Mike Piazza Tribute

[G-Fafif]

ScarletKnight41 wrote: Now you see, I interpreted that more like Tom Seaver bowing to the crowd from those different directions on the day that he was honored.

Oh, I definitely saw the Seaver-style bowing, but there was a moment there where it looked more like, all right, guys, enough. We have to play two more innings here.

Or somebody has to play two more innings.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Scott Stapp? As a metalhead, that had to offend Piazza. He's gone for no other reason than that.

[seawolf17]

I thought the same thing, ABNS... but I could see Piazza being friends with Stapp also, meeting in Eddie Trunk's studio or something.

[Guest cooby]

Piazza tribute is now available on mlb.com and mets.com

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Thanks cooby

[Guest holychicken]

I'm glad I went.

Got a great deal on tickets because I showed up at 2 (my gf took forever packing for a trip back to Boston) and I convinced the scalper to give us the tickets at 18 dollars off of face value.

Moved around abit to get out of the sun. . . it was so hot. Ended up right above the Mets dugout in the Mezz Boxes. Good viewing area. The ladies behind us were crying all game and totally flipped out when Anderson Hernandez got his first hit (it was nice to see that too) yelling "that's my boy!" So I wondered if they were related to him.

I didn't ask because they were so emotional the whole time I was afraid to get involved. It appeared that they needed their time to themselves.

[Elster88]

Willie, you stupid son of a bitch. How the hell is it possible to screw something like this up?

]Piazza, who finished the season hitting .251 with 19 home runs and 62 runs batted in, said he wished he could have had another at-bat to redeem himself. He would have batted in the bottom of the eighth, but Manager Willie Randolph inserted Mike DiFelice. "If we had a chance to win, he would have stayed in," Randolph said. For Piazza, it might have worked out for the best. Had he stayed in, he said he probably could not have kept his composure.

---NY Times

I loved almost every moment of yesterday's game (except for Mikey not getting another at-bat, but until now, I figured he asked out since it immediately followed his tribute), and this only taints it about .001%. A Piazza base hit would've made it perfect (or of course better yet a home fun). Only Willie could do something this dumb.

[Valadius]

I just watched the video.

This is one terribly painful farewell...

[metsmarathon]

my one thought with willie pulling him is this... now we'll never know. we can dream and imagine that mike piazza woulda knocked one to the moon - or the keyspan sign - if he'd been given that at bat.

and maybe i like that better than if he had just another damned grounder to short.

but yeah, i totally wanted to see him get another at bat at the time. i just wasn't one of the idiots booing willie as mike left the field.

[Elster88]

In case this is a veiled question in my direction, I didn't boo. And I wouldn't have even if I knew at the time that Willie made the decision himself.

[metsmarathon]

not directed towards anybody in particular. just that as mike was walking off the field, there were idiots booing. and they sounded nearby. i was in section 260, also 3rd base side.

i actually got one of them fancy pepsi prize patrol t-shirts out of the day!

granted, the boobirds were out in the first inning. i guess they wanted to get their money's worth for the long offseason.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Piazza saying that he wishes he got another shot doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't jake with being pulled under the circumstances.

It's a cake-and-eat-it-too situation.

I still would have had him stay in. But I still suspect, despite his statement, that he consented to the replacement.

[Guest The Brooklyn Bum]

MLB.com has a collection of some Piazza moments.

Let's hope the Wilpons do the right thing and either bring him back for one more season behind the plate, or throw tons of money to get him working on the new TV network.

[metirish]

Piazza coming back to the Mets speculation has started, When did Wally Mattews resurface?..


http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/ny-spwally1004,0,6529628.column?coll=ny-sports-columnists

[Benjamin Grimm]

Here it is, for posterity, and also for those too lazy to click the link:

'Right price' may keep Piazza here
Wallace Matthews

October 4, 2005

Just when you thought you had said your last goodbyes to Mike Piazza . . . it might be time to say hello again.

Sunday was Mike Piazza Appreciation Day at Shea Stadium, a chance for the fans to say goodbye to the player who did more in the pre-Pedro Era than any other player to alter the perception and performance of New York's other baseball team during the last 10 years.

And say goodbye they did, before, during and after the game, to the point that it was getting, well, a little embarrassing for everyone concerned. By the time Piazza mercifully was pulled from the game after the seventh inning, he had been given the baseball equivalent of a 21-gun salute.

Hopefully, Piazza did not allow the clubhouse door to hit him on the way out, because the Mets might ask him to walk back through it again. Yesterday, general manager Omar Minaya said, "I'm not closing the door on Mike Piazza."

He didn't just say it once, or twice, or three times. How about seven times within a short conversation on the future of the Mets' catching position? Clearly, the door is open for Piazza's return to Shea -- under the proper conditions, of course.

"It all depends on the price," Minaya said. "And it all depends on where Mike is at. I'm gonna sit down with Mike soon and find out what he wants to do."

Minaya addressed other Mets needs such as strengthening the bullpen, finding a closer to replace Braden Looper (Billy Wagner? Kyle Farnsworth? The Marlins' Todd Jones?), adding a bat or two to the lineup and somehow coaxing the kind of production out of Carlos Beltran that was expected of him in the first season of his seven-year, $119-million deal.

"We expected more out of Bel.tran, yes," Minaya said. "He was hurt early, and then he started pressing and just kept on pressing, I think. He is low-key. You'd like to have a little bit more energy and I think that in this town, you gotta be careful with that, you can't be too low-key."

Intriguing stuff, but none of that is really news. The possibility that Piazza might want to take back his farewell speech for one more year certainly is. "I don't believe in closing doors," Minaya said.

Conventional wisdom says Piazza, 37 years old and with a right arm best used for waving bye-bye to opposing baserunners, is headed to the American League, where he conceivably still can command healthy dollars as a designated hitter.

But conventional wisdom often is sadly mistaken. "Mike may not want to go to the American League, you know?" Minaya said. "At the right price, I think we could find a spot for him here."

What the "right price" is has yet to be determined, but obviously, it would be nowhere close to the $91 million, seven-year deal he just completed. "I wouldn't rule anything out," Jeff Borris, Piazza's agent said.

And yet, the Mets might be willing to spend some serious money to lure Piazza back for another year or two. At some point, they have to move on, but apparently, they haven't reached that point yet.

Although he got the last important hit of their season, a three-run homer in the eighth inning against the Phillies on Aug. 30 that left the Mets a mere game out of the NL wild-card spot, the Mets don't seem to consider Ramon Castro a long-term option behind the plate.

In fact, among the only available free-agent catchers out there is the Padres' Ramon Hernandez, a 29-year-old who hit .290 with 12 homers and 58 RBIs and missed 63 games with a knee injury. And Hernandez wouldn't come dirt cheap, he made $4.3 million in 2005 and will expect a big raise.

The downside, of course, is that bringing back Piazza risks spoiling a rare baseball story that seems to have come to a happy ending even without a world championship.

As it stands, Piazza was leaving while we still liked him and he still liked us.

"Mike's been great for this franchise and great for this town," Minaya said. As the man said repeatedly, he's not closing the door on the possibility of bringing back a guy like that.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Matthews did a responsible job until he gets to this little hook at the end.

]As it stands, Piazza was leaving while we still liked him and he still liked us.

That's a strange little loaded truism there.