Blogging Mets

To take our minds off of this horrible, horrible World Series, I thought I’d take a moment to write about the game we love, and how it can be even better. I am something of a baseball purist — I miss the old days when starters completed their games and threw inside. I hate the designated hitter. I’m not a big fan of the new-fangled sabermetrics “Moneyball” statistics. On the other hand, I am open to change. I think the wild card has been the greatest thing for baseball since expansion. I love interleague play. But there are some things about baseball that I think need changing that will make it an even better game. Here goes:

Interleague Play
I know, I just said I love interleague play. And I still do. But while it is a stretch to say it is broken, interleague play does need fixing. Maybe tweaking is a better word.

When the Mets play the Yankees, they are six of the most exciting games of the season. The same goes for the Dodgers and Angels, and the Cubs and White Sox. But to experience those games, we also have to suffer through the scintillating Mets-Royals matchup, not to mention Dodgers-Rangers and Rockies-White Sox. There has to be a way to do away with those meaningless matchups while keeping the good ones. And I’ve got it an idea.

Interleague play should take place each weekend in June, making June “Interleague Month.” The first and last weekends would be the regional matchups — Mets-Yanks, etc. The middle two weekends would be matchups that make sense, such as teams that have met in the World Series — Mets-Red Sox, Mets-Orioles, Yankees-Everyone, etc. Each series would be an event. Old-timers who played in the series can come back, and maybe take the field again in old fashioned old-timers game. Highlights of the series would play on the Jumbotron between innings. Really do it up.

Those matchups can also be about specific players. For example, in the 2008 season, the Mets could have played the Twins in Minnesota, so Johan Santana could pitch against his former team. In 2005, the Orioles would have visited the Cubs, so Sammy Sosa would play in Wrigley Field again. And this can even extend to managers. In 2008 the Yankees would have hosted the Dodgers, so Joe Torre could be in Yankee Stadium decked out in Dodger blue. Doesn’t this sound much better than Mets-Tigers?

This plan would also limit each team to four interleague series instead of five or six. This way, teams can play additional series with rivals in their own league. Admit it, wouldn’t you rather see the formerly hated Cubs, Cards or Dodgers visiting Citi Field than the Blue Jays?

Saves
The multitude of save rules have long been a joke. Here’s one example — if a reliever comes in with the tying run on deck and gets the final out, he gets a save.  So theoretically, the score can be 6-1, and if a reliever comes in with the bases loaded, and gets the final out, he gets a save (because the on-deck batter could have made it 6-6). A save in a 6-1 game — how ridiculous is that?

But the rule I would like to change is that the save goes to the pitcher who throws the final pitch. Just consider this highly improbable scenario — the Mets are leading 1-0 in the top of the 8th, when Johan Santana loads the bases with no outs. He is removed from the game, replaced with Bobby Parnell. Parnell proceeds to strike out the next three batters, preserving the lead. The Mets score 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th to take a 4-1 lead. Francisco Rodriguez comes on in the 9th for the save opportunity (since it is a 3 runs or fewer lead). He proceeds to walk the first five batters he faces, so now it’s 4-3, bases loaded. The next three batters hit drives to the outfield that Carlos Beltran, Jeff Francoeur and Matt Holliday (I can dream, can’t I) make catches on that make Endy Chavez and Ron Swoboda go “wow, now those were great catches!” Incidentally, the runner at third fell down tagging on the first two catches and had to retreat back to third. Mets win 4-3.

K-Rod gets the save, and Parnell gets the hold (don’t get me started on that ridiculous stat). K-Rod pitched horribly, but he earns a save because he was the last man standing. But wasn’t the game really saved in the 8th, when Parnell struck out the side with the game at 1-0? Why can’t he be awarded the well-deserved save? I say the rule should be changed to award the save to the pitcher who truly “saved” the game.

One more thought. I remember there being a rule that said a save can be awarded at the discretion of the official scorer — that if a pitcher didn’t pitch well enough, he would not get the save. Presumably in my scenario, Rodriguez should not be awarded the save. But I’ve never seen this rule, if there even is a rule, utilized.

Errors
Speaking of official scorers, when did they stop giving players errors?  To get an error nowadays, a fielder really has to screw up. That’s great for the fielder and the hitter, but it’s a killer for the pitcher’s ERA.

Remember Angel Pagan’s inside-the-park-homer against the Phillies at Citi Field late in the season? If you don’t, this is what happened: Pagan hit a drive to center, the ball coming to a stop in a gap between the wall and the field. Instead of simply bending down and picking up the ball, Shane Victorino threw his hands up in the air, because that same play at Citizens Bank Park is a grounds-rule double. But not at old Citi Field. While Victorino looked around for a ruling, Pagan zipped around the bases. It was scored a homer, but I think it should have beena double and an error. Because that’s just what Victorino did — he made a mistake in not picking up the ball, an error, if you will. Pagan did not deserve a home run, yet he got one.

And how about when an easy pop fly falls between two fielders because of a lack of communication? The hitter should have been out, but invariably it is ruled a hit because the official scorer can’t figure out to whom to award the error. If it had hit one of their gloves, it would have been an error, but because they both watched it drop betwen them, because one or both of them made a mistake, it’s an undeserved hit. It makes no sense. Either give an error to the one who should have fielded it, or institute a team error stat.

Instant Replay
The call for instant replay has never been louder, following all of those inexplicably bad calls during this post-season. Even though commissioner Bud Selig says he’s against expanding replay now, at some point it will happen. It’s just a matter of how far they go.

