'Piazza' Party

[G-Fafif]

Two events in two states to kick off the publicity whirlwind for Piazza: Catcher, Slugger, Icon, Star, already at a digital bookseller near you and coming to the physical kind soon.

• Foley's in Manhattan, March 19, Sunday noon (thanks, of course, to themetfairy for getting this one going).

• Staples High School in Westport, Conn., March 21 (Tuesday 7 PM) for all you Nutmeg Staters out there.

Details here. More to come as applicable.

[Guest 41Forever]

Congrats! Best of luck to you in this latest endeavor.

[Edgy MD]

Hope it tops the charts.

[G-Fafif]

41Forever wrote: Congrats! Best of luck to you in this latest endeavor.

Gracias!

[G-Fafif]

Edgy MD wrote: Hope it tops the charts.

Or at hits fourth between Olerud and Ventura.

[Edgy MD]

That'll do nicely too, I hope.

Meanwhile, over at the failing New York Times, Andrew Keh has caught up with the new owner of third-division Italian soccer club, Reggiana, a foreigner named Mike Piazza.

Piazza, still swinging some heavy lumber, manages to take a swing at MLS and the city of St. Louis in one punch.

Noting that he had met with groups aiming for expansion franchises in Major League Soccer before buying Reggiana, he said: “I’d rather be poor in Italy than based in St. Louis. You can’t get a good meal there!”

[TransMonk]

Look what showed up today! It's on my "to do" list for the weekend.

[fimg=300:255r4v54]http://i.imgur.com/T1LzpkF.png[/fimg:255r4v54]

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Sweet. Sorry I missed the get-together

[Guest themetfairy]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Sweet. Sorry I missed the get-together

The get together will be on March 19th. Bring your kiddie, bring your wife!

The only reason I'm not more miffed at Amazon for not shipping my book yet is the fact that I just signed up for Amazon Prime, and I was able to change my delivery option to the free two-day shipping. But I would have been happier paying more to have it already....

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

themetfairy wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Sweet. Sorry I missed the get-together The get together will be on March 19th. Bring your kiddie, bring your wife! The only reason I'm not more miffed at Amazon for not shipping my book yet is the fact that I just signed up for Amazon Prime, and I was able to change my delivery option to the free two-day shipping. But I would have been happier paying more to have it already....

D'oh for some reason I thought it was last weekend.

[Methead]

I may see you in Westport.

Is soupcan aware this is happening?

[G-Fafif]

TransMonk wrote: Look what showed up today! It's on my "to do" list for the weekend. [fimg=300]http://i.imgur.com/T1LzpkF.png[/fimg]

My heart is warmed.

[Guest themetfairy]

Amazon says my copy is shipping today and should arrive tomorrow - yay!

[Guest themetfairy]

It has arrived!

[G-Fafif]

Publication Day has arrived.

[ashie62]

Congrats!

Still haven't forgiven Mikey for getting plunked by Clemens and turtling up. but will read.

[G-Fafif]

Ashie62 wrote: Congrats! Still haven't forgiven Mikey for getting plunked by Clemens and turtling up. but will read.

The time he was hit on the helmet, fell to the ground dazed and was concussed? Tough to charge the mound under those circumstances.

[MFS62]

Congrats!

Later

[ashie62]

G-Fafif wrote: Ashie62 wrote: Congrats! Still haven't forgiven Mikey for getting plunked by Clemens and turtling up. but will read. The time he was hit on the helmet, fell to the ground dazed and was concussed? Tough to charge the mound under those circumstances.

The bat throwing by Clemens in the WS Game one. You remember that, right?

[G-Fafif]

Ashie62 wrote: Ashie62 wrote: Congrats! Still haven't forgiven Mikey for getting plunked by Clemens and turtling up. but will read. The time he was hit on the helmet, fell to the ground dazed and was concussed? Tough to charge the mound under those circumstances. The bat throwing by Clemens in the WS Game one. You remember that, right?

That wasn't a plunking. That was just bizarre.

