Mets Piazza misses Hall of Fame vote again

Mets legendary catcher Mike Piazza was snubbed from entering the MLB Hall of Fame for the second year in a row.

Candidates for the Hall need at least 75 percent of votes to make it to Cooperstown, and Piazza only garnered 62.2 percent from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Wednesday.

It’s a bump up for Piazza, who received just 57.8 percent of the vote on his first ballot appearance last year.

“On behalf of the organization and our fans, Mike is a true Hall of Famer,” Mets COO Jeff Wilpon said. “We proudly display his plaque in the Mets Hall of Fame, and we’re hopeful that he’ll soon have one hanging in Cooperstown.”

Although Piazza’s presence will not be felt in the hall just yet, this year three players received enough votes to enter the Hall, an improvement from last year in which no player received enough votes. Atlanta Braves ace pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, and slugger Frank Thomas are all heading to Cooperstown.

The last time three players were voted in to the Hall was in 1999 with George Brett, Nolan Ryan and Bobby Yount.

Some players accused of using Performance Enhancing Drugs were also denied entry into the Hall again, including Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire and Roger Clemens. Yankees favorites Mike Mussina and Don Mattingly also didn’t receive enough votes to enter Cooperstown.

Piazza fans shouldn’t give up hope just yet. The Mets slugger still has 13 more chances to be on the ballot.

Also, at the last Mets game of the 2013 season on September 29, the team inducted Piazza as the 27^th member in the Mets Hall of Fame.

Piazza is known as one of the greatest hitting catchers of all time. He has the most home runs for a catcher ever with 427, a career .308 batting average and 2,127 hits.

Piazza played 972 games for the Mets, eight of his 16-year career in MLB. He hit 220 home runs with the Mets, ranking second in franchise history, behind Darryl Strawberry (252). He ranks first in team history with a .542 slugging percentage and is third in RBIs (655). Piazza was a seven-time All-Star when he played with the Mets and set a team-record with 124 RBIs and hit 40 home runs in 1999.

Then in 2000 he finished with 38 home runs and drove in 113 runs to lead the team to win the National League Division Championship.

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