By Cary Osborne

This marks the fifth in a series of stories where we look back in depth on some of the greatest individual seasons in Dodger history.

The Dodgers just couldn’t catch the Giants in the end. So on September 28, 1997, being three games behind San Francisco on the last day of the season, the Dodgers’ finale in Colorado was a relaxed one. In the bottom of the third inning, Dodger manager Bill Russell made a double switch and sent in rookie Henry Blanco to replace Eric Karros at first base.

Karros slapped fives in the dugout, then headed into the clubhouse and started changing his clothes. He put on a cap and a T-shirt and some pants and headed for the seats at Coors Field. He found an empty one in left-center field. Karros was now watching the game as a fan.

Karros spent the entire season with the best seat in the house. He batted cleanup. Mike Piazza batted third. From the on-deck circle, Karros witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime season for a Major League catcher. Now he truly was witnessing it the way others did in 1997.

“In the fifth inning I believe it was, he hit home run №40, to right center I think,” Karros recalled of that September 28 game. “It was kind of funny. Sitting in the stands out here during the game I’ve just been playing, and he hits №40.”

Karros said he didn’t get up and cheer. He doesn’t remember how he reacted.

“I was probably screaming at him,” Karros said with a laugh.

So were a lot of people — opposing pitchers and managers, non-Dodger fans. Piazza’s 1997 is arguably the greatest offensive season for a catcher in baseball history.

He batted .362/.431/.638/1.070 with 40 home runs, 124 RBI, 32 doubles, 201 hits, 104 runs and 355 total bases. He struck out 77 times and walked 69. Just nine different players in baseball history have OPSed 1.000, batted at least .360 and have had 200 hits, 30 doubles, 40 home runs and 120 RBI in a season. Piazza and Colorado’s Larry Walker, who won the National League MVP in ’97 became the first since Stan Musial in 1948.

Piazza OPSed at 1.076 in games that he caught. That would place him first in baseball history among catchers who had at least 3.1 plate appearances per team game. Piazza had 595 plate appearances as a catcher that season. Javy Lopez had 470 plate appearances for Atlanta in 2003 and OPSed at 1.092. Roy Campanella hit 40 home runs as a catcher in 1953. Todd Hundley broke that record in 1996 and ended the season with 41. Piazza came close to trying Hundley, but he matched Campanella. Piazza’s 8.7 WAR that season is the highest ever for a catcher.

Photo: Elsa Hasch/Allsport/Getty Images

Piazza’s .362 batting average was the standard for catchers until Joe Mauer batted .372 in 2009. Hall of Famer Bill Dickey also batted .362 in 1936. So now it’s just the National League record that Piazza owns.

In 1997, Piazza set Los Angeles Dodger records for home runs, slugging percentage and batting average in a single season. He still is the record holder for batting average.

“Well, he’s the greatest hitting catcher of all time. There is not a close second as far as I’m concerned, and that was probably the best season he had and arguably the greatest season any catcher has had,” said ESPN baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian. “To hit with that sort of average, with that kind of power, playing in that ballpark was just ridiculous. When you’re catching that many games it’s just inconceivable how anyone could do it that well. That’s who Mike Piazza was that season. It was phenomenal. It’s so hard to find anyone who could put up those kind of numbers, then to do it as a catcher is just ridiculous. He could play the piano and move it too.”

Piazza hit 22 home runs at Dodger Stadium that season, breaking his own record of 21 set in 1993. Gary Sheffield (23 in 2000) and Adrian Beltre (2004) surpassed the mark. Not only did Piazza hit home runs — he crushed them. Karros marveled over Piazza’s opposite-field power. He recalled talking with Jim Leyland prior to a game when Leyland was managing the Detroit Tigers and Karros was working as an analyst for Fox. Leyland said he had never seen a right-handed hitter with opposite field power like Miguel Cabrera.

“Remember Mike?” Karros asked him.

Piazza hit 14 home runs to right or right-center field in 1997. But the most impressive went to left field. On September 21, Piazza hit a changeup from Colorado Rockie Frank Castillo 478 feet, clearing the Left Field Pavilion at Dodger Stadium and making him the first Dodger to ever hit the ball out of the stadium. It was the third occurrence in Dodger Stadium history (Willie Stargell — Aug. 5, 1969 and May 8, 1973).

Piazza looked powerful walking to the plate with his squared shoulders and forearms like a blacksmith. He generated so much power from that frame. But Karros answered quickly on the major reason for that Piazza power.

“Strong hands,” he said. “His hands were extremely strong, and he stayed inside the ball — which he let travel (inside). He would keep his hands inside tight to his body. That’s where you are at your strongest. The further away you get your hands the weaker you become.”

It’s no revelation that Piazza was a self-made man — a 62nd-round draft pick in 1988 who worked his way onto the Dodgers by learning to be a catcher and bettering himself at the plate. But just to emphasize that point, Karros said Piazza had a New Year’s Eve tradition. While others were partying, Piazza’s way of breaking into the new year was hitting in the batting cage back home in Pennsylvania on a cold December 31.

In 1997, he didn’t stop hitting. Piazza got off to a good, not great, start. On May 19, Piazza went 0 for 4 in Montreal. His batting average was below .300 for the last time that season at .295. He went 3 for 4 in San Diego the next day and from that point to the end of the season (114 games), he batted .382/.446/.684/1.130 with 33 home runs, 28 doubles and 106 RBI.

Poor Colorado. He was 24 for 50 (.480) with six home runs and 21 RBI against the Rockies in 12 games. He batted .526 (20 for 38) against St. Louis and .517 (15 of 29) against Pittsburgh.

It gets forgotten that the Dodgers had four players with at least 30 or more home runs that season. People remember the first occurrence in baseball history — the 1977 Dodger quartet of Dusty Baker, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey and Reggie Smith. But 20 years later, the Dodgers had the fourth in baseball history (Piazza 40, Karros 31, Todd Zeile 31, Raul Mondesi 30). There have been eight occurrences since (most recently Philadelphia, with Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth, Raul Ibanez and Chase Utley).

Piazza hit home runs 30 and 31 at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium on August 27. He also lifted the Dodgers that day. He had a first-inning RBI single, a second-inning three-run home run and a ninth-inning two-run homer. With all the catching, he didn’t tire out. Instead, he batted .406 in September with eight home runs and 24 RBI and reached base 44.7 percent of the time. Then he called it a season on September 28 in Colorado.

He turned everyone into a spectator that season. Was it the greatest ever for a catcher in baseball history? It’s debatable. But Piazza certainly makes a powerful argument.

Statistics gathered from Baseball Reference and STATS LLC.