It finally happened.
After three tantalizingly close calls, Mike Piazza was finally elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday. For scores of Mets fans around the country, the blue and orange number 31 floods the mind with memories of clutch hits, postseason success, and a promising time for the New York Mets.
Take the 2000 season. Piazza, in what would become his last great year, produced the finest numbers of his career. He hit .324 with 38 homers and finished third in the MVP voting. He took the Mets, with a long track record of disappointment since their inception, from a Wild Card berth to the National League pennant. His name could conjure up images of the tense frenzy that New York was in that October, when the Mets squared off against the mighty Yankees and pitted coworkers, friends, couples, and family members against each other. The Yankees may have won, but Piazza established himself and the 2000 Mets as one of the best stories of the turn of the century.
Then there was 2001. Piazza belted 35 mundane, run-of-the-mill homers that any eventual legend would demolish over the course of a season. There was one, though, that will stand out in baseball lore as one of the most recognizable dingers in history, and lifted a city’s spirits like no other round-tripper had until that point, and none has since then. On September 21st, 2001, ten days after the attacks on the World Trade Center, with a city in ruins and millions in despair, Piazza stepped to the plate down a run in the 8th inning. He belted a 2-run bomb to centerfield and led the Mets to a 4-3 win. This homer has become synonymous with the aftermath of 9/11 and drove the city to pick themselves up and grow back stronger. This memory, shrouded in dismay, is the bright spot that changed the course of emotion in New York.
Maybe you’re thinking of May 5, 2004, when Mike Piazza passed Carlton Fisk for the most home runs by a catcher in MLB history. The Mets were just awful for a three-year stretch from 2002 to 2004, when they didn’t win more than 75 games in a season. Piazza continued to be a bright spot, though, clobbering 64 homers in two-plus seasons, (he played in only 68 games in 2003) including this one to put himself among the legends of the game. The record-breaking homer recalls memories of what could otherwise be forgettable; a really bad baseball team with a future Hall of Famer hitting third.
Above all of this, however, I think that Mike Piazza brings back memories of a simpler time. For many of the people who care the most about his career, especially his stay in Queens, the reign of Piazza is eternally linked with memories of grade school, recess, and a spark of interest in baseball. This time frame, for a lot of fans around my age, was a time of baseball purity. We didn’t have real affiliations with a certain team, we didn’t have complicated views on the designated hitter or Pete Rose. We watched baseball with our parents at night, which made us inexplicably happy, and we were amazed at the feats of guys like Piazza (and Ken Griffey, Jr. who was also elected this year) on a nightly basis. We were in awe at the sport, we wanted to be surrounded by it, and we fell in love. Players like Piazza made us want to join Little League and be pro ballplayers. Everyone had a Mets number 31 shirt in elementary school, and it wasn’t just because the last name looked like “pizza.” I looked at mine as a symbol of my new favorite team.
Above anything else, looking back on Mike Piazza’s career bring nostalgia that reignites my love for the game. There aren’t many other players that can do that. Congratulations Mike Piazza and Ken Griffey Jr. on well-deserved Hall of Fame calls. I hope that they can serve as models to younger players to play with a passion that can connect to the fans, like they did.
The Underdog 