Mike Piazza

The great ones should not bid farewell via e-mail. Mike Piazza deserved to tip his cap and bask in the applause, secure in his place as one of the Dodgers' brightest stars. His place would have been between Tom Lasorda and Sandy Koufax, on opening day, at the end of the Dodgers' stirring parade of players through the decades. Dodger Stadium went nuts when Koufax appeared, and the place would have gone only slightly less berserk with Piazza in the house.

As a catcher, Mike Piazza was focused on every pitch. As a designated hitter, Piazza is finding it hard to concentrate, waiting for his next turn at bat. "You're waiting a while between at bats. It's not an easy job concentrating," Piazza said after going two for three with a double and two runs batted in for the Oakland Athletics against the San Francisco Giants on Friday, his first game since getting hit by a pitch Tuesday. "It's hard to stay in the flow of the game mentally."

The Angel Stadium radar gun showed 97 mph, but that probably wasn't for the Francisco Rodriguez fastball that was hurtling toward the plate in the ninth inning Thursday night.

All-Star catcher Mike Piazza agreed Sunday to a $2-million, one-year contract with the San Diego Padres, giving the defending National League West champions a marquee player they think can still contribute. Piazza, 37, had been interested in signing a free-agent deal with an American League team to become a designated hitter. Instead, he'll stay in the NL and return to the West Coast for the first time since the Dodgers traded him to Florida in 1998.

Mike Piazza doubled and scored a run and Jason Grilli was almost perfect in 4 2/3 innings of work, leading Italy to a 10-0 victory over Australia in the first round of the World Baseball Classic at Kissimmee, Fla. Grilli left to a standing ovation after giving up only a one-out, fourth-inning double to Trent Durrington. He also struck out seven. The game was stopped after seven innings because of the mercy rule.

Mike Piazza hit a three-run homer against Ryan Dempster in the ninth inning, and the surging San Diego Padres rallied for their 13th victory in 14 games with a 4-3 win at Chicago. Mike Cameron led off the ninth with a single to center, and Brian Giles followed with a base hit to right. Piazza then hit his fourth homer, pulling an 0-and-1 pitch over the left-field wall to make it 4-3. The Cubs have lost 13 of 15 games. The blown save was the first in eight opportunities for Dempster (0-1).

Seventeen years later, when he forgets to frown and pokes his toes absently at his leather flip-flops, when he's asked to talk about a career that should end in the Hall of Fame, Mike Piazza becomes the 62nd-rounder again. He will be 37 by the end of this, his 14th big-league season. His face remains that of the boy who took Mike Scioscia's job in 1993, only tanner, and his voice still runs an octave or two high. Reaching for a name, he settles for "dude," as he always has.

Kris Benson and Mike Cameron made their 2005 debuts and Mike Piazza ended a long slump in the Mets' 7-5 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday at New York. "You have a good feel of where you can go from there," Manager Willie Randolph said. "Everyone making a contribution and the fact that we, for the first time all year, had most of our guys here, is just really encouraging."

Mike Piazza stepped out from the New York Met dugout, waved to the roaring crowd and basked in a rare curtain call. For baseball's greatest slugging catcher, the celebrations have been few and far between lately. One big swing got him back in the fans' good graces. "It felt good," Piazza said with a big smile. "It really did."

Carlos Delgado, in his first season with Florida, homered Tuesday to become the ninth player to hit at least 30 home runs in nine consecutive seasons: *--* 13 Barry Bonds 1992-04 12 Jimmie Foxx 1929-40 10 Sammy Sosa 1995-04 9 Carlos Delgado 1997-05 9 Jim Thome 1996-04 9 Rafael Palmeiro 1995-03 9 Mike Schmidt 1979-87 9 Eddie Mathews 1953-61 9 Lou Gehrig 1929-37 8 Alex Rodriguez 1998-05 8 Manny Ramirez 1998-05 8 Jeff Bagwell 1996-03 8 Mike Piazza 1995-02 8 Albert Belle 1992-99 8 Mickey Mantle