Mike Piazza and the days when the Mets reached for the stars

  

Mike Piazza reached the pinnacle of the baseball world this week when was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. On Friday, I had the opportunity to be there when Piazza stood at the pinnacle of New York, on the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, talking about what makes the Big Apple so special to him.

Piazza found it "euphoric" to be "back here in New York as a Hall of Famer, the way people just honor you, hearing the 'way to go Mikeys' when you’re walking around. It’s a lot of fun."

He praised the "passion of the fans" in New York, noting that, "as a player, you can choose, it can really be a lot of pressure – some guys don’t respond well to it, or you can use it as a catalyst to get better, and for me it was the latter. I was blessed to do that."

Met fans were blessed that management traded for Piazza during the 1998 season, eventually jump-starting their offense. Then the Mets gave Piazza a big contract after the season even though they already had someone at his position (Todd Hundley). Within two seasons, the Piazza-led Mets were in the World Series.

In 2015, Sandy Alderson made a midseason trade for Yoenis Cespedes, eventually jump-starting their offense. At the end of the season, the Mets were in the World Series. But if Cespedes ends up in the Hall of Fame, it doesn't look as if he'll be wearing a Mets cap.

There may be valid reasons to avoid giving Yoenis Cespedes a long-term deal, but spare me the excuse that the Mets have no room in the corner outfield. Even if Curtis Granderson and Michael Conforto perform as hoped, (which is no sure thing given that Granderson turns 35 in March and Conforto has just a few weeks of MLB experience, during which he was primarily a platoon player) Granderson's contract has just two years to run, so the Mets will soon need to fill a void regardless.

I'm glad Alderson is doing better, but I don't want to hear him say that the Mets are spending again because their payroll has gone up $35 million since 2014 when their payroll dropped $50 million just two years before that.

What would the traditionalists say
about using a bat as a selfie stick?

This has been a special year for the Mets - a trip to the World Series and a trip to Cooperstown for a player who considers himself first and foremost a New York Met. Seeing Piazza in person and hearing him praise teammates John Franco and Al Leiter made me nostalgic for 2000, a year I generally try to forget because of how it ended.

I've been a lot more able to appreciate 2015, since the Mets' success was so unexpected and it didn't end with a loss to the Yankees. But it would be nice to experience another world championship at some point, and unless 2016 Mets management starts acting more like the 1998 version, it may be a long time before we see another title - or another Hall of Famer in a Mets cap.

The New York Times' Harvey Araton sez Barry Bonds should be in the Hall of Fame. I agree.

Like many baseball fans, I have had a number of thoughts and emotions over the years on what MLB should do/should have done about performance enhancing drugs. It is bizarre to me the way this has all shaken out. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who are HOFers even if you cut out their steroid years, are left out of the Hall. Meanwhile, Joe Torre, Tony LaRussa, and Bobby Cox, who won championships based on PED users, are in the Hall.

Oh, and Matt Williams is an MLB manager, Mark McGwire is a trusted hitting coach, and Nelson Cruz and Ryan Braun make it to the All-Star Game, and Jason Giambi was a beloved elder statesman of the game. Andy Pettitte is getting a monument plaque in Monument Park and a retired number. All admitted PED users. There is little or no consistency.

Not to mention that the players who use PEDs assume all the risks and the punishments, while the ownership that profited and still profits off their use just gets to cash the checks.

Anyhow, the New York Times' Harvey Araton has a terrific column that touches on this issue. Now that the feds have finally dropped their last remaining charge against Barry Bonds, after the obstruction of justice count was overturned on appeal, Araton argues that Bonds deserves to be in the Hall.

The whole thing is worth a read, but here are some of the most relevant points (emphasis added):

It has long been argued that Bonds had pretty much earned a spot in the Hall as Skinny Barry, with a decade’s worth of greatness before the 1998 preponderance of steroid benefits produced by McGwire and Sammy Sosa seemingly, and rather infamously went to Bonds’s head. What came after was surely a distortion of his previously immaculate stats. But in the context of continued revelations about baseball’s culture — foremost among them the Mitchell Report, which fingered Roger Clemens and shattered all notions of steroids as primarily a slugger’s scourge — the achievements of the bloated Bonds can no longer be permanently and completely discredited, viewed in a vacuum.

