RetroSimba

(Updated Jan. 6, 2016)

The performance of catcher Mike Piazza against the Cardinals in the 2000 postseason led to his only World Series appearance in a 16-year major-league playing career. It also may have helped his case in getting elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Piazza was elected to the Hall of Fame on Jan. 6, 2016. He enhanced his credentials with a standout National League Championship Series for the Mets against the Cardinals. By hitting .412 (7-for-17) with two home runs, three doubles, five walks, four RBI and seven runs scored in the five-game series versus St. Louis, Piazza carried the Mets to their first pennant in 14 years.

[Piazza deserves election to the Hall of Fame, but so does former Cardinals catcher Ted Simmons. Simmons has more hits (2,472) and more RBI (1,389) than Piazza (2,127 hits; 1,335 RBI). Although Simmons had 1,769 more at-bats than Piazza, the point is Simmons is in the same class as Piazza as an overall hitter among catchers. Plus, Piazza wasn’t as good as Simmons on defense. For example, Piazza allowed the most stolen bases of any National League catcher in a season 10 times during his career.]

Tough on Cardinals

Piazza, who played for the Dodgers, Marlins, Mets, Padres and Athletics, hit .331 (112-for-338) with 24 home runs and 65 RBI in 97 regular-season games against the Cardinals in his career.

Cardinals pitching was just the tonic he needed entering the 2000 National League Championship Series. Although he had hit well overall during the 2000 regular season (.324 batting average, 38 home runs, 113 RBI), Piazza had slumped throughout September. His regular-season batting average was .218 after Aug. 27. In the National League Division Series against the Giants, he hit .214.

[Piazza hit .348 (8-for-23) against the Cardinals during the 2000 regular season. On May 27, 2000, in a 12-8 Mets victory at St. Louis, Piazza reached bases in all six of his plate appearances on a home run, single and four walks. Boxscore]

Pacing the Mets

In the first inning of the first game of the National League Championship Series, Piazza established the tone for the Mets. He laced a double down the third-base line off a Darryl Kile curve, driving in the first run and moving Edgardo Alfonzo to third. Alfonzo then scored on a Robin Ventura sacrifice fly, giving the Mets a 2-0 lead on their way to a 6-2 victory at St. Louis.

A headline in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the next morning read, “Piazza’s MVP Effort Gets Mets Off To Fast Start.”

“We’re a pretty good team,” said Mets manager Bobby Valentine. “And when Mike’s hitting we’re a real good team.”

Said Piazza: “We were able to take the crowd out of the game early, which is big. They’ve got an electric crowd.” Boxscore

In Game 2, a 6-5 Mets victory, Piazza homered off reliever Britt Reames (after nearly being called out on a too-close-to-take 0-and-2 pitch), walked three times and scored twice. Boxscore

Piazza was a central figure in the Cardinals’ lone win of the series, an 8-2 victory in Game 3 at New York. After St. Louis scored twice in the top of the first, Cardinals starter Andy Benes yielded singles to the first two Mets batters in the bottom half of the inning, bringing Piazza to the plate with runners on first and third and no out.

To the Cardinals’ great relief, Piazza hit a weak grounder that third baseman Fernando Tatis scooped on a short hop and turned into a double play. Though a run scored, the Cardinals had gained the momentum by surviving the threat.

“That was key for all of us,” Cardinals catcher Carlos Hernandez said to the Post-Dispatch. “Everybody knows Piazza. He’s a real good hitter. When he got that groundball, I thought it was over. Everybody, when Piazza gets to bat, expects him to hit the ball out of the park.”

Said Piazza: “It was a tough, two-strike pitch, tough to lay off of it.” Boxscore

Sweet dreams

Piazza battered the Cardinals in Game 4 (home run, double, two RBI, three runs and a walk) and in Game 5 (two runs, double and a walk). In the locker room, celebrating the only pennant clinching he’d experience, Piazza told the Post-Dispatch, “It’s like a dream. I hope nobody pinches me. I don’t want to wake up from this.”

Six years later, the Cardinals gained a measure of revenge against both Piazza and the Mets. In 2006, Piazza was with the Padres, who were overwhelming favorites against the Cardinals in the National League Division Series. This time, Piazza hit .100 (1-for-10) in four games against the Cardinals. (Batting against St. Louis for the final time in his career, Piazza, pinch-hitting for Russell Branyan in the eighth inning of Game 4, grounded into a double play against reliever Josh Kinney. Boxscore)

After eliminating the Padres, the Cardinals beat the Mets in a seven-game National League Championship Series before winning the World Series title against the Tigers.

