Article

 

If it's his NY finale, Piazza's OK with it

After two off years, former cornerstone of Mets has something to prove, but he faces the challenge calmly

 

BY JOHNETTE HOWARD

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

 

March 15, 2005

 

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.

 

He always has been the sort of player who says he doesn't overthink or overanalyze what he does. Mike Piazza - merely the best-hitting catcher in the history of baseball - always has said he sees the ball, he hits the ball. Period. But now at age 36, as he enters the final year of his contract with the Mets, Piazza has come to camp in a strikingly different, more reflective mood.

 

The one-time cornerstone of the Mets' franchise - the man whose seven-year, $91-million contract was considered every bit as mammoth and newsworthy in its day as the more recent contracts that Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran signed - suddenly is admitting he's at a career "crossroads." He's starting sentences with qualifiers such as "if this is it for me" in New York. He knows he has something to prove - even to himself.

 

These are the self-proclaimed "New Mets," and Piazza, entering his 14th big-league season, is the lone everyday player remaining from the club's 2000 World Series team. Inside the Mets' spring-training clubhouse, Piazza's double-wide locker sits on the far left side of the row that bisects the clubhouse, in a section completely unto himself, next to an empty locker with a nameplate that reads "Unclaimed," then two other cubicles that team staffers, not players, use to hang clothes.

 

From where Piazza sits, he can hear the animated chatter on the other side of the bank of lockers, but he cannot see the crowded corner where the ebullient young shortstop, Jose Reyes, and some other young Latin players dress, along with promising third baseman David Wright. Beltran and the other starting outfielders, veteran pitchers Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine and Kris Benson all dress farther down the same row - all of them out of Piazza's sight as well.

 

Long gone are Piazza's old Subway Series teammates such as Todd Zeile and Robin Ventura. This is his first Mets camp without old pals John Franco and Al Leiter, too (they were the only former or current Mets that Piazza invited to his recent wedding).

 

When asked which players Piazza is close to on the team now, one Mets insider thinks for a long moment, then arches his eyebrows and says: "Nobody."

 

"Mike's the Last of the Mohicans," Franco joked Thursday during a phone conversation from the Astros' training camp in Kissimmee, Fla.

 

"Mike has told me that when he looks around the clubhouse, it does feel a bit different this year," Piazza's agent, Dan Lozano, said. "But he's also excited about this season. He's just in a place in his life where he's extremely at peace with himself."

 

Piazza uses the same phrase - "at peace" - to describe his state of mind, too.

 

Piazza isn't kidding anyone, least of all himself, about where he's at in his career. Two straight injury-plagued seasons have left him in an odd spot. He's a future Hall of Famer who is being left to play out his contract by a franchise he once revived. He expects no special treatment. Even Piazza seems unsure how much game he has left.

 

Were his struggles at the plate the past two years only because of his groin and knee injuries, or will this season show it's also his advancing age? He admits he doesn't know how he'll hold up catching full-time again this year. But he does know all those damning statistics that show how precipitously catchers' hitting numbers decline once they hit age 35, and he admits: "It was sobering for me to see [former Mets catcher] Gary Carter just go through a knee replacement. I'd like to play a few more years. But, too, I never wanted to be one of those guys who is hobbling around when he's in his late 40s or 50s."

 

He's still penciled in to hit cleanup. He could rip the hide off the ball from April through October. But deep down, even Piazza knows no matter how well he hits this season, that - barring a miracle - this will be his last year with the Mets. And the sentimental little aside to his story - the hard truth that everyone involved understands, but often leaves unsaid, out of sheer respect for him - is something Piazza is honest enough to admit to himself:

 

If this is indeed what he's called his "last lap" in New York, he probably has only himself to blame.

 

Though nobody has come straight out and said it, Piazza decided his future in New York when last season's experiment to move him to first base didn't work.

 

It hardly matters anymore how badly the Mets bungled the handling of Piazza's position switch, or that it might have been better done in spring training

 

(Remember how on May 8, 2003, when miscast Mets manager Art Howe clumsily made the announcement during the afternoon on the MSG Network, then said, "Boy, word sure gets around fast around here!" when a pack of reporters descended on him that night at Shea. They wanted to know if he really was going to move a future Hall of Fame catcher during the season - especially one that needed just a handful of home runs to set the all-time record for a catcher, and presumably seal his spot in Cooperstown alongside Johnny Bench and Yogi Berra and the rest?)

 

As badly as the experiment went, a close friend of Piazza insists, "Mike isn't bitter. Mike isn't angry. To be honest, I'm not sure if there really was a better way of handling it.