And this:

Baseball’s original sin wasn’t that it had — and certainly still has — athletes surreptitiously seeking an edge. It was management’s willful neglect of the problem for the sake of profits along with an obstructionist union wrongfully working to shield the guilty at the expense of the innocent.

As I always say, do you think Brian Cashman didn't know that A-Rod was juicing before they re-signed him? Heck, he could have known before trading for him in the first place!

Speaking of Rodriguez, Araton cites him as a positive example of somebody who has been accepted again into the game:

For many, it would no doubt be painful to hear an induction speech from Bonds, Clemens and the like. But wasn’t the notion of A-Rod again circling the bases after all that went down equally distasteful just months ago? Now what you hear is that he’s a great teammate, who served his time, paid his dues. So, in many ways, has Bonds, albeit with a smirk or a sneer. But how he has acted is not the point in the grand scheme. He deserves to be in the Hall, and baseball deserves to have him there, to deal more realistically, or honestly, with the industry’s original sin.

Ultimately, to me, it comes down to a number of things when it comes to putting PED users in the Hall:

• Bonds et al had to compete against pitchers who were juicing (and we will probably never know the full extent of that!) And Clemens had to compete against hitters who were juicing. And they were still superstars.
• PEDs themselves don't make you a great player, or Jeremy Giambi and Randy Velarde would have been big names.
• Bonds, Clemens, Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, etc. were the best players in the game in their era. How can you represent their generation in the Hall if they have been left out? 
• Jose Canseco has said there is at least one PED user already in the Hall. When that ever comes out, what will be the justification for keeping the rest out?
• What about players (cough, David Ortiz) who get a pass for PED use? Should they go in because writers like them, and they were never punished for such use?

It is a complicated subject, to be sure. But it seems to me that Bonds (and Clemens) need to be in the Hall of Fame. It's time for some consistency on this issue. If Torre, Cox, and LaRussa can be in, then so can Bonds and Clemens.

One other note on Bonds: for a guy who is supposed to be such a jerk, Greg Anderson, his trainer and childhood friend, literally went to jail -- twice! -- so as not to testify against him. Think about that for a second. I don't care how much money one could be given for doing so (some have suspected Bonds paid him off). Nothing is worth sacrificing your freedom that way. It says something about Bonds that Anderson did so for him.

My Hall of Fame picks -- and why I voted for Mark McGwire but not Rafael Palmeiro

Squawker Jon and I, as part of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, made our own Hall of Fame votes last week for the organization. And the BBA membership as as a whole picked Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven, the same results as the Baseball Writers of America's official vote.

Anyhow, here are my picks, in alphabetical order:

Roberto Alomar
Jeff Bagwell
Bert Blyleven
Barry Larkin
Edgar Martinez
Mark McGwire
Jack Morris
Alan Trammell

There was a whole to-do in the news recently about whether the BBWAA will elect players connected to, or suspected of, using steroids. I had no problem voting for admitted steroid user Mark McGwire or suspected juicer Jeff Bagwell, but I drew the line at Rafael Palmeiro. Telling Congress you never used steroids, complete with all that finger-wagging, and then testing positive will do that for you. Plus, this is an inexact science, but while McGwire and Bagwell were considered among the greatest players of their era, Palmeiro never really was.

My own opinion is that I won't rule somebody out just for using steroids, unless it's the only reason for their success. I can't see the point of a future Hall of Fame without an A-Rod, or a Barry Bonds, or a Manny Ramirez -- they were all superstar players before they ever touched anything. Unlike, say, a future catcher drafted in the 62nd round as a favor to his godfather (sorry, Squawker Jon!) At the same time, I can understand why some BBWAA writers feel differently.

But here's the thing. There was such a media firestorm recently over the idea of BBWAA voters not voting for Jeff Bagwell because they suspected him of being chemically enhanced. I think an even bigger issue is going to be when it is revealed that voters picked at least one person for the Hall who did steroids. According to Jose Canseco, who has never been wrong on this, it already has happened. And it could happen again in the future. Then what happens?

