Hid best years were actually as a Dodger. But I agree. When I think Piazza, I think Mets.

Best years as a Dodger, but they'll probably honor his request to go in as a Met. It's reasonable enough.

The breakdown:




Yeah, I can't do the charts very well.

I note FWIW that b-war likes his defense with the Dodgers much better than with the Mets.

EDIT: I think this is what you had in mind Ray.

It's the code tag you want. Ron J.

(Apologies for editing yours. Wonky mouse got me inside your post when I meant to cut and paste. And then I figured why not?)

Given he played nearly a season and a half more games with the Mets, I figure he goes in with them.

Not the Marlins? Way to ####### piss all over your legacy, jackass.

Given he played nearly a season and a half more games with the Mets, I figure he goes in with them.

Given he has a reasonable case for either NY or LA (longer with the former, better with the latter), I figure the Hall cedes to his wishes. If he wanted to go in as a Dodger, I think the Hall would be OK with that as well.

I bet at Lakers games he says he wants to go in as a Marlin.

I think Piazza would just like the HOF to be reasonable and fair and vote him in, period.

Not the Marlins? Way to ####### piss all over your legacy, jackass.

Cut him some slack: He attended last year's farewell party at Dolphins Stadium.

WAR - 33.6-24.6, Dodgers
CA$H - $91M-$19M, Mets

Piazza had more PA and accumulated more of practically every counting stat with the Mets than with all of the other teams he played for put together.

Also, Piazza played in two playoff series as a Dodger (both division series) and 5 playoff series as a Met (2 divisional series, two championship series, and a WS). That doesn't mean his performance was better as a Met but it does mean that the narrative was better.

For some reason I remember him as a Marlin but have no memory of the Oakland and San Diego year(s).

Couldn't imagine him going in as anything but a Met.

Thanks, Ron. Not sure why I left the BB column in there.

I wonder how long it takes him to get in to the HoF I think he should be a no brainer first ballot. But if he might get treated like Bagwell.

Hid best years were actually as a Dodger. But I agree. When I think Piazza, I think Mets.

I barely even knew he was a Met, I mean I knew he was a Met, but I thought he was just like Gary Carter and living off the past in the uniform and not really being that big of a deal. It turns out I remember wrong, more seasons as a Met than a Dodger, numbers are pretty close unless you absolutely swear by defensive War.

To me though Piazza is a Dodger, his origin story(yes I'm a comic nerd) is Dodger based, but it's close enough that I think the hall will allow him to be the final choice.

WAR - 33.6-24.6, Dodgers
CA$H - $91M-$19M, Mets

Sounds like an argument in favor of the Mets cap. They paid for him.

I wonder how long it takes him to get in to the HoF I think he should be a no brainer first ballot. But if he might get treated like Bagwell.

He's a catcher, he doesn't go in on the first ballot if history is any indicator.

As I've said before, there's no song: "Piazza, LA Catcher."

When he said he wanted to go into the HOF, he thought they were calling David Hasselhoff "Hoff".

Mets, Dodgers, who cares? The question is, does Piazza go in as a blonde or a brunette?

Oddly enough (I almost never went to Shea) I was in Shea Stadium the last game the Padres played there during Piazza's final NL season. There were PH opportunities, but the Padres didn't use him, and the fans were disappointed. He had a very strong and loyal following with the Mets, even though his career wound down there; I can see why he'd want to honor their fans.

The fact that this is the best news of the offseason for Met fans is a bad, bad sign...

Piazza was blown away by the response after he hit that clutch homer in the first game back at Shea after 9-11. I think that has something to do with it....

The ten-year-old Dodger fan in me wants to punch him in the face.

But does he go in as a catcher or a first baseman?

LAD (7 yrs) 726 3017 283 .331 .394 .572 .966 159

That was worth repeating. It's just an insane line for a catcher.

Yeah, it's close enough that the player's wishes should be honored. Is it known informally as "the Boggs rule", after Wade tried to sell cap rights to the Marlins?

Tampa Bay, and yes.

The ten-year-old Dodger fan in me wants to punch him in the face.

Yes, how dare he snub the team that traded him to the Marlins?

Wow, I had absolutely no idea that he was a Padre. On a playoff team, no less!

And he was actually pretty good in his penultimate year.

@26: that's right. Tampa Bay. Was it that the Rays offered him $1m for the "honor"? What was the virtue of the deal, that the Rays and Boggs would then pretend for the rest of his life that he was a HOFer attached to the Rays in some significant ways, and that the organization would somehow benefit from this?

Seems silly, the kind of fraud that'll take no one in.

Yes, how dare he snub the team that traded him to the Marlins?

Are you snarking on ten-year-old me? Because I don't think ten-year-old me really understood the complexity of the situation.