While I support instant replay for pretty much everything short of balls and strikes, there are inherent problems with whatever system is instituted. For example, let’s say there was instant replay on that horrendous call on Joe Mauer’s fly ball to Melky Cabrera (left). The apparently seeing-impaired umpire called it foul. If there was replay and it was reversed, what do you do with Mauer? Do you award him first base, or second? Who knows where he would have ended up if the correct call was made initially.

And let’s say there was a runner on second who might have scored on the play? Do you give the Twins a run, or do the umpires stop him at third?

And how would the calls be made? I think the best system would be to have a fifth umpire up in the press box watching the replays, and making the final calls from there. This would speed up the game by not having to have the crew chief run off the field to watch the replay. The umpires union is sure to resist instant replay, which doesn’t make sense because it could only help the umpires get the calls right, and at the same time, the days of second guessing umpires would be over. Plus, under my system, MLB would have to hire 15 new umpires to staff the games with a fifth ump.

So there you have it — four ideas to make baseball even better. A fifth would be to eliminate the Yankees, but I doubt MLB would go for that. I’m sure there are a whole lot more ideas out there. Feel free to write in with your’s.

The Mets season ended nearly a month ago, and somehow it keeps getting worse. Deep down, we knew it was coming, but now that it’s here, we don’t know what to do. I’m talking, of course, about the Phillies and Yankees meeting in the World Series. Our two most hated rivals, playing for the championship. It couldn’t be any worse, unless somehow the Braves make an appearance in this nightmare of a Fall Classic. So what do we do? The way I see it, we have three options, none of them particularly appealing. But we’ve got to choose one. So here goes:

Just ignore it, and hope it goes away
That’s right, bury your head in the sand, pretend the World Series isn’t happening. Watch “Dancing With the Stars” or whatever crap Jay Leno is doing. If you live in New York, this won’t be an option. You won’t be able to walk down the street without seeing someone in a Yankees hat. You won’t be able to read a newspaper without seeing a dozen stories on the World Series. And forget local TV news — it’ll be all Yankees all the time. Not to mention all of your friends who are Yankees fans, who won’t shut up about their stupid team being in the stupid World Series.

And then there is the issue of being a baseball fan. Can you call yourself a baseball fan if you ignore the pinnacle of the season just because your team isn’t in it, and you hate the teams that are? We may be Mets fans first, but we are baseball fans second, and ignoring the World Series is something we shouldn’t do.

Root for the Yankees
During the regular season, the Yankees and the Phillies played each other in interleague play. During the Mets broadcast on that day, Keith Hernandez asked lifelong Mets fan Gary Cohen for which team Mets fans should root. Cohen thought about it, and said it was still early in the season, it wasn’t really going to have an effect on the Mets, so he really didn’t care who won. Well, it’s time to make a choice. So how about (gag) rooting for the Yankees?

The Yankees really aren’t a bad bunch of guys. C.C. Sabbathia is a good pitcher who seems like a nice guy. At least he does in that Subway commercial with Johan Santana. A.J. Burnett and Nick Swisher like to hit guys with shaving cream pies, so they’re fun. Jeter, Rivera and Teixeira seem like class acts. And A-Rod…

We  just can’t do it. Rooting for the Yankees goes against everything we’ve ever felt as Mets fans. Even though they are only rivals six games per year, they are like our big brothers with whom we are always in competition. And when was the last time you rooted for your big brother to succeed? No, rooting for the Yankees is not an option, either.

Root for the Phillies
Which brings us to the third undesirable option (I never said this was easy). The Phillies are our rivals, but they’ve only been our rivals for the past three years, since both teams were never good at the same time up until now. Compare that to the 40-plus years we’ve been hating the Yankees.  And as much as we hate the Phillies for beating us out the past three seasons, keep in mind the Mets really beat themselves the first two years by choking away big leads, and this year they just stunk.

The Phillies won the World Series last year, so what’s the big deal if they win another one? Compare that to the joy we get watching the Yankees fail to win World Series after World Series while spending $200 million a year on payroll. Do you really want to deny yourself another year of that pleasure?

The bottom line
In a choice of the lesser of three evils, I say just suck it up and root for the Phillies. Sure, it’ll be lousy to see them celebrating another World Series win, but it’s better than watching the Yankees parade down the Canyon of Heroes hoisting another World Seris trophy. And besides, Pedro Martinez is on the Phillies. We still like him.

“You lose a lot of time, hating people”
– Marian Anderson

I don’t know who Marian Anderson is, but she probably wasn’t (or isn’t?) a sports fan. Because aside from rooting for your favorite team or favorite player, the best part about sports is hating your teams’ rivals and hating their best players. Sometimes it isn’t even a player – sometimes it’s the coach or manager. We all have our most hated. But what happens when he takes the helm of your favorite team? If you root for him to lose, that means your favorite team loses, too. My advice to you – just wait it out. And I talk from experience. Because a couple of years ago, my three favorite sports teams were all managed or coached by men I had despised for years. They are all gone now, and I can root freely again.

Let’s start with the Mets and Willie Randolph. Now, I never really hated Randolph. It’s just the he is a Yankee, and all self respecting Mets fans hate the Yankees and everything associated with them. The hiring of Randolph brought back memories of when the New York Rangers hired Bryan Trottier of the hated New York Islanders to be their head coach. And we all know how that turned out (if you don’t, he was fired halfway through his first season).