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Outrage! George Steinbrenner snubbed in Hall of Fame vote

Math question for you: When is three greater than seven? Answer -- when it comes to the Baseball Hall of Fame, where a team of voters elected MLB executive Pat Gillick and his three rings, over George Steinbrenner and his seven World Series titles.

I didn't think that Yankees Billy Martin, Ron Guidry, or Tommy John, who were also on the ballot, were worthy of Hall of Fame enshrinement, but I certainly did think Steinbrenner deserved to be in the Hall. He was only one of the most important owners in baseball histoyerry, who changed the game.  But Dave Concepcion gets more votes than him? Spare me.

Johnny Bench, Concepcion's Reds teammate and one of the committee members, said:

"Some people thought it was too early (for Steinbrenner to be elected),'' Johnny Bench said. "I believe he certainly will be (elected at some point).''

This is sloppy logic. To put it bluntly, Steinbrenner is dead now, and he will be dead three years from now, the next time the committee votes. Why not vote him in now, instead of in 2013?

Then again, what else should we expect from a committee that still won't acknowledge that Marvin Miller deserved induction, too?

I haven't seen a list of who in the committee voted for whom, but my brother pointed that Gillick was an executive for three teams: the Toronto Blue Jays, the Baltimore Orioles, and the Philadelphia Phillies. And there were three ex-Orioles players on the committee, as well as an Orioles exec, a Toronto writer, and a Phillies exec. Here's the list of voters:

The committee is comprised of Hall of Fame members Johnny Bench, Whitey Herzog, Eddie Murray, Jim Palmer, Tony Perez, Frank Robinson, Ryne Sandberg and Ozzie Smith; major league executives Bill Giles (Phillies), David Glass (Royals), Andy MacPhail (Orioles) and Jerry Reinsdorf (White Sox); and media members Bob Elliott (Toronto Sun), Tim Kurkjian (ESPN), Ross Newhan (retired, Los Angeles Times) and Tom Verducci (Sports Illustrated).

The New York Yankees may be the most storied franchise in MLB history, but they couldn't get even one person with a Yankees connection on the committee, unless you count (and I don't!) Tom Verducci, Joe Torre's co-author? How does that work?


Anyhow, I'm peeved!

Squawker Jon accused me of insisting that there needs to be a "Yankee seat here,"  to which I say, "How is it that there are multiple Orioles, Reds, and Cardinals as members on the committee? Yet the Yankee won seven rings in the post-1973 timeframe of the era the group was voting on, and don't have a single voter?" It figures.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Will A-Rod make it into the Hall of Fame?

I wrote something for The Faster Times about Alex Rodriguez's 600th homer, and whether A-Rod will make it into the Hall of Fame. Eighteen months ago, I thought there was no way Rodriguez would make it into Cooperstown, after he admitted to using steroids. Now, I'm not so sure.

After all, who would have thought fifteen years ago that people would talk about how George Steinbrenner should be a Hall of Famer? And just five years ago, it was more likely to see Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden honored at Yankee Stadium's Old Timers' Day, as opposed to anything connected with the Mets. Now they're the latest members of the Mets Hall of Fame.

Anyhow, I think A-Rod will eventually make it into the Hall. Read my piece to see my thoughts on the issue.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Met memories at Hall of Fame game

I'll never forget the time I saw the great Bob Feller pitch. Though the legendary Cleveland pitcher retired in 1956, it seems like only a couple of days ago.

Actually, it was only a couple of days ago. As Squawker Lisa wrote, we attended the first Baseball Hall of Fame Classic on Sunday. The 90-year-old Feller started the game and, as Lisa noted, even threw inside to Bobby Grich.

When Feller was removed from the game before the end of the first inning, I suspected he had been called up by the Mets. We know how much Omar Minaya loves those veteran pitchers!

