Mike Piazza never played for the New York Yankees, but did play against them during interleague games and the 2000 World Series as a member of the New York Mets. Each was highly-anticipated and filled with excitement.

In a developement that surprised few, the 39-year-old Piazza called it quits last week via an e-mail after 16 seasons. And with that announcement, Piazza, a 12-time All-Star, brought to a close a career that will mark him as the most-productive hitting catcher ever.

Of his 427 home runs, 396 were smacked as a catcher, and are the most all-time. This number may eventually be eclipsed, but it’s not likely to happen in the near future. A 10-time Silver Slugger award winner, Piazza wasn’t the best all-around receiver - that title belongs to Johnny Bench or perhaps Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez.

But when the topic comes around to who was the best hitter, the answer is Piazza, the Norristown, Pennsylvania native who was selected in the 62nd round of the 1988 amateur draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers. The pick was a gift from then Manager Tom Lasorda to his longtime friend, Vince Piazza, Mike’s father.

How could this guy be overlooked by so many teams? It’s been asked many times, and people still scratch their heads. Steve Phillips, ESPN baseball analyst and former New York Mets general manager, praised Piazza, a career .308 hitter, this past week.

“Mike was one of the few superstars that didn’t have an entourage,” he said. “Sometimes you’d see his father and his brother, but that was it. He was a superstar, but didn’t act like one.”

I can vouch for this, having covered the Dodgers during the middle 1990’s for a newspaper in Southern California. Piazza’s locker was the first when one entered the clubhouse, and he was always willing to talk before and after a game. Piazza never acted like a big shot, when he easily could have.

Piazza, who finished with a .545 slugging percentage and a .377 on base percentage, was easily the most popular player on the Dodgers. Quiet, reserved and thoughtful, he really didn’t like drawing attention to himself. Often times we’d talk about hockey (the Philadelphia Flyers were his favorite team) or a concert that he’d just attended. Few things were off the record with Piazza, and that’s one reason why he was a target after games.

There are some who criticized Piazza for his throwing skills. Spanning more than 1,600 games, Piazza had a .989 fieldiing percentage, which isn’t bad. The constant knock against him was that he didn’t throw out many base runners attempting to steal. On Saturday, FOX studio host and former big-league manager Kevin Kennedy, said of the future first-ballot Hall of Famer: “Mike Piazza was a decent catcher who called a good game and blocked the plate well. He was underrated as a catcher.”

It was Piazza with a bat in his hands that made people take notice. How I remember being behind the cage during batting practice and watching him take his hacks. When his bat met the ball, there was a virtual explosion of noise. And then watching the ball sail toward the wall and into the bleachers was something to behold. You just stood there amazed. I’ve seen Piazza hit balls at Colorado’s Coors Field or Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium with such power and force that you couldn’t believe your eyes.

When Piazza was traded by the Dodgers to the Florida Marlins on May 14, 1998 for five players that included outfielder Gary Sheffield and catcher Charles Johnson, and then shipped to the Mets eight days later, he was truly surprised and hurt. In Piazza’s first five full seasons with the Dodgers, he collected 167 homers, drove in 526 runs, and batted .300 or better every year. In his last full campaign in Los Angeles, Piazza smashed 40 home runs, drove in 124 runs and batted .362. If ever there was a franchise player, it was him.

Piazza blossomed in New York, and said if he is elected to the Hall of Fame, he wants to have a Mets cap on his bust. In the seven full seasons Piazza performed with the Mets, he rapped out 30 or more homers three times and hit 40 once. Twice he surpassed 100 or more runs batted in, three times batted over .300, and helped his club to the playoffs in 1999 and 2000. Five times Piazza played in the postseason and had a .242 batting average with a .301 on-base percentage and a .458 slugging percentage, but came up short of the brass ring.

When the Yankees and Mets faced each other in the 2000 World Series, the city was beside itself. The last Subway Series was 1956 when the Dodgers fell to the Bombers. This was good enough. Piazza acquitted himself well during the five games it took for the Yankees to prevail - connecting on two homers with two doubles, and four runs batted in while hitting .273.

A superstar and a gentleman. That is Mike Piazza.