So Randolph’s Yankees affiliation bothered me. And I was also bothered by his annual off-season “oh, woe is me, no one will give me a managerial job” whining before the Mets hired him. Randolph always seemed to be the second choice for every manager’s job. Perhaps it was because he had never managed at any level in baseball. He apparently refused to go down to the minors and earn his managerial chops by riding buses to Scranton and Columbus, instead sitting at the right hand of Joe Torre in the major league Yankee dugout for years. He was actually all but offered the Reds job some years back, but he balked at the paltry money, saying with his virtually guaranteed Yankees playoff share, he would make more as a coach than as a manager.

Does this sound like someone who wants to put the work into becoming a manager? No, it sounds like the actions of an arrogant man, someone too good to go down to the minors, someone too good to take a pay cut. Randolph’s arrogance showed through when he got to the Mets, with constant comments like “he’ll hit for me,” or “they’re playing well for me.” Me me me. Before he landed the Mets job, the knock on Randolph was that he “didn’t interview well.” That’s code for something. My guess it’s a code for his arrogance.

So for three and a half seasons, I was torn. Of course, I rooted for the Mets to win, but I was very happy to see Randolph go in June 2008 – three and a half years too late, as far as I was concerned.

This brings us to Bill Parcells – one of the worst human beings in sports. I’ve hated this man for 20 years. Talk about arrogant. He’s the poster child for arrogance. The disdain with which he treats the media was disgusting (as a former member of the media this particularly irked me). And then there was the lack of loyalty, which is a big thing with me. He left the Giants, Patriots and Jets high and dry. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Before the 2002 season, Parcells was having secret meetings to become head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He agreed. But first, the Bucs had to fire their existing head coach, the respected Tony Dungy. When that was done, Parcells decided, “you know what, I’m not going to take the job after all.” Tampa was in a lurch. It wouldn’t have fired Dungy if Parcells wasn’t coming aboard. With all of the good coaching prospects having already found other jobs, the Bucs were forced to make a deal with Oakland, sending two first round picks, two second round picks, and $8 million to the Raiders for Jon Gruden. The Bucs ended up winning a Super Bowl that first year under Gruden so it turned out all right. But Parcell’s sudden about-face could have wrecked the franchise for years. And I’m sure he didn’t even blink an eye while doing it.

So imagine my dismay when he signed on to coach the Cowboys (don’t ask how a kid from Brooklyn became a Cowboys fan). The first decision that needed to be made after Parcells took over was what to do with Emmitt Smith. The NFL’s all-time leading rusher was clearly on the decline. But he was still better than anyone the Cowboys had (remember Troy Hambrick?). Parcells took himself out of the decision, leaving it to Cowboys owner and GM Jerry Jones. But the decision was made the moment Parcells put pen to paper. There can be no bigger star on the team than Parcells. So Smith was gone. You don’t believe me about Parcells having to be the biggest thing on his team? Remember when Jones signed Terrell Owens against Parcells’ wishes? Parcells would only smugly refer to Owens as “the player,” not lowering himself to call the superstar by his name. And remember when he inserted Tony Romo as the starter, and he got off to a roaring start? Parcells famously said,” don’t get out the anointing oil just yet.” Because, of course, that oil is reserved only for St. Parcells himself.

Parcells does deserve credit for turning a terrible, wayward team into a playoff squad. Hell, there’s no denying that he is an excellent coach and a great judge of talent. Unlike Randolph, he had a history of winning. But still, I was ecstatic when Parcells finished his four year contract after the 2006 season, and decided not to sign a new one. Good  riddance.

A history of winning is not a guarantee of future success. And that brings us to our final hated coach, Larry Brown. The word “loyalty” is not in Brown’s vocabulary. He’s worse than Parcells on that front, perhaps worse than anyone in sports. “Next Town” Brown, as New York Post basketball scribe Peter Vecsey calls him, is legendary for having one foot out the door even while entering. The New Jersey Nets fired him a week before the playoffs in 1983 when management found out he had a secret deal to coach Kansas University when the Nets season was done. He allegedly was negotiating to become the Cavaliers president in the middle of the Pistons playoff run in 2005. When he left Detroit after those playoffs, he had the nerve to blame the Pistons for his departure. What a horrible man.

In 2005, an equally horrible man for different reasons, Isaiah Thomas, hired Brown to coach the Knicks. He gave him a five year, $50 million deal. $50 million! That’s a lot of money. But hey, he’s a great coach, right? Well, after a baffling pre-season of watching his new team run up and down the court, Brown had the audacity to say, “I don’t know what to do with this team.” You’re being paid $50 million to figure that out, and you say you don’t know? Even the extremely incompetent Knicks’ owner James Dolan probably said “huh?!” to that one. The rookie-hating Brown said he would never put the Knicks three rookies, Channing Frye, David Lee, and Nate Robinson, on the court at the same time. During a dreadful game early in the season, he did just that. And their youthful energy fueled a comeback that gave the Knicks the lead late. So what did the great coach do? He took his rookies out, and replaced them with the likes of Malik Rose and Quentin Richardson. I don’t have to tell you the lead evaporated and the Knicks lost.

Later in the season, Brown pushed the Knicks to trade for Steve Francis and Jalen Rose and their cap killing salaries. Thomas for some reason agreed (of yeah, because he was an idiot). Brown said having the two players on the court together would bring back memories of Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe to the Garden. So what does the great coach do? He never plays them together.

