Steve Phillips brought Mike Piazza to the Mets in 1998 and expected him to become a Hall of Famer yesterday.
Instead, Piazza was left out, something the former Mets general manager called “a travesty.”
“He was the best offensive catcher in the history of the game and to lump him in with [Roger] Clemens and [Barry] Bonds is insulting,” Phillips said last night by phone. “So he had acne on his back. That’s ridiculous. He was guilty by association because he was big and strong. He worked harder than any other player.”
In his first year of eligibility, Piazza appeared on 57.8 percent of the ballots, falling short of the 75 percent needed for enshrinement. He finished behind Craig Biggio, Jack Morris and Jeff Bagwell, but well ahead of Clemens and Bonds, both of whom were also up for the first time and were tied to performance enhancing drugs.
“I understand there are raised eyebrows with some players who may have been attached to PEDs,” said Phillips, now a host on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio. “There was nothing with Mike.”
Piazza’s old manager, Bobby Valentine, is confident Piazza’s fortunes will change.
“Personally, I think he’s going to get in eventually,’’ said Valentine, who believes Piazza — along with Bonds and Clemens — should be in the Hall of Fame. “We’ll see if the climate changes in the next few years. It’s an amazing healer, that time thing.”
But Phillips doesn’t think that should be an issue.
“People say, ‘We’ll wait and see what happens,’ ” Phillips said. “Why? There’s no investigation. Nobody accused him of anything or said they saw him do anything. Other than connecting the dots where there aren’t even any dots, I don’t understand it. He was the same player his entire career. … He earned all his success. Sure, there’s 15 years [on the ballot] to figure it out, but you’ve already had five and he played for [15]. What’s changing?”