On April 15, 2022, the New York Mets are finally going to reveal their Tom Seaver statue. It is something which should have happened when Citi Field officially opened on March 29, 2009, but with the Wilpons being the Wilpons, we needed to wait all of this time.

When you talk about the Mets, you talk about Seaver. He is the greatest player to ever don a Mets uniform, and in all likelihood, he will forever be the greatest. He deserved not just the statue, but he also deserved to be the first player to see his number retired.

For a time, Seaver was the only Mets player with his number retired. That was until Mike Piazza was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame with Piazza opting to wear a Mets cap on his plaque. At that moment, there was a clear standard set. If you want your number retired with the Mets, you need to enter the Hall of Fame wearing a Mets cap.

That was the standard until it wasn’t. As the Wilpons were on their way out, they announced Jerry Koosman was going to have his number retired. If you were going to outside the realm of Hall of Famers, Koosman more than deserved to be first in line for this honor. After all, his pitching was the biggest reason the Mets won the 1969 World Series.

After Koosman, Keith Hernandez had his number retired. Unlike Koosman, we can reasonably expect him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. What we don’t know is what cap Hernandez will opt to have on his plaque.

Gary Carter likely would have his number retired if the Hall of Fame honored his request to go in as a Met. In all likelihood, David Wright will not be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but he will have his number retired one day. After that, who knows?

The one thing that becomes clear is as more numbers are retired the less that honor is for Hall of Famers. For some time, it was something special reserved for the Hall of Famers, and now, that is no longer the case. We can debate if that is a good or bad thing, but in the end, the Mets should have one separate and special honor for their Hall of Fame players.

Seeing the Seaver statue getting erected, it would seem that can and should be the new honor for Mets players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame wearing a Mets cap. Right now, that applies only to Seaver and Piazza.

This is why Piazza should get his statue. He’s a Hall of Famer deserving of an honor above all the rest. Perhaps, it can be that pose after he blasted yet another big homer.

Certainly, there is more than enough room for it outside of Citi Field. More than that, there is room to further celebrate Mets history and the greatest of the greats. Ultimately, this is why we need a Piazza statue.