MMO Roundtable: Favorite Mets By Position – Catcher
The MMO team will be going all around the field, sharing our favorite Mets players by position.
Now let’s take a look at catcher. Take a wild guess who had the majority vote on this one!
Alexis Farinacci
Mike Piazza! I grew up watching Mike play in Port St. Lucie. I remember being a catcher in Fort Pierce Little League, going to games at Clover Park, and attending the Mets’ baseball camp as a kid. He was always so fun to watch and is a true hall of famer. I was also there when they named the street Clover Park is on 31 Piazza Dr. Mike is my all-time favorite Mets catcher and one of my favorite catchers MLB-wide.
Jordan Baron
As unpopular an opinion as it may be, my favorite Mets catcher is Josh Thole. I was a still really young when Mike Piazza was leading the Mets, and I never watched too many games when he was behind the dish. Thole became the catcher for right when I started paying more attention to the team. I’ll always remember watching every out of Johan Santana’s no-hitter, a game Thole caught. He was never a star, nor was he particularly good, but he was definitely a fan favorite in my household.
Fast forward six years after his last game as a Met, I am a senior in high school, and my friends and I decide to take a trip 30 minutes south of our hometown to watch the New Britain Bees (an independent league team) play. We checked the roster beforehand to make signs to cheer on some of the players, and none other than Josh Thole was marked as the starting catcher. Our excitement now through the roof, we made signs that said “Holy Thole!”, and made our way down to the ballpark. We cheered him on the whole game, and he flipped us multiple balls and packages of gum throughout the nine innings of play. He’s an unbelievably nice guy, and I’ll always remember that moment with my friends.
Marshall Field
Not only one of my favorite Mets of all-time, but also one of my favorite ballplayers period, Mike Piazza embodied the catcher’s position. When Johnny Bench retired after the 1983 season, a decade passed before the next iconic catcher was found. There were some very good backstops in the mid- to late-eighties, but nothing compared to Bench and his successor, Piazza. Mike spent a little over seven years as a Met, and was a six-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger.
His career stats with New York were impressive, slugging .296/.373/.542/.915. He ranks third on the all-time Mets list in both homers and RBI. Mike’s mighty swing after 9/11 against the Atlanta Braves lifted not only his team, but his city. Besides the two championships, that blast may have been the most iconic moment in Mets history. Mike was elected into the Hall of Fame in 2016, a man who was a 62nd round draft pick who ended up in the Halls of Immortality. Inarguably the best hitting catcher of his era, Mike Piazza arguably was the best hitting catcher of any era.
Rich Sparago
It’s tough to come up with my all-time favorite Mets catcher. There’s Jerry Grote from my childhood, Gary Carter from the 1986 champions…but I have to go with Mike Piazza. He’s one of two Mets in the Hall of Fame with a Mets cap, and he gives the team good representation. In eight years with the Mets, he slashed .296/.373/.542 with 220 home runs and a 136 OPS+.
It’s remarkable that a catcher, absorbing the nicks and blows that come with the position, can be such an offensive star. Piazza was just that, belting many memorable home runs. Who can forget his home run against the Braves in the first game back after 9/11, or his bomb against John Smoltz in Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS? Piazza remains active with the Mets, normally attending spring training. His mere presence is valuable for the team, helping to set an example for the younger players that they too can become stars, as did this one-time 62nd round draft pick.
Mojo Hill
If we’re just talking favorites and not “best,” I have to go with Kevin Plawecki. When I used to go to Las Vegas 51s games with my dad, he was the one guy who, to our luck, always seemed to be there. He was always nice about signing balls and engaging with the fans, and there was one time when my dad was taking a picture of him and Plawecki looked up at my dad and joked, “Should I smile?”
His niceness, along with his fun albeit limited success in a Mets uniform, would have to make him my favorite Mets catcher. Loved his approach at the plate, too. My dad still has a game-worn Las Vegas 51s Plawecki jersey hanging in his closet to this day.