Previously: 2011 Cardinals are first to have top 3 in hitting into double plays

(Updated Jan. 23, 2019)

Craig Biggio, a Hall of Famer who spent his career with the Astros, rejected a chance to become a Cardinal in his prime.

Biggio was recruited aggressively by the Cardinals when he became a free agent after the 1995 season. At age 30, he had a chance to be their second baseman at the start of the Tony La Russa era and become part of a franchise that would reach the postseason nine times in La Russa’s 16 seasons as Cardinals manager.

Instead, Biggio remained with the Astros and continued to torment Cardinals pitching.

Biggio had regular-season career bests of 280 hits and 131 RBI against the Cardinals in 20 years (1988-2007) with the Astros. Versus St. Louis in the regular season, he batted .298 with a .378 on-base percentage, 22 home runs, 58 doubles and 31 stolen bases. In the postseason (the National League Championship Series of 2004 and 2005), Biggio hit .250 against the Cardinals.

After the 1995 season, Biggio weighed offers from the Cardinals, Rockies, Padres and Astros. La Russa, who had just been named Cardinals manager, and general manager Walt Jocketty met with Biggio, his wife and agent Barry Axelrod in California in an effort to convince the player to become a Cardinal.

“We were received well,” Jocketty told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for a story published Dec. 5, 1995. “He likes Tony a lot and would enjoy playing for him. It’s important for him to go to a place where the team is going to be competitive. I think he would enjoy playing here. He’s a guy who would be very important to our program.”

Four days later, Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz wrote “Craig Biggio would own this town” if he signed with St. Louis.

The Cardinals offered Biggio a five-year, $25 million contract, the Associated Press reported, but Biggio took the Astros’ four-year, $22 million deal. “I consider myself a loyal person,” Biggio said. “… I want to win in an Astros uniform.”

Twelve years later, when Biggio was finishing his playing career in 2007 with 3,060 hits, La Russa told MLB.com, “Walt and I put a full-court press on Craig (in 1995). I thought we put together a charge that had a chance, but I know … his teammates were also talking to him. He made a smart decision to stay there.”

Biggio told St. Louis writer Rick Hummel in 2007 that a few years earlier La Russa had told him, “I’m still ticked at you for not signing with us.”

“Tony said it in a good way,” Biggio said, “but I was their guy. But I never wanted to leave Houston.”

Biggio, who played most of his career as a second baseman, faced the Cardinals for the first time on Aug. 17, 1988, when he entered the game at Busch Stadium II in the ninth inning as a catcher. Boxscore

In 108 regular-season games at Busch Stadium II (which was the Cardinals’ home through 2005), Biggio batted .314 with 30 doubles, 11 home runs and 60 RBI.

Biggio faced the Cardinals for the final time during a September 2007 weekend series at Busch Stadium III. Before the middle game of the series on Sept. 22, 2007, Jocketty presented Biggio with a check for $3,053 (his hits total at the time) during an on-field ceremony. (Biggio donated the money to a charity.) Cardinals fans gave Biggio an ovation during and after the presentation, MLB.com reported.

“I’ve always said the Cardinals fans are the classiest fans in the game because they appreciate a good play,” Biggio said to the Post-Dispatch.

In remarks to reporters, La Russa called Biggio “the perfect pro.”

“He’s tied for first among guys you respect for all the years I’ve been here,” said La Russa.

Alyson Footer of MLB.com wrote, “Craig Biggio always appreciated the city of St. Louis, the Cardinals organization and Cardinals fans, and during an on-field pregame presentation on Saturday the admiration was reciprocated.”

Biggio appeared in the game that night as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning and singled against Tyler Johnson. Boxscore

The next day, Sept. 23, 2007, Biggio, playing second base, went 1-for-4 in his final game against the Cardinals. The hit was a seventh-inning single off Russ Springer. When Biggio batted again in the eighth, he received a standing ovation that he acknowledged with a tip of his batting helmet. After flying out to right field, he was removed from the game. Boxscore

In a 2011 interview with the New York Times, Biggio said he “absolutely” could have played another two or three years longer than he did, but he wanted more time with his wife and three children. “I couldn’t look my family in the eyes anymore and justify (playing),” Biggio said. “It was time to go.”

Previously: Lance Berkman and his greatest games as a Cardinal