The Ben Stiller-Mike Piazza movie that almost was

The late 90s and early 2000s were pretty good to Mets fans, with a couple of deep playoff runsand some of the best players and moments in franchise history. Well it turns out they were nearly a whole lot better.

Splitsider has the amazing story of a nearly-produced comedy script from 2001 that was set to star—brace yourself—Ben Stiller and Mike Piazza. Stiller, coming off of There's Something About Mary and Meet the Parents, was probably the biggest comedic star in the country and was formally attached. Piazza was at the height of his fame as well but hadn't formally committed.

The script, titled Go to Hell Mike Piazza, was story of a down-and-out guy (Stiller) who blames his problems on the greatest hitting catcher of all time (Piazza).

From the article:

The draft of the script I have opens on superstar catcher Mike Piazza playing a game for the New York Mets in 1998 when a naked guy runs onto the field. With the words "Piazza sucks" painted across his chest and "Piazza can kiss my ass" on his back (with an arrow downward, of course), the naked guy screams at Piazza as he kicks dirt at him and avoids security while the crowd cheers him on. We freeze frame and hear a voiceover: "Wait, maybe I should start from the beginning…"

The article is worth the read, and the movie sounds as if it probably would have been legitimately funny and certainly original enough to be worth eight of your dollars in 2001. Sadly, though, even in the age of Kickstarter it will likely never be realized. But maybe its writers could do a re-write for David Wright and Seth Rogen.