Sporting News via Getty Mike Piazza played for the New York Mets in 2002Mike Piazza, then a catcher for the New York Mets, was the subject of 2002 rumors he was gay, which he deniedA year later, the indie band Belle and Sebastian released the song ‘Piazza, New York Catcher,’ which immortalized the rumors in its lyricsIn a new interview, Piazza reacted to the song for the first timeBack in 2002, Mike Piazza was the All-Star catcher for the New York Mets. He was also the subject of tabloid rumors about his sexuality, which claimed he was gay and in the closet. In May of that year, Piazza, now 56, ended up giving a press conference, telling reporters, “I’m not gay. I’m heterosexual. I can’t control what people think. I can say I’m heterosexual. I date women. That’s pretty much it,” per SB Nation.But those gay rumors live on in one odd way: through the 2003 song “Piazza, New York Catcher” by the Scottish band Belle and Sebastian. In the second verse, singer and songwriter Stuart Murdoch (a Mets fan) sings, “Piazza, New York catcher, are you straight or are you gay?” Now, Piazza is finally addressing the classic indie love song (which also appeared on the soundtrack for the 2007 movie Juno) for the first time.George Gojkovich/Getty Mike Piazza playing for the New York Mets in 2002Piazza told New York Magazine in an interview published April 28 that the song makes him feel, “flattered, obviously.” He explained, “I don’t know, man, as you get older, you just don’t get as wrapped up in those things, or you just don’t have the energy, really.” Piazza married Alicia Rickter in 2005, and they share two children.Piazza also noted that he was named-dropped in the 2004 Beastie Boys song “3 the Hard Way,” which features the line, “I said, oops, gotcha, clutch like Piazza.” (One of the group’s co-founders, Adam “MCA” Yauch, was a Mets fan.) Piazza said of the Beastie Boys, “My son likes them, even though it’s dirty. I like the clean version. But any time you’re remembered in pop culture like that, it’s nice.”Piazza — who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016 and is also known for his time as a Los Angeles Dodger — said that today, a lot of younger people know him because he’s included as a “legend” in the video game MLB: The Show.Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. “One time, I was giving a clinic and a kid goes, ‘Are you Mike Piazza?’ … He goes, ‘Man, you got a lot of power.’ I said, ‘Oh, thanks, dude,’ ” he remembered. “He’s like, ‘Yeah. Are you surprised?’ It was really funny having an 11-year-old kid who was born after I retired talk about me in that way. Hey, I’ll take it. Believe me — it’s nice to be remembered.”Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Mike Piazza in 2024As for Murdoch, 56, he told Rolling Stone in 2016 about including Piazza and his infamous rumors in the song that he became a fan of the player the first time he went to a Mets game in the late ‘90s. “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,” he said.Related: Songwriter Reveals One of Rihanna’s No. 1 Hits Features Many ’80s Song Titles Hidden in Its LyricsThe song “Piazza, New York Catcher” was about Murdoch’s long-distance relationship with his now-wife. As for including the rumor in the song, he said, “It almost kind of went into the song as a way of holding a mirror up to gossipy society. The way people talked about that stuff, I didn’t give a s— … It never occurred to me that I might become part of the problem.”Read the original article on People
