Announcing his retirement Tuesday after 16 years (and 427 homers) in the big leagues, Mike Piazza tipped his hat to New Yorkers.

“My time with the Mets wouldn’t have been the same without the greatest fans in the world,” he said. He called those days “the happiest of my career,” adding, “For that, I will always be grateful.”

New Yorkers, without question, should tip their hats back.

Throughout his eight seasons here, Piazza was the Mets – or a pivotal part of the team, anyway. He gave fans their money’s worth – and then some – with feats like his two-run, game-winning blast against Atlanta in the eighth inning of the Mets’ first post-9/11 outing.

Piazza was the best-hitting catcher in baseball – batting a career .308, with more home runs than any other backstop.

New Yorkers will never forget when Yankee hurler Roger Clemens beaned Piazza in 2000 – and then threw a piece of broken bat toward him during a World Series game a few months later. (Piazza may be getting the last laugh there, given Clemens’ recent troubles.)

Piazza left the Mets a few years ago, but his heart, it seems, remained.

Thanks for the memories, Mike.