slump was to hit that one long ball.

On May 5th, 2004 a Wednesday night the Mets faced off with the San Francisco Giants in the second game of their three-game set at Shea Stadium and all eyes were still on Piazza. The starting pitcher for the Giants was Jerome Williams who came into the game with a 3-1 record and he quickly retired Kazuo Matsui and Todd Ziele in the bottom half of the first inning. The next batter was the man himself, Mike Piazza.

Williams fell behind the count with three balls and one strike and had to put the pitch over the plate to avoid the walk. That next pitch became history when Piazza launched the fifth pitch of the at-bat to deep right field off the scoreboard to give the Mets the early lead and even bigger to make history.

Piazza with his 352nd home run as a catcher became the record holder for most home runs by a catcher and to this day he still holds that record. In his career, he has 427 home runs and 396 of those as a catcher. There labeling him as the greatest hitting catcher of all time.

Mike Piazza’s Amazin’ debut

After the Mets acquired all-atar catcher Mike Piazza on May 22nd, 1998 he donned the orange and blue for the first time the very next day when they hosted the Milwaukee Brewers at Shea Stadium.

It was a Saturday afternoon and the Mets had their ace, Al Leiter, on the mound and the stadium was already buzzing just for the introduction of their new catcher. The Mets came into the game with a 24-20 record and winners of two in a row so adding this kind of bat to the lineup got fans excited.

It was the fifth inning where Piazza made his mark with the Mets. The team was already leading 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth with a man on first and Piazza was 0-2 already in the game with a strikeout. Jeff Juden was on the mound for the Brewers and Piazza took advantage when he laced a double into the right-center field gap and scored the runner from first to extend the lead to 2-0. The crowd was electric for the first RBI for Piazza in a Mets jersey and only the best was yet to come.

The Mets went on to win the game 3-0 and the addition of Piazza continued a hot streak where the team went on to win nine straight. Piazza struggled a little after this in the early stages of his Mets career but he won the fans over by finishing the season with a .348 batting average and twenty-three home runs in his 109 games with the team.

Mets retire the number 31

It was a day that was long overdue but number 31 finally got his moment all Mets fans were waiting for since he announced his retirement from the sport.

It was July 30th, 2016, a Saturday night, and Citi Field was ready for Piazza to step out of that dugout and approach the podium. Just a week prior Piazza was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame becoming the second Mets player to do so.

Piazza finally stepped out of the dugout and Citi Field let out a roar for the greatest hitting catcher of all-time. With being inducted into the hall-of-fame and also getting his number retired by the Mets all in the same week, Piazza even admitting how emotional that can feel when speaking to reporters before the ceremony:
“I feel I’ve been honored more than any ballplayer deserves to be…That can really reach in and tug at your heart.”

Yes, he was honored a lot that week in particular but yes he did deserve both of those moments. For the ceremony, the Mets had multiple images of the all-star in the outfield. Rightfield was covered with an image of Piazza in his catchers’ gear while in left field they had an image of Piazza in the middle of one of his swings. There was the image of the home plate with the number 31 inside of it taking over the entire center field grass.

It was time for the ceremony and Piazza was becoming the fourth Met to have his jersey retired by the franchise joining Tom Seaver, Casey Stengel, and Gil Hodges. It is the fifth jersey retired by the Mets in total with the entire league retiring the number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson.

Piazza knew how much of an honor it was being in such a small group of members with these honors:
“It’s a tremendous honor. Every team has a little different philosophy retiring numbers so I think it’s great the Mets keep it very, very exclusive so it’s that much more special.”

When the ceremony was coming to a close it was set for Piazza to throw out the first pitch but this was a different type of first pitch. Instead of Piazza throwing from the mound, he threw the first pitch out from his home on the field which was the catchers’ box. He threw out towards the pitchers’ mound and waiting for the pitch was none other than Al Leiter who spent time with Piazza in their Mets careers.

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A sixteen-year career where eight of those were spent in Flushing. It all started with an RBI double in his team debut and ended with enshrinement. Some may think differently as he only brought them one world series appearance but all true fans know Piazza was the face of the franchise in his time here and we as Mets fans couldn’t be any happier to have him here in Flushing for those eight years.