Everybody gathered at the mound as ballplayers will and then dispersed. Mike losing his mind and going after Clemens once Clemens skipped the bat barrel by his feet would have felt exhilarating for a second, yet wounded the Mets immeasurably in the course of the Series, as it would have courted ejection and disaster.

Until further notice, Mike sticks his tongue out at Roger from Cooperstown.

[Guest themetfairy]

It was a great day at Foley's with a strong CPF presence - it was so nice seeing Kase, Steve and Lunchie.

And, of course, the famous author -

[G-Fafif]

themetfairy wrote: It was a great day at Foley's with a strong CPF presence - it was so nice seeing Kase, Steve and Lunchie. And, of course, the famous author -

A fun afternoon. Thanks to all who dropped by!

[G-Fafif]

A little mention in one of the local papers for Mike and me.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/02/books/now-batting-14-new-baseball-books.html

[G-Fafif]

Come celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Steve Henderson trade and the 15th anniversary of Shawn Estes's home run off Roger Clemens (everything's worth celebrating if you spin it carefully) at beautiful Bergino Baseball Clubhouse, 67 E. 11th St., in Manhattan, June 15, 7 PM. I'll be there talking "Piazza" and a little Seaver while we're at it with genial owner and host Jay Goldberg, answering questions from whatever audience there is and signing books for those who are into it. If you're in the neighborhood, drop on by.

Here's the official promotional language:

A franchise and fan base in perpetual search of validation finally had its ticket punched as 2016 dawned. Mike Piazza, who held records in one hand and a city’s rapt attention in the other, gained election to the Hall of Fame. Within weeks of this long-awaited announcement, the ballclub with whom he chose to cast his eternal lot, the New York Mets, made a date to retire his number. In Piazza: Catcher, Slugger, Icon, Star, Greg Prince explores the parallel paths Piazza and the Mets set out on in the early 1990s and how their individual journeys merged into a mutual quest for transcendence. From marriage of convenience to lifetime bond to a state of baseball grace reached only once before in team history, Piazza examines how the stranger from Los Angeles became New York’s favorite son and why Mets fans continued to rally to Piazza’s cause years after he took his final swing for them. Join Greg Prince for our intimate Clubhouse conversation on Thursday, June 15. On the 40th Anniversary of Tom Seaver being traded away, we will also discuss a date forever remembered by Mets fans as “The Midnight Massacre.” RSVP required to attend...

http://www.icontact-archive.com/oQwqeijYVpLtHCZPPVTbYV7VB_nVdv5f?w=3

[Guest d'Kong76]

Been wanting to visit The Clubhouse for some time now; it's a long hike
for me on a weeknight but may give it a whirl.

[G-Fafif]

I've shared on FAFIF a few deleted scenes I had to trim for space from Piazza. Thought I'd share them here as well.

A first-person prologue describing the writer/fan who was bringing you the story on the pages ahead:

Having experienced Mike Piazza as a Mets fan is what made me want to write at length about Mike Piazza as a Met within the context of the life and times of the sport that surrounded him. The writer wrote it. The fan lived it. The writer decided to write it the way the fan recalled it, relying on a host of contemporary accounts to confirm or correct memory, and augmenting those with relevant thoughts that had been recorded since. But overall, this is the convergence of Piazza, the Mets and baseball, 1992 through 2016, the way it happened, recreated for your reading and reliving pleasure.

http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2017/05/22/happy-piazzaversary/

---

A consideration of Mets draft history, spurred by the paucity of 62nd-round picks who make All-Star teams as rookies:

May. Donnels. Proctor. In a more predictable enterprise, these were the players who should have been surrounding the likes of Jefferies when the Mets faced off against Piazza and the Dodgers in 1993, presumably pre-empting the need to lure free agents to Flushing. Yet none of the above was a New York Met during what projected as the primes of their major league careers. Conversely, Piazza wasn’t supposed to be hitting home runs at Shea or any other National League ballpark, never mind tipping a cap among All-Stars at Camden Yards. Did we mention how unpredictable baseball can be?

