| Mike Piazza | |
|---|---|
 Piazza in 2016 | |
| Catcher | |
| Born: (1968-09-04)September 4, 1968 (age 57) Norristown, Pennsylvania, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| September 1, 1992, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 30, 2007, for the Oakland Athletics | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .308 |
| Hits | 2,127 |
| Home runs | 427 |
| Runs batted in | 1,335 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Member of the National | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 2016 |
| Vote | 83.0% (fourth ballot) |
Medals | |
Michael Joseph Piazza (/piˈɑːtsə/pee-AHT-sa;[1]: 55 born September 4, 1968) is an American former professionalbaseballcatcher who played 16 seasons inMajor League Baseball (MLB), from 1992 to 2007, and is a member of theMajor League Baseball Hall of Fame. He intended to serve as the manager of theItalian national baseball team in 2020 and 2021 championships,[2] though was unable to do so because of theCOVID-19 pandemic. Piazza played most notably for theNew York Mets andLos Angeles Dodgers, while also having brief stints with theFlorida Marlins,San Diego Padres, andOakland Athletics. A 12-timeAll-Star and 10-timeSilver Slugger Award winner at catcher, he produced strong offensive numbers at his position; in his career, he recorded 427home runs—a record 396 of which were hit as catcher—along with a .308batting average and 1,335runs batted in (RBI).
Piazza was drafted by the Dodgers in the1988 MLB draft as a favor fromTommy Lasorda to Piazza's father. He was the last player selected and signed in his draft class to play in the Major Leagues. Initially afirst baseman, Piazza converted to catcher in the minor leagues at Lasorda's suggestion to improve his chances of being promoted. He made his major league debut in 1992 and the following year was named theNational League (NL)Rookie of the Year and was an All-Star for the first of 10 consecutive seasons. Piazza immediately impressed with his ability to hit forpower and average. His best year as a Dodger came in 1997 when he batted .362, hit 40 home runs, and had 124 RBI, leading to a runner-up finish in voting for the NLMost Valuable Player Award. In 1998, he was traded to the Marlins and then a week later to the Mets, with whom he spent most of the remainder of his career. He helped the Mets reach the2000 World Series, the only World Series appearance of his career. After the 2005 season, Piazza left the Mets to play one season each for the Padres and Athletics before retiring after the 2007 season.
Piazza is regarded as one of the best offensive catchers in baseball history. He had at least one RBI in 15 straight games for the Mets in 2000, the second-longest RBI streak ever. In 2013, the Mets inducted Piazza into theNew York Mets Hall of Fame. In2016, Piazza was elected to theBaseball Hall of Fame.[3]
Piazza owned the Italian soccer teamA.C. Reggiana 1919, which played for two seasons (2017–2018) in Serie C under his leadership before its non-registration due to continued financial troubles.[4]
Piazza was born inNorristown, Pennsylvania, grew up inPhoenixville, Pennsylvania, and attendedPhoenixville Area High School. He is the second-oldest son of an Italian father named Vince (1932–2021) and a Slovak mother named Veronica, with brothers Vince Jr., Dan, Tony, and Tom. His father was the son of Italian immigrants fromSciacca, Sicily.[5] Tom's godfather was former MLB managerTommy Lasorda. Mike grew up aPhiladelphia Phillies fan and fan of Philadelphia sports, and admiring Hall of Fame third basemanMike Schmidt. Piazza watched thePhiladelphia 76ers court side in their January 1983 game whenJulius Erving performed a defensive play by swiping the ball and completing his famous Rock-a-Baby dunk, which Piazza cited as one of his indelible childhood memories as a sports fan.[6][7][8] Vince Piazza earned a fortune of more than $100 million in used cars and real estate, and attempted several times to purchase an MLB franchise.[9] When the Dodgers—managed by Vince's childhood friend Tommy Lasorda, the godfather of Mike Piazza's youngest brother, Tommy[1]: 40 —visited Philadelphia, Piazza visited the Dodger clubhouse and served as a bat boy in the dugout.[10]
Vince's own hopes of playing baseball had ended at the age of 16 when he left school to support his family. He saw that Piazza had potential in the sport, and began encouraging his son to build his arm strength at the age of five.[9] When he was 16, Piazza received personal instruction in his backyard batting cage fromTed Williams. The Hall of Famer praised his talent, advised him not to let anyone change his swing, and autographed Piazza's copy of Williams'The Science of Hitting.[10] Vince threw hundreds of pitches nightly to his son,[9] who shared his father's focus on baseball, clearing snow if necessary to practice his hitting and, after reaching the major leagues, practicing on Christmas Eve.[10] Piazza graduated from Phoenixville Area High School in 1986, after which he went to South Florida and joined theMiami Hurricanes his freshman year; receiving no playing time that season, Piazza transferred toMiami-Dade Community College.[11] Piazza played first base at Miami-Dade in 1988. In 29 games, hehit .364 with threehome runs anddrove in 23 runs.[12]
After his father asked Lasorda to select Piazza as a favor,[13] theMiami-Dade Community College student was drafted by the Dodgers in the 62nd round of the1988 MLB amateur draft as the 1,390th player picked out of 1,395 players.[14][10] Lasorda asked Piazza to give up his first base position and learn how to catch to improve his chances of reaching the major leagues and helped him attend a special training camp for catchers in the Dominican Republic.[10] Piazza became an excellent hitter, especially for a catcher.[13] His MLB debut came with the Dodgers on September 1, 1992, against theChicago Cubs. He drew a walk in his first plate appearance and then doubled to deep center field in his first official at-bat, againstMike Harkey of the Cubs.[15] He hit his first home run on September 12, 1992, againstSteve Reed of theSan Francisco Giants.[16] He only appeared in 21 games that season, hitting .232.