After the 23 win season, it was clear Brown had to go. Thomas fired him, but refused to pay him the rest of the $40 million he was due because Brown, he claimed, engaged in actions that violated his contract, such as calling other teams behind Thomas’ back and proposing trades. Brown denied it. Which liar to believe? A tough decision. But just before David Stern was set to arbitrate, Brown settled for $18 million. Which means he was guilty of all of the things the Knicks accused him of. Because why would you leave $22 million on the table if you were innocent?

I had to endure Brown for one only season, but during that time, I did what I thought was impossible – I rooted for the Knicks to lose. It was the only way to get rid of this person. That anti-rooting would last for another two seasons until Thomas was booted from the sidelines. By the way, Thomas does not enter my pantheon of hated coaches, even though he was worse than any of them. I had no personal animosity against him. He was just bad, like Art Howe.

So there you have it. Coaches and managers are hired to be fired. So don’t worry, you’re hated coach will soon be gone. Unless your team starts winning, in which case you might be stuck with him for a while longer.

I wrote this article just before Steve Phillips got fired as Mets general manager in June 2003, in the hopes of getting it published somewhere. That never happened, and I don’t want to waste it, so here it is. The article is unchanged from the original, so some things might seem dated. Enjoy.

So it turns out he didn’t have the “skills set” after all. When the New York Mets fired general manager Joe McIlvaine midway through the 1997 season and hired Steve Phillips (left), owner Fred Wilpon said Phillips had the “skills set” demanded from a GM in the changing world of baseball. No one knew what he meant then, and six years later and with Phillips now fired, we still don’t. But one thing is for sure – Phillips didn’t have it. Sure, Phillips made some good moves – trading for Mike Piazza, trading for Armando Benitez (for Todd Hundley, made expendable by Piazza), and trading for Al Leiter. And his team made it to the World Series in 2000. But Phillips’ legacy will be one of blunders – major ones that led to his firing, that led the Mets to the basement of the National League East. Here are 10 of his biggest mistakes, in no particular order:

1-A-Rod:
Alex Rodriguez was not shy about letting all of baseball know he wanted to play for the Mets when he became a free agent following the 2000 season. Hell, he was even a guest of the Mets at Shea Stadium for the World Series, instead of rooting on his buddy Derek Jeter in The Bronx. So what does Phillips do? He publicly lambastes Rodriguez for his supposed demands, saying he would turn the clubhouse into a “24 and 1” situation. So he doesn’t even make an offer for the greatest hitter of his generation. Two years later, though, he trades for Roberto Alomar, who by all accounts is more of a “24 and 1” guy than Rodriguez, who by all accounts is a superb teammate in Texas.

2-We’ll take Sheffield – for our spare parts:
Just before spring training in 2001, Gary Sheffield wanted out of Los Angeles in the worst way. He said he’d go to 3 teams – the Braves, the Yankees, and the Mets. The Dodgers reportedly wanted either Mike Piazza or Edgardo Alfonzo. Phillips wisely said no (although 2 years later he let Alfonzo simply walk away, but that’s another story). Then the Dodgers said they’d take Jay Payton and some prospects. Phillips said no to that as well (although a year later he gave Payton away for next to nothing, but that’s another story). Phillips countered with Daryl Hamilton and Dennis Cook. The Dodgers are probably still laughing over that. Why not give Payton? The perennial prospect who is now flourishing in the rarified air of Colorado will never be as good as Sheffield. What was Phillips thinking? A year later, Sheffield was traded to the Mets’ nemesis, the Braves.

3-Bonilla Redux:
The Mets and Dodgers both had problems following the 1998 season. Their names were Mel Rojas and Bobby Bonilla – 2 useless players with big contracts. So Phillips decided to swap dilemmas. The only problem – Rojas had a year left on his contract at $5 million, Bonilla was owed about $13 million over two years. Oh yeah, one more problem – as hated as Rojas was by Mets fans for his propensity for giving up majestic home runs, Bonilla was despised even more for his first disastrous tour of duty in New York. So what happened? Bonilla hit less than .200, and his behavior made even more enemies of Mets fans. When the trade was announced, Bonilla said “it will be different this time.” As a New York Post scribe pointed out “yeah, it was worse.” Incidentally, when the Mets released Bonilla, they didn’t want to write a check for six and a half million bucks. So they struck a deal to pay him off over a long period of time. The finally tally with interest – about $25 million.

4-Short term rental in the Hamptons:
After falling short in the 1999 playoffs, Phillips decided the Mets needed an ace to get to the World Series. They got one from Houston in Mike Hampton (left), giving up promising righty Octavio Dotel and Roger Cedeno (more on him later). But instead of tying up the 22 game winner long term, Phillips decided he didn’t want to meet Hampton’s request of $75 million over 5 years (certainly a lot of money, but not outlandish at the time). Phillips was right — Hampton did indeed lead the team to the World Series, then led his family to the fine school district of Denver for $138 million.  He’s now with the Mets’ nemesis, the Braves. Which led to…

5-Take our money, please:
With no Hampton, Phillips needed to fill a gaping hole in his rotation. The best pitcher available on the free agent market was Kevin Appier, whom Phillips admitted he’d been after for years, for reasons known only to Phillips. Appier is a good pitcher, but not a great one, certainly not an ace. But a desperate Phillips paid him like one, anyway – 4 years, $44 million. That’s a ton of money for a middle of the rotation guy. Which led to…

6-Mo better blues:
Mo Vaughn wanted out of Anaheim, and Anaheim was willing to oblige. All the Angels wanted was the aforementioned Appier – seems they needed a middle of the rotation guy, as well as out from under Vaughn’s mammoth contract. The Mets took on the hobbling first baseman, and now he’s out, searching for the missing cartilage from his knee. Phillips is paying him $17 million this season – second in baseball only to that A-Rod guy.

