Mike Piazza announced his retirement on Tuesday, concluding a 16-year major-league career that includes 2,127 hits, a .308 batting average, 427 home runs, 1,335 RBI’s, 12 All-Star teams and one All-Star Game MVP, 10 Silver Slugger awards, a Rookie of the Year award, and one trip to the World Series during which he slugged two homers in the Mets’ five-game series loss to the Yankees. Though he was known almost exclusively for his offense, Piazza actually caught two no-hitters, including the only one thrown at Coors Field in the thin Colorado air.
My favorite Piazza story dates way back to 1988. It seems the man who went on to hit the most home runs as a big-league catcher was not exactly a can’t-miss prospect; in fact, he was drafted in the 62nd round as a personal favor to Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, a childhood friend of Piazza’s father. It’s hard for me to decide who benefited most from that friendship – Piazza, who ended up having a great career and who will most likely enter the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, or the Dodgers, who in Piazza’s first full season (1993) finished 81-81, a drastic improvement over their .389 winning percentage (63-99) the year before. The team reached the playoffs in ’95 and ’96, with Piazza finishing fourth and second, respectively, in the National League MVP voting. I think Piazza got the best of it, but the Dodgers sure owed their then-manager a big thank-you.
Three surprises of 2008:
1) How about the Tampa Bay Rays? The perennial cellar-dwellers are not only giving Boston a run for first in the A.L. East but more importantly are SEVEN games over .500.
2) Cliff Lee, expected to be Cleveland’s fifth starter, has proven to be the Tribe’s (as well as baseball’s) best pitcher by far, and has been nearly unhittable at times this season.
3) Nate McLouth, a guy I had never heard of until a few weeks ago, is looking like a hitting machine. After hitting 13 home runs in 2007, the Pittsburgh outfielder is up to 12 already this season. McLouth gives Pirates fans something to be excited about.
It is truly great to see Texas’s Josh Hamilton put up such impressive numbers (.335, 12 HR, 53 RBI, and .614 Slugging) over the first eight weeks of the season. Hamilton, a longtime prospect for Tampa Bay whose drug addiction kept him from making his major league debut until last year with Cincinnati, seems to have overcome the greatest challenge of his life. Taking a page out of mlb.com’s Mychael Urban, Hamilton’s success is Good For Ball.
Lastly, despite my dislike of Red Sox Nation, I have to mention Jon Lester, who beat cancer in 2006 and threw a no-hitter against Kansas City on Monday night. I may not enjoy seeing Boston in first, but Lester’s performance was good for humankind.
Keywords: 62nd round, Cliff Lee, Jon Lester, Josh Hamilton, Mike Piazza, Nate McLouth, no-hitter, retirement, surprises, Tampa Bay Rays
