We start with improbability. Mike Piazza simply being a major leaguer falls into unassisted-triple-play terrain for likelihood. That he was elected to the Hall of Fame is winning Powerball stuff.
No one drafted as late — 62nd round and 1,390th pick — had ever previously gained Cooperstown induction.
Which makes his trade from the Dodgers to the Marlins to the Mets — in a one-week span of May 1998 — fitting. For there is a butterfly effect to it all: Remove one item from the chain of events and Piazza never gets from there to there to here.