Mets: 9/11 Piazza jersey sale a ‘mistake’

Team apologizes after News story revealed it sold jerseys from 1st NYC game after 9/11

After an exclusive story in the Daily News revealed that the Mets had sold the bulk of the jerseys from the Sept. 21, 2001 game at Shea Stadium − the first game played in New York after the 9/11 terrorist attacks − to a private collector, the team issued a statement acknowledging their error. “We admit that we made a mistake, and have instituted a new process with internal controls to prevent something like this from happening again in the future,” the Mets organization said in a statement. It’s been an embarrassing past few weeks for the Mets after news broke on March 29 that Mike Piazza’s jersey from that game would be put on the auction block. Piazza wore the No. 31 jersey when he whacked an eighth-inning, two-run home run to lift the Mets to victory over the Braves, a moment that gave still-mourning New York City a reason to cheer again. The Piazza jersey — with an American flag on the back collar and “9-11-01” on the right sleeve — is signed by Piazza. The Daily News learned that a private collector purchased the Piazza jersey and the other 9/21/01 Mets jerseys from the team in a private sale. The Piazza jersey sold Thursday for a whopping $365,000 − a record for a game-worn jersey − topping the $303,000 paid for Kirk Gibson’s 1988 “limp-off” Dodgers home jersey that he wore in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series when he socked a game-ending homer off the A’s Dennis Eckersley. A three-person group purchased the Piazza jersey, including SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci and his ex-Goldman Sachs boss, Tony Lauto. Both men have small ownership stakes in the Mets.

In an agreement made with the seller, the Piazza jersey will be put on display at three locations − the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Citi Field, and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan. Piazza will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in July.

“It will be on permanent loan in that sort of a rotation,” said Scaramucci, who said he was at the 9/21/01 game to witness Piazza’s famous blast. “It will be understood that our heirs will do the same thing. It will be in the public domain for people to see. The purpose of buying it (from the mystery seller) was to keep it in New York. I also think there is a significant symbolism to this. This is part of the New York narrative.”

Said Lauto: “The thought of it leaving New York was not acceptable to myself and our partners, so we did pursue this jersey pretty aggressively.”

After news of the sale, a delighted Piazza took to Twitter to show his excitement over the arrangement. His father, Vince, had made a bid on the jersey, but dropped out after the price soared into six figures.

“Huge thanks to Anthony & Tony for coming through!” Mike Piazza tweeted Thursday afternoon. “My family & I couldn’t be more pleased knowing the jersey will be where it belongs. Thank u!”

Scaramucci, however, backed the Mets’ decision to hawk the jerseys from the historic game.

“I think what the Mets were trying to do at a time when the team was struggling, they were looking for marketing outreach ideas,” he said. “I think they sold a lot of different things in an effort to create that outreach. In hindsight, maybe (the Mets) did make a mistake. But we’re doing something that hopefully rectifies that mistake.”