Statues are cool, but how many retired ballplayers have inspired an opera?
Former Mets catcher Mike Piazza's career is the inspiration for a New York concert. Dimitri Pittas, a young performer from New York's Metropolitan Opera will belt out songs such as "Stepping Into the Batter's Box," "He Hears His Father's Voice," and "Postgame Interview."
Robert Paterson and Kenny Berkowitz along with his wife, Bridget Meeds, collaborated on the lyrics. Paterson tells the New York Times that all the song titles are intentional to pay tribute to Piazza's days as the hardball King of Queens. He also said his wife has a crush on Piazza.
Despite paying the ultimate musical testimonial to the retired superstar, it's not like the harmonic folks have a close relationship with the old backstop. "I've never spoken to Mike Piazza," Mr. Berkowitz said. "I've never met Mike Piazza."
The group did attempt to contact Piazza years ago about their project, but he never got back to them so they used quotes from newspaper articles and videos to compose the songs.
In a career that started in 1992 with the Dodgers and ended with the Athletics in 2007, Piazza was a 12-time All-Star while hitting .308 with 427 homers during his career. Although he waits for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Piazza is a member of the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.
Piazza himself has been traveling around Italy and is unavailable to comment on the concert, which will take place Thursday night in Brooklyn. Dan Lozano, Piazza's agent, laughed out loud when asked about the opera.
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