http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2017/06/05/blowin-in-the-draft/

---

How fathomable it was that the first Met to "go in as a Met" might not have gone in as a Met:

It would be simple enough to say that after a while, Mets fans didn’t miss Tom Seaver, not when their ballclub was leaping from 68 wins to 90 to 98 to 108 and the brassiest of brass rings, yet that is to not fully appreciate fan loyalty. Sure, there is the uniform, and there is the cap, and there is a fealty to success. The fan can be guided by the same transactional impulses as front office architects and free agent players. But some things you don’t take away and expect to go unmissed. You don’t take away a first love. You don’t take away a first star. You don’t go to the trouble of bringing back the FRANCHISE POWER PITCHER WHO TRANSFORMED METS FROM LOVABLE LOSERS INTO FORMIDABLE FOE only to let him go a year later. You also don’t not notice that Tom Seaver, who left New York the second time with 273 career wins on his ledger, wore garish horizontal stripes and a shirt that screamed SOX on the hallowed occasion of his 300th victory. It took place in New York, in front of Mets fans, but the Mets fans were one-day visitors to Yankee Stadium, same as Tom. The milestone was a fine moment, but it was also indicative of a right arm that was still churning out productive pitches. During the season of No. 41’s No. 300, the Mets were battling St. Louis for first place. Seaver was in the process of winning sixteen games for the White Sox. The Mets finished three games behind the Cardinals. The math suggests those wins of Tom’s would have looked much more attractive adorned by Mets gear. The 1985 Mets were formidable foes on most fronts, yet relied on soft-tossing Ed Lynch and still-learning Rick Aguilera for starting pitching depth down the stretch. They weren’t terrible, but Tom was still Terrific. When Seaver, having reached the age that he’d been wearing on the back of his jersey since he was 22, requested another trade, in 1986, it was to be closer to his home in Connecticut. The Mets didn’t need much of a boost that season, so he was off to Boston, mentoring a meteorically rising righthander named Roger Clemens (“At home, I’ll tell him what time the game starts. On the road, I’ll tell him what time the bus leaves,” is how Tom described the extent of his guidance) and helping another team to the playoffs until his right knee, the one that absorbed dirt from the pitching mound when his motion was ideal, gave out in September. Tom was forced to sit inactive in the dugout during the ensuing World Series at Fenway Park and, yes, Shea Stadium. Seaver the Red Sock was a footnote to the circumstances of the Mets’ second world championship seventeen autumns after he was the heart and soul of the first one. Had he, instead of sacrificial lamb Al Nipper, been available to pitch for Boston in Game Four, it could be legitimately wondered whether the Mets would have won that second world championship when they did. Seaver versus the Mets in the World Series…shudder.

http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2017/06/09/the-seaver-standard/

---

If you are so inclined, swing on by the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse in Manhattan this Thursday night, June 15, at 7 PM, for a little Piazza/Seaver talk. Details here:

http://www.icontact-archive.com/oQwqeijYVpLtHCZPPVTbYV7VB_nVdv5f?w=3

[G-Fafif]

One more bump: I'll be at Bergino Baseball Clubhouse (67 W. 11th St.), Thursday night at 7 PM, discussing Piazza, Seaver, Metsiness and so forth with proprietor Jay Goldberg and a live podcast audience that could include you. Books for sale, but the talk is not only cheap, it's absolutely free. Come by if you're in the neighborhood.

Jay'll surely put the game on when we're done recording.

[G-Fafif]

I know you're gonna wanna top off your Father's Day by tuning into WFAN tonight at 11:25 to hear me talk Piazza with Lori Rubinson. Go ahead and set your DVR for the last five minutes of John Oliver.

Was recently on with Pete McCarthy over WOR following the Mets. You can hear that here if you're so inclined.

[Batty31]

Oh thanks for the heads up...I'll be tuning in

[Guest themetfairy]

Very cool Greg!