Mets Have a 21-Year Streak on the Line Against Toronto

On Tuesday, the Mets will entertain the Toronto Blue Jays at Citi Field in the first of a brief two-game series.  As a member of the A.L. East, the Blue Jays will be playing their tenth series against the Mets, making them the third-most frequent interleague opponent the Mets have faced, trailing only the Yankees (40 series) and Orioles (12 series).

Naturally, having played so many series versus New York's National League club since interleague play began in 1997, Toronto has plenty of experience playing in Flushing.  There's just one thing they don't have yet against the Mets in Queens.  A win.

This pretty much sums up every Blue Jays game ever played in Queens.  (Steve Russell/Toronto Star)

Of the nine previous series played between the Mets and Blue Jays in the last two-plus decades, four have taken place in Flushing.  Incredibly, the Mets have a perfect 11-0 record in games played against Toronto in New York, sweeping a trio of three-game series and one two-game set.

Toronto is the only major league team to have never won a game in Flushing, despite having played games at Shea Stadium in 1997, 1999 and 2001 and at Citi Field in 2015.  (The Yankees called Shea home in 1974 and 1975, but their division rivals from Toronto didn't come into existence until 1977.)  The only team that can come close to the Blue Jays' record of futility against the Mets in Queens is the Cleveland Indians, who have won just one road game versus New York (NL).  But the Indians have a good reason for that.  They've only played a single series on the road against the Mets, dropping two out of three games at Shea Stadium in 2004.

Besides Toronto, there's just one other American League team that the Mets are at least ten games over .500 against at Shea Stadium/Citi Field.  That would be the Baltimore Orioles, who are 3-13 in the Mets' home ballparks (3-10 in the regular season, 0-3 in the 1969 World Series).  That's a pretty dismal record, but at least the Orioles have won a few games in Flushing.  That other A.L. East team named after a bird wishes it could fly out of Flushing with a victory or two.

But alas, the Mets have yet to drop a home affair to the Jays through 21 years of interleague play.

The Mets have won blowouts (two wins by 6+ runs) and nailbiters (four one-run victories) when they've hosted Toronto.  The Bobby Valentine fake mustache game?  That was against the Blue Jays at Shea in 1999.  That game was also the closest Toronto came to winning a game in Flushing, as the Blue Jays' bullpen blew a three-run, ninth-inning lead before succumbing to the Mets in the 14th frame.  Toronto almost had a happy recap during their inaugural visit to Citi Field in 2015.  But they couldn't hold a one-run lead in the 11th inning, allowing the Mets to cross the plate twice in a walk-off win.

Eventually, the Blue Jays will celebrate on the field in Flushing, just like every other team in baseball has done at least once.  They're 0-for-11 in games against the Mets in Queens.  The Mets hope it becomes 0-for-13 by the time this week's series is over.

The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of the Mets: Bobby Valentine

There are moments in history that are so unforgettable, people can always remember where they were at the moment the historic events took place.  Where were you on November 22, 1963?  Probably mourning the death of President John F. Kennedy.  Do you remember what you were doing on July 20, 1969?  Most likely it involved a small step for man and a giant leap for mankind.  (For some of you, it might also have involved the Mets and Expos splitting a Sunday doubleheader at Parc Jarry.)

Mention the date June 15, 1977 to a Mets fan, however, and they'll all respond with the same two words: Midnight Massacre.

The darkest day in Mets history saw the team deal its best player, Tom Seaver, to the Cincinnati Reds at the trade deadline.  In a separate transaction, the Mets rid themselves of their best power hitter, Dave Kingman, sending him to the San Diego Padres for a seldom-used relief pitcher and a light-hitting utility player.  By the end of the 1978 campaign, the reliever (Paul Siebert) had pitched his final game in the majors.  The other player acquired for Kingman wore a Mets uniform far longer than Siebert did.  And when he took his jersey off for the final time, he had managed to make a little history of his own.

The field general responsible for a great run in Mets history.  (Scott Jordan Levy/Getty Images)

Robert John Valentine became a Met because of a Massacre.  He then proceeded to kill what was left of his playing career, producing a .222/.295/.280 slash line for the Mets in 1977 and 1978 before he was released by the team mere days before the start of the 1979 campaign.  Valentine, who was originally selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the fifth overall pick in the 1968 June Amateur Draft, played briefly for the Seattle Mariners after he was let go by the Mets before calling it a career at the age of 29.

Despite never quite fulfilling the expectations that come with being a top-five pick in the draft, Valentine spent much of his playing career studying the game.  One of his minor league managers, Tom Lasorda, was influential in Valentine's decision to continue to be a part of the game once his playing career had come to an end.

"Tommy had told me to start thinking about how I could stay in baseball," Valentine said.  "That's what I wanted to do.

Valentine became a coach with the Mets just four years after playing his final game in the majors.  Two years later, he was hired by the Texas Rangers to replace Doug Rader after the Rangers got off to a miserable 9-23 start.  Although Texas finished in last place in the American League West in 1985, Valentine turned things around in his first full season as the team's skipper in 1986, leading the team to a second-place finish and an 87-75 record.  Valentine remained in Texas until 1992, when he was fired by then-managing general partner George W. Bush after getting off to a 45-41 start.

Although Valentine never led Texas to the postseason, he was the Rangers' all-time leader in managerial wins for over two decades.  Valentine was not surpassed in that category until Ron Washington bumped him down to No. 2 in 2014.  But once he was fired, the always opinionated Valentine made sure to remind his former employers who he thought was responsible for the Rangers' turnaround from cellar dwellers to contenders.

"I don't think anybody would've done better than I did while I was here," Valentine said.  "People are going to look back and say in 1985, this is where the Texas Rangers were and in 1992, this is where they were when he left.  I think people are going to say that's one hell of a job."

After working for the Cincinnati Reds in 1993 as a scout and third base coach, Valentine returned to the Mets' organization in 1994 to manage the team's Triple-A affiliate in Norfolk.  With major league players on strike from 1994 to 1995, Valentine took the opportunity to become a manager in Japan in 1995 before he returned to Norfolk to manage the Tides once again in 1996.  Under Valentine, the Tides went 82-59, which was the second-best record in the ten-team International League.

Meanwhile, the Mets, who were on their way to a sixth consecutive losing season, had gotten tired of manager Dallas Green's comments about their young pitchers not belonging in the majors.  With 31 games left in the 1996 season, Green was fired, allowing Valentine to make the jump from Triple-A to the big leagues to manage the Mets.  And just like he did with the Rangers, his leadership was instrumental in the revival of a moribund franchise.

The 1996 Mets finished the year with a 71-91 record, with Valentine going 12-19 after replacing Green at the helm.  Valentine, who had a reputation of getting the most out of otherwise ordinary players, continued to thrive in that respect during his first full season as the Mets' skipper.  Butch Huskey (.287, 24 HR, 81 RBI) had a career year in 1997, while Edgardo Alfonzo batted .315 and reached double digits in home runs and stolen bases for the first time.  On the pitching side, Bobby Jones (15-9, 3.63 ERA) became an All-Star and journeyman Rick Reed (13-9, 2.89 ERA, 1.042 WHIP) finally found a home in New York.  What did all four of those players have in common besides having breakout years for the Mets in 1997?  They all played for Valentine at Norfolk during his two stints as the Tides' manager.

Fonzie was one of many who thrived under Bobby V in both the minors and majors.  (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

New York surprised the league in '97, staying in contention for the National League wild card berth until the final week of the season.  The Valentine-led Mets finished the year with an 88-74 record, which represented a 17-win increase from the previous year.  Only the 1969 and 1984 Mets had shown a greater improvement from one year to the next.

Another reason why the Mets were so successful in 1997 was the acquisition of first baseman John Olerud, who batted .294 with 22 homers in his first season with the Mets.  Olerud led the team in doubles (34), runs scored (90), RBI (102) and on-base percentage (.400), while providing Gold Glove-caliber defense at his position.

The Mets' sudden rise to contention in 1997 caused a flurry of transactions during the off-season.  First, the Mets re-signed Olerud to a two-year deal.  They then traded for veteran left-handed starting pitcher Al Leiter.  But the coup de grâce didn't come until the season had gotten underway, when general manager Steve Phillips acquired All-Star slugger Mike Piazza from the Florida Marlins.

Olerud and Piazza batted .354 and .348, respectively, making Valentine's job of filling out the lineup card that much easier.  But they weren't the only players who helped prove that the previous season's resurgence wasn't a fluke.  Alfonzo continued to blossom under Valentine, improving his power numbers (17 HR, 78 RBI) from the previous year.  In addition, new center fielder Brian McRae's vision of a 20/20 season came to fruition, as he hit 21 homers and stole 20 bases.  But it was Valentine's use of the bullpen that really helped the team succeed.

For the first time in franchise history, five relievers appeared in 50 or more games.  Closer John Franco set a team record with 38 saves, while Dennis Cook and Turk Wendell combined to appear in 139 games, with Cook becoming the first left-handed reliever to pitch in 70 or more games for the Mets in a single season and Wendell appearing in a club-record nine consecutive games during the team's playoff push in September.

Alas, Valentine and the Mets fell short in their quest to end their decade-long postseason drought, as the team lost its final five games of the season to once again finish the year with an 88-74 record.  Valentine had now managed over ten years in the major leagues with nary a playoff berth to show for his efforts.  He was poised to finally crash the postseason party in 1999.  But first, he had to stop everything from crashing down on him.

The Mets played decently, but not spectacularly over the first two months of the season before losing eight straight games from late May to early June.  The eighth defeat in the skein gave the Mets an unsightly 27-28 record, which moved them under the .500 mark for the first time since their Opening Day loss to the Marlins.  The loss also led to the sudden firing of the team's hitting, pitching and bullpen coaches.  Although Valentine's job was spared, he knew that if the team didn't improve quickly after their less than mediocre 55-game start, his days as the team's skipper were numbered.  And so, Valentine decided to share a few numbers of his own.

"In the next 55 games, if we're not better, I shouldn't be the manager," Valentine proclaimed. "I'd rather have a sustained run; something like 40 and 15 would be good."

