Sponsored by Shea Stadium Remembered
Mike Piazza hits his 352nd home run as a catcher, breaking Carlton Fisk’s record for the position. His 405-foot blast—his 363rd career HR overall—comes on a 3-1 pitch from San Francisco’s Jerome Williams. The Mets beat the Giants at Shea, 8-2, and they’ll win the next night when Piazza provides a walkoff home run in extra innings. Now that the record is out of the way, the Mets speed up the move to first base for the oft-injured star. He’ll play 68 games at first base in 2004, but he provides the latest evidence that the position is not as “easy” to move to as nonballplayers think. He will never play the position again after ’04 and return behind the plate. Though not the best backstop with the arm or the glove, few would doubt that Piazza was as good as any catcher in history with a bat in his hands.