Mike Piazza

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Template:Cleanup-date Michael Joseph Piazza (born September 4, 1968 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA) is a U.S. Major League Baseball player who currently plays for the San Diego Padres. He is generally recognized as the top-hitting catcher of all time. He is a twelve time All-Star. On May 5, 2004, Piazza surpassed Carlton Fisk for most home runs by a catcher with the 352nd of his career. Image:05PiazzaMike.jpg

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Childhood

Mike grew up for the first few years of his life in a small house in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The house was barely big enough to have Mike's entire family inside. His family consisted of his two parents, Vince and Veronica Piazza, and his brothers Vince Jr., Danny, Tony and Tommy. In the backyard was where Mike's earliest baseball memories took place. There was a large enclosed batting cage made of wood, with a net inside. Vince had bought it with some extra lumber. On one side of the cage was a pitching machine. Mike would load this with some old tattered baseballs, then he would go to the other side and hit them. This was Mike's second home; he spend every bit of his spare time here. Even in the winter, Mike would be in the cage, after shoveling snow out and heating the baseballs on the stove inside of his house, and wear gloves while hitting.

Vince Piazza was childhood friends with Dodgers manager, Tommy Lasorda. Whenever the Dodgers were in town and playing the Phillies, Mike would be inside the clubhouse and the dugout, during the game. When Mike was nine years old, he joined his first little league team, the A's. Mike's coach, Abdul Ford-Bey taught him and his teammates the fundamentals of the game. The next year, Mike was on a team called the Cardinals where the coach made him play catcher. Mike did not like catching, ironically. He actually wanted to be a pitcher. A few years later, when he was thirteen, Mike led his team to the semi-finals in the playoffs, and hit the game winning home run. Then Mike had some more luck go his way. One day when he was thirteen, while Mike was busy hitting in his batting cage, his father came in and gave him some good news. He told Mike that whenever the Dodgers were in town, Mike could be the batboy and meet the players. He spent several years at this position, and became friends with some of the players.

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High school

Vince Piazza sold and bought land and cars until Mike was 13. He then bought a computer company and became very wealthy as a result of the investment. The Piazza family moved a few miles away, to a huge house on a large piece of land, with a golf couse to one side. A ground level basement held a brand new batting cage for Mike. Using this brand new pitching machine, Mike could practice hitting not only fastballs, but curveballs and even knuckleballs. Mike became interested in heavy metal music, and played electric guitar and drums from time to time. The high school Mike went to had a baseball team called the Phantoms. Their coach, John "Doc" Kennedy knew he would try out for the team, remembering him from little league. He asked Mike if he would consider playing catcher, as the team needed one. Piazza told the coach that he would prefer playing first base for the time being. Unfortunately for Mike, the varsity team already had a first baseman, so he ended up spending his tenth grade year playing for the junior varsity team. When Mike was a junior he made the varsity team, he finished that year with twelve home runs, breaking a record, and led the whole team in every hitting category. He was voted most valuable player. As a senior, Mike batted almost .600 for the Phantoms, but the season ended with a loss in the district semifinals.

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Major League career

Image:Mike Piazza 003.jpg Piazza was the last player the Dodgers drafted of the 1988 draft. He was their selection in the 62nd round, and the 1390th pick overall. It is believed that the pick was partly a favor on the part of Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, who is godfather to one of Piazza's brothers and, like Piazza, grew up in Norristown. Piazza swore he'd learn to catch if he was drafted. Piazza's major league debut came with the Dodgers in 1992, when he appeared in 21 games. He then won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1993.

Piazza's best season was arguably 1997, a year when he finished second in MVP voting. He hit .362, with 40 home runs and 124 runs batted in, an on base percentage of .431 and a slugging percentage of .638.

He played for the Dodgers until he was traded to the Florida Marlins on May 14, 1998. Piazza and Todd Zeile went to the Marlins in return for Gary Sheffield, Charles Johnson, Bobby Bonilla Manuel Barrios, and Jim Eisenreich. One week later, on May 22, Piazza was traded from the Marlins to the New York Mets for Preston Wilson, Ed Yarnall, and Geoff Goetz.

Piazza helped the Mets to two consecutive playoff appearances, the second resulting in a five-game World Series loss to the crosstown New York Yankees in 2000.

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. Although recognized as a great hitter, Piazza does not get a great deal of credit for his handling of pitchers, despite having caught no-hitters for Ramón Martínez and Hideo Nomo.

In his 14-year career (through 2005), Piazza's career batting average is .311 with 397 home runs, 1,223 RBI, and 308 doubles in 1,702 games.

On October 2, 2005, Piazza filed for free agency, effectively ending his career with the Mets. It was presumed that he would be a good fit for an American League team, where a full-time role as a designated hitter could extend his career while reducing the risk of serious injuries, but he ended up signing with the National League San Diego Padres on January 29, 2006.

He represented Italy in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

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Teams

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Salary

During the 2005 season, Piazza was the 9th highest paid MLB player at $16,071,429. On January 29, 2006, Mike Piazza accepted a one-year deal with the San Diego Padres worth $2 million dollars.