The team responded to the firings by winning their next three games in lopsided fashion, outscoring the Yankees and Blue Jays by a combined 26-7 score.  The outburst of offense seemed to come to an end in the series finale against Toronto, as the Blue Jays took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning.  But a three-run rally by the Mets, which included a rare stolen base by Piazza, sent the game to extra innings.  In the 12th, a questionable catcher's interference call led to Valentine's ejection.  Valentine left the dugout briefly, only to be replaced a few minutes later by what appeared to be his mustachioed doppelganger.  Except it wasn't his hirsute twin.  It was Valentine himself attempting to go incognito behind Orel Hershiser in the corner of the dugout.  The disguise was discovered by Major League Baseball and Valentine was fined $5,000 and suspended for two games.  One thing that couldn't be disguised, however, was the Mets' newfound streak of success, as two innings after Valentine was ejected, the Mets won in walk-off fashion for their fourth consecutive victory.

The Mets were winning again?  That's incog-NEAT-o!  (Fox Sports Net screen shot)

By early August, the Mets' 27-28 record had turned into a 67-43 mark, as the team did indeed win 40 of their next 55 games as per Valentine's prophetic statement.  New York had five separate winning streaks of four or more games during their torrid two-month stretch, while never losing more than two in a row.  The Mets briefly took over first place in August before the Braves reclaimed their customary spot in the division by the end of the month.  New York then pulled back to within one game of Atlanta as they entered a critical three-game series at Turner Field on September 21.  When the series was over, the focus had shifted from the division race to the wild card chase, as the Chipper Jones One-Man Wrecking Crew had essentially torn down the Mets' N.L. East aspirations.

No matter who Valentine put on the mound, Jones found a way to take that pitcher deep.  Jones homered four times in the series, hitting long balls off southpaws (Al Leiter, Dennis Cook) and right-handed hurlers (Rick Reed, Orel Hershiser).  Jones drove in seven runs in the three games, or one more run than the Mets scored in the series.  After the final game, Jones reflected on what had transpired in the Braves' three-game sweep of the Mets.

"It was one of those dream series," Jones said.  "It's almost like the ball is hitting my bat.  I don't think I'm doing anything different, but it seems like the ball keeps hitting my sweet spot."  

Meanwhile, in the other clubhouse, Valentine had his own feelings on the sweep, one that increased the Braves' lead in the division to four games over the Mets.  He was particularly vocal about what Jones had been able to accomplish.

"They sure did the job they needed to give themselves some room.  At least Chipper did," Valentine said.  "It's uncanny that he's so hot right now."

The use of the word "uncanny" caused the media to suggest that Valentine was accusing Jones of cheating, especially after Jones had hit several well-placed pitches with authority.  Valentine, who was known to occasionally suffer from foot-in-mouth syndrome, had to quickly recant his unfortunate utterance, saying: "Maybe I shouldn't have used that word."

Although the Mets' dreams of winning the division were derailed by the Braves, the wild card was still well within reach, as New York still had a two-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds with nine games to play.  There was only one problem.  The Mets kept losing.  And losing.  And losing some more.

Following the sweep in Atlanta, the Mets traveled to Philadelphia and promptly lost three more games.  This wasn't the perennially contending Braves the Mets got swept by; it was a Phillies team that was 11 games under .500 entering the series.  The loss in the series finale officially gave the Braves the division title.  It also vaulted the Reds over the Mets in the wild card race.

The Mets limped home from Philadelphia to open their final homestand of the season, still having memories of the previous season, when the team lost its final five games to deny them a spot in the playoffs.  Their losing streak extended to seven games in the opener of a three-game set against the Braves.  New York finally won a game when they walloped Greg Maddux in the middle game of the series, thanks mostly to a grand slam by John Olerud, but then dropped an extra-inning heartbreaker in the finale after coming back twice in the late innings to tie the game.  After the game, the uncanny Jones made a very candid statement, one that forever made him Public Enemy No. 1 in Flushing.

"Now all the Mets' fans can go home and put their Yankees stuff on."

If Jones's comments suggested that the fans would be watching playoff baseball from their couches instead of from their seats at Shea Stadium, he was gravely mistaken.  With the Mets two games out of the wild card spot with three games to play, they responded by sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Starting pitchers Kenny Rogers and Rick Reed struck out 22 batters between them in the first two games, while Orel Hershiser and four relievers combined to pitch a three-hitter against the Pirates in the series finale.  But it was a move by Valentine in Game No. 162 that may have saved the Mets' season.

Melvin Mora had played in 65 games for the Mets coming into the season's final home game.  He had started just three of them, with Valentine using him mostly as a late-inning defensive replacement.  Mora had just 38 plate appearances in those 65 games, which didn't allow him to remain fresh as a hitter and resulted in a .133 batting average entering the finale against the Pirates.  With the game tied, 1-1, in the bottom of the seventh, Mora came into the game as a pinch-runner for Rickey Henderson.  Although it was the tenth time Valentine had used Mora to run for a teammate, it was the first time Mora had run for the game's all-time stolen base leader.  The Mets failed to score in the inning, but Mora stayed in the game as the new left fielder.  More importantly, he took over Henderson's leadoff spot in the batting order.  That came into play two innings later, when the bottom of the ninth rolled around with the game still tied.

Pinch-hitter Bobby Bonilla led off the inning by grounding out.  That brought up Mora, who had just four hits in 30 at-bats.  Rather than replacing the light-hitting Mora, Valentine rolled the dice and allowed him to take his turn at bat.  The gamble paid off, as Mora delivered an opposite-field single.  Two pitches later, Edgardo Alfonzo also went the other way with a hit, pushing Mora over to third base.  An intentional walk to Olerud set up a force play at every base.  But it also brought up Mike Piazza to the plate.  New pitcher Brad Clontz didn't even have time to get nervous about facing the future Hall of Famer, as his first pitch bounced up and over the tall protective screen behind the plate, allowing Mora to scamper home with the winning run.

The mojo was risin' for Melvin Mora when Bobby V allowed him to hit in the '99 finale.  (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

The sweep of the Pirates, coupled with the Reds losing two out of three to the Milwaukee Brewers, forced a one-game playoff to determine the wild card winner.  After the tight affair that forced the 163rd game, the Mets had a relatively easy time in Cincinnati against the Reds, scoring early and extending their lead throughout the game before Al Leiter put the icing on the cake with a masterful complete-game, two-hit shutout.

For the first time since 1988, the Mets were going to the postseason.  That drought wasn't nearly as long as Valentine's, as he had endured ten seasons as a player without appearing in the playoffs, followed by a decade as a manager with his season ending after the 162nd game.

Valentine's first postseason series ended on a high note, with backup catcher Todd Pratt hitting a game-winning home run off Arizona closer Matt Mantei in Game Four of the National League Division Series.  The thrilling victory sent the Mets to the NLCS to face Chipper Jones and the Braves.  During the regular season, Atlanta had taken nine out of 12 matchups against New York, outscoring the Mets, 63-40.  But Arizona had been just as dominant against the Mets in the regular season, winning seven of nine games by a combined 63-39 tally before the Mets defeated the Diamondbacks in the NLDS.  That gave the Mets hope against an experiences Braves squad.  By the end of Game Three, however, that hope was nearly gone.

Atlanta took the first three games of the series, defeating Masato Yoshii, 4-2, in Game One, followed by two one-run victories in Games Two and Three.  The Mets recovered to eke out a comeback win against Braves' closer and renowned people watcher on the No. 7 train, John Rocker, forcing a fifth game at Shea Stadium.  The 15-inning, rain-soaked affair featured Valentine at his best.  First, he removed Yoshii after three innings even though he had allowed just two runs.  He then brought in Turk Wendell in the seventh inning to face Chipper Jones.  Wendell's trademark slider proved to be too much for the switch-hitting Jones, who struck out much to the home crowd's delight.  Valentine also ordered five intentional walks during the game.  None of the recipients of the free passes came around to score.

The game remained tied until the 15th inning, when the Braves finally broke through for a run against the Mets' tired bullpen.  New York could have easily conceded the pennant right there, but Valentine and his players would have nothing of it.  Shawon Dunston, who had been put into the game by Valentine five innings earlier, ran the count full before fouling off six consecutive pitches.  On the 12th pitch of the at-bat, the man who wore No. 12 for the Mets hit a sharp ground ball up the middle for a single.  Dunston then stole second.  After reliever Kevin McGlinchy walked pinch-hitter Matt Franco, Alfonzo bunted the runners over to second and third.  An intentional walk to Olerud brought up cleanup hitter Todd Pratt, who came in for Piazza in the 14th inning when Piazza injured his left forearm.  Pratt drew the third walk of the frame, tying the game and bringing Robin Ventura up to the plate, who delivered his famous Grand Slam Single to win the game for the Mets.

After five hours and 46 minutes, the Mets had finally forced their way back to Atlanta for a Game Six showdown.  Tired and bruised, the Mets fell behind by five runs in the first inning before coming back to tie the game in the seventh.  An inning later, they had gone out in front of the Braves.  The Mets failed to hold that precarious lead, then coughed up another one-run lead in the tenth.  Finally, in the 11th inning, after the two teams had played for over ten hours in their last two games, Valentine went to starting pitcher Kenny Rogers in an attempt to extend the game and their season.  It was one of the few decisions that did not go right for Bobby V in his first postseason experience.  A double, a sacrifice bunt, two intentional walks and one unintentional walk later, the Braves had ended the Mets' storybook season, leaving a stunned Valentine to repeatedly say "no, no, no" while pounding his fists on the dugout railing as Gerald Williams crossed the plate with the pennant-winning run.

The look of disappointment on Bobby V's face says it all.  (NBC Sports screen shot)

The most successful year in over a decade had come to a crashing halt for the Mets after their Game Six defeat.  But despite the sudden end to the season, Valentine was proud of his players and praised their ability to fight back when all appeared lost.