7-Make me an offer I can’t refuse, I beg of you:
Mo Vaughn would not have been necessary if Phillips did not lowball John Olerud following the 1999 season. Conventional wisdom was that Olerud wanted to sign with his hometown Mariners. So Phillips, who is almost conspiratorial in his fear that his offers are being used to drive up prices elsewhere, offered Olerud $6 million a year for 3 years, when $8 million a year would have been fair and appropriate for the sweet swinging lefty first baseman. Olerud ended up signing with Seattle for $7 million per. Later, Olerud said his wife really wanted to stay in New York, and he wouldn’t have known what to do if the Mets made an overwhelming offer up front. Good job, Stevie.

8-A tale of 2 trades:
In July 1999, the Mets made 2 trades with the A’s. One is unfairly criticized. One is unfairly forgotten. The first trade sent outfield prospect Terrance Long to Oakland for the much maligned Kenny Rogers. Long went on to be a productive player, Rogers went on to walk in the run that sent the Braves to the 1999 World Series. But Rogers went 5-0 for the Mets, and they never would have gotten to the playoffs without him, so Phillips deserves some credit here. But a week later, he sent Jason Isringhausen and Greg McMichael to the bay area for Billy Taylor. Why? The 38 year old Taylor was closing for Oakland, and the Mets already had a closer in Armando Benitez, and a pretty good backup in John Franco. Taylor contributed nothing to the Mets, and was gone after the season. Isringhausen is now one of the top closers in the game. Good move, Phillips.

9-Roger Redux:
Phillips has a penchant for re-acquiring players he traded away – McMichael, Lenny Harris, Bill Pulsipher. Roger Cedeno became his latest castaway to return to the island via free agency before the 2002 season. Phillips signed him, despite one scout saying Cedeno had the worst baseball instincts he’d seen in decades. The Cedeno the Mets traded away in 1999 was a fleet-footed slap hitter with 66 stolen bases, and was a respectable fielder. The Cedeno Phillips got back was a bulked up guy who seemed afraid to steal a base. And his fielding has been embarrassing. And Phillips thought he could play center? Was he watching the same Roger Cedeno as Mets fans?

10-Another Phillips obsession:
Rick Reed was called lots of things during his tenure with the Mets – replacement player, scab, good dependable pitcher. The man dubbed “Greg Maddux lite” was a steady worker, even if he wasn’t allowed to join the players union. Before the 2001 season, Reed got a 3 year, $21 million dollar deal from Phillips. It was a little much, but Reed earned it. Later in the season, Phillips traded Reed to the Twins for another player he coveted for years for some reason, Matt Lawton. Lawton was a bust, and was later part of the Roberto Alomar deal. The trade left another hole in the rotation that was filled with injury prone Pedro Astacio at about the same money.

What the heck, one more:
Bobby Valentine called Ichiro Suzuki one of the top five hitters in the world. He urged Phillips to do all he could to get him. And we all know what Phillips thought of Valentine’s opinion. We’ll never know what Phillips bid, but whatever it was, it was less than the Mariners. Again, a lowball offer from Phillips cost him a great player. And Valentine was right.

So now Steve Phillips is gone. Maybe the next guy will spend Fred Wilpon’s money, as well as judge talent, a little more wisely.  And hopefully, he’ll bring with him a far superior “skills set” than his predecessor.

Elliott Maddox (1978-1980)

The Mets sat out the first couple of years of free agency before taking the plunge with Maddox. A lot was expected of their first big signing, and all he delivered in 3 years was 7 homers and a .255 batting average.

Tim Leary (1981, 1983-1984)

Leary was the number 2 pick overall in the 1979 draft, and was touted as the next Tom Seaver. He lasted all of 2 innings in his first Mets start at a frigid Wrigley Field in 1981 before blowing out his arm. He missed the following year, and pitched just another 22 games over the next 2 seasons for the Mets before they gave up on him. 

Ellis Valentine (1981-1982)

Valentine was on his way to becoming one of the game’s better hitters when he got hit in the face with a ball in 1980, fracturing his cheekbone. He was never the same afterwards. The Mets were hoping he could find his old form, and traded Jeff Reardon to the Expos for him. But Valentine was done, hitting .261 with 13 homers in a season and a half.

George Foster (1982-1986)

When the Mets traded for Foster before the 1982 season and gave him a huge (at the time) 5 year, $10 million contract, they thought they were getting the slugger who hit 52 homers 5 years earlier. Instead, they got a 33-year-old on the downside of his career. Foster topped out at just 28 homers in 1983. He was released midway through the 1986 season after accusing the Mets of racism. 

Gregg Jefferies (1987-1991)

One of the most hyped prospects in Mets history, Jefferies was billed as a hitting machine. He was anything but, batting .276 in 5 years. He was also apparently despised by his teammates. Twenty years later, Keith Hernandez still groans when his name is mentioned during Mets broadcasts.

Bobby Bonilla (1992-1995, 1999)

No need to go into all the stories again. But people forget that when the Mets signed him to a 5 year, $29 million contract, he was the highest paid player in the game. A lot is expected of a player who carries that tag, and Bonilla, who was far from the best player in baseball, couldn’t deliver.

