Mike Piazza, beloved Met now, knows what it is like to be in the New York storm. To be the new star imported to the Mets and have every eye, every dream fixed upon you. To have every failed at-bat a referendum, every slumped shoulder read for meaning. When your soundtrack at home — not on the road — is “boo.”
“It was a character builder, for sure,” Piazza can offer now. “It made me better.”
Piazza lives these days in Parma, Italy. But when he gets up with his 11-year-old son to prepare for school, the West Coast major league games are being played. And yes, he checks in. And yes, he still is digging in a little more to watch when he can and read when he can about the Mets. So he is aware of what Juan Soto is going through, and the reason for a call from New York.
“I think what he’s going through is a rite of passage,” Piazza said.