''I'm going to take some time in the winter to watch these games, and try to enjoy them,'' Valentine said.  ''I told my guys after the game that it might be a shorter winter or a longer winter for them but I think they played like champions.  They should feel like champions.  It's very difficult to come back from five runs and have a couple of leads.  It's difficult to give it up, but we gave everything we had."

A year after being told by their manager that they played like champions in defeat, the Mets became champions of the National League.  Unlike the 1999 campaign, the Mets did not need to produce a 40-15 record during the middle of the 2000 season, nor did they require a frenetic finish to qualify for the playoffs.  Instead, they clinched the wild card with several games to play and nearly beat out the Braves for the division title.  And once the St. Louis Cardinals knocked off Atlanta in the division series, the Mets were faced with the reality that they would not have to go up against the Hall of Fame triumvirate of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.  Rather, they'd be facing a Cardinals' pitching staff that had produced a 4.38 ERA during the regular season and allowed a then-franchise record 196 home runs.  It was enough to make the Mets' hitters salivate in anticipation of their NLCS feast.

New York defeated St. Louis in five games, scoring six or more runs in each of their four victories.  In addition to going homer happy against the Cards, the Mets produced a deluge of doubles, with four balls leaving the park and a dozen more ending up with the Mets' batter on second base.  The Mets were on their way to the World Series for the first time since 1986, as Valentine joined the pantheon of pennant-winning managers in franchise history.  Their opponent was the crosstown New York Yankees, creating the first Subway World Series since 1956.  But just like they did in 1999, the Mets came up short in a series where every game was decided by one or two runs.

Going into the 2001 season, Valentine was trying to become the first manager in Mets history to lead the team to back-to-back World Series berths.  At the same time, he was trying to keep general manager Steve Phillips off his back.  Just like Davey Johnson and Frank Cashen couldn't see eye-to-eye at the end of their respective tenures with the Mets, Valentine and Phillips were also in a strained professional relationship.  Valentine wasn't a fan of some of the trades Phillips made.  He also didn't like that Phillips wouldn't allow him to talk to other teams about their vacant managerial positions after gaining some leverage with his consecutive postseason appearances.  The feud would continue into the 2001 campaign, and got progressively worse once the Mets got off to an awful start.

By mid-May, New York was ten games under .500 and showing no signs of improvement.  Instead of being buyers at the trade deadline, they started to part ways with several of the key players that helped them rise to the top of the baseball world.  In an eight-day span, the Mets traded backup catcher and 1999 postseason hero Todd Pratt, cut ties with set-up men Turk Wendell and Dennis Cook and dealt starting pitcher Rick Reed, all of whom were favorites of Valentine.  Phillips had raised the white flag on the season.  Valentine, on the other hand, never surrendered his dreams of raising another kind of flag at Shea.

After the Mets reached their nadir in mid-August with a 54-68 record, Valentine led his troops to victory in 17 of the team's next 22 games.  Although the Mets still had a losing record at 71-73, they had climbed to within eight games of the first-place Braves with 18 games to play.  It would still take a monumental effort to cut further into the Braves' lead.  But then September 11 happened.  And Valentine had a new mission to accomplish.

Bobby Valentine was a healer at the helm.  In more ways than one.  (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

On the morning of September 11, 2001 the Mets were in Pittsburgh, waiting to open a three-game series against the Pirates that night.  But after the terrorist attack on the United States, the series was postponed and the Mets returned via bus to New York.  Upon arriving in their home city, Valentine immediately went to Ground Zero to offer assistance.  Valentine also worked tirelessly at Shea Stadium, working to distribute relief goods to those in need.  John Franco, himself a native New Yorker, noticed how involved his manager was in the healing process.

"Bobby was a great leader," Franco said.  "He had us out there, and even when we were done, he stood out there by himself helping everybody else, all the volunteers."

When baseball resumed a week later, the Mets returned to Pittsburgh with the entire country supporting them.  Overcoming fatigue and emotional stress, New York emerged victorious in all three games, moving them back over .500 and within five games of first place.  The Mets then returned to Shea Stadium to face the Braves and gave the patriotic crowd a reason to smile again.  Mike Piazza's home run in the series opener turned a loss into a thrilling victory.  The second game also went to New York, as RBIs by Tsuyoshi Shinjo, Rey Ordoñez and Armando Benitez (not a typo) helped turn a one-run lead into a four-run cushion.  It also moved the Mets to within 3½ games of the division lead.

Unfortunately, the Mets dropped the series finale to the Braves, then lost two out of three games in Atlanta the following week.  Although the Mets managed to finish the year with a winning record - Valentine's fifth straight as manager of the team - they failed to catch the Braves and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1998.  A year later, the Mets couldn't repeat their late-season magic and finished below .500 for the first time since Valentine took over for Dallas Green in 1996.  Valentine's first season of failure became his last season at the helm of a rapidly sinking ship, as he was fired by the Mets a few days after the season came to an end.  General manager Phillips got to keep his job, which finally brought out all the animosity Valentine had felt for him over the years.

"What (Phillips) has done isn't proper," Valentine said.  "He's done what he could so I wouldn't be around.  I told Fred (Wilpon) that he had to give the next manager authority in the clubhouse and on the field, that he had to get Steve off the field and out of the clubhouse.  You can't let a GM high-five guys and joke around after a win and then after a loss act like it's the end of the world.  Get him out of there for the sake of the next guy."

The Mets did indeed get Phillips out of there, but waited until the 2003 season was nearly half-over to do so.  By then, the manager with the second-most wins in franchise history was just a distant memory.

When Bobby Valentine became the Mets' manager in 1996, he took over a team that hadn't had a winning season since 1990 and was a combined 91 games under .500 since the start of the 1991 campaign.  He proceeded to lead the team to five consecutive winning seasons, which included two postseason appearances and a National League pennant.  Despite his final season in which he went 75-86, Valentine's .534 winning percentage ranks third in team history behind Davey Johnson (.588) and Willie Randolph (.544).

(Focus On Sport/Getty Images)

As controversial as Valentine was with his outspokenness and relationship with his general manager, his players - especially the ones that played for him in the minor leagues - remained fiercely loyal to him.  Benny Agbayani, who played for Valentine at Norfolk in 1996 and in New York from 1998 to 2001, followed his manager to Japan in 2004, then retired from the game once Valentine was unceremoniously fired in 2010.  Eric Hillman, who pitched for the Mets from 1992 to 1994, blossomed under Valentine in both the United States (Norfolk) and Japan (Chiba Lotte) before injuries ended his career in 1997.  Once he retired, Hillman had a telling statement about what it was like to play for Valentine.

"Either you love Bobby Valentine or you hate him," Hillman said.  "There's no middle ground.  I'll tell you what - I'd take a bullet for that guy.  He did everything for me in my career."

Valentine was both respected and reviled.  He was also cherished and criticized.  But no one can deny that Valentine was part of the Mets' renaissance in the late 1990s.  His relationship with management may have been testy at times, but his relationship with the win column was always strong.

He first came to the Mets in 1977 during one of the darkest periods in franchise history.  By the time Valentine left the team for good a quarter century later, he was responsible for some of the club's brightest moments.

Mets fans with vivid memories of the late '90s and early '00s will always have a place in their hearts for Valentine.


Note: The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of the Mets is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets players and personnel who experienced the best of times and the worst of times with the team.  For previous installments, please click on the names below:

January 2, 2017: Tom Seaver
January 9, 2017: Mike Piazza
January 16, 2017: Wally Backman
January 23, 2017: Daniel Murphy
January 30, 2017: Frank Cashen
February 6, 2017: Ed Kranepool
February 13, 2017: Doug Sisk
February 20, 2017: Joan Whitney Payson 
February 27, 2017: John Franco and Armando Benitez 
March 6, 2017: Dwight Gooden

The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of the Mets: John Franco and Armando Benitez

In New York sports, an athlete has to be great more often than not to be fully loved.  Players like Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza aren't revered just because they have phenomenal statistics; they're beloved because they produced in key spots when the Mets needed them to.

Similarly, a lesser player like Benny Agbayani will always have a special place in the hearts of Mets fans because he was a clutch performer even if his cumulative career numbers don't necessarily say he was one of the top players on the team.

On the other hand, a player who produces in non-pressure situations more often than he does when the stakes are higher will also be remembered by the Flushing faithful, but not in a way he'd like.  And even breaking a franchise record or two can't change the minds of fans with long memories.

The Mets' top two closers, if you go by saves alone.  (Focus on Sport/Getty Images; Corey Sipkin/NY Daily News)

As a child growing up in Brooklyn, John Anthony Franco - the son of a New York City sanitation worker - dreamed of delivering a title to the Mets.  Nearly two thousand miles away, Armando German Benitez was developing his heater in the Dominican town of San Pedro de Macoris, whose primary export was major league shortstops.

Franco attended Lafayette High School, the same school that produced Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax and Mets owner Fred Wilpon.  He then attended St. John's University and was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers after his junior year in 1981.  Two years later, the Dodgers traded Franco to Cincinnati, the team for which he made his major league debut in 1984.  Franco was brilliant as the Reds' closer, posting a 2.49 ERA in six seasons and saving 148 games, including a league-leading 39 saves in 1988.  But after making his third All-Star team in 1989, Franco was awful following the mid-season hiatus, blowing five saves in 15 opportunities and recording a 4.87 ERA.  As a result, the Reds replaced Franco during the off-season, trading him to the Mets for fellow southpaw Randy Myers in a deal that shocked Myers and delighted Franco.

"John had a great first half last season and a not-so-great second half," Mets' vice president Joe McIlvane said.  "We're hoping that a change of scenery will bring him back.  When we called him tonight, he was so happy he was bouncing off the wall."

Franco had a triumphant first season with the Mets, as he led the league in saves with 33 and became an All-Star for the fourth time in his career.  But Myers had greater team success, as he and his fellow Nasty Boys in the Reds' hard-throwing bullpen celebrated a World Series title in 1990.

The 1990 baseball season also saw the professional debut of another flame-throwing reliever, as Armando Benitez was signed as an amateur free agent with the Baltimore Orioles in April.  Four years later, Benitez made his major league debut, allowing one run in ten innings while striking out 14 batters.  While Benitez was blowing hitters away with his fastball, Franco was nibbling his way to success with the Mets.

