Mike Piazza Breaks His Silence On That Legendary Gay Rumor Song

Mike Piazza is finally weighing in, and he's taking it all in stride.

Back in 2002, the New York Mets All-Star catcher, now 56, was the subject of major tabloid rumors speculating about his sexuality.

Things got so intense that Piazza famously held a press conference to clear the air, telling reporters at the time, "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."

But while the rumors surrounding Mike Piazza's sexuality eventually faded, they lived on in an unexpected place: a hit indie song.

In 2003, Scottish band Belle and Sebastian immortalized the gossip in their track “Piazza, New York Catcher,” where singer Stuart Murdoch crooned, “Piazza, New York catcher, are you straight or are you gay?” The song even made its way onto the soundtrack of the 2007 cult classic "Juno."

Now, more than two decades later, Piazza is finally reacting, and he’s not bitter about it.

Speaking to New York Magazine in a new interview, Piazza said the song makes him feel “flattered, obviously.”

“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,” he added.

Piazza, who tied the knot with model and "Baywatch" actress Alicia Rickter in 2005, shares two children with his wife and has long moved past the scandal.

The baseball legend, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016, has been name-dropped by more than just indie bands. The Beastie Boys gave him a shout-out in their 2004 song “3 the Hard Way” with the lyric, “I said, oops, gotcha, clutch like Piazza.”

Piazza said of the iconic rap group, “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.”

After a brief stint with the Florida Marlins in 1998, Piazza was traded to the New York Mets, where he became a franchise icon. His leadership and clutch hitting propelled the Mets to the 2000 World Series.

One of his most memorable moments came on September 21, 2001, when he hit a dramatic home run in the first professional baseball game in New York City following the 9/11 attacks, providing a moment of solace and unity for the city.

These days, Piazza has found a whole new generation of fans, thanks to his appearance as a “legend” in the popular video game "MLB: The Show."

“One time, I was giving a clinic and a kid goes, ‘Are you Mike Piazza?’... He goes, ‘Man, you got a lot of power,’” Piazza recalled. “I said, ‘Oh, thanks, dude.’ 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.”

As for Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch he told Rolling Stone in 2016 that he became a Piazza fan after catching a Mets game in the late ‘90s.

“I was almost instantly drawn to Piazza,” he shared. “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.”

Murdoch explained that including the gay rumor in the song was meant as a commentary on society, not to shade Piazza himself.

“It almost kind of went into the song as a way of holding a mirror up to gossipy society," he said. "The way people talked about that stuff, I didn’t give a sh-t... It never occurred to me that I might become part of the problem.”

Regardless, Mike’s taking it like a true legend, no shade, no hard feelings, just another reminder that his name (and power swing) will always live on.