While Feller as of yet has not arrived in Flushing, three of the other Hall of Famers in the game had a direct connection to the 1969 Mets:

• Ferguson Jenkins was the ace of the staff for the 1969 Cubs, who were beaten out by the Mets for the division title.
• Phil Niekro was the ace of the staff for the 1969 Braves, who lost to the Mets in the NLCS.
• Brooks Robinson was the star third baseman for the 1969 Orioles, who lost to the Mets in the World Series.

The other Hall of Famer in the game was Paul Molitor.

Oddly enough, the Mets had as many name players in the Hall of Fame Classic as the Yankees did. And the Met names spent more time on the Mets than the Yankee names did. While Jeff Kent and George Foster are best known for their exploits on other teams, they did spend several years in Queens.

The Yankees can claim Niekro, though he did not pitch in the Bronx until he was 45. Jim Kaat played part of two seasons in the Bronx but is probably better known there as an announcer. The other former Yankees in the game were Mike Pagliarulo and Kevin Maas.

It was great to see the Hall of Famers and other great players such as Lee Smith, but some of the participants were, shall we say, not quite as accomplished, such as Jon Warden and Fred Cambria, who each pitched only one season in the majors.

The last time I was in Cooperstown was in July 1994, only a month before the strike that canceled the World Series. And this latest visit came only a day before Don Fehr announced he was stepping down as head of the Players' Union. Maybe my next visit can coincide with the resignation of Bud Selig.

Lisa and I have now attended several "firsts" this year. Along with the first Hall of Fame Classic, we went to the first Met loss at Citi Field (if you count exhibition games), the first night game at the new Yankee Stadium, A-Rod's first game back after his surgery and steroid admission and (alas) the first Subway Series game at the new Yankee Stadium.

This Friday, we will be at the first Subway Series game at Citi Field. Maybe Omar will have Feller in the fold by then.

This Cooperstown baseball game is a classic

While I missed most of what was happening in Yankeeland this weekend, we did get to see some baseball Sunday. We went to the Hall of Fame Classic game in Cooperstown, featuring MLB Hall of Famers Bob Feller, Fergie Jenkins, Paul Molitor, Brooks Robinson, and Phil Niekro, and dozens of other former players.

This Old Timers' Day for Major League Baseball replaces the Hall of Fame game. What a great idea, and what great fun it was to see it in person. Bob Feller may be 90 years old, but he can still pitch. He started the game, and even threw inside to Bobby Grich!

Former Met George Foster was there (albeit in Reds gear.) Former Yankees in the game included Mike Pagliarulo, Kevin Maas, Jim Kaat, and Lee Smith.

Since there were a ton of pitchers participating, some of them played in the field instead of pitching. So Squawker Jon and I got to see retired Red Sox Bill Lee and Mike Timlin play right field, near where we were sitting.

One of the cooler things about seeing a game like this is watching the way players interact with the fans. And I have to say I was impressed with the players we saw up close.

We saw Bob Feller up close after he had just signed autographs for fans, and he has such an iconic presence I was in awe. Jeff Kent, believe it or not, was very friendly to fans.

Mike Timlin was totally into the whole experience - he had all the other players sign his shirt, and he also signed autographed baseballs for fans who tossed him balls during the game.

We saw Bill Lee - who was wearing such an old-school Red Sox uniform it didn't have a name or a number on the back! - after the game on Main Street. He was signing autographs on the street and talking animatedly to somebody he knew. I was going to ask him if there were going to be any more 70s Yankees-Red Sox reunion games - he participated in one in Scranton last year - but he had to leave before I got the chance to talk to him.

I'll have to go back to Cooperstown later this year - we didn't get the chance to tour the Hall of Fame itself - but the day was still a lot of fun.

After a relaxing weekend in upstate New York, we headed back to the city this afternoon. To get caught up on what's been going on with the Yankees while I was away this weekend, I put on sports radio. Big mistake. Was A-Rod out late with Kate Hudson Friday night? Did he beg out of the game? Was there friction between him and Joe Girardi? A little of this talk goes a long way; when I heard Steve Phillips opine on the situation, it was time to turn the radio off for the day!

What do you think? Leave us a comment!