why Mike Piazza will always own a piece of my heart
He was always one of my favoirte players on the Mets, one of my heroes during the Subway Series in 2000 -- who could forget the "bat incident" with Roger Clemens? but what earned him that special place in my heart... September 21, 2001. The first major sporting event in NYC after 9-11. A game at Shea involving solemn ceremony and players wearing the caps of NYPD and NYFD. It wasn't very good baseball that night, neighter the Mets nor the Braves played particularly well that night.... Until Piazza hit a 2-run homer that gave the Mets a 3-2 lead, and which ultimatley won the game. As we watched that ball sail over Shea we knew... we knew ...that no matter how much we we hurting, no matter how awful we all felt (you could still smell the burning at Ground Zero, after all)...that even though life would never be the same...somehow we'd go on, somehow everything would be ok. With one swing of the bat Piazza lifted the spirits of 8 million New ...