From 1990 to 1998, Franco posted five years of 30 or more saves, after only one Met (Jesse Orosco) had reached the 30-save plateau in the franchise's first 28 seasons.  Franco's ERA during the nine-year period was a splendid 2.80, but he was constantly pitching in and out of trouble, as evidenced by his 1.346 WHIP and the .255 batting average against him.  Meanwhile, Benitez was practically unhittable as a member of the Orioles through the 1998 season, as he averaged nearly 12 strikeouts per nine innings and held opposing hitters to a .197 average.

The Mets failed to qualify for the postseason in 1998, as they coughed up a slim lead in the wild card race during their season-ending five-game losing streak.  Going into the off-season, general manager Steve Phillips was looking to upgrade the bullpen, especially after reliever Mel Rojas posted a 6.05 ERA in 50 games - the highest single-season ERA in club history for a pitcher who made at least 50 appearances.  Phillips filled that hole by acquiring Benitez in a three-team trade in December.

"We feel we've added in Armando Benitez one of the best power pitchers in the game," Phillips said, "and somebody who will give us a completely different look in the bullpen - somebody who will give us someone who can get a strikeout coming out of the bullpen."

(Eliot J. Schecter/Getty Images)

Indeed, with the addition of Benitez, the Mets now had one of the best relief corps in baseball, as Benitez was now part of a bullpen that included closer Franco, as well as the righty-lefty set-up combo of Turk Wendell and Dennis Cook.

The Mets began the 1999 season using Benitez primarily as an eighth-inning pitcher and he was dominant in the role, posting a 1.34 ERA in his first 40 appearances and holding opposing hitters to a microscopic .119 batting average.  But on June 30, Benitez surrendered a walk-off home run to the Marlins' Mark Kotsay.  It would be a portent of things to come for Benitez, who would have a new job with the team two days later, and it had nothing to do with his poor outing against Florida.

On July 2, the Mets hosted the division rival Atlanta Braves in front of 51,979 fans on Fireworks Night at Shea Stadium.  The outcome of the game was decided early, as the Braves pummeled starter Masato Yoshii for eight runs in three innings.  With the Braves leading 12-0 by the time the ninth inning rolled around, Mets manager Bobby Valentine surprisingly brought in his closer to start the final frame.  Franco allowed a double and two walks before he was taken out of the game with a strained tendon in the middle finger of his pitching hand.  Relieving him was utility man Matt Franco, who promptly allowed a three-run homer to the first batter he faced, causing Valentine to regret his decision immediately.

"I should have had Matty start the ninth, as it turns out," Valentine said.  "I had the wrong Franco start the ninth."

Franco's injury sidelined him for two months, as the lefty didn't pitch again until September 5.  While the former closer was recovering, the new closer was thriving in his new role.  During Franco's absence, Benitez recorded three wins, 13 saves and struck out 38 batters in just 23 innings.  But like Franco before him, Benitez constantly had to pitch his way out of jams he created, as he also walked 16 batters in those 23 frames.

Once Franco returned from the disabled list, Benitez continued to be the Mets' ninth-inning guy while Franco settled into a set-up role.  Both Franco (0.96 ERA in 12 appearances) and Benitez (0.64 ERA in 13 games) had strong Septembers, helping the Mets win the wild card berth to advance to the postseason for the first time since 1988.  It would be the first playoff trip for Franco in his 16-year career, while Benitez was making his third journey to the postseason.  (He was a member of the Orioles' bullpen when they qualified for the playoffs in 1996 and 1997.)

In the Division Series against Arizona, both Franco and Benitez were unscored upon, although Benitez couldn't hold a one-run lead in Game Four, allowing two inherited runners to cross the plate in the eighth inning.  With the Mets needing one win to advance to the National League Championship Series and avoid facing Randy Johnson in a potential fifth and deciding game, Valentine gave the ball to Franco as the game moved into extra innings.  Franco pitched a perfect frame and earned the win when Todd Pratt hit a series-ending home run off Diamondbacks' closer Matt Mantei in the bottom of the tenth.

Ten days after Franco bailed out Benitez, neither pitcher could bail out the Mets.  With the Mets desperately trying to force a seventh game against the Braves in the National League Championship Series, Franco couldn't hold a one-run lead in the eighth inning.  Two innings later, Benitez blew a one-run lead as well, as he allowed light-hitting Ozzie Guillen to drive in the tying run in the bottom of the tenth.  The Braves won the pennant an inning later when Kenny Rogers walked in the winning run.  Franco was one of many Mets who were disappointed by the way the team's storybook season came to a close.

"We had a good feeling about everything," Franco said.  "We just didn't get it done.  It took me 16 years to get here and to come so close, it's hard."

The Mets entered the 2000 season on a mission to play in the World Series, but by mid-May, their mission was just to stay above .500.  After 40 games, the Mets' record stood at 20-20.  The strong bullpen general manager Steve Phillips had constructed was falling apart, as Turk Wendell's slider was sliding off the plate (19 walks in 25⅓ innings) and Dennis Cook's ERA was approaching the Rojasphere.  Franco and Benitez were also not immune to the bullpen blues, as Franco struggled to keep his ERA under 4.00 and Benitez couldn't keep the ball in the park.  In fact, Benitez finished the year allowing ten homers, three of which were grand slams.  And out of the 24 runs he allowed on the season, 17 of them scored on home runs.  Fortunately for the Mets, their explosive offense was able to overcome the underachieving bullpen, as the team recovered from its slow start to win the wild card for a second consecutive season.

Once the 2000 postseason began, Franco was able to put his subpar season behind him.  Benitez, on the other hand, continued to struggle under the spotlight.  After losing Game One of the NLDS to the San Francisco Giants, the Mets were two outs away from knotting the series when Benitez surrendered a game-tying three-run homer to pinch-hitter J.T. Snow.  The Mets then retook the lead in the top of the tenth on a two-out double by Darryl Hamilton and an RBI single by Jay Payton.  Benitez started the bottom of the tenth, but was quickly removed after allowing a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Armando Rios.  Once again, Franco was called upon to bail out the man who took his job the year before.  In a pressure-packed situation, the veteran left-hander retired the first two batters he faced, then froze Barry Bonds on a 3-2 pitch to send the Mets back to Shea Stadium with a series-tying victory.  The Giants wouldn't win another game, as the Mets took Games Three and Four at home to advance to the next round.

Benitez fails, Franco prevails.  (NY Daily News Archives)

The Mets' opponent in the NLCS was the St. Louis Cardinals.  New York won the first game of the series at Busch Stadium, then took a 5-3 lead into the eighth inning of Game Two.  But this time it was Franco who coughed up the lead with a walk, a single and a wild pitch.  The Mets charged back in front an inning later, with Payton once again delivering the go-ahead RBI single.  And this time, Benitez came through, keeping the Cardinals off the scoreboard in the bottom of the ninth to save the game.  The series then shifted back to Shea Stadium, where the Mets would take two out of three to win their first pennant in 14 years and set up New York's first Subway World Series since 1956.

It took Franco seventeen long and sometimes tumultuous seasons in the big leagues, but he was finally going to the World Series.  Benitez was also playing in his first Fall Classic, but by the time Game One was over, Benitez had once again experienced a classic fall.

After seven strong innings by starting pitcher Al Leiter and a scoreless eighth by Franco, Benitez was called upon to shut down the Yankees in the ninth inning.  But the two-time defending world champions would not go down without a fight, as they scratched out a walk, two singles and sacrifice fly to send the game to extra innings, where they won it in the 12th on a bases-loaded single by former Met Jose Vizcaino.  The blown save was the third time in two postseasons that Benitez had coughed up a lead that would have given Leiter a victory.  Leiter never did win a playoff game for the Mets.  Two games later, Franco did what his fellow southpaw couldn't do.

The Mets returned to Shea Stadium for Game Three after dropping the first two games of the series at Yankee Stadium.  With the score tied in the eighth inning, Franco entered the game with no outs and the go-ahead run on first base.  Three pitches later, he coaxed Jorge Posada to ground into a 5-4-3 double play.  Six pitches after that, he got out of the inning.  The Mets then scored twice in the bottom of the eighth and Benitez held down the fort in the ninth inning to give Franco and the Mets a much-needed win.

Unfortunately, that would be the only victory for the Mets in the 2000 World Series, as the Yankees took Games Four and Five to win their third consecutive championship.  Just as the Brooklyn Dodgers would say after each defeat to the Bronx Bombers in the Fall Classic, it was "wait 'till next year" for the Mets.  Unfortunately, next year - and the promises of another postseason run - never came.

After two seasons of ups and downs, featuring both shaky and thrilling performances by Franco and Benitez, the Mets struggled for most of the 2001 campaign.  By mid-August, the Mets appeared to be in need of a defibrillator, as their record stood at 54-68.  Playoffs?  They weren't talking about playoffs, especially when they were 13½ games out of first place and just two games ahead of the cellar-dwelling Montreal Expos in the National League East.  Most teams would have called it a season at that point.  Not the Mets, who remembered how to win when they and the rest of the city needed it the most.

From August 18 to September 9, the Mets won 17 of 22 contests, which allowed them to pull to within two games of .500.  But baseball was forced to put its pennant races on hold after the tragic events of September 11, as the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington postponed all games for a week.  When the Mets returned to action in Pittsburgh on September 17, the country's eyes were focused on New York's National League team.  The Mets did not disappoint.

The week away from the game did nothing to quash the Mets' momentum, as New York defeated Pittsburgh on the strength of a three-run ninth inning.  As important as the victory was for the Mets, Franco knew that the game meant so much more to the people watching back in his home city.

"For three hours, I hope we gave some pleasure to the guys who have been working," Franco said.  "We're not just playing for ourselves, we're playing for the whole city of New York."

