Mike Piazza has close ties to Philadelphia area

Mike Piazza's election to baseball's Hall of Fame Wednesday completes a curiously connected trinity of locally born Dodgers.

He now joins Roy Campanella and Tommy Lasorda as the last link in a chain that began more than a half-century ago in Brooklyn.

Like Piazza, the manager who had a brief mid-'50s career as a pitcher was born in Norristown. One of his closest friends was Vince Piazza, his future catcher's father and another Norristown native.

It's that Norristown connection, as much as anything, that Piazza can credit for his big-league career, not to mention his Hall of Fame selection.

Piazza was an undistinguished first baseman for Miami-Dade Community College when his father, seeking a favor from a friend, asked Lasorda whether the Dodgers would take a chance on his son in a late round. The late rounds were often where teams made courtesy picks, players with connections to the franchise but often undraftable talents.

In June 1988, at the urging of Lasorda, who is the godfather to one of Piazza's brothers, L.A. used its 62d-round choice on the Phoenixville High graduate.

Of the 1,433 players chosen in that draft, which saw pitcher Andy Benes picked first, Piazza would go 1,390th. Though the draft went on for 75 rounds, few teams even picked anyone in the final rounds.

Impressed by what he saw of Piazza offensively, Lasorda, perhaps recalling what an asset Campanella's bat had been to those "Boys of Summer" Dodgers, urged him to convert to catcher. He would go on to become one of the greatest hitting catchers in baseball history.

"Congratulations to Mike, an outstanding ballplayer and a great man," Lasorda said in a statement released by the Dodgers. "I couldn't be prouder of him."

As a youngster, Piazza often served as the Dodgers' batboy when they visited Philadelphia. He idolized the Phillies' Mike Schmidt as a youngster and, since his father was a season-ticket holder, attended scores of games at Veterans Stadium, watching from the family's seats in the second row near third base. The proximity to Schmidt led the youngster to converse often with the Phillies star.

Through his father's connections, he also spoke with another Hall of Fame slugger, Ted Williams.

In 1984, Ted Williams was at a memorabilia show in Valley Forge. A friend of Vince Piazza's persuaded Williams to go watch the 16-year-old hit in a backyard cage.

"He hits it harder than I did when I was 16," Williams says on a videotape of their meeting. "This kid is good. This kid looks good. I'm not kidding."

Williams then turns to the senior Piazza and says: "You already got the agents on him?"

ffitzpatrick@phillynews.com

@philafitz