Great news! It looks like the Hall of Fame has let the cat out of the bag a bit too early, and that Mike Piazza will be wearing a New York Mets cap on his HOF Plaque in Cooperstown.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame website has just updated their page and listed Mike Piazza as a Met for his primary team as pointed out by our minor league analyst Michael Mayer. They also have his profile photo in a Mets uniform.
How awesome is this… Congratulations to Mike Piazza and to the New York Mets!
Piazza now joins Tom Seaver as the only two Mets players to be enshrined at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
“I’m under strict orders to keep this confidential until Thursday,” Piazza said yesterday. “I don’t want to break any rules… Obviously I have a special place in New York City with these fans. They’ve done nothing but embrace me and honor me, and so I’ll leave it at that.”
The official announcement should come later today, but this is official enough for us.
I’m so happy for Mike, who really wanted this and gets his wish to be immortalized wearing a Mets cap. It’s been an incredible 24 hours for him and all of us too. Good stuff!
Original Report – January 6
This year could finally be the year, Mike Piazza gets inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is currently at 86,0 percent of the 171 ballots from online by voters. It takes 75 percent to get into the Hall of Fame.
A total of 475 total ballots were sent to out to qualified BBWAA voters including MMO Senior Editor John Delcos who has always voted Piazza in. You can view John’s full ballot here.
If Piazza gets in, the question then is whether he gets in with a Mets or Dodgers hat. He spent his first seven seasons in Los Angeles and then eight seasons in New York. It’s also possible that he gets in with no logo at all.
“The museum staff works with each inductee by suggesting an appropriate logo option, or no logo at all,” Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson told ESPN on New Years Day. “For those whose most compelling contributions clearly took place with one team, a logo makes sense. For those whose careers were built significantly among multiple teams, not having a team logo is equally acceptable.”
Here’s a simple breakdown of Piazza’s career between the Dodgers and Mets as summarized by Aaron Gleeman:
Piazza played more games for the Mets (972) than he did for the Dodgers (726), but he was a better player in Los Angeles than he was in New York. He hit .331 with a .966 OPS and 33.6 Wins Above Replacement for the Dodgers, compared to .296 with a .915 OPS and 24.6 Wins Above Replacement for the Mets. And while Piazza’s lone World Series appearance came with the Mets, his Rookie of the Year award and pair of runner-up MVP finishes all came with the Dodgers.
And then there’s that post 9/11 home run, perhaps his most memorable and of course he did that as a Met.
Back in 2012, Piazza said that he wants a Mets hat on his head if he gets in, “It’s gotta be the Mets. no doubt about it.”
And as for how he’d feel about going in as a Dodger, a cutting remark from his own autobiography says it all.
“If the Hall came to me and said, ‘We want you to go in as a Dodger,’ I’d say, ‘Well, then I’ll go in as nothing,'” Piazza wrote. “I just wouldn’t feel comfortable with LA stamped on my head for all of eternity.”
Nobody knows how this will ultimately end up. But clearly Piazza has some very strong opinions on the matter, and hopefully Cooperstown will carefully consider what their newest member wants in his heart of hearts.
