Piazza's career should have been a Philadelphia story
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - It was a made-for-Hollywood story that reached its peak in the Big Apple after the briefest of stops in Miami. The final emotional act played out Sunday in the place where some of baseball's greatest players have been coming for years to take the ultimate bow.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - It was a made-for-Hollywood story that reached its peak in the Big Apple after the briefest of stops in Miami. The final emotional act played out Sunday in the place where some of baseball's greatest players have been coming for years to take the ultimate bow.
Tears started flowing as soon as catcher Mike Piazza stepped to the podium to begin his 28-minute Hall of Fame induction speech in the searing heat Sunday afternoon. Before he started, the sea of blue-clad New York Mets fans chanted his name.
It was a terrific moment for the greatest hitting catcher in baseball history, but a sad one for the fans of Philadelphia. This could have been and even should have been a Phillies story. All that blue out in the adoring crowd should have been a sea of red. The Phillies had 102 chances to bring Piazza to Philadelphia and they whiffed on all of them.
The first 40 came in the 1986 draft. Piazza was a 6-foot-3 senior first baseman from Phoenixville High School in Chester County who was in love with all the Philadelphia teams, a fact he has never been shy about sharing. It was not as if he was an unknown talent, either. Tommy Lasorda's godson was a two-time member of the Inquirer's all-Southeastern Pennsylvania baseball team. He was described as the area's "premier slugger" after hitting 23 home runs and driving in 80 runs during his junior and senior seasons.
But the Phillies and all of baseball passed on Piazza in 1986 and he went on to play at the University of Miami and Miami Dade Junior College before reentering the draft in 1988. This time, the Phillies had 61 chances to take him before the Los Angeles Dodgers finally did in the 62nd round as a favor to Lasorda, who had been a childhood pal of Mike's father, Vince, in Norristown.
It's a little unfair to beat up on the Phillies too much for not drafting Piazza because so many other scouts filled out reports that had little faith in the kid's ability. The Phillies, however, were the only team that had Piazza in their own backyard.
The Phillies also had a second chance at Piazza in 1998 and by then he was a five-time all-star with 177 career home runs at the age of 29.
A contract squabble with a Dodgers team that was in the midst of an ownership change opened the door for a stunning trade that briefly sent Piazza to the Florida Marlins. Everybody knew the Marlins were nothing but a pit stop for Piazza, but we also quickly found out that the Phillies would not be his next stop. Ed Wade, in his first season as the team's general manager, quickly squashed any hope that the slugger from Phoenixville would put on a Phillies uniform and play in the same ballpark where he watched his boyhood idol Mike Schmidt.
"There's no doubt a guy like that could accelerate our process, but he doesn't fit to what we're trying to do right now," Wade said at the time. "Rather than raise expectations, I think it's important to put it to rest right now."
Wade does not deserve the blame for that decision. That edict came from above. The Phillies were not going to commit to high-priced stars until they knew they were moving into a new ballpark and, at that time, they still had nearly six years left to play in Veterans Stadium.
Piazza, of course, ended up with the Mets where he spent eight seasons and made seven more all-star teams.
Wade admitted that it would have been nice if he could have made a deal for Piazza.
"I would be disingenuous if I said otherwise," Wade said. "It would have been great if we could have been more aggressive on certain things. But the time and circumstances weren't right."
Piazza has no ill will toward the Phillies.
"My history in Philadelphia is well known," Piazza said afterward. "It's funny, every time the Phillies came to scout me, I either played poorly or it was just one of those things where the timing wasn't right. It might have been better that I never played there because of my family being there.
"I know some guys do have trouble when they play for their hometown. I saw it in L.A. a couple times. I don't think I would have fit into that category. It's an interesting what if. I did love those teams of the seventies and I mentioned Schmitty and what an impact he was in my childhood in inspiring me. I felt like it just wasn't meant to be."
Despite never playing for the Phillies, Piazza did tip his Hall of Fame cap to his Phoenixville past,
"It was a tough town . . .," he said during his speech. "I came up through an intensely competitive Little League program. This town loved its sports. It was evident by the fact that we were not as big as some of our neighboring towns. Some of them were twice our size, but in baseball we punched above our weight."
Piazza described his high school coach John "Doc" Kennedy "as a great teacher" and he was also touched that this year's Phoenixville High School baseball team made the trip to Cooperstown on Sunday.
But the bulk of Piazza's teary-eyed speech about his playing days focused upon the Dodgers, the the team that took him in the 62nd round in 1988, and the Mets, the team he took to the 2000 World Series.
It could have been about Philadelphia. It should have been about the Phillies.
@brookob