(Keith Srakocic/AP)

With the Big Apple clearly on their minds, the Mets brought out the big brooms in Pittsburgh, sweeping the three-game set to move above .500 for the first time since they were 2-1.  Up next was a huge series against Atlanta at Shea Stadium, where another clean sweep would cut the Braves' lead to a mere 2½ games.  The opener would also be the first sporting event held in New York since 9/11.  For seven innings, there was a solemn atmosphere at the ballpark.  But in the bottom of the eighth, Mike Piazza's two-run lead-changing homer off Steve Karsay brought the crowd to its feet in celebration.  Benitez, who had allowed the Braves to take the lead in the top of the eighth on a Brian Jordan double, was taken off the hook by Piazza's long ball.  Two days later, there would be no one to save the Mets' closer.

After taking the first two games of the crucial series to cut the Braves' once insurmountable lead from 13½ games lead to just 3½, the Mets were poised for another sweep, especially after taking a three-run lead into the top of the ninth inning in the series finale.  But once again, Jordan produced another long hit against Benitez, taking him out of the park for a two-run homer - the 12th home run allowed by Benitez in 2001.  With the lead down to a single tally, Valentine left Benitez in, only to watch him surrender a two-out walk and back-to-back singles, the latter of which tied the game.  Two innings later, Jordan hit another home run, this time off reliever Jerrod Riggan, to stun the Mets and push the lead in the division back up to 4½ games.  The loss was just the sixth for the Mets in their last 28 games.

The following weekend, the Mets took on the Braves again, although this time the venue for the showdown was Turner Field.  Incredibly, the Mets had pulled back to within three games of the Braves and were just a sweep away from completing an inspired comeback and moving into a tie for first place.  It took a month for the team to move back into contention.  It only took a one-inning meltdown by Benitez and Franco to fall out of it.

Since becoming teammates in 1999, Benitez and Franco had combined for 130 saves.  There was no save situation for either pitcher in the first game against Atlanta, as Tom Glavine defeated the Mets in the series opener, 5-3.  The second game also went into the ninth inning without a save being at stake, but this time it was because the Mets had a four-run lead entering the final frame.  Starting pitcher Al Leiter had dominated the Braves for eight innings, holding Atlanta to one run on four hits.  That was enough for the manager, as Valentine went with Benitez to start the ninth.

Benitez got two outs, but not before he allowed a run to cut the Mets' lead to 5-2.  He then walked pinch-hitter Keith Lockhart, who was hitting just .228 at the time, and followed that up by surrendering a two-run double to Marcus Giles.  After Benitez issued an intentional walk to Julio Franco - a questionable call since Franco represented the go-ahead run - Valentine brought in John Franco to stop the bleeding.  Instead, he just poured salt into the open wound.

With two men on base, Franco walked pinch-hitter Wes Helms, whose .214 average made Lockhart look like a batting champion.  That loaded the bases for Met killer du jour, Brian Jordan.

A week earlier, Jordan had taken Benitez deep in the ninth inning.  This time, Jordan swung and missed at Franco's first pitch.

Two innings after Jordan tagged Benitez, he blasted an extra-inning long ball against Jerrod Riggan.  This time, Jordan hit nothing but air as he missed Franco's second offering.

John Franco had saved 422 games in his career - the most by a left-handed pitcher in history - and was one strike away from recording No. 423.  More importantly, he was a strike away from pulling the Mets back to within three games of the Braves.  Franco peered in at catcher Mike Piazza's low target and then fired a pitch that was belt-high and on the outside part of the plate.  In other words, it was right in Jordan's wheelhouse.

Just a bit outside.  Just a bit out of the ballpark.  And just a bit out of the playoff race.  (MLB.com screen shot)

Jordan's walk-off grand slam capped a seven-run ninth inning and gave the Braves an 8-5 win over the Mets.  For all intents and purposes, it was the night the lights went out in Georgia for the Mets' postseason aspirations.

"We've come back from a lot," a dejected Franco said after the game.  "But I don't know how you get over this."

The Mets never did get over their bullpen's meltdowns against the Braves.  In the two games, Benitez and Franco combined to face 17 batters.  They retired just five of them and allowed ten runs to score.  The second ninth-inning collapse in as many weeks dropped the Mets five games behind the Braves with seven games to play.  Four days later, New York was officially eliminated from the playoff race.

The 2001 campaign was just the second time in Franco's dozen seasons with the Mets that he ended the year with an ERA north of 4.00.  Benitez finished the year with a 3.77 ERA, which was more than a run and a half higher than the 2.22 ERA he posted in his first two years with the team.  Although the Mets posted their fifth consecutive winning season - barely, at 82-80 - the club was clearly in decline.  And they had to play the following year without their longest tenured player.

Franco, who had been named the team's captain in 2001, was forced to drop the anchor on his 2002 season, as an injury to his left elbow required Tommy John surgery.  That left Benitez as the only experienced closer on the team.  It also left him alone as the recipient of the fans' wrath when he once again couldn't keep the ball in the park.

As July turned to August, the Mets were four games over .500 and were within striking distance of the wild card-leading Dodgers.  But in the first game of a doubleheader at Shea Stadium on August 3, Benitez was called upon to protect a one-run lead against the Arizona Diamondbacks and promptly allowed a home run to Craig Counsell, a hitter who had produced just 12 homers in nearly 2,000 career plate appearances before he took Benitez deep.  Counsell's blast was also the fourth home run Benitez had allowed in his last six outings.  The Mets would go on to lose the game to the D-Backs in extra innings.  They then went on to lose every game they played at home in the month of August.

With Franco on the sidelines, the Mets would finish the 2002 campaign in last place with a 75-86 record - their first losing season since 1996.  By the time Franco returned to the mound in late May 2003, the Mets were already buried in the division standings.  The team ended the year in the N.L. East cellar once again, marking the first time in 20 years that the Mets finished in last place in back-to-back seasons.  Franco played one more year in New York, posting a horrid 5.28 ERA in 52 appearances, before signing a free agent contract to pitch for the Houston Astros in 2005.  His 21-year career ended when he was released by the Astros in July, just three months before Houston won its first pennant.

While Franco was closing out his Mets career in 2004, Benitez was closing out the Mets as a member of the division rival Florida Marlins.  Just one year after he played his final game for the Mets, Benitez dominated his former team to the tune of a 0.68 ERA and 0.30 WHIP in 12 appearances, notching an incredible 11 saves against the Mets in 2004 alone.  It took him six years and a change of teams, but Benitez had finally learned how to block out the boos in order to perform well in New York, much to the chagrin of long-suffering Mets fans.

Franco and Benitez saved 436 Mets wins, but couldn't save themselves from hearing boos.  (Keith Torrie/NY Daily News)

John Franco and Armando Benitez rank No. 1 and No. 2 in saves in Mets history.  Ordinarily, that would make them beloved former members of the team.  But both pitchers, especially Benitez, have had their share of unflinching detractors.

Throughout his career, Franco was respected by Mets fans.  A member of the Mets Hall of Fame, Franco was a New Yorker through and through and always took pride in representing the team and the city.  But Franco was never a "lights out" pitcher, and quite often had to escape a jam of his own creation when he was on the mound, as evidenced by his commendable 3.10 ERA as a Met but less-than-stellar 1.365 WHIP.  Benitez, on the other hand, was supposed to be a "game over" type of pitcher when he replaced Franco as the team's closer, and for the most part he was, as long as those games weren't of great import to the Mets.  Sure, he had a 2.70 ERA and averaged nearly a dozen strikeouts per nine innings while he was with the team.  In fact, no pitcher who threw at least 300 innings in club history averaged more strikeouts per nine innings than Benitez and only Tom Seaver had a lower ERA (2.57) as a Met than the team's beleaguered former closer.  But he also had a penchant for allowing the biggest hits at the worst possible moments, which fans tend to remember more than the times he struck out the side in the month of May.

Mets fans love to cheer for a winner, and Franco and Benitez were certainly part of one of the more successful eras in team history.  But those same fans also have certain expectations for their star players, and if those stars fail to shine at the most crucial moments, their legacies in New York are forever dimmed.  Franco and Benitez have the numbers to be considered among the best at their position.  But unfortunately, too many opposing players had their numbers when they were on the mound.  And for many of the die-hards who watched them pitch, that's enough to take some of the shimmer off their otherwise respectable careers.


Note: The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of the Mets is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets players and personnel who experienced the best of times and the worst of times with the team.  For previous installments, please click on the names below:

January 2, 2017: Tom Seaver
January 9, 2017: Mike Piazza
January 16, 2017: Wally Backman
January 23, 2017: Daniel Murphy
January 30, 2017: Frank Cashen
February 6, 2017: Ed Kranepool
February 13, 2017: Doug Sisk
February 20, 2017: Joan Whitney Payson
 

The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of the Mets: Mike Piazza

The Mets lost at least 95 games in each of their first six seasons from 1962 to 1967.  But the arrival of Tom Seaver in 1967 brought the first glimmer of hope to the team.  Although the Mets suffered through a seventh straight losing season in 1968, they showed marked improvement by winning 73 ballgames.  A year later, the Miracle Mets went all the way to the World Series, defeating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles to take home an improbable championship.

Nearly thirty years later, the Mets were coming off another six-year stretch of sub-.500 baseball before they turned the corner in 1997, going 88-74 and staying in the wild card race until the final week of the season.  Leading the way was Todd Hundley, who became the first catcher in franchise history to post multiple 30-homer campaigns.  But an elbow injury in early September limited Hundley during the final month of the season, allowing him to start behind the plate in just one of the team's final 19 games.  Hundley's balky elbow would keep him out of action into the 1998 season, causing the Mets to go with a Tim Spehr/Alberto Castillo platoon at the catcher's position while Hundley recovered.  Needless to say, the team's offense suffered, scoring three runs or fewer in 22 of the first 39 games.  Clearly, an upgrade was needed both behind and at the plate if the team wanted to prove that the previous season's improvement was not a fluke.  The Mets were able to do both, and in doing so, they eventually gave Seaver a partner in a Mets cap at Cooperstown.

