Piazza doesn't deserve to be in the HoF. He could hit but his defense was atrocious and he never was a dominant catcher.

OK, I spend way too much time looking at my Who's Who in Baseball book, but I noticed a couple years back that he had hit a triple with every team he had played for. It only stuck out to me because he had managed to hit one during his week or so on the Florida Marlins (yet he did not hit a home run with them). So I followed the box scores all season long that year and he managed to hit one with San Diego, and last year he was able to do it with Oakland to complete the trick.

So for his career, he played for 5 teams, 3 of which were for a year or less (5 games with Florida). In his career, he only managed to hit 8 triples. Yet he somehow hit one with every team he played for. What are the odds?

I've been driving the anti-Piazza bandwagon for many years (based on his defense) but stating that he doesn't deserve to be in the HOF is ridiculous.

Whatever you might say about Piazza's defense, he was the most prolific hitter at his position in MLB history. A few weak throws to second base don't nullify that.

Funny how the defensively "atrocious" Piazza caught some of the best pitching staffs in MLB without any problems. Yeah, he couldn't throw--and baserunners steal Greg Maddux blind, too. In this era, that really isn't a big minus in return for being able to put a hitter with a career adjusted OPS+ of 142 (equal to Gary Sheffield's) at a position where historically teams were often thrilled to get a guy who hit like Steve Yeager (career adjusted OPS+: 82). Suggesting that Mike Piazza doesn't belong in Cooperstown is pretty much a sign that the person making the suggestion wouldn't know a Hall of Famer if the plaque fell and broke their nose.

One quibble with the AP article:

Mike Piazza is retiring from baseball following a 19-season career in which he became one of the top-hitting catchers in history.

With all due respect to the writer of the piece, that would be like saying in an article written when Joe DiMaggio retired: "Joe DiMaggio, who had one of the longest hitting streaks in major league history in 1941. . ." Piazza is the greatest hitting catcher in major league history--and it's not even a close proposition. Arguing otherwise is like arguing against the existence of gravity--or claiming that Pauly Shore is a better actor than Ed Norton Jr.

Not to imply anything positive about Shore, but for every awesome movie Norton does, he also does an "Italian Job" where he completely mails it in.

I heard he wants to go in a the HoF as a NYM? But he was on Baywatch as a LAD!