Piazza won the NLRookie of the Year Award in 1993 after appearing in 149 games, hitting .318, slugging 35 home runs, and driving in 112 RBI. He was also selected to the1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, his first of 10 consecutive (and 12 total) All-Star appearances. UntilJoc Pederson passed him in 2015, Piazza's 18 home runs before the All-Star break was a Dodgers' rookie record.[17] In 1996, Piazza hit .336 with 36 home runs and 105 RBI, finishing second in NLMVP voting, behindKen Caminiti. Piazza's best season with the Dodgers came in 1997, when he hit .362, with 40 home runs, 124 RBI, anon-base percentage of .431, and aslugging percentage of .638. He became the first catcher in MLB history to get 200 hits in a season. He finished second in NLMVP voting for the second straight year, behindLarry Walker.
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During the 1997-98 offseason, Piazza wanted a new contract prior to his eligibility for arbitration; Piazza wanted $105 million for seven years while the Dodgers offered $76 million for six years. Piazza blasted the Dodgers when his demands were criticized by fans and the media, blamingVin Scully in particular.[18][19]
On May 15, 1998, the Dodgers traded Piazza andTodd Zeile to the Marlins in return forGary Sheffield,Charles Johnson,Bobby Bonilla, Manuel Barrios, andJim Eisenreich. He appeared in five games with the Marlins, where he hit .278.[20]
On May 22, the Marlins traded Piazza to the New York Mets forPreston Wilson,Ed Yarnall, and Geoff Goetz.[21] Piazza finished the 1998 season batting .328 with 32 home runs and 111 RBI, becoming the first player in MLB history to hit more than 30 home runs in a season while playing at least one game for three different franchises.[22]
Piazza helped the Mets to two consecutive playoff appearances in 1999 and 2000. In the former season, Piazza tied his career highs of 40 home runs and 124 RBI. He also set the record for most home runs in a season without ever hitting more than one in a game, passing a mark previously set byRogers Hornsby in 1929.[23]
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The following year, Piazza led the Mets to an NL pennant and aWorld Series appearance in the 2000Subway Series. He became known as "The Monster" after coachJohn Stearns was caught on tape during the2000 National League Championship Series after a Piazzahit saying "The Monster is out of the Cage".[24]
Piazza was involved in a bizarre incident during the2000 World Series. Earlier in the season during interleague play, YankeespitcherRoger Clemens hit Piazza in the head with a fastball. Piazza suffered aconcussion and was forced to miss the2000 MLB All-Star Game. Clemens was widely criticized by Mets fans for the incident, but Clemens maintained that the pitch was not intentional. Clemens and Piazza would go on to face each other again in the first inning of World Series Game 2. During the at-bat, Clemens threw a pitch that broke Piazza's bat as he fouled it off, sending the barrel and a sharp edge of the broken bat directly at Clemens on the mound just as he finished his delivery. Clemens caught the barrel and threw it across the first base line towards the Yankees' dugout and just past Piazza who was running down to first. Piazza gave a long stare at Clemens and slowly started walking towards Clemens to confront him, and Clemens asked the umpire for a new ball as if nothing had happened.During replays, Clemens can be seen shouting "I thought it was the ball!" and asking the umpire for a new ball multiple times as the two benches cleared and met at the mound. Words were exchanged between the two players, but no punches were thrown from either team and nobody was ejected. Piazza later caught for Clemens when both were on the NL team in the2004 All-Star Game. Clemens gave up six runs in the first inning.[25]
Piazza's game-winning 8th-inning home run in the first professional baseball game played in New York following the9/11 attacks has been called iconic, therapeutic, and symbolic.[24] The jersey he wore in that September 21, 2001 game was purchased in April 2016 for $365,000, the highest price ever paid for a modern-day jersey, and is displayed on a rotating basis among the9/11 Memorial Museum,Citi Field, and theNational Baseball Hall of Fame.[26][27]
To ease the stress on his deteriorating knees, Piazza began to split his time between catching and playing first base during the 2004 season, an experiment which was abandoned before the end of the season because of Piazza's defensive deficiencies.[citation needed] In addition to being recognized as a great hitter, Piazza has had some notable defensive accomplishments. Among them, Piazza caught twono-hitters thrown byRamón Martínez andHideo Nomo while playing with the Dodgers. Nomo's was particularly impressive because it happened atCoors Field, notorious for being a hitter-friendly ballpark. Additionally, Piazza's .997 fielding percentage was the highest among NL catchers in 2000.[28]
On May 5, 2004, Piazza surpassedCarlton Fisk for most home runs by a catcher with his 352nd.