Career Salary

1993 - $126,000
1994 - $600,000
1995 - $900,000
1996 - $2,700,000
1997 - $7,000,000
1998 - $8,000,000
1999 - $7,171,428
2000 - $12,071,429
2001 - $13,571,429
2002 - $10,571,429
2003 - $15,571,429
2004 - $16,071,429
2005 - $16,071,429

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Personal life

On January 29, 2005, he married former Playboy Playmate Alicia Rickter at St. Jude's Catholic Church in Miami before 120 guests, including Al Leiter and Detroit Tigers' catcher Ivan Rodriguez.

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Trivia

  • Mike was the subject—and source—of a hoax involving Teen Wolf starring Michael J. Fox. Mike alleged in an interview with New York Sports Express that he had played the boyfriend of the beautiful blonde (whom Fox sleeps with). It worked so well that it even fooled the Internet Movie Database who listed him as playing the part of Mick McAlister (in fact, played by Mark Arnold). IMDb went so far as to display a picture of Piazza.
  • Hit the longest home run in Astrodome history, an estimated 480-foot, two-run blast off Jose Lima in the first inning of a game on September 14th, 1998.
  • Led the majors with four grand slams in 1998. His fourth slam and first as a Met came against the Diamondbacks' Andy Benes in the second inning of the August 22nd game at Shea Stadium.
  • Hit his 200th home run on September 16th, 1998, at Houston. The home run, a three-run shot with two outs in the ninth inning against Billy Wagner, gave the Mets a 3-2 lead in a game they would win, 4-3, in 11 innings.
  • Tied a Mets' club record on July 18th when he hit his third grand slam of the season ... The only other Mets with three grand slams in a year are John Milner in 1976 and Robin Ventura in 1999.
  • His 72 RBI prior to the All-Star Break in the year 2000, were the most in club history ... Dave Kingman had 69 in 1976.
  • He and Derek Jeter are the only players in major league history to hit a World Series home run in both Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium.
  • Won 10 consecutive Louisville Silver Slugger Awards.
  • In 1993,his 35 home runs set the major league record for most home runs by a rookie catcher,surpassing Detroit's Matt Nokes with 28 in 1987.And it is the most home runs by any Dodger rookie.
  • Joined Cincinnati's Johnny Bench (1968), New York Yankees' Thurman Munson (1970), Atlanta's Earl Williams (1971), Boston's Carlton Fisk (1972), San Diego's Benito Santiago (1987) and Cleveland's Sandy Alomar, Jr. (1990) as the only catchers to be named Rookie of the Year.
  • Made first All-star appearance in 1993,where he struck out in his only at-bat.He made his first start at All-star game in 1994,a year later.He was the first Dodger to start an All-Star Game since Mike Scioscia in 1990
  • Hit his first career pinch-hit home run off Richie Lewis at Florida on July 23rd,1995.
  • Was named the All-star game's MVP,in 1996, after he went 2-3 with a double, home run and two RBI at Veterans Stadium in his hometown of Philadelphia.
  • Finished second in the NL Most Valuable Player voting behind San Diego's Ken Caminiti after batting .336 with 36 home runs, 105 RBI, 87 runs and 16 doubles in 148 games in 1996.
  • Led All-star voting in 1996, 1997, and 2000.
  • His .362 average in 1997 was the highest ever by a catcher(110 games),tying Bill Dickley who also batted .362 for the NY Yankees in 1936.
  • His 40 homers in 1997 and 1999 is the 3rd highest by a catcher.Todd Hunley is 2nd,with 41 homers,and Javy Lopez is first with 43.
  • Won the Ted Williams Award presented by CNN/SI and Total Baseball in 1997.
  • His 201 hits,in 1997 were the most in major league history by a player used as a catcher in 130 or more games
  • Has the 2nd highest slugging% in Dodger history with .572..Trailing Gary Sheifeild by .001,since he has .573.
  • Batted .331 as a Dodger..4th highest in it's franchise history.
  • His 250th homerun was a grand slam on May 14th vs. Florida (Brad Penny)
  • Belted a dramatic two-run home run in the eighth inning against Steve Karsay on September 21st at home to lift the Mets to a 3-2 triumph over the Braves in the first regular season professional sporting event in New York City after the September 11th tragedy.
  • Hit over 30 homers in 8 consecutive seasons.(95'-02')He hit over 30 homers in 9 seasons total.
  • Batted over .300 in 9 consecutive seasons.(93'-01')
  • Yogi Berra, Carlton Fisk, Gary Carter and Johnny Bench were on hand at Shea to honor Mike on "Mike Piazza Night" on June 18th,2004.Where they celebrated him breaking the record for most home run for catchers.
  • In 2005,he batted .252.His lowest ever in a season with more than 100 at-bats.(he batted .232 in 1992,but only had 69 at-bats and played 21 games)
  • Played against the Mets for the first time,since leaving, on april 20th,2006.
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External links

Template:Start box Template:Succession boxja:マイク・ピアッツァ

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