Paul Wilson (1996)

All 3 of the “Generation K” pitchers could have been on the list, but Wilson was by far the most disappointing. He was the first player picked in the 1994 draft, and he was expected to be the ace of the Mets staff for the next decade. Instead, he battled injuries and pitched just a single season for the Mets, going 5-12 with a 5.38 ERA.

Roberto Alomar (2002-2003)

Alomar was coming off a season of 20 homers, 100 RBIs, .336 BA when he was dealt to the Mets for Matt Lawton and prospects. Manager Bobby Valentine asked at the time “how could we get him so cheap?” That question was answered when Alomar got onto the field. He had nothing left. One writer called him “the cardboard cut-out of Roberto Alomar.” He lasted a season and a half in Queens, batting .265 with 13 home runs. 

Kaz Matsui (2004-2006)

The Mets waded into the Japanese waters before, signing such second-tier players as Masato Yoshii and Tsuyoshi Shinjo. But when they handed Matsui a 3 year, $21 million contract (and moved Jose Reyes to second base to make room for him), the Mets and their fans thought they were getting the next Ichiro Suzuki or Hideki Matsui. We got neither.

Pedro Martinez (2005-2008)

It pains me to put Pedro on this list, because he was so much fun to watch and have on the team. But his Mets career can only be categorized as a disappointment. For $52 million, he went 32-23, the final 3 years riddled with injuries in which he made only 48 starts. He never pitched in a post-season game for the Mets. What else can you call that except disappointing?

Dishonorable mention: Jim Fregosi, Juan Samuel, Carlos Baerga, Jay Payton, Mo Vaughn and Victor Zambrano.

Mug Shots Courtesy Ultimate Mets Database, http://ultimatemets.com/mugshots.php

Remember the old six team National League East?  You know, the one before the league realigned to three divisions? Did you ever wonder why the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals were in the East, when the more eastern cities of Cincinnati and Atlanta were represented in the West? It was all the Mets’ fault. It’s a little known footnote in the history of the team, but it was a move that might have changed the course of the franchise, for the good and the bad.

When the league went from 10 to 12 teams in 1969, it was logical to split them up into two divisions along geographic lines. But the Mets had a major problem with the plan. That’s because Los Angeles and San Francisco would naturally be in the West, meaning the Mets would lose some home dates with them. They were the team’s biggest draw – just ten years after they defected from New York, there were still plenty of Dodgers and Giants fans – and haters – in town.

To compensate for the loss, the Mets demanded to be in the same division as the reigning NL power, the Cardinals. The league agreed. But then the Cubs made a demand of their own – they wanted to be in the same division as the Cards, their most hated rivals. So the league acquiesced, and the Reds and Braves were moved out west.

Big deal, you might say. So they had different teams in their division. Well, let’s take a look at Mets history, and see how things might have been different if the East were aligned in the original way.

Let’s start in the very first year of divisional play, that magical season of 1969. Well, if the Mets didn’t open their mouths, the Miracle Mets may never have been. The Braves, oddly enough, were the winners of the West that year, with 93 wins. The Mets, of course, had 100. And they did sweep the NLCS. So perhaps they still would have beat out the Braves for the division. But the Braves were a superb team, led by Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Orlando Cepeda. There is always a possibility the Mets would have lost a few more games if they had to play the Braves more during the regular season. Perhaps not. But just consider for a moment what Mets history would be like without 1969. Not a pretty thought.

Now we jump ahead to 1973, when the Mets staged their last-to-first run that nabbed them the division with a medicore 82-79 record. The winners in the West? – the Reds (funny how this is working out). The Reds were clearly the class of the NL, winning 99 games, yet they somehow lost to the Mets in the NLCS. So you can say with virtual certainty that the Reds would have won the East that year, and the Mets would have been sitting home in October instead of losing to the A’s in the World Series.

The Mets stunk for the rest of the 70s into the mid 80s, so there would have been no difference who was in their division. But the Mets climbed out of the doldrums in 1984, shocking the league with 90 wins. They finished second in the division to – drumroll please – the Cubs. The Braves and Reds won 80 and 70 games respectively that year, so it’s conceivable the Mets would have won the division in 1984 had the Cubs been in the West like they were supposed to.

In 1985, the Mets won 98 games. But the Cardinals – it’s about time that fourth team got involved in this saga — won 101 to take the East. The Braves won just 66 games, the Reds 89. So once again, the Mets might have won the East had the Cards been out west.

No one was beating the Mets in 1986. The following year, the Cards beat out the Mets again, and again the Mets had more wins than the Braves and Reds. The Mets won the division in 1988. In 1989, they lost out to the Cubs again, but had more wins than the Braves and Reds.

So it’s possible the Mets might have had a six year run atop the NL East if they didn’t oppose the initial realignment, perhaps with a few more World Series championships. Imagine what the history of the franchise would be like if they had had such a stretch of dominance. Of course, we might have had to sacrifice 1969 to get it, so maybe it wouldn’t have been worth it.

The Mets were lousy in the early 1990s, and then in 1994 the leagues realigned again, doing it right this time. The Braves moving to the East ended up creating a new rivalry for the Mets to compensate for the loss of the Cubs and Cards to the new Central division. But it is odd how all four teams – Cubs, Cardinals, Braves, and Reds – ended up playing prominent roles in the history of the team.