From his first day as a Met, Mike Piazza always found a way to put a smile on the faces of Mets fans.  (Getty Images)

Michael Joseph Piazza was famously drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 62nd round of the 1988 June amateur draft as a favor to his father, Vince, who was friends with manager Tom Lasorda.  Four years later, Piazza made his debut with the Dodgers and played his first full season with Los Angeles in 1993, becoming the unanimous winner of the National League Rookie of the Year Award.  The 1993 campaign would also see Piazza start a five-year stretch in which he finished in the top ten in the MVP vote every year.

But with free agency and a potential $100 million contract looming, the members of the front office that bled Dodger blue felt Piazza wanted too much green.  And so, just midway through the month of May, Piazza was traded to the defending champion Florida Marlins, who were in the process of ridding themselves of the high-salaried players who helped them win it all in 1997.  Gone were All-Stars Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla and Charles Johnson, who were due to earn over $24 million between them in 1998.  Also jettisoned to Los Angeles was veteran utility man Jim Eisenreich and his $1.4 million salary.  The cost-conscious Marlins had no intentions of keeping Piazza (or Todd Zeile, who also packed his bags for south Florida in the deal) and were looking for a second trade partner for the newly peripatetic Piazza.

The Chicago Cubs were a potential suitor for both Piazza and Zeile, but the North Siders did not believe they could re-sign Piazza once his contract expired at the end of the season.  They also did not want to part ways with their top catching and pitching prospects, who were expected to be included in the potential transaction, which in hindsight ended up being a terrible decision by the Cubs, as neither prospect ever played in the majors and both were out of baseball by the 2001 campaign.  While the Cubs were pondering the potential repercussions of dealing away their young players for a soon-to-be 30-year-old backstop, the Mets had no qualms offering their top prospects to the Marlins.

New York agreed to send a package of two former top ten overall draft picks to Florida on May 22, 1998, trading outfielder Preston Wilson (9th pick of the 1992 June amateur draft) and left-handed pitcher Geoff Goetz (picked No. 6 in 1997).  The Mets also included southpaw pitching prospect Ed Yarnall, who had gotten off to a blistering start at AA-Binghamton prior to the trade (7-0 in seven starts, 0.39 ERA, 0.793 WHIP).  And faster than you can say "fire sale", Piazza was a Met.

"I have gone from a player who thought he would spend his whole career with one organization to a player who's been with three organizations in a week," Piazza said after the trade was finalized.  "I just want to get in one place for more than a week and settle down.  I'll be with three teams in a week.  Isn't that bizarre?  It's like rotisserie baseball."

Todd Hundley, who had been a Met since Davey Johnson was manager of the team in 1990, but hadn't played a game with the club since the previous September, could have been bitter after the trade was consummated.  After all, it was his job Piazza was taking and he knew that the five-time Silver Slugger Award recipient wasn't going to give it up once Hundley returned from his elbow injury.  But Hundley took the high road after Piazza became his teammate.

"I don't have any problems with this," Hundley said about the trade.  "If he can help put a World Series ring on my finger, more power to him."

Another person who didn't have a problem with the trade was Mets' co-owner Fred Wilpon, who didn't hold back his excitement when discussing the acquisition of the erstwhile Dodgers and Marlins catcher.

"The town is ready and waiting for Mike," Wilpon said.  "They love him already and they'll love him even more."

There was a lot of love in the room when Fred Wilpon broke his piggy bank to sign Mike Piazza.  (Getty Images)

At first, Piazza got tough love from Mets fans, hearing some occasional boos from the Shea Stadium crowd during his first month as a Met because he wasn't driving in runs.  Although Piazza batted .354 in his first 24 games with the team, he only drove in seven runs, with just two of those RBI coming in his new home park.  Not helping matters was the team's inability to win games as spring turned to summer.  After winning nine straight games in late May (with eight of those wins coming after the trade), the Mets went 15-22 in their next 37 games and were in serious jeopardy of falling under the .500 mark in late July.  That's when Mike Piazza turned the boos into cheers and put the team on his back for the rest of the season.

Beginning on July 18, when Piazza recorded his first multi-homer game with the Mets, the catcher went on to post a .367/.441/.705 slash line over his next 60 games with 18 homers, 56 RBI and just 27 strikeouts.  In that time, the Mets went from being wild card pretenders to holding a one-game lead in the wild card race with five games left to play in the season.  Unfortunately, the Mets went on to lose their final five games to fall short in their playoff quest, even with Piazza reaching base nine times during the season-ending skein.

The way the season ended left a bad taste in the mouths of Mets fans, especially with the knowledge that their star catcher did not have a contract for the 1999 season.  But Piazza did not keep the fans waiting for very long, as he agreed to a seven-year, $91 million contract to stay with the team through the 2005 season just three days after the World Series ended.  Todd Hundley, who hoped Piazza would get him a championship ring, was instead traded to Piazza's original team in December.

After missing out on the postseason in 1998, Piazza and the Mets were determined to end the team's decade-long playoff drought in 1999.  But neither Piazza nor the team got off to a hot start, as Piazza was batting just .273 with four homers through May 16 and the Mets had a disappointing 27-28 record after losing their eighth consecutive ballgame - a 6-3 decision to the Yankees.  That was enough for general manager Steve Phillips, who decided a change was needed to create a spark for the team.  That change involved the firing of hitting coach Tom Robson, pitching coach Bob Apodaca and bullpen coach Randy Niemann.

"This was a tough evening for the organization," Phillips said.  "We are one-third of the way through the season and that is enough time to make an evaluation.  There is still enough time to get the ship righted."

After the triple firings at the 55-game mark of the season, manager Bobby Valentine declared, "In the next 55 games, if we're not better, I shouldn't be the manager," followed by a bold statement about the Mets needing to have a 40-15 record in those 55 contests.  The first of those 55 games came in the Subway Series finale against Roger Clemens, who had yet to lose a game as a member of the Yankees.  Then Mike Piazza happened.  And the Mets-Yankees rivalry was never the same.

Boo.  (Corey Sipkin/Daily News)

Clemens completed a perfect first inning, which included a whiff of the normally hard-to-strike-out John Olerud.  (Olerud fanned just 66 times in 723 plate appearances in 1999.)  Piazza then led off the second inning with a double to start a four-run rally against the hard-throwing right-hander.  An inning later, Olerud redeemed himself by leading off the frame with a single.  That brought up Piazza, who launched his first career home run off Clemens to break the game open.  By the time the third inning was over, Clemens had hit the showers and the Mets were up, 7-0.  They held on to win, 7-2, and the team and its new coaches were back at the .500 mark.  The Mets would never see .500 again for the rest of the season.

Piazza's two-hit effort against Clemens and the Yankees didn't just propel the Mets to victory.  It also extended his hitting streak to 11 games.  Thirteen games later, a home run against the Marlins pushed his streak to 24 games, which tied the franchise record set by Hubie Brooks in 1984.  Although he didn't quite break that team record, he continued to destroy opposing pitching, especially when it was a Yankee pitcher throwing the ball to him.

When the Yankees paid a visit to Shea Stadium to face their cross-town rivals, Piazza took full advantage, going 7-for-11 with two homers, one of which was against Clemens and the other a titanic 482-foot blast over the picnic area tent.  That Saturday matinee featured seven homers (six by the Yankees) and a walk-off two-run single by Matt Franco after Piazza had been intentionally walked by future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera.

Led by Piazza's offensive exploits, the Mets fulfilled Valentine's prophecy, going 40-15 to improve their record to 67-43 by early August.  A late-season seven-game losing streak almost doomed the Mets' chances to win the National League wild card berth, but a season-ending four-game winning streak propelled the Mets into the postseason for the first time since 1988, with Piazza reaching base eight times in the four games.  In those four victories, Piazza hit two more homers (Nos. 39 and 40) and collected his franchise record-setting 124th RBI of the season.

An injured left thumb limited Piazza's ability to catch and hit in the playoffs and caused him to miss two games in the Mets' Division Series victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks - a series won on a walk-off homer by Piazza's replacement, Todd Pratt, in the tenth inning of Game Four.  Although Piazza returned to action in the National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves, he still wasn't at full strength, going 4-for-24 in the series.  However, one of the four hits was a game-tying two-run homer off future Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz in Game Six that completed the Mets' comeback from an early five-run deficit.  Alas, Piazza was taken out of the game in a double switch in the ninth inning and the Mets were taken out of their season two innings later when Kenny Rogers walked in the pennant-winning run.

Piazza followed up his first full season with the Mets in 1999 with another brilliant campaign in 2000.  In addition to driving in at least one run in 15 consecutive games, which set a team record and was also the second-longest such streak in major league history, Piazza raised his batting average from .303 to .324 and his OPS went up from an already excellent .936 to a mind-boggling 1.012.  The catcher's .614 slugging percentage during the 2000 season remains the highest single-season mark in franchise history for a player who qualified for the batting title (min. 502 plate appearances).  The high point of his season came on June 30, when his three-run homer off Braves reliever Terry Mulholland capped a ten-run rally in the eighth inning of an 11-8 Mets victory.  His low point came against the Yankees, and once again Roger Clemens was involved.

In the second game of a two-stadium, day-night doubleheader on July 8, Piazza strolled up to the plate at Yankee Stadium in the second inning to face Clemens.  The year before, Piazza homered off Clemens in each of Clemens' starts against the Mets.  Piazza continued his personal home run derby against the apoplectic Texan in 2000, blasting a grand slam off Clemens on June 9.   This time, Clemens would be the one doing the hitting, as he plunked Piazza with a head-seeking missile.  The catcher lay dazed on the ground for several minutes after the violent beaning before being taken out of the game.  Diagnosed with a concussion, Piazza missed the next game against the Yankees and was also forced to sit out the All-Star Game.

Extreme close-up!  Maybe a little too extreme for Mike Piazza.  (Bill Kostroun/AP)

Piazza returned to the field after the All-Star break, but batted just .294 the rest of the year after maintaining a batting average at or above .350 for the majority of the season's first half.  This time, the Mets didn't need a season-ending winning streak to reach the playoffs, as they easily clinched the wild card to crash the postseason party for the second straight year.