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Following the 2005 season, Piazza signed a one-year contract worth $2 million with the San Diego Padres on January 29, 2006.[29]
Serving as the Padres' starting catcher and clean-up hitter, Piazza experienced somewhat of a rejuvenation in 2006, batting .283 with 22 homers and helping the Padres to a division title. On July 21, 2006, Piazza collected his 2,000th career hit.
On August 8, 2006, Piazza played his first game at Shea Stadium since leaving the Mets. Throughout the three-game series, Piazza drew frequent standing ovations from New York fans. It was on par with that ofTom Seaver on his return to pitch at Shea Stadium in 1977 and 1978. Even more telling was during that series, on August 9, he drew a rarecurtain call in the opposing park following a home run off Mets pitcher (and former Dodgers and Mets teammate)Pedro Martínez in the fourth inning. Not done for the day, Piazza went deep off Martinez again in the sixth. With the Mets ahead 4–2 in the eighth, and two runners aboard, Piazza hit one to the wall in center, nearly bashing his third homer of the day and putting the Padres ahead.
Piazza signed as a free agent with theOakland Athletics for $8.5 million on December 8, 2006.[30] He exclusively played atdesignated hitter with the Athletics.
On July 25, 2007, in the top of the ninth inning in a game between theAngels and Athletics atAngel Stadium, a fan threw a water bottle that hit Piazza, who had homered earlier in the game. Piazza pointed his bat in the stands at the fan he believed threw the water bottle to get the attention of security. The fan, who was identified as Roland Flores fromLa Puente, California, was arrested by the ballpark security. Piazza pressed charges against Flores,[31] and Flores was sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years of probation on March 27, 2008. On September 26, against theBoston Red Sox atFenway Park, Piazza hit his 427th and what would be his final major league home run of his career, off of rookie pitcherJon Lester.
After not being signed to any MLB team for the2008 season, Piazza announced his retirement on May 20, 2008, saying, "After discussing my options with my wife, family, and agent, I felt it is time to start a new chapter in my life. It has been an amazing journey."[32]
Piazza made a return to Shea Stadium during the "Shea Goodbye" closing ceremony on September 28, 2008, where he received the final pitch in the history of the stadium from Hall of Famer Tom Seaver. Piazza and Seaver also officially "closed" Shea when they walked off together into the center field exit and closed the door on the park after waving goodbye to the capacity crowd. On April 13, 2009, Piazza received the very first pitch in the newCiti Field from Seaver before the Mets' opening game against the Padres.
Before the 2006 MLB season, Piazza representedItaly in the2006 World Baseball Classic.[33]
Piazza was the Italian National Baseball team's hitting coach at the 2009 and2013 World Baseball Classic.[34] He was an instructor for the Italian Baseball Academy when it won back-to-back European Baseball Championships in 2010 and 2012.[35]
On November 13, 2019, Piazza announced that he would manage the Italian National Baseball team in the 2020European Baseball Championship and the 2021World Baseball Classic.[36] Due to the coronavirus pandemic and cancellation of the 2020 European Baseball Club competitions, Piazza was unable to do so.[37]
In 2016, Piazza purchased a majority ownership stake of the third-division Italian soccer clubA.C. Reggiana inReggio Emilia, with an estimated investment of $3 million. His interest grew from his friendship with former Italian soccer playerMaurizio Franzone.[38]
After two seasons of ownership and a controversial playoff loss to Robur Siena (with a penalty called in the 96th minute) Piazza put the team up for sale. Finding no buyers, and faced with mounting costs, including rent, the club ceased operations in July 2018. In December 2018 the team declared bankruptcy for the third time in twenty years.[39] Piazza and his wife had feuded withLuca Vecchi, then mayor of Reggio Emilia, during their time as owners of the club.[40]
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In a sixteen-year major league career, Piazza played in 1,912games, accumulating 2,127hits in 6,911at bats for a .308 career batting average along with 427 home runs, 1,335 runs batted in, anon-base plus slugging percentage of .922 and anon-base percentage of .377.[41] Piazza is one of the best-hitting catchers of all time, hitting 427 career home runs, 396 of them while he was playing the catcher position, a Major League Baseball record for career home runs by a catcher.[42] Only eight other players have ever had over 400 home runs with over a .300 lifetime average while neverstriking out more than 100 times in a season (Ted Williams,Stan Musial,Lou Gehrig,Mel Ott,Hank Aaron,Babe Ruth,Vladimir Guerrero andChipper Jones). He is one of only three players in history to win tenSilver Slugger Awards, along withBarry Bonds andAlex Rodriguez.
