Remembering Mets History (2004) Mike Piazza Becomes the All Time HR Leader Among Catchers

Wednesday May 5th 2004: As Mike Piazza was entering the Twighlight of his career, he was putting some finish touches on his Hall of Fame career. At age 34, injuries & 13 years of catching was taking its toll on Piazza. 

At this point in time Piazza had hit 351 HRs while playing as a catcher. He was tied for first place with Carlton Fisk with 351 HRs on all-time list. He needed just one more HR to take sole possession of the All-Time Catchers HR Title.

A Shea Stadium crowd of 19,974 came out on this night to see history be made.

Tonight, Art Howe's fourth place Mets (12-15) hosted Felipe Alou's fifth place San Francisco Giants (12-16). The starting pitchers were Jae Weong Seo for the Mets & Jerome Williams for the Giants. 

It didn't take Mike Piazza long to make MLB history. In the bottom of the 1st inning, with two outs, Mike Piazza hit Jerome Williams' fastball, over the right center field wall. The HR was Piazza's 352nd career HR while playing at the catcher's position, (363rd HR overall) putting him first on the MLB all-time list among backstops. 

The HR put him ahead of previous leader, (Red Sox / White Sox) Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk. The Shea crowd gave Piazza a standing ovation & he acknowledged them by coming out of the dugout to tip his cap in a thank you curtain call.

On this historical milestone night, his team would support him in a win as well.

In the top of the 2nd, the Giants Jeffrey Hammonds doubled & then former Met Edgardo Alfonzo doubled to bring him in to tie the score at one. 

In the bottom of the 2nd, Mike Cameron singled with one out. Then Jerome Williams hit Danny Garcia with a pitch putting two Mets on. Pitcher Jae Seo bunted a comebacker to the mound; Jerome Williams fielded it & threw wildly to first base allowing Mike Cameron to score. Danny Garcia advanced & Seo got credit for a single putting the Mets up 2-1.

In the top of the 5th inning, the Giants tied it up with a double from Nefi Perez, a sac bunt that advanced him to third & an RBI sac fly from Brian Dallimore. 

Mets skipper Art Howe removed Jae Seo, as he went 4.1 innings giving up two runs on six hits with a strike out & a walk. 

Ricky Bottalico came on for 1.2 innings of work, holding the Giants scoreless. 

Six Run Inning: The score remained 2-2 until the 8th inning. In the bottom half of the 8th, the Mets would send eleven men to the plate score six runs, hit two HRs & collect six hits with a pair of walks 7 a hits batsman.

In the inning, the Giants went through pitchers Felix Rodriguez, Scott Eyre & then Matt Herges. Herges would have a nightmare inning.

After Kaz Matsui struck out, Todd Zeile & Karim Garcia both singled. Shane Spencer then hit a three run HR, putting the Mets up 5-2. It was Shane's second HR of the year. 

After Jason Phillips walked, Mike Cameron blasted a two-run HR to left center field off Matt Herges making it 7-2 Mets. For Cameron it was his sixth of the season. That season he would lead the team in HRs (30) & RBIs (76).

Daniel Aardsma came in relief for the Giants & hit Danny Garcia was hit by a pitch. Eric Valent then singled to left field. Kazo Matsui added an RBI base hit to top off the Mets 8-2 win.

The Mets bullpen of John Franco, David Weathers & Orber Moreno all tossed a scoreless inning each with David Weathers getting the victory (2-1).

This was Mike Piazza's night, as his Hall of Fame career reached another milestone. 

Later that season, Piazza would be honored at Shea Stadium with Mike Piazza Night as some of the all-time greatest living catchers would come out as special guests to honor his achievements.

On that night, Hall of Famers, Gary Carter, Carlton Fisk, Yogi Berra, Pudge Rodriguez & Johnny Bench would all be on hand, Tigers manager at that time, Lance Parrish would all be on hand. centerfieldmaz was on hand as well.

Trivia: Mike Piazza finished his career with 396 HRs batting in the catcher's spot & a total of 427 HRs overall.