LORD knows we’ve tried to help the Mets through the years and management has refused to heed our advice, but we’re pretty stubborn so we’re going to try one more time and we are going to make this crystal clear: Don’t dare trade Mike Piazza, don’t even think about it.
On a day when one of their old catchers, Gary Carter officially went into the Hall of Fame, there was a ridiculous published report that Piazza wants out because a source said Piazza is fed up with “the Mets situation” and his eventual move to first base.
What Met isn’t fed up with the situation? On a day there was an ozone alert in Flushing, the dead-last Mets lost to Reds 8-5 to fall to 43-61. It doesn’t get any worse than bad air and bad baseball.
Piazza is fed up, but doesn’t want out, he wants back in the lineup in the worst way. He’s working his tail off to come back from a groin injury – and looks great, by the way – and is hoping to get some of his season back shortly. In a Met uniform.
Certainly the Mets know how rare it is to have a Hall of Fame player. They’ve really only had two “true Mets” Hall of Famers in their 41-year existence – Tom Seaver and Carter. It’s three if you count broadcaster and original Met Bob Murphy, who announced his retirement yesterday and received a standing ovation from the crowd and the Mets. Manager Art Howe was practically salivating yesterday over the possibility of having Piazza’s bat back in the middle of his limp lineup.
The ridiculous report also mentioned how Met pitchers, particularly Tom Glavine, want Piazza out. Glavine vehemently denied all this and labeled the report a “joke.” If there is any truth that some pitchers want Piazza out, that is a clear message to Mets management – get rid of those pitchers because they are the losers.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Piazza said when told about the report. “I guess I’m the monkey this week? That’s pretty funny. You’ve got to fill lines with something, right? It’s like I’m not even playing and I’m the monkey. It’s kind of cute. I guess it’s flattering, really. It’s kind of like, how do you answer something so far-fetched? It really makes no sense.”
The Silver Slugger then took one more hack at the report, laughing and saying something has to be written about the Mets because, “Nobody’s smoking pot or anything.”
Piazza, those close to him and the Mets, all insist there is nothing to the report. And, by the way, Piazza is a 10-5 guy and controls his own destiny so if he wanted to get traded he would have to tell someone.
The feeling here is that Piazza will come back a better ballplayer from this injury, a bit more flexible – in his performance and his thinking towards playing first base – because he had the game taken away from him with this severe injury.
Piazza loves baseball too much and has worked too hard to not want to come back and do well here. Piazza has always been driven by those who said he couldn’t do it and this is just another chapter. He’ll come back, get his eight home runs from behind the plate to top Carlton Fisk’s all-time mark of 351 homers for a catcher and move forward.
Reds manager Bob Boone was a great catcher in his day, Piazza’s hero matter of fact, and he marveled at what Piazza has accomplished.
“He’s the most prolific hitting catcher of all time,” Boone said. “There is not even a question about that. The guy has been unbelievable.”
Yes he has and the Mets need him back as soon as possible, not to trade him, but to play him. The Hall of Fame is beckoning.