In addition to his hitting, Piazza's defense has undergone a more positive reassessment in light of new defensive metrics. His pitch framing, in particular, ranks seventh-best among all catchers going back to the first data in 1988.[43] Another report published in 2008 put him third among all catchers since 1948 in improving the performances of his pitchers.[44]
Mets teammateTom Glavine called Piazza a "first-ballotHall of Famer, certainly the best hitting catcher of our era and arguably the best hitting catcher of all time".[13] On May 8, 2010, while receiving an award, Piazza said to reporters that if he got into the Hall of Fame, he would like to be inducted as a Met, for whom he played seven-plus seasons.[45]
Piazza managed the USA team in the 2011 futures game wearing a Mets cap to the event.[46]
On January 9, 2013, Piazza failed to be elected to Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving only 57.8% of the votes and falling short of the 75% qualifying votes. He stated that he would address theperformance-enhancing drugs andsteroid rumors in his bookLong Shot.[47] In his second appearance on the ballot, Piazza's percentage numbers did rise (62.2%), but not to the 75% needed to be inducted. Piazza again failed to make the Hall of Fame in 2015, receiving 69.9% of the votes needed (28 votes shy of the mark).[48] On January 6, 2016, Piazza was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving 83% of the vote.[3]
Piazza was inducted into theNew York Mets Hall of Fame on September 29, 2013.[49] The New York Mets retired his uniform number, 31, in a ceremony on July 30, 2016,[50] prior to the Mets' game against theColorado Rockies at Citi Field.
Atriangular pennant bearing Piazza's surname and uniform number is in the background of characterPeter Parker's bedroom in the 2019 filmSpider-Man: Far From Home. The song 'Piazza, New York Catcher' by Scottish indie pop bandBelle & Sebastian is about Piazza. Piazza's autobiography, entitledLong Shot, was released in February 2013.[51]
Piazza appeared in the movieTwo Weeks Notice. He has acted in various TV shows and commercials.[52] During the 1994–95 MLB strike, Piazza and a handful of other striking players appeared as themselves in the November 27, 1994, episode ofMarried...with Children.
On May 3, 2013, Piazza debuted with theMiami City Ballet, saying a few lines in the role of a hit man in the troupe's production ofSlaughter on Tenth Avenue. Piazza sought to increase the reputation of ballet among sports fans after his daughter attended a ballet school.[52][53]
In 2023, Piazza appeared on the Fox reality challenge seriesSpecial Forces: World's Toughest Test.[54]
Piazza described Dodgers teammateEric Karros as his "best friend in baseball."[1]: 55
On January 29, 2005, Piazza married actress andPlayboyPlaymateAlicia Rickter at St. JudeCatholic Church inMiami, Florida.[55]Angelica Bridges was the maid of honor.[56] Piazza and Rickter have three children.[57]
Piazza is known to be a fan ofheavy metal music and is featured on the albumStronger than Death byBlack Label Society. He is also godfather toZakk Wylde's son, Hendrix. He often cohosts Eddie Trunk'sFriday Night Rocks show onWAXQ ("Q-104.3 FM") in New York City and was featured as the primary guest on an episode ofThat Metal Show. He is also an accomplished drummer and has performed on stage with various bands.[citation needed]
Piazza is a devout Roman Catholic. His faith was instilled in him by his Catholic mother[58] and was featured inChampions of Faith, a DVD documentary exploring the intersection of Catholic religious faith and sports. He also appeared in the follow-up videoChampions of Faith: Bases of Life.[citation needed]
Piazza is also avidly involved in theNational Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago.[citation needed]
While playing with the Mets, Piazza was a resident ofCresskill, New Jersey.[59] He also maintained a penthouse apartment on 18th Street in New York City.[citation needed]
Mike was the second of five sons ....
Piazza and his bride Alicia leave St Jude Catholic Church after their wedding in Miami
including maid of honor Angelica Bridges
they are the parents of three children
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