 

"The reality of it was the team had this guy whom they thought, 'Hey, if we can make him a first baseman, maybe we can save his knees, save his legs a little bit.' And then they thought: 'And maybe if he can prove to us he can play the position, then maybe we can go ahead and offer to sign him to an extension.' So it wasn't a bad idea, per se. But it turned out the way it turned out."

 

Which is to say, barring a miracle, no contract offer will be forthcoming from the Mets. Piazza's play at first base almost guaranteed his last contract will be with an American League team, where he can finish his career as a full-time designated hitter.

 

Echoing Franco, Piazza jokingly agrees he is "the last man standing" among his generation of Mets. He doesn't know if he'll be back, but he refuses to live in limbo. He and his wife just bought a new $3.4-million loft in Tribeca simply because they like New York. But he also talks about "embracing" all the changes and uncertainty ahead, rather than looking at them as a bad thing.

 

He says, "I am at a crossroads. But why can't it be interesting? It doesn't have to be bad."

 

Rather than preen like some aging superstar who can't accept his mortality, he volunteers that having Beltran and Martinez here to help could be "liberating" for him.

 

Coming from someone else, it might sound phony. But Piazza's thinking has often run a bit against the grain. Ego has never consumed him. A couple years ago, when pumped-up sluggers in baseball were all the rage, Piazza - who can hit the ball as far as anybody - came to spring training with a slight, bearded man whom he called "my yogi," and spoke of following a new training regimen that included more flexibility exercises.

 

He doesn't believe in false shows of machismo. He still stands by his decision not to charge the mound against Roger Clemens during the 2000 World Series against the Yankees, even though Clemens had beaned him during the regular season, then threw a jagged shard of his bat at him when he faced Clemens for the first time since the incident. When told this spring that Martinez - another pitcher who had thrown at Piazza before - declared he was willing to "kill" for Piazza now that they are teammates, Piazza winced and said, "He doesn't have to do that."

 

But that's Piazza. He swears he'll retire before he embarrasses himself. He knows he was never a great defensive catcher, but he's worked damn hard to be a capable one, a conscientious handler of pitchers, and he's proud of that.

 

Though these may be the "new" Mets, it meant a lot to Piazza when rookie manager Willie Randolph made a point of pulling him aside earlier this spring and telling him, "You're my everyday catcher, and as far as I'm concerned, this is still your team.'"

 

Reminded of the exchange last weekend, Piazza smiled as if Randolph genuinely had embarrassed him. Piazza may indeed be a future Hall of Famer, but there remains a 62nd-round draft pick whose career has wildly exceeded his dreams.

 

And he says: "That was an honor for me that Willie would even say that, and it makes me want to play well enough to return his confidence in me. I've always been one to sort of deflect those sort of labels like whose team it is, but by the same token" - and here, Piazza smiled sheepishly once again; he could not tell a lie - "what Willie said was flattering."

 

Being an Old Met really isn't so bad. But forgotten? Who could abide that?

 

 

 

Twilight time

 

A comparison of Mike Piazza's first three full Mets seasons with the last three:

 

G AB H HR RBI AVG.

 

Average season 1999-2001 139 506 156 38 110 .309

 

Average season 2002-2004 111 389 107 21 62 .276

If they let him go, who will they replace him with? There aren't any free-agent catchers of consequence available, and they don't have any in their system either. As bad as he's been lately, he's still good for 20-25 HR's a season, and a .275 average, that's pretty darn good for a catcher, and incomprehensible as to why it'd be allowed to walk out the door by a team who gave Kris Benson $21 million and Carlos Beltran $119 million.

If they let him go, who will they replace him with?? There aren't any free-agent catchers of consequence available, and they don't have any in their system either.? As bad as he's been lately, he's still good for 20-25 HR's a season, and a .275 average, that's pretty darn good for a catcher, and incomprehensible as to why it'd be allowed to walk out the door by a team who gave Kris Benson $21 million and Carlos Beltran $119 million.

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Isn't Ramon Hernandez a FA next year? How about guys like AJ Pierynski or Mike Matheney this pst offseason? Plus Jason Phillips or Mike Jacobs could take over catching duties. Also keep an eye on Jesus Flores, he's still young but he should shoot up some prospect lists this season.

 

As for Mike, he was well worth that contract and the best position player ever to wear blue and orange. That said, he bleonged in the AL 2 years ago. Good luck to him with whatever he does.

I hope Mike goes into HOF as a Met