Although Piazza didn't drive in any runs in Division Series victory over the San Francisco Giants, he did reach base seven times in the four games played.  Still, Piazza's postseason slash line as a Met through three series was a dismal .191/.264/.277, which was hardly what the team expected from the greatest hitting catcher of all-time.   However, there was reason for hope that Piazza would turn things around in the NLCS, as the Mets wouldn't be facing the perennial division champion Braves and their deadly pitching triumvirate of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.  Instead, he'd be facing the St. Louis Cardinals' pitching staff, who combined to post a 4.38 ERA during the regular season and allowed a then-franchise record 196 home runs.  It didn't take long for Piazza to take over the series.

In the first inning of Game One, Piazza produced the first run of the series, driving in Timo Perez with a double.  The Mets never looked back, cruising to a 6-2 victory.  Piazza then homered and walked three times in the Mets' Game Two victory.  After the Mets lost Game Three, Piazza produced one of the team's record-setting five doubles in the first inning of Game Four.  He then homered in the fourth to give the Mets an 8-3 lead and drove in a crucial run in the sixth after the Cardinals had cut the Mets' lead to 8-6.  The Mets held on to win, 10-6, to move to within one victory of the World Series.

Mike Piazza had been to the playoffs twice as a member of the Dodgers and was in his second postseason with the Mets in 2000, but he had never come so close to making it to the Fall Classic.  And in Game Five against the Cardinals, he made sure he wouldn't have to wait another year.  Piazza walked and scored in the first inning.  He then doubled and scored in the fourth frame.  The rest was up to his battery mate, Mike Hampton, who was masterful in keeping St. Louis off the scoreboard.  And once Hampton induced a weak fly ball from Rick Wilkins in the ninth - the same Rick Wilkins who started four games behind the plate for the Mets in 1998 the week before New York acquired Piazza - the Mets were National League pennant winners for the first time since 1986 and Piazza was off to his first World Series to face an opponent with whom he had become quite familiar.

After batting .412 in the NLCS with an eye-popping 1.487 OPS in the five games, Piazza set his sights on the Yankees, who had dispatched the Seattle Mariners in six games to win their third consecutive American League pennant and fourth in five years.  Unfortunately, the Mets did not win the first Subway World Series since 1956, falling to the Yankees in five closely contested games.  But Piazza, who flew out to Bernie Williams in center field to end the series, continued his hitting assault against the Yankees.  Piazza produced four extra-base hits in the World Series (no other Met had more than two) and drove in four runs to lead the team.  Piazza also had a .636 slugging percentage in the series, while his teammates could only manage to slug .301.  The baseball wasn't the only thing Piazza tried to slug in the World Series.

In Game Two, Piazza faced Roger Clemens for the first time since his frightening beaning in July.  On the fourth pitch of his first at-bat, Piazza fouled the ball off, causing his bat to splinter into several pieces.  Not knowing where he had hit the pitch, Piazza jogged down the line to first base.  Piazza may not have known where the ball was, but he definitely knew where part of his bat was after Clemens inexcusably fired a shard of it in Piazza's direction.  As an obviously surprised Piazza started walking toward Clemens, Clemens could be seen saying that he thought it was the ball, which only made sense on Planet Roger because if he fielded "the ball", he should have thrown it to first base for the out instead of throwing the sharp projectile in the vicinity of Piazza's legs.  Both benches emptied, but no punches were thrown and no one was ejected.  But the memories of the incident, as well as the beaning from earlier in the year, stayed with Piazza and the Mets throughout the off-season, and would not be settled for two years.

But before the Mets and their catcher could defend themselves against Clemens and the Yankees, they had to defend their National League title in 2001.  Once again, Piazza was the team leader in a multitude of categories, batting .300 with 36 homers.  But for the first time in years, his teammates struggled at the plate, causing the Mets to spend most of the season below .500.  Even with Piazza's usual high batting average, the team as a whole batted .249, which was the second lowest mark in the league.  The club's .387 slugging percentage, however, was the worst in the N.L., six percentage points behind the Pittsburgh Pirates, who lost a league-high 100 games in 2001.  Because he didn't have the support of his teammates, Piazza failed to drive in 100 runs for the first time in a non-strike shortened season, finishing the year with 94 RBI.

Hero.  (Lou Requena/AP)

On the morning of August 18, the Mets appeared to be dead in the water with a 54-68 record.  But Piazza then put the team on his back and carried them back into contention.  Over his next 28 games, Piazza produced a .324/.417/.627 slash line with eight homers and 22 RBI, helping the Mets win 23 of those 28 contests to push them back over .500.  Perhaps his most important homer as a Met occurred during the team's resurgence on September 21, when Piazza took Atlanta's Steve Karsay deep in the eighth inning to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead.  That homer, which took place in the first game played at Shea Stadium after the 9/11 attacks, gave the city and the team a reason to have hope and allowed the legacy of Mike Piazza to grow even more than it already had.

"It was almost like a blur to me, almost like a dream, sort of surreal," Piazza said.  "I'm just so happy I gave people something to cheer.  There was a lot of emotion.  It was just a surreal sort of energy out there.  I'm just so proud to be a part of it tonight."

The Mets failed to qualify for the postseason in 2001, but their Piazza-infused finish allowed them to end the year with an 82-80 record - the team's fifth consecutive winning season.  The team's fortunes would come to a crashing halt the following year.

The 2002 season was a year that began with such high hopes for the Mets, as the team acquired a number of former All-Stars to join Piazza in the starting lineup.  With Roberto Alomar, Mo Vaughn and Jeromy Burnitz on the team, the Mets hoped their offensive woes of the 2001 campaign would be a thing of the past.  They couldn't have been more wrong.

Vaughn, whose average season from 1995 to 2000 produced a .306 batting average, 38 homers and 118 RBI, was only able to bat .259 with 26 homers and 72 RBI as a Met in 2002.  Likewise, Burnitz was a premier slugger in Milwaukee from 1997 to 2001, averaging 33 homers and 102 RBI per season, while posting an .875 OPS.  His 2002 campaign with the Mets saw significant drop-offs in each category (19 HR, 54 RBI, .677 OPS).  The biggest shocker was undoubtedly the performance of Alomar, who averaged 38 doubles, 21 homers, 103 RBI, 121 runs scored, 35 stolen bases and a .920 OPS per season from 1999 to 2001.  He had also appeared in a dozen consecutive All-Star Games and had won ten Gold Gloves prior to becoming a Met.  In New York, Alomar failed to be an All-Star or provide Gold Glove-caliber defense (career-worst -0.9 dWAR in 2002), and as a hitter, he was merely pedestrian, with 24 doubles, 11 homers, 53 RBI, 73 runs scored, 16 steals and a .708 OPS.

Once again, Piazza was forced to carry the offensive load on a less-than-average hitting team.  The slugger led the club with 33 homers and 98 RBI, which made him the first - and still only - Met with four seasons of 30 or more home runs.  But the wear and tear of the grueling season on his 34-year-old body caused Piazza to bat under .300 for the first time in his career, as the catcher could only manage to hit .280 in 2002.  Fortunately, his matchup against Roger Clemens and the Yankees was before the beginning of summer, which meant Piazza had all the energy he needed to exact a modicum of revenge against his Yankee nemesis.

On June 15, Clemens was set to pitch against the Mets at Shea Stadium for the first time since the bat-flinging incident in the 2000 World Series.  Clemens did not pitch against the Mets in 2001 because Yankee manager Joe Torre did not want to Mets to retaliate against the veteran headhunter, saying, "I don't see the need to have it happen.  I really don't."  In 2001, Torre had the luxury of altering his starting rotation to avoid having Clemens face Piazza and the Mets.  He didn't have that luxury in 2002, as Clemens was due to start the middle game of a three-game series at Shea.

Facing Clemens in the Saturday matinee was Shawn Estes, who had become another disappointing acquisition by general manager Steve Phillips.  After compiling a 61-42 record for the San Francisco Giants from 1997 to 2001, Estes began the 2002 season by winning just two of his first 12 starts.  He was not the ideal man to send to the mound in a much-anticipated matchup against Clemens, but unlike Torre, Mets manager Bobby Valentine didn't feel the need to change his starting rotation.  Estes took the ball, Piazza got behind the plate and the game got underway.

"It's about time you started Clemens against us.  We needed to blast off against the Rocket."  (Mark J. Terrill/AP)

The first two innings passed without incident and without a run crossing the plate.  They also passed without Roger Clemens coming to bat.  But with one out in the third inning, Clemens took a bat in his hands and strolled casually to the plate to stand directly in front of a crouching Piazza and the boos of a venomous Shea Stadium crowd.  Estes, who was pitching on the other side of the country when the Piazza-Clemens feud was in full swing in 1999 and 2000, was in charge of delivering the retaliatory message to Clemens in the form of a fastball to his six-foot, four-inch body.  The tension was palpable at the ballpark as Estes delivered his first pitch to Clemens.  Where would the pitch go?  What would it hit?  Would there be a bench-clearing brawl between the crosstown rivals?

The pitch went behind Clemens, missing him by about a foot.

For Estes, hitting a target - even one as large as Clemens' body - had never been an easy task.  As a member of the Giants, Estes had three seasons in which he walked 100 or more batters, leading the league in the category in 1997.  Estes never got to hit Clemens with a pitch, as both benches were warned by home plate umpire Wally Bell after the first pitch of the at-bat, but he did get to hit him in a different way later in the game, as did Piazza.

After not drawing Clemens' blood in the top of the third, the Mets drew first blood on the scoreboard in the bottom of the frame, as Rey Ordoñez took advantage of a vacated home plate to score all the way from second base on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Estes.  Two innings later, with the Mets still holding on to a 1-0 lead, Estes found a way to hit Clemens without being ejected from the game, as he smacked an unlikely two-run homer off the shell-shocked pitcher.  It was the first time Clemens had allowed a home run to an opposing pitcher in his 19-year career.  An inning later, Piazza stepped up to plate, and just like his battery mate had done in the previous inning, Piazza put a charge on the baseball, hitting it into the Yankees bullpen and effectively ending Clemens' day on the mound.

