Few arrivals jolted the New York Mets to life like Mike Piazza in 1998. The franchise had spent much of the ’90s wobbling between mediocrity and hope, but once that mustachioed masher set foot in Queens, everything changed. Shea Stadium started to hum again, the Mets lineup suddenly looked dangerous with his thunderous right-handed swing at the center, and the organization rediscovered its pulse.
That same season, Piazza’s bat didn’t just earn cheers; it earned hardware. Despite joining the Mets a third of the way through the year, he still hit like a man trying to make up for lost time, securing his sixth Silver Slugger Award and his first in orange and blue.