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SPORTS PUBLISHING INC. www.SportsPublishingInc.com
Page ii
1999 Sports Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.
Production manager: Susan M. McKinney Cover design: Scot Muncaster Photos: The Associated Press and the Albuquerque Dukes
ISBN: 1-58261-051-7 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-61952
SPORTS PUBLISHING INC. SportsPublishingInc.com
Printed in the United States.
Page iii
Contents
1
New Kid in Town
1
2
Mike and the Mets
5
3
Tough Days
13
4
A New Deal
25
5
Being the Best
33
6
By the Numbers
37
7
Challenges
45
8
The Hitter
51
9
The Catcher
57
10
Proving Himself
65
11
Looking Ahead
71
Statistics
77
Page iv
Mike has a career batting average of .333. (AP/Wide World Photos)
Page 1
Chapter One New Kid in Town
The laws of physics seemingly had been relaxed, like parking rules in Manhattan on a holiday weekend. So when the baseball left the bat of Mike Piazza, it moved like shrapnel leaving a bomb and headed in the general direction of the Gap sign in rightcenter field in Shea Stadium. It wasn't the first ball hit in that direction. It might have been the only one that never slowed down.
Two Brewers outfielders, Marquis Grissom and Jeromy Burnitz, had taken note of the batter and
Page 2
Mike was traded from Florida to the Mets only a week after the Marlins acquired him from the Dodgers. (AP/Wide World Photos)
Page 3
had adjusted their positioning before the newest Met stepped into the batter's box. They were deep and prepared to protect the Gap the way the Broncos protect John Elway. But the baseball sped between them as if propeled by a force greater than the swing of a human. It scraped the Shea lawn more than it bounced off it. Neither Burnitz nor Grissom had a chance to intercept it.
Mike Piazza was going to the wall for the Mets. It was going to be his first hit with the Mets, a run-scoring double in his third at-bat in his first game after his second trade in a week. He had gone from Southern California to south Florida and now he was on his way to second base. Clearly, in all his traveling, he hadn't forgotten to pack his swing.
The double was nothing extraordinary. Mike had hit some harder, others much farther. For the Mets and their fans, however, it was a sign of something special, a calling card from the new man, a
Page 4
demonstration of dominant skill from a player who had joined a team of mostly modest talent.
They all knew the trade had happened, that the best-hitting catcher in the gameperhaps the best everhad been imported from the Marlins. Now there was on-the-field, in-the-Gap confirmation moving like a bullet toward the wall.
Once the hit was recognized as a bonafide Gapper, the fans roared as they seldom had in recent years. In unison, they delivered a rumbling and extended "Yeah," an echo of the Eighties when the Mets were the best team in the game and Mets fans were full of themselves.
Mike not only had brought out the fans that day in May of 1998, he had brought out something in the fans as well.
Page 5
Chapter Two Mike and the Mets
New York is a city of extremes, a city proud of almost any superlative that can be applied. Call New York something that ends with "est"best, biggest, baddest, loudest, highest, fastestand the city will thank you. Identify the city as "the most" this or ''the least" that and it will be regarded as a compliment. The 1962 Mets were the worst team the game ever has seen, and they were embraced by New York because they were so good at being bad.
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