Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Mike Piazza Retires

Piazza was the MVP of the 1996 All-Star Game.


From "Piazza, one of best hitting catchers in history, retires" (AP/CBSSports.com):

Mike Piazza is retiring from baseball following a 19-season career in which he became one of the top-hitting catchers in history.

"After discussing my options with my wife, family and agent, I felt it is time to start a new chapter in my life," he said in a statement released by his agent, Dan Lozano. "It has been an amazing journey."

The 39-year-old Piazza was not on a team this season.

Taken by the Los Angeles Dodgers on the 62nd round of the 1988 amateur draft, Piazza became a 12-time All-Star, making the NL team 10 consecutive times starting in 1993.

He finished with a .308 career average, 427 home runs and 1,335 RBI for the Dodgers (1992-98), Florida (1998), New York Mets (1998-05), San Diego (2006) and Oakland (2007).

Congrats, Mike! Too bad you'll be entering the Hall of Fame as a Met.

photo by Roberto Borea/AP

10 comments:

Alex Cora said...

Nice Hair.

QuadSevens said...

Love the porn stache too.

Steve Sax said...

Isn't it his choice? Wouldn't he enter as a Dodger?

Orel said...

It was an acrimonious split when he was traded from L.A. He went to the World Series with the Mets. He will choose to enter as a Met.

Steve Sax said...

I bet Tommy gets him to pick the Dodgers. The only thing people will remember of him as a Met is getting his broken bat thrown back at him by a juiced-up Roger Clemens.

Steve Sax said...

Paul LoDuca will enter the horse racing HOF as a Dodger, too.

Alex Cora said...

Will his plaque have the mullet and the 'stache?

Steve Sax said...

Even better, it will be REAL HAIR on the plaque

Orel said...

Like those Gagne GAME OVER T-shirts.

karina said...

Some comments at Deadspin are not nice:

1)
Also notable for starting trend of Dodger catchers winding up in Queens when L.A. wouldn't pay them/their defensive skills started diminishing.

Russell Martin, you're ours in five years.



2)
He's not gay.
Tommy Lasorda's kid wasn't gay.
No one associated with the Dodgers was ever in anyway gay.

(In fairness, it was pretty obvious that Steve Garvey is not gay).


hate the last one, hate homophobia...who cares whom sleeps with whom?