The Mets season has mercifully ended, and now the team can go home and (literally) lick their many, many, many wounds. An MLB record 227 Mets players landed on the disabled list, or did it just seem that way? This had to be one of the most disappointing years in recent Mets history. Even with all of the injuries, with a $145 million payroll, no one expected the team to lose 92 games. So it should be no surprise that the player grades are low (I don’t grade on a curve!). Incidentally, I limited grades to 25 players, so players such as Pat Misch, Cory Sullivan and Elmer Dessens did not receive grades. I’m sure they’ll get over it.

Johan Santana: A
13-9, 3.13 era, 146 k
Key Stat: 25 starts
Santana was having his usual solid year, in the thick of the race for the Cy Young award, when he went down with bone chips in his elbow in mid August. He is expected to be healthy for spring training, but the injury emphasizes the Mets’ need for an ace-like number two starter.

Jeff Francoeur: A
.311, 9 hr, 41 rbi
Key Stat: 11 walks
Francoeur has been a pleasant surprise since coming over to the Mets in mid-season for Ryan Church. He’s been a clutch hitter, and his cannon-like arm is better than advertised. He has no plate discipline, and he’s not what you’d call an on-base machine, but he’s a solid addition to the club. 

Francisco Rodriguez: B+
3-6, 3.71 era, 73 k
Key Stat: 35 saves
A few bad outings, including that horrible display against Washington the last week of the season, pushed his ERA over 3.00, but other than that K-Rod was outstanding in his first year in Flushing. His 35 saves is a far cry from the record 62 he had last year with the Angels, but  that was hardly his fault.

Luis Castillo: B+
.302, 1 hr, 40 rbi
Key Stats: .387 obp
It’s been a rather remarkable year for Castillo. He started off as public enemy number one at Citi Field. He dropped that pop-up at Yankee Stadium that cost the Mets a game. Yet he ended up as the 9th leading hitter in the NL. If he would just stop laying down sacrifice bunts in the 1st inning, he would have gotten an A.

Pedro Feliciano: B+
6-4, 3.03 era, 59 k
Key Stat: 88 games
The Man With the Rubber Arm set a Mets record for appearances by a pitcher. And he always seemed to be warming up on days he didn’t get into the game. Lefties hit just .215 against him. But he really should stick to lefties — it always seemed like he was giving up big hits to righties.

Carlos Beltran: B+
.325, 10 hr, 48 rbi
Key Stat: 81 games
Everybody who saw Beltran in spring training said he was poised for a monster year. He got off to a fast start, but then missed half the season with a knee injury. When he was on the field, Beltran played as well as everyone expected to, hence the relatively high grade for someone who played in just 81 games.

Angel Pagan: B+
.306, 6 hr, 32 rbi
Key Stat: 11 triples
Pagan filled in admirably for Beltran in center, and provided the spark at the top of the line-up lost when Jose Reyes went down. He would have gotten an A if not for his boneheaded adventures on the basepaths. He’s still not a starter, though — he’s a solid fourth outfielder.

Omis Santos: B+
.260, 7 hr, 40 rbi
Key Stat: 96 Games
Santos came out of nowhere to start the bulk of the games for the Mets behind the plate. His game winning two run homer against Jonathan Papelbon at Fenway Park in May is one of the few highlights for the Mets this season. The only question is — do you trust him as the starter in 2010?

Alex Cora: B
.251, 1 hr, 18 rbi
Key Stat: 2
That’s for the number of thumbs Cora hurt this season. He played through the pain with the first injury, and finally shut it down after hurting the other thumb. His overall stats weren’t great, but he gets this grade for his grit and his leadership.

Gary Sheffield: B
.276, 10 hr, 43 rbi
Key Stat: 500
Sheffield’s 500th career homer, his first as a Met, came as a pinch hitter on April 17th, and it was another of the season’s few highlights. Sheffield was the team’s lone power threat before missing most of September with back problems. He was also a solid citizen until August, when his diva act reared its ugly head.

Brian Stokes: B-
2-4, 3.97 era, 45 k
Key Stat: 38 walks
Stokes was a reliable right hander out of the bullpen. His ERA is deceptive, thanks to a handful of very bad outings — including letting up 5 runs to the Red Sox that shot his ERA up from 0.52 to 2.89. His 38 walks tied him with K-Rod for the most among Mets relievers.

Daniel Muphy: B-
.266, 12 hr, 63 rbi
Key Stat: 13 errors
3 of those errors came in left field in just 27 games, tying him for 7th worst in the NL. His 10 errors at first base has him tied for fourth most. But his defense is much better overall at first than in the outfield. At the plate, Murphy didn’t live up to his 2008 promise, but he did lead the team in homers with 12. How sad is that?

Jeremy Reed: B-
.242, 0 hr, 9 rbi
Key Stat: 161 AB
The stats are nothing to write home about, but Reed always seemed to come through when called upon. He actually got into 126 games, but only accumulated 161 at bats. And following every outfield injury, for some reason there was always another player getting the start ahead of Reed.

Fernando Tatis: C+
.282, 8 hr, 48 rbi
Key Stat: .229
Tatis was supposed to be half of the starting tandem in left field with Murphy, but last season’s Comeback Player of the Year was lousy for most of the season. In May, June and July he hit a combined .229. A late season surge raised his stats, but overall his season was a disappointment.

David Wright: C
.307, 10 hr, 72 rbi
Key stat: 140 ks
What a strange year. You could sort of accept the lack of power when Wright was hitting .365, but not at .307. And how do you lose power and still strike out 140 times? Certainly Citi Field’s deep right center played a role, but that can’t be the only explanation. Just a strange, strange year.