Wow, this is going to hurt Tommy Lasorda. For those of you who don't know, I am pretty sure the story goes like this:

No team in MLB would draft him out of school because he couldn't actually catch, couldn't run well enough to play OF, and he didn't look like the kind of hitter who take over a 1b spot. However, he happens to be Tommy Lasorda's godson. I'm serious. So Tommy actually talked the Dodger draft brass into taking Piazza as a very-late-round "warm fuzzy pick". Everyone involved had the good luck to find out that this guy wanted to pay baseball badly enough that he would work his ass off, develop hitting that would allow him to play 1b if he wanted, work on his glove until it was at least passable, and, in general, come through big time.

But there is no evidence that, if no one had ever drafted him, any team would have ever given him a shot to show that he could develop like that. In sort, Mike owes his whole career to Tommy, who, of course, bleeds Dodger Blue. It's going to hurt to see his godson, whom he personally got into the professional game, walk into the HoF with a different team's cap on. Wow.

- Brock Hanke

#31 As I understand it, Lasorda also helped to keep him from being released after his second year at A ball. Poor defensive catchers who hit .250/.281/.390 in their second shot at A ball are often seen as surplus to requirements. The best hitter on that team washed out a mere two years later having never mastered AA.

Another way to look at that line. Eric Young was a teammate and put up a .287/.384/.380 (with 76 SB)

Yeah, he had mono. Thing is nobody knew that at the time. He was somewhat lucky to get another shot.

Everyone involved had the good luck to find out that this guy wanted to pay baseball badly enough that he would work his ass off

That works both as a standard Piazza joke, and as a steroids reference.

He was somewhat lucky to get another shot.

Of Vitamin B12 you mean?

So why did the Dodgers trade him for Charles Johnson, Jim Eisenreich and Bobby Bonilla? They were a .500-team in mid-May. Were they tired of his defense?

They also got Gary Sheffield in that trade.

Wow, this is going to hurt Tommy Lasorda.

Feature, not bug.

But there is no evidence that, if no one had ever drafted him, any team would have ever given him a shot to show that he could develop like that. In sort, Mike owes his whole career to Tommy, who, of course, bleeds Dodger Blue. It's going to hurt to see his godson, whom he personally got into the professional game, walk into the HoF with a different team's cap on. Wow.

It makes you wonder how many people out there had the ability to become good or even great players in MLB, and never got the chance since they didn't have the same connection.

For every decent MLB player there are 10-20 who got a chance in pro baseball and failed to advance, so it seems like the net is cast pretty wide. But sometime it's just not enough.

So why did the Dodgers trade him for Charles Johnson, Jim Eisenreich and Bobby Bonilla? They were a .500-team in mid-May. Were they tired of his defense?

He would have been a free agent soon enough, and the Dodgers were pretty far apart with Mike on agreeing to extension terms. In retrospect, they should have done whatever it took to make him a Dodger for life. Forget retrospect, a lot of people at the time thought the Dodgers made a big mistake.

Also, for defense it really comes down to throwing out baserunners. Mike was fine at other aspects of catcher D. For the Dodgers, he wasn't terrible at throwing them out (26%), but he got worse with age.

Wow, forgot about Sheffield. For his entire career, Piazza was viewed as a poor defender, although he had his supporters (for the reasons listed in #39).

But there is no evidence that, if no one had ever drafted him, any team would have ever given him a shot to show that he could develop like that. In sort, Mike owes his whole career to Tommy, who, of course, bleeds Dodger Blue. It's going to hurt to see his godson, whom he personally got into the professional game, walk into the HoF with a different team's cap on. Wow.

It makes you wonder how many people out there had the ability to become good or even great players in MLB, and never got the chance since they didn't have the same connection.

For every decent MLB player there are 10-20 who got a chance in pro baseball and failed to advance, so it seems like the net is cast pretty wide. But sometime it's just not enough.

Very nice summary, bh. And, yeah, the following post occurred to me too as I was reading. True in baseball, the arts (probably more so there as the arts are so subjective), all kinds of things hinge on luck, or being at your best at juuuust the right time. Hard work is great, but life is tough. There's a lot of randomness to it.

Reading stories about players in the early part of the century, there are just so many who were discovered by accident. Like a scout hears about some player, goes to watch him play, and is impressed by a guy he never heard of. Signs him and goes on to a great career. I'm sure a lot of potential greats slipped through the cracks. You'd think a potential great would get somebody's notice these days, but Piazza shows how close it can be.

Wow, this is going to hurt Tommy Lasorda.

Then, as a lifelong Dodger fan, 24-year-old me would like to personally carve the "NY" onto his cap and give him a hearty handshake.

Perhaps the Mets can trade Jackie Robinson's legacy back to the Dodgers in exchange for Mike Piazza's legacy.

Reading stories about players in the early part of the century, there are just so many who were discovered by accident. Like a scout hears about some player, goes to watch him play, and is impressed by a guy he never heard of. Signs him and goes on to a great career.

This sounds like the career of Toe Nash. Except replace "goes on to a great career" with " gets arrested for statutory rape and flames out".