Sunday, September 25, 2005

Take Me Away...I Don't Mind

Well look who's trying to drive eighty-eight in the DeLorean to reach back in time.

Look who hit two home runs today and made a spectacular catch and tag on what would have been the insurance run and the backbreaker that eliminates the Mets from post-season consideration.

Instead, the Mets unbelievably still have life after their 6-5 victory over the Nats which puts them in fourth place. (Did you know the Mets magic number is 18?)

As Mike Piazza most likely winds down his Met career we're left to ponder what his legacy will be in Flushing. Obviously, Piazza's numbers are incomparable at his position as he closes in on 400 HR's, and he will be a Hall of Famer with his number 31 up on the left field wall at Shea Stadium. But there's also the stigma of falling just short in that 2000 season. There will also be the controversies with Roger Clemens...the mad dash at Guillermo Mota...and the only press conference in the history of the press conferences where Mike Piazza was forced to come out of the closet as a heterosexual.

As time goes on, all the goofy stuff...jamming with Alter Bridge while holding one drumstick...his public admiration for Rush Limbaugh, his indirect responsibility in getting a radio personality fired...that all fades away. He is beloved at Shea and nothing will ever change that. The collisions, the home runs, those will always be remembered. But there will always be the fact that Piazza fell just short of the ultimate goal which was a World Series ring. Unless he goes to a team like the Angels, contributes mightily as a full time DH and the Angels win it all in 2006, there will always be that "Patrick Ewing" cloud that will hang over him...never quite had the big time horses around him to win until this, his last season here (most likely), just like Ewing.

Piazza deserves the opportunity to get all of the at-bats he can in 2006 if that's what he wants...and if there is a club other than the Mets that can give him 500 at bats as a DH and about a million or two more than the Mets would offer him, then nobody should begrudge him that. Today, he proved deserving of that opportunity next year.

3 comments:

Metstradamus said...

Now that Fiedler's hurting too, I doubt it. What people don't realize is that the Jets have more problems on offense than Chad. He's part of it, but not all of it.

Anonymous said...

would love to see mike rech 400 HRs in a mets uniform..

off the field... i knew mike was big time republican but comparing rush limbaugh to goerge washington and abraham lincoln...
damn mike.. i guess all those beanings on the head do take their toll... another reason to hate roger clemens and julian tavares.. for screwing up mike piazza's poltical ideology...

thanx for the fran healy "man crush" poll metsradamus...

Metstradamus said...

Erik,

I am on the list.

But check out who else is on the list, buddy.

HA!

(I expect retaliation on your hate list soon.)