Mike Piazza is in New York City this week for an event at the Sheen Center, and he’s planning to make an appearance at Citi Field at least for Tuesday’s opener of the Subway Series, Take 1.
He’ll also be back next month for the Mets’ Old-Timers Day game and celebration, so what are we going to see from Piazza on that day?
“Definitely not an opposite field home run,” Piazza joked when he joined Carton & Roberts on Monday. “I’m doing the WBC with Italy and we had a tournament in Holland, so I took a little BP; I haven’t swung in literally seven years, and I was hitting it hard, but I couldn’t elevate the ball!”
According to Piazza, Al Leiter recently told him that he wanted Mike to take him deep during that game, but honestly, Mike doesn’t want anyone to expect peak Piazza.
“I could feel a little of that muscle memory coming back, but it’s like hitting the gas on an old car and the tank is empty – and I still have to see if I have to catch, because I went down the other day just to see if I could!” Piazza joked. “I don’t want to disappoint anyone, so I’m going to set the bar very, very low.”
The best thing about Mets Old-Timers Day, for him, is the chance to see the guys again.
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“That’s the one thing you really miss: the camaraderie, the guys, trying to achieve something together and the times on the road,” he said.
“So, that pregame, taking BP, having fun and making fun of each other, that’s going to be a lot of fun. There’s going to be a lot of soreness and the ice tubs will be packed after the game, but we’re gonna have a lot of fun.”
The Old-Timers’ Day game will be well after the trade deadline the way the current MLB schedule is structured, and with the one deadline coming up next Tuesday, there’s a lot of scuttlebutt about what the Mets could do at the deadline.
That of course brings back memories of Piazza coming to New York in May 1998, eight days after he was traded from the Dodgers to the Marlins in a surprise move.
“I had a bad falling out with the Dodgers over my contract, and we started negotiating and it was ugly. I went public which was a bit of a mistake, so coming here, I had a little more of a chip,” Piazza said. “It was a surprise, I was shocked that it was the Mets, but they were an up and coming team. The Marlins traded four guys for me, so the circumstances were very strange because of the whole contract situation. The Dodgers felt we would never come to a deal and traded me, and it did make me angry.”
Piazza had a great 1998 season, especially with the Mets – he hit .348 with 23 homers – but as you might expect, he also heard the boo birds when he struggled. That could’ve shied him away from signing in New York, but it didn’t – in fact, it was quite the opposite.
“There’s no question we’re all sensitive at times, and as a player, I always tried to put up a shell to protect yourself. I knew what the pressure was and could feel it; I wasn’t swinging the bat poorly, but I was having trouble driving in runs, and patience was wearing thin,” Piazza said of one tough stretch in 1998. “It just turned around, and I also think it was a good thing for me, because I looked at it as a personal challenge. Your ego doesn’t like to go through it, but it was the best thing that happened to me, because it reset me and gave me a chip on my shoulder, and prepped me to play in New York. That’s the way it is here.”
Compared to what it could’ve been in Miami, where the Marlins were quickly dismantling their 1997 championship team, New York’s pressure was a welcome change for sure.
“Jim Leyland knew it was going to be a tough time for me there, but he said, ‘Mike, you’re going to get your money because you deserve it, just try to play hard and do things right’,” Piazza remembered “He was an old school guy who believed in camaraderie, and that was one thing Jim always impressed on people.”
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Piazza got a seven-year, $91 million deal in the winter of 1998-99, which was one of the biggest splurges in free agency overall at the time – it was that offseason that Kevin Brown became baseball’s first $100 million man, and both Bernie Williams and Mo Vaughn both also received deals upwards of $80 million.
So, what might a Piazza contract look like in 2022?
“Man, that’s impossible to say what I’d be worth today,” Piazza said. “It’s kind of staggering in a way with these deals today. And, a lot of these guys are in much better shape as athletes, with all the sports science – and maybe with the new school today, a lot of teams wouldn’t want me to be catching as much, maybe trying to move me to first base a little earlier, so it’s tough to say.”
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