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It still kills me to see Mike Piazza not being in a Mets uniform. I could handle the Dodgers but SD and Oakland....killing me. But at least he's got his #31 back with the A's. I missed him last year when he came in with SD, but I have tix for this season when Oakland comes to town. Yep, I'm a proud co-owner of Season Tickets!!
Did anyone snap a few from last year when San Diego was in town? Post em if you got em!
Its a shame the Mets went out and got Piazza and then were not able to build a more successful team around him. The advantage of having Piazza was not so much his offensive numbers in isolation, but those numbers coming from a catcher. To make that work for you, you need the reasonable average offense from the other positions. If its merely a trade-off there is no particular advantage.
But the Mets were mired in the Bobby Valentine, Steve Philips soap opera back then with Jeff Wilpon and Al Leiter seemingly calling half the shots.
I liked Piazza, but his time was done (as a starter). The Mets are better off now.
And, not to harp on it, but Mikey should've charged the mound and mixed it up with Clemens in Game One of the Subway Series after Clemens threw the bat at him. Clemens would've not made another start after that and been gone immediately having been punished for having behaved as a pyschotic and determined by MLB the games could not proceed without a riot if he showed up in uniform again.
Failing that, if Gooden or Koosman (for two examples) had been on the Mets staff at that time, Derek Jeter probably would've been out by the next game with a broken arm or requiring reconstructive facial surgery, if they're best hitter had been beaned previously and a bat thrown at him in by an opposing pitcher.
Mets richly deserved to lose that Series sorry to say...
I think they should have kept Piazza as the backup catcher. He wanted to stay in New York, he was willing to be a backup, and he was willing to do it for only a couple $million a year. Would have been a substantial upgrade over Ramon Castro, and he'd also be available for pinch hitting work. I remember reading rumors of some animosity between Piazza and Paul LoDuca...LoDuca was Piazza's backup twice, in L.A. and in Florida. No idea if there was any weight to that, or if that had anything to do with them letting Piazza go. I think Minaya may have just wanted to clean house.
It doesn't get any better then Posada.
AMEN TO THAT BROTHA!
Yeah, the .270 career hitter with 199 home runs is better than the .310 career hitter with 420 home runs. :roll:
But Posada is a team player. He is kind of like that took you pay little attention to but in the backround makes everything else fit and work together.
He's very good, but I wouldn't put Hor-hey ahead of Piazza lifetime...