Like the team he once starred for, Mike Piazza is trending upward.
But is it enough?
The Mets' future is looking brighter with a strong, young pitching staff, and so is the Baseball Hall of Fame future for Piazza.
When the Hall announcements are made Tuesday, Piazza is in position, according to Hall of Fame tracking sites such as BaseballThinkFactory.org, to possibly slide into Cooperstown on his third try.
The catcher could miss, too. Only a little more than a quarter of the voters have made their ballots public, but of those votes, Piazza was sitting at 76.6 percent going into Monday night. To get elected into the Hall of Fame on the BBWAA ballot, a candidate must have 75 percent of the vote.
Throughout the last three years, Piazza has been consistent with his comments, saying he understands this is all a process. Right now the process seems to be working for him.
On the face of it, Piazza is a Hall of Famer, having hit more home runs than any catcher in baseball history. His 396 home runs are the best for any catcher. He bashed 220 home runs as a Met.
This is quite the impressive ballot this year, and if Piazza does not make it, he will appear to have a great chance to make it in 2016, when Ken Griffey Jr., surely a first-ballot Hall of Famer, is added. Also added will be Trevor Hoffman and Billy Wagner, but that ballot is not stuffed like this one, with a number of voters using their maximum 10 votes this year.
It is expected Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez will waltz into the Hall on Tuesday and John Smoltz and Craig Biggio will join them. Biggio only had to pick up two votes from last year's total. Smoltz is on the ballot for the first time, but is riding the Braves wave created last year by the inductions of Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. Both new Hall of Famers were adamant they expected Smoltz to join them this year.
On this year's ballot I voted for nine candidates, including Piazza.
Piazza received 62.2 percent of the vote last year, and moving up to 75 percent would represent a tremendous leap. But considering how far Piazza came in his career, from a 62nd-round draft pick of the Dodgers to a star, going from 62.2 percent to 75 is not out of the question.
This election is just too close to call.
Piazza was a 12-time All-Star and a 10-time Silver Slugger Award winner, the most Silver Sluggers for any catcher. He spent eight years with the Mets and helped take them to the postseason in 1999 and all the way to the World Series the following season before losing to the Yankees.
In a round of interviews last month, Piazza told MLB.com: "I can only say that there's been a lot of great players throughout history that have had to wait their turn. Joe DiMaggio had three ballots. Yogi Berra had three ballots. And that's part of the process. For me, it's not really my place, I feel, to start campaigning. I can only say that I'm proud of my work and I'm proud of my career. I'll put my numbers against a lot of players in history, and I feel that's all I can do.''
Piazza is willing to let those numbers speak for him and to the voters.
In 16 years, he clubbed 427 home runs, drove in 1,335 runs and batted .308.
If Piazza does make it this year, he will be reunited at the Hall with Pedro. Piazza was drafted June 1, 1988, by the Dodgers. Just 17 days later, the Dodgers signed Martinez, out of the Dominican. They were teammates with the 2005 Mets.
This all makes for one fascinating announcement Tuesday. Either way, it appears only a matter of time before Mike Piazza completes one of the most magical of baseball journeys.
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