Piazza’s Storybook Season Now Has a Perfect Ending : Baseball: Dodger catcher, who batted .318 with 35 homers and 112 RBIs, is unanimous choice as NL rookie of the year.

The longest home run Mike Piazza hit this season might have been the one over the center-field fence at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium in June, heading for Kentucky.

Some ridiculous tale of the tape measured it at 436 feet. But anyone who saw that shot knew it went at least 500 feet--maybe 550. Five years from now, it will probably be even longer.

So for those who witnessed that or any of Piazza’s other 34 home runs, it came as no surprise Wednesday that his legendary season was secured in baseball history when he was named National League rookie of the year.

Piazza received all 28 first-place votes by the Baseball Writers Assn. of America, only the ninth time a player has been selected unanimously--the sixth in the National League. It’s the latest honor to be bestowed on the 25-year-old, who became the 13th Dodger to receive the award.

“This is definitely at the top to win this award,” Piazza said from Taipei, Taiwan, where he is on a five-game tour with the Dodgers. “I look at the tremendous players who have won this award and, well, it’s just now starting to sink in.”

It was a storybook season for Piazza, who was signed by the Dodgers in 1988 as a favor to Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, a close family friend. He was the club’s 62nd-round draft choice. He was also a first baseman, not a catcher. But he became a catcher when Lasorda figured that it was a way to get him signed.

“This is my sixth youngster who has won rookie of the year for the Dodgers, and while I am proud of the previous five, this one is special to me,” Lasorda said. “Having him grow up as my bat boy--I think he was 11 when he started--and the way he spent endless hours on the baseball field. This was his dream. He talked about playing for the Dodgers, and he talked about playing for me.”

All Piazza wanted to accomplish last season was to play well enough not to get sent down to triple A. Instead, he finished the season with a team-high batting average of .318, no small feet for his lack of foot speed, he says. His average was the ninth highest in L.A. Dodger history, and his 112 runs batted in were the most since Steve Garvey had 113 in 1978.

He led the team in nearly every major category all season, in which he caught 149 games, his average dipping below .300 only a few times. Yet it wasn’t until shortly after Piazza’s home run in Cincinnati that his reputation began to grow. Buried beneath the team’s season of mediocrity, Piazza’s early accomplishments were often unnoticed.

Then came the final game of the season, when Piazza hit two home runs and knocked in four in the Dodgers’ 12-1 pounding of the San Francisco Giants. He was at center stage, sending a Dodger Stadium crowd into a series of standing ovations and knocking the winningest team in Giant franchise history out of the playoffs.

That day, he says, is his brightest moment.

“The last game of the season against the Giants, I said up until that time that I didn’t think there was a lock on the rookie award,” Piazza said. “But that last day for me and for the fans was the highlight. It’s hard to sit down and pinpoint one thing about the season, but that day gives me something to smile at.”

His two homers placed him ahead of Pedro Guerrero and Garvey, who were tied at 33, and gave him the most home runs in a season by an L.A. Dodger, and the most in franchise history since Duke Snider hit 40 for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1957. His 35 homers are the second-most by a National League rookie. Frank Robinson of the 1956 Cincinnati Reds and Wally Berger of the 1930 Boston Braves both hit 38.

Wednesday, Piazza thanked his parents, the fans, Lasorda and the Dodgers, for giving him a chance. He thanked the late Roy Campanella and his wife, Roxie, for the inspiration they provided him. He thanked his teammates for ragging on him, keeping him focused and not letting him get a big head. And he thanked Eric Karros, his roommate and last season’s rookie of the year.

“Eric taught me so many things,” Piazza said. “He would say, ‘You are at a point where you will start getting attention, so remain focused and bide your time well.’ He’s like a brother to me and I hope we can win a World Series together.”

Dodger Rookies of the Year 1993: Mike Piazza 1992: Eric Karros 1982: Steve Sax 1981: Fernando Valenzuela 1980: Steve Howe 1979: Rick Sutcliffe 1969: Ted Sizemore 1965: Jim Lefebvre 1960: Frank Howard 1953: Jim Gilliam 1952: Joe Black 1949: Don Newcombe 1947: Jackie Robinson