Yes now I feel old. Today Mike Piazza formally announced his retirement. He finishes his career with a .308 batting average 427 homeruns, and 1335 RBI's. He is a surefire hall of famer and the best hitting catcher in baseball history. And he could have been all ours. Yes he could have been alongside such Dodger greats as Sandy Koufax and Jackie Robinson, but Chase Carey from Fox traded him to Florida in 1998. And it still hurts. Oh well, one of my favorite memories of him was when I met him in 1994 at the health and fitness center in Redondo, he did a grip test and I watched his muscle pop out of his forearm like a suitcase handle. And then there was the time when he hit the homerun at Dodger Stadium that was hit so high and far that I thought it would hit Diamondvision. And later at a game I was not at, where he actually did hit the ball over the left field pavillion. He was awesome. But unfortunatly he will not go into the hall of fame as a Dodger.
2 comments:
I remember the game when he hit the massive homerun that I was sure would clear the rooftop. What a great momment. Lots of great memories with you two boys at those games.
Ahhh.... the end of an era. I ask a question that has no answer: Is Mike Piazza responsible for Garrett's resurgent interest in baseball? Here are a few memories of Piazza:
1. Bringing back the fu-man-chu
2. Calling a press conference to say he is NOT gay
3. Being ripped publicly by Butler after he was traded for being a "fake leader."
4. Getting drilled in the head by Clemens and getting a partial bat thrown at him.
And the best memory of all, I got off the plane after spending five months in Australia watching cricket, the dodgers on T.V. in the airport bar, I stop to check the score, Piazza hits a dinger, welcome home.
Post a Comment