mike piazza retires

[aramism]

not sure how many baseball fans but mike piazza retired today.





he is definitely my favorite baseball player of all time and it's sad considering i grew up when he was in his prime and my fondest memories of baseball and the mets and growing up in shea stadium revolved around him. unless you guys went to met games during his times you don't understand the caliber of his play and his chemistry with the fans. if anybody read his press release about his retirement i hope you noticed the super classy and super professional paragraph he dedicated to us met fans who totally embraced him just like he embraced us.

"But I have to say that my time with the Mets wouldn't have been the same without the greatest fans in the world. One of the hardest moments of my career, was walking off the field at Shea Stadium and saying goodbye. My relationship with you made my time in New York the happiest of my career and for that, I will always be grateful." - Mike Piazza


his last game as a met was one of the toughest moments of my baseball fan life as well i was totally choked up as were 55,000 other people. i could swear i turned my head and every single person was crying it was pretty crazy that is something i will never forget. they showed him on the big screen in the stadium with tears in his eyes and people around me were like sobbing and i got choked up as well.


anyways hope there are some baseball fans here that can appreciate this.

 

[spioraid]

crazy man!

I saw him twice when he was with the LA Dodgers. Even caught a home run ball from him once, but it fell from my seat two innings later and the people sitting in front took it.

It was especially cool to me because the team I was on was the Dodgers as well. Every little league kid's dream I suppose.

He's had a great career though. Sad to see him go.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Incidentally he's quite the metalhead, too. Not sure how much detail I should go into but he's known to hang out with some of the local metal dudes when he's in the bay area.

 

[aramism]

yeah he is zakk wyldes sons godfather. he is a huge metal head. there is a radio show in NY area called eddie trunk rocks on q104.3 and he is a regular host. i've seen him at concerts a few times. he likes a lot of 80's old school metal like queensryche, priest, maiden, anthrax, testament, overkill etc.

he is a big metalhead

 

[Altitudes]

That guy was still playing baseball? I thought he WAS retired!

 

[J the TyranT]

nobody picked him up this year... was kind of a forced retirement.

Ive heard good stories and bad about old Mike... so Ill reserve judgement on his character

 

[sparkyness]

I remember seeing footage of him rehearsing with Anthrax - drums and singing IIRC. Big Mullet too

Even as a Yankee fan, I liked the Pizza man.

 

[Metaltastic]

Drums and singing? Like, Phil Collins style?

 

[sparkyness]

not both at the same time ....his attempts at each were bad enough in isolation, let alone combined....