PHILADELPHIA – Mike Piazza’s favorite Yankee-Met memory? Can’t be the one he can barely remember, winding up semi-conscious after being hit in the head by Roger Clemens.
It wasn’t even the grand slam Piazza hit off Clemens a year earlier, popularly perceived to have precipitated the beaning that may or may not have led to Clemens whizzing Piazza’s broken bat past his feet during the 2000 World Series.
There’s been so much water over the dam between he and the Yankees, who would ever believe him if, like most of the players at Yankee Stadium this weekend, Piazza insisted he doesn’t give a damn about games with the other league?
Willie Randolph, a Yankee forever until he became manager of the Mets, used Piazza yesterday in a rare day game following a night game to better the chances of winning two of three against the Phillies, pending three more opportunities next week to make up ground in the more important division race.
“This [weekend] is the last DH opportunity,” explained Randolph. “And Mike’s starting to heat up a little, so it would be nice to get a couple of hits for me and that win today.”
Piazza got only one hit yesterday, bringing his average to .333 in his last 68 at-bats, just two homers and six doubles included. Still, his bloop single advanced a two-run third, giving Randolph his win, 4-3. Now he has three games to use the greatest hitting catcher there ever was, emphasis on the “was,” between sips of lemonade under the dugout roof.
“Being DH is a mental break people may not understand,” said Piazza, who has missed only nine games while re-accustoming his body to catching at age 36. “Your body takes a pounding, but you also beat yourself up a lot questioning pitches you called. This gets you away from that.
“But I feel good, really. I do cardio after games to get lactic acid out, and it’s been working pretty well because those third and fourth times up, the bat starts to get a little heavier than it did 10 years ago.”
Sounds like a man who needs to get away from it all. To the Bronx.
“I’ve always enjoyed it, I don’t know how you can’t, really,” Piazza said. “I look at it this way: There has never been a game not sold out.”
Joe Torre looks at it as six “exhibitions” his Boss cares too much about, on top of 19 games versus Boston. Piazza’s teammates complain six is double the number their playoff competitors ever have to play against the most loaded franchise of all.
“It’s definitely harder for us, playing them so much,” Piazza said. “It’s also more fun.”
The Mets’ most senior straphanger has ridden the Subway to a .353 lifetime average, not counting the 2000 World Series in which he drove in four runs in the five games. The Yankees have survived Piazza to a 32-18 series lead, counting a Fall Classic made more classic when a future Hall of Famer flied out to deep center to end it.
Obviously, that couldn’t be Piazza’s favorite Mets-Yankee moment either. So which of the eight home runs and 37 RBIs he has hit against them, or anything else about those games, does he remember most?
“Well, there was the Roger stuff,” Piazza said. “But to me, it was the energy at my first time,” an 8-4 Yankee win June 29, 1999.
“The other would be last year when we won at Yankee Stadium in a blowout and all their fans had left and our fans came down over our dugout to cheer us as we left the field.
“We won four out of six last year. That was fun.”
The most fun you can have as a Met fan, as recognized by the franchise’s most recognizable player. Love Piazza a little more this weekend, probably his last as a Met against the Yankees, because he loves these series so much.
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Subway bats
How Yankees and Mets batters fare against probable starters in this weekend’s Subway Series:
VS. P. MARTINEZ*
PLAYER AB HR RBI AVG
Jeter 77 2 4 .234
Womack 16 0 0 .125
Sheffield 32 3 11 .281
H. Matsui 25 1 1 .160
Rodriguez 46 1 3 .239
T. Martinez 55 0 5 .236
Posada 57 4 10 .193
Cano 3 0 0 .000
Flaherty 33 1 4 .242
Giambi 45 1 5 .156
Williams 73 3 7 .192
VS. GLAVINE
PLAYER AB HR RBI AVG
Jeter 18 2 2 .333
Womack 13 0 0 .077
Sheffield* 52 5 11 .269
H. Matsui 4 0 1 .750
Rodriguez never faced
T. Martinez 14 0 1 .071
Posada 7 0 0 .286
Cano never faced
Flaherty 10 0 1 .300
Giambi 5 0 1 .400
Williams 3 1 2 .333
VS. BENSON
PLAYER AB HR RBI AVG
Jeter 2 0 0 .000
Womack 26 1 3 .269
Sheffield 3 0 0 .333
H. Matsui 3 0 0 .333
Rodriguez 2 0 0 .500
T. Martinez* 12 0 1 .417
Posada 2 0 0 .500
Cano 1 0 0 .000
Flaherty never faced
Giambi never faced
Williams 2 0 0 .000
VS. MUSSINA
PLAYER AB HR RBI AVG
Reyes 6 0 0 .167
Cameron 22 1 3 .318
Beltran 21 0 1 .286
Floyd 17 0 0 .235
Piazza 20 0 0 .300
Wright never faced
Mientkiewicz 12 0 0 .250
K. Matsui 6 1 3 .167
Daubach 44 2 5 .159
Anderson* 11 0 0 .455
Woodward 8 0 0 .250
VS. HENN*
None of Mets’ regular starters have faced Henn.
VS. JOHNSON
PLAYER AB HR RBI AVG
Reyes 7 0 2 .429
Cameron 22 0 0 .045
Beltran* 8 0 1 .625
Floyd 2 0 0 .000
Piazza 21 1 3 .333
Wright 6 0 1 .167
Mientkiewicz 1 0 0 .000
K. Matsui 5 1 1 .400
Daubach never faced
Anderson 4 0 0 .000
Woodward 6 0 0 .167
*-Player pictured.
