| Artist: | Belle and Sebastian |
| Album: | Dear Catastrophe Waitress |
| Released: | 6 October 2003 |
| Recorded: | Summer 2003 |
| Genre: | Baroque pop |
| Length: | 3:03 |
| Label: | Rough Trade |
| Producer: | Trevor Horn |
"Piazza, New York Catcher" is a song by Scottish band Belle and Sebastian, first appearing on their 2003 album Dear Catastrophe Waitress.[1] [2] [3] The song details the band's lead singer Stuart Murdoch's romance of his future wife in San Francisco.[4]
The song takes its name from MLB catcher Mike Piazza, who at the time played for the New York Mets, and discusses rumors of Piazza's sexuality.[5] [6] [7] Murdoch said of Piazza, after seeing him play at Shea Stadium, "I was almost instantly drawn to Piazza. That’s the thing about him; he was a talisman wherever he went. He was the kind of player people tended to follow, and we thought he was a good guy."[8]
FanGraphs sabermetrician Carson Cistulli (now working for the Toronto Blue Jays) attempted to find the exact date of the game depicted in the song, which described Piazza as hitting for a .318 batting average. He concluded that "Belle and Sebastian are probably referring to no specific Mets-Giants game — or, if they are, it’s most likely a game from August of 2002, with a reference to a batting average from a different date."[9]
The song appeared on the soundtrack of the 2007 film Juno.