The home run by Piazza helped the Mets cruise to an 8-0 victory and also finally put an end to the four-season feud between him and Clemens.

"I don't think revenge mattered," Piazza said after the game.  "Hopefully today beating the Yankees and doing it the way we did is the key to getting some momentum.  That was really all we were trying to do."

Whatever momentum the Mets gained by the satisfying victory over the Yankees was short-lived, as the team bobbed up and down in a sea of mediocrity before drowning with a 12-game losing streak in August.  The Mets finished the year with a disappointing 75-86 final record - the first time Piazza had played for a sub-.500 Mets team and the club's first losing season since 1996.  The team's dismal performance led to the firing of Valentine and the hiring of new manager Art Howe.  The move did nothing to improve the team.

With the underachieving (and aging) Vaughn, Alomar and Burnitz still on the team, the Mets did not expect to do much in 2003.  Even with the acquisition of future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine and All-Star outfielder Cliff Floyd, the Mets were a team full of 30-somethings who could break with just the slightest touch.  Piazza, now in his mid-30s, was becoming more fragile.  He also was becoming all too accustomed to being thrown at by opposing pitchers.  In addition to the incidents with Clemens, Piazza had been hit in the back by Dodgers pitcher Guillermo Mota during a spring training game in 2002.  When the two faced each other again in a 2003 Grapefruit League game, all hell broke loose.

Mota, who had homered off Mets reliever Armando Benitez earlier in the game, threw his first pitch to Piazza a little too inside for the catcher's liking.  The next pitch once again hit Piazza in the back, causing the angered All-Star to charge the mound and the pathetic pitcher to run for his life, which didn't go unnoticed by Piazza's manager and teammates.

Let's get ready to rumble!  (MSG Network)

"The guy ran like a scared rabbit," Howe remarked.  "He wants to hit somebody, stand there and fight.  He can backpedal faster than I can run forward."

Also infuriated by the show of cowardice was Piazza's backup on the field, Vance Wilson, who offered his own opinion of Mota after the pitcher had done his version of backing up.

"He's gutless," Wilson said without mincing any words.  "If you want to hit somebody, be a man and face him.  Then he hid in the dugout and yelled a bunch of trash at Mike.  He's lucky Mike didn't get to him."

Piazza almost did get to Mota upon the conclusion of the game. Once the dust had settled on the field, both Piazza and Mota were ejected from the game.  A livid Piazza then tried to find Mota in the Dodgers clubhouse, but the pitcher had already left.  Several seasons of frustration from being targeted by Clemens and Mota had finally gotten to Piazza, causing the catcher to snap.  Piazza was suspended for five games for the incident and fined $3,000.

The disarray exhibited on the field during the Piazza-Mota brawl was a microcosm of the 2003 season for the Mets, as very few players managed to hold on to their everyday jobs.  In fact, the only Met to start more than 100 games at the same position was rookie Ty Wigginton, who somehow managed to start 153 games at third base.  Piazza was one of the many injury casualties in 2003, as a groin injury limited him to just 68 games.  As a result, he finished the season with career lows in home runs (11) and runs batted in (34).

With Piazza out for much of the season and the continued decline of Vaughn, Burnitz and Alomar (neither of whom played again for the Mets following the 2003 campaign), New York finished the year with a 66-95 record.  To this day, that dismal mark remains the only season the team has had with 95 or more losses since 1993.

The 2003 season was a year of transition in more ways than one.  Besides the departures of Vaughn, Burnitz and Alomar, general manager Steve Phillips was also relieved of his duties.  Change was imminent for Mike Piazza as well.  In the season's final game at Shea Stadium, Piazza traded in his catcher's mitt for a first baseman's glove, taking over the position for one inning.  Piazza hadn't played first base in the majors since July 26, 1993 when he was a rookie with the Dodgers, but he did play the position for a few innings during his rehab assignment following his groin injury.  And with that limited experience, manager Art Howe decided to give Piazza a starting job at the position in 2004.

When the curtain opened on the 2004 season, Mike Piazza and Jason Phillips were set to rotate between catcher and first base.  By the time the team had played 43 games, Piazza had started 27 games at catcher and 14 games at first base, while Phillips had caught eight games and been the team's starting first baseman 23 times.  But beginning on May 22, Howe gave Piazza more chances at first base in order to keep his top hitter fresh and in the lineup more often, especially with the team sitting with a 22-22 record after spending most of the first six weeks of the season under .500.

By mid-July, the Mets were in the thick of the N.L. East race, just one game behind the Braves and Phillies, who were tied for first place.  Piazza had started 33 out of 54 games at first base and was a key contributor at the plate, batting .360 from mid-May to late June with ten homers and a gaudy 1.081 OPS during the stretch.  But Piazza injured his left wrist in a collision with the speedy Juan Pierre at first base in late July and missed a week.  He then missed 21 games in August with a knee injury.  By the time he returned on August 30, the Mets were 15 games out of first and 10½ games behind the wild card leader.  A team that was 45-43 and in the thick of the playoff race on July 15 finished the season 20 games under .500.  Piazza's production also suffered because of his two injuries, as he batted just .200 with four homers and 14 RBI after the All-Star Break.

With the Mets completing their third consecutive losing season in 2004, the good feelings and optimism felt during Piazza's first three seasons in New York were long gone.  Piazza himself wasn't immune to the tumult, as he had to call a press conference to deny rumors about his sexuality in 2002 and then had to endure persistent accusations from Murray Chass and others about steroid usage in 2003 and 2004, all because they noticed some acne on his back.  Even becoming the game's all-time leader in home runs by a catcher in 2004 only served to temporarily brighten what was otherwise a dark period in Mets history.

By 2005, it had become clear that the Mets would not attempt to re-sign Piazza once his contract expired at the end of the season.  The same player who averaged 37 homers and 107 RBI per season over the first four years of his contract could only manage a total of 31 homers and 88 RBI between the 2003 and 2004 campaigns.  And so, under new manager Willie Randolph, Piazza played the 2005 season knowing it would be his last in front of the Shea faithful.  He would also play the year back at his more familiar position behind the plate.

After three straight losing seasons, the Mets played the entire 2005 campaign at or around the .500 mark.  But when the team lost to the Atlanta Braves on September 17 to drop their record to 72-76, it appeared as if Piazza's final year in New York would become the team's fourth consecutive season with more losses than wins.  The Mets won five of their next six games to improve to 77-77, then finally went above .500 for good on the next-to-last Sunday of the season, with Piazza having his final vintage performance for the team.  Piazza reached base four times and hit two home runs - his 17th multi-homer game as a Met - to guide the team to a 6-5 victory over the Washington Nationals.  The Mets never went back under .500 again and finished the year with an 83-79 record.

Legend.  (Kathy Willens/AP)

On the final day of the regular season, a near-sellout crowd of 47,718 gathered at Shea Stadium to celebrate the brilliant career of their long-time catcher.  And even though the team couldn't pull out a victory for their future Hall of Famer, losing the season finale to the Colorado Rockies, Piazza went out as a winner, receiving a long standing ovation from the fans in attendance at Shea Stadium when he was removed from the game in the eighth inning.  An emotional Piazza waved to the fans in appreciation, as both teams applauded from their respective dugouts.  The ovation was just as loud a year later when Piazza returned to Shea as a member of the San Diego Padres and hit two home runs against Mets pitcher (and fellow future Hall of Famer) Pedro Martinez, receiving a rare curtain call as a visiting player.

In 2016, the man who is widely considered to be the greatest hitting catcher of all-time finally made it to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on his fourth try.  Unfounded foreign substance rumors may have kept him out of Cooperstown for his first three years on the ballot, but once he entered the Hall, he was welcomed with open arms by the tens of thousands of Mets fans who made the trek to Upstate New York for the induction ceremony.  Piazza became the second player to wear a Mets cap on his Hall of Fame plaque, joining Tom Seaver, who received baseball's highest honor in 1992.  A week later, Piazza's number was retired by the Mets, as his No. 31 joined Seaver's No. 41 to become the only two numbers retired for players in franchise history.

Mike Piazza became a Met just as the team was turning the corner after a six-year slumber.  Considered the final piece of a team that was ready to win, Piazza nearly carried the team to a wild card berth in 1998.  He then produced two of the best offensive seasons in club annals and was part of the first Mets team to make back-to-back postseason appearances, culminating with the club's fourth pennant in 2000.  But as Piazza's body began to break down, so did the team.  Off-the-field issues fueled by the media coupled with on-the-field adversity caused by years of squatting behind the plate (as well as confrontations with wild, hard-throwing pitchers) contributed to a rapid decline in Piazza's production.  But during his final season in New York, Piazza was able to witness the team's rebirth, and when he returned as an opposing player the following season, he received the kind of love that's only reserved for the true legends of the game.

Piazza always reciprocated that love, showing genuine affection for the fans who cheered him on through the good times and the bad.  And when it came time for his number to be retired by the team after his Hall of Fame induction in Cooperstown, he made sure to let the fans know just how important they were to him.

"The unofficial theme of my (Hall of Fame) speech was that no one goes into the Hall of Fame alone.  Each and every one of you is in there with me," Piazza said, before pointing to his retired No. 31 and adding, "I want to say just a little bit of what it means to have my number retired for this great franchise and for you amazing fans.  That means I will always be with you.  So every time these guys are down and you need a little bit of inspiration, just give a little peek up there to old Mikey and know that I'm back home watching you guys on TV saying a lot of prayers, praying for the Mets."

Mike Piazza shouldn't just be remembered as a player who hit lots of home runs in key moments.  Rather, he should be remembered as a player who lived and died with the team just as all Mets fans did.  He thrilled the fans when he was victorious on the field, and the fans agonized with him when the team failed.  Piazza was truly one with all of us, and for that, he will always be a beloved Met.

Mike Piazza will forever be one of the greatest players to ever put on a Mets uniform.  (Jim McIsaac/Newsday)

Note: The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of the Mets is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets players and personnel who experienced the best of times and the worst of times with the team.  For previous installments, please click on the names below:

January 2, 2017: Tom Seaver