Ryan Finkelstein
I was three years old when Mike Piazza became a New York Met. Needless to say, Piazza was the first great sports hero I grew up rooting for, and the player most responsible for turning me into a die-hard Mets fan at such a young age. When Piazza was inducted into the Hall of Fame, my dad and I made the trip to Cooperstown to watch firsthand. To this day, watching Piazza make that incredible speech alongside thousands of Mets fans is probably the best sports moment I have gotten the chance to experience in person.
Rob Piersall
I started watching baseball when I was 6-years-old. I remember learning about the players on the Mets through my parents. A name that I soon became accustomed to hearing about was Mike Piazza. This coincided with me collecting baseball cards. One day, my grandfather took me to the park down the street from my house, to play catch and hit me some grounders. Afterwards, we stopped at the stationary and he bought me a pack of cards. We went across the street to get pizza for dinner, and while he was ordering, I was at the table and opened my pack. I saw a Met and read the name “Mike Piazza.” It was the first time I saw what he actually looked like. I think I yelled out loud, “I got a Mike Piazza!” To which people sitting around me looked over. After that, Piazza became my favorite Met, and I even dressed up as him for Halloween that year or the next, with the catcher’s gear and fake mustache and all.
Logan Barer
Being born in 1994, Mike Piazza defined my childhood. One of my earliest memories was September 21st, 2001 in the nosebleeds at Shea. I remember the stadium shaking, and now, I could watch the video of that home run over and over again and love it more every time.
I don’t think I’ve ever held a wiffle ball bat in my hands without mimicking his batting stance, and I’ve certainly never *swung* a wiffle ball bat without the helicopter follow-through. I’ve broken many a window in his honor. Big Mike is the best of all time, and a very easy choice for me. It’s between him and David Wright for my favorite Met of all time, let alone favorite catcher.
Jack Ramsey
For me, it’s Josh Thole. And before you laugh, hear me out. Thole was by most accounts a solid defender who was behind the plate for the bright spots in what was overall a dark time in Mets history. Thole and his pancake mitt caught R.A. Dickey’s Cy Young season and Johan’s no-hitter. Were there better catchers in Mets history? Maybe, who knows… but Thole was always there when we were smiling during the dark times.
Joe D.
Few would argue that Jerry Grote was the best defensive catcher the Mets ever had and that conversely, Mike Piazza is the best offensive catcher the Mets ever had. But only one player was the best overall catcher in franchise history, and his name is Gary Carter.
Many forget that “Kid” was one of the game’s best behind the plate, winning three Gold Gloves while setting a record for fewest passed balls in a season — just one in 1978. Additionally, Carter led the National League in putouts eight times, assists five times, double plays five times and caught stealing percentage three times.
Of course, Gary Carter is best known for his potent bat, which Mets fans learned in his first game as a New York Met in 1985, when he clubbed a dramatic walk-off home run on Opening Day to stun the St. Louis Cardinals. To this day, that prodigious blast is considered one of the best in Mets regular season history.
Mike Piazza was a monster at the plate and he posted his highest WAR in 2000, coming in at 5.1 that season. But Carter actually beat that mark considerably, posting a 6.9 WAR in 1985.
Carter had so many big home runs in his Mets tenure, collecting home run number 300 in the orange and blue. But he may best be remembered for his incredible postseason exploits with the Mets. With the Mets down two games to one against the Boston Red Sox in 1986, Carter carried the team in Game 4, going 3-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI, resulting in a 6-2 victory.
Three days later, it was Carter, whose two-out single in the bottom of the 10th led to an unbelievable Game 6 victory that was one for the ages.
“I didn’t want to make the last f—ing out,” he would later tell reporters.
He was the first player to carry the team’s World Series trophy – deservedly so – with a smile as big as it could be. I loved Gary Carter and that’s why he’s my favorite Mets catcher of all time.
Michelle Ioannou
How could you not be a kid from the ’90s, just starting to fall in love with the game of baseball, and not love Mike Piazza? I’ll just leave it at that.
The post MMO Roundtable: Favorite Mets By Position – Catcher first appeared on Metsmerized Online.