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

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NEW YORK, NY – JULY 30: The number 31 within the border of home plate is cut into the grass for Mike Piazza’s number retirement ceremony before the start of a game between the Colorado Rockies and New York Mets at Citi Field on July 30, 2016 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /

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.

Next. Ranking the opening day catchers for the Mets of the last ten seasons

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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.

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