Florida- Mike Piazza’s bachelorhood is going…going…gone!
The Mets slugger is due to marry former Playmate Alicia Rickter the weekend after next, we’ve learned. Word is that the nuptials will take place in Florida, where Piazza owns a condo in Miami and a house in Boynton Beach.
Last April, Piazza’s reps denied talk that he’d given Rickter an engagement ring whose value was estimated at between $98,000 and $500,000.
But there’s no question the fetching brunette had Piazza’s attention. Time was when he estimated that he’d had as many as 100 sex partners.
“I try to be faithful when I’m in a relationship,” he told Playboy in 2003. “Of course, there are the girls…here and there who you don’t have relationships with, but they’re not just friends, either.”
He’d previously dated “Playmate of the Millennium” Darlene Bernaola – going so far as to have her initials tattooed on his ankle. (After their break-up, he had them reinked to resemble a stallion with a horn.)
Despite Bernaola’s testimony that they had an active sex life, Piazza was dogged by rumors that he was a switch-hitter – provoking him to hold his famous “I’m not gay” press conference after a Mets-Phillies game in 2002.
Soon afterward, he met Rickter, who graced Playboy’s October 1995 centerfold. It wasn’t long before he told an interviewer, “I’m thinking the next chapter is settling down, starting a family.”
Piazza recently bought a $4.1 million Tribeca penthouse that should fit the couple nicely. But they may not have much time for a honeymoon. He’s due to show up for spring training a week after their wedding.