Piazza expresses appreciation for Phoenixville roots
As a young man growing up in baseball, Neil Herman always liked the Los Angeles Dodgers as his favorite Major League Baseball team.
His favorite player, all along, was a young man named Mike Piazza, who became a star catcher for the Dodgers while earning National League Rookie of the Year honors in 1993.
However, at that time, Herman, a Coatesville graduate, did not know that Piazza hailed from Phoenixville Area High School. And he certainly did not know at that time that in the year 2016, when Herman took over as Phoenixville’s head baseball coach in the spring as well as its summer coach for 16-19-year-olds, Piazza would enter the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., as one of two members of the Class of 2016.
Herman, other members of the current Phoenixville coach-
ing staff and many members of the Phantoms’ varsity and junior varsity teams as well as their parents were on hand Sunday afternoon as Piazza,who graduated from PAHS as a 17-year-old back in 1986, entered the Hall of Fame as a New York Met and considered the greatest hitting catcher of all-time. He was enshrined along with Ken Griffey Jr., the slugging center fielder of the Seattle Mariners.
Also on hand for the large gathering of Phoenixville fans were other family members and friends of the large Piazza family. Also present were Phoenixville High School Athletic Director Matt Gionta and his wife, Rachel; as well as longtime Phoenixville baseball coach John “Doc” Kennedy and others.
Piazza’s Phoenixville roots didn’t go unnoticed in his eloquent induction speech Sunday.
“My love affair with baseball started in a small steel town, about a fourhour drive south of here named Phoenixville,” Piazza said. “It was a tough town, blue collar, coming off the prosperity of
the 50s and 60s. The steel mills had closed and what was left were the sons and daughters of immigrants. They loved God, their families, and sports.
“I came up through an intensely competitive little league, youth league, and high school program. This town loved its sports. It was evident in the fact that we were not big as some of the neighboring towns, some twice our size, but in baseball, we punched above our weight.”
He thanked Kennedy specifically for his positive influence.
“My high school coach was John “Doc” Kennedy, and he loved the game, was a great teacher and still scouts today. From early in my high school career he never gave me anything. He knew my dad and knew who his friend was (Hall of Famer and Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda), yet he still made me work to earn a place on the varsity team.”
Piazza’s speech was filled with grace, his faith, and appreciation for the many coaches, teammates and family members that helped him become one of the game’s greats.
One anecdote illustrating the support of his mother, Veronica, brought back memories from a frigid afternoon in Bucktown.
“One special moment in my memory of my mother is an ice cold high school game at Owen J. Roberts High School in which I hit two home runs,” Piazza said. “There were maybe about five or six people watching the game, but as I crossed home plate, I noticed my mom jumping up and down clapping. Mom, you were the glue to our family and a true woman of God. Thank you.”
An emotional Piazza expressed his appreciation for his father, Vince, as the greatest influence on him becoming a Hall of Famer.
“My dad always dreamed of playing in the major leagues for his AllAmerican love of baseball. He could not follow that dream as the realities of life and having to support his family forced him to work. My father’s faith in me, often greater than my own, is the single most important factor of me being inducted into this Hall of Fame,” Piazza said.
“He is a man deeply devoted to his family and after having suffered a major stroke a few years ago, is stronger willed than ever. We made it, Dad. The race is over. Now, it’s time to smell the roses.”