Bobby Parnell: C
4-8, 5.30 era, 74 k
Key Stat: 7.93 era
Parnell’s grade is an average of a B for his work as a reliver, D for his starting work. Out of the pen, Parnell was 3-3 with a 3.46 era. But as a starter, he was 1-5 with that 7.93 era. Parnell’s two pitch repertoire works as a reliever, but if he wants to start, the hard-thrower needs to develop another pitch.

John Maine: C-
7-6, 4.43 era, 55 k
Key Stat: 15 starts
Maine missed three and a half months with what the Mets called “right shoulder weakness.” He came back late in the season, and was not particularly impressive in four starts. His place in the 2010 rotation is not secure by any means.

Mike Pelfrey: C-
10-12, 5.03 era, 107 k
Key Stat: 4th
As in the 4th highest ERA of all pitchers in National League with a minimum of 162 innings pitched. Pelfrey took a huge step backwards from his positive showing in 2008. He also let up 18 home runs. That is not a good sign from a sinkerball pitcher. Gets credit for making all of his starts, unlike the rest of the rotation.

Brian Schneider: D
.218, 3 hr, 24 rbi
Key Stat: 59 games
Schneider was supposed to be the starting catcher for the Mets. Instead, he got injured and lost his job to Santos. He didn’t do much to win it back, hitting just .218. On the positive side, he served as a mentor to Josh Thole as the youngster was taking away his playing time, showing he is a decent, stand-up guy.

Tim Redding: D
3-6, 5.10 era, 76 k
Key Stat: .337
Redding started the season on the disabled list. He should have stayed there. He was equally bad in whatever role he was placed — a 4.97 era in 17 starts, a 5.63 era out of the pen. That .337 is what opponents batted off of him as a reliever. He either gains points or loses points for the goatee — I can’t decide.

Sean Green: D-
1-4, 4.52 era, 54 k
Key Stat: 79 games
Green had some good stretches, but overall it always seemed like he was in the middle of every opponents’ rally, giving up big hits that cost the Mets game after game. As far as the 79 games, it was simply shocking that Jerry Manuel kept going back to him.

Oliver Perez: F-
3-4, 6.82 era, 62 k
Key Stat: 12,000,000
Can you even give someone an F-? How can you be worse than absolute failure? Well, Perez was. For $12 million, the Mets got 14 starts out of Perez. He threw 66 innings, and walked 58 batters. If that’s not worse than failure, I don’t know what is. And, we have two more years of him. 

Jose Reyes: Incomplete
.279, 2 hr, 15 rbi
Key stat: 36 games
Reyes missed the last four and a half months of the season, so who even remembers how he played? The Mets need him back at full strength next season if they hope to return to contention. But for a player who relies on his legs, if those calf and hamstring problems linger, it could be disasterous.

Carlos Delgado: Incomplete
.298, 4 hr, 23 rbi
Key Stat: 26 games
The last time we saw Delgado on the field was May 10th. His absence left a huge hole in the Mets lineup, and was made worse by the fact that no one stepped up to fill the power outage. Degado has probably played his last game as a Met, but there is some talk that he might come back on a one-year deal.

J.J. Putz: Incomplete
1-4, 5.22 era, 19 k
Key Stat: 19 walks
Putz was actually performing reasonably well as the 8th inning bridge to K-Rod until he started feeling discomfort in his elbow. He pitched through the pain, and those final 3 games pushed his ERA up by two full runs. Just like the rest of the staff, he walked way too many batters, most of those coming before the injury.

Jerry Manuel: C
70-92, .432
Key Stat: 92
Manuel can hardly be blamed for the rash of the injuries that beset his team. The lack of adequate back-ups was not his fault, either. But he is responsible for the puzzling moves – his mid-season inconsistent use of Daniel Murphy, his incomprehensible apparent hatred of ex-Met Ryan Church and other season-long odd strategies.

Omar Minaya: D
70-92, .432
Key Stat: 145,000,000
Minaya can hardly be blamed for the rash of injuries that beset his team. But the lack of adequate back-ups was indeed his fault. The team was poorly constructed – counting on Santana and 4 question marks, an outfield of Beltran, Church, Tatis/Murphy. There was no margin for error, and there turned out to be lots of errors.

Mug Shots Courtesy Ultimate Mets Database, http://ultimatemets.com/mugshots.php

When the Mets inexplicably named Ricky Henderson a coach during the 2007 season, the team called Willie Mays, to see if he’d mind if Ricky wore his old number 24. Willie said fine, go ahead. My first thought was mild surprise that the Mets never retired Mays’s 24. Mild, because as a lifelong Mets fan, I know how stingy they are in retiring numbers. The only player number the team has retired is Tom Seaver’s 41 (that’s right, no Jerry Koosman (36), Tug McGraw (45), Keith Hernandez (17), or Gary Carter (8)). They’ve even retired a stadium (Shea). But this is Willie Mays for crying out loud. Sure, his season and a half with the Mets were less than distinguished. But a legend wore your uniform, and you don’t deem it worthy of retirement?

I wondered if there was a similar precedent, where a great player returned to his original city to end his career. Of course, we have Hank Aaron. He went back to Milwaukee, winding up his playing days with two seasons of un-Aaron like numbers. But still, the Brewers retired his 44. While these two situations are indeed very similar, there is one glaring difference – Aaron played 12 seasons with the Milwaukee Braves before the team moved to Atlanta. Mays played just six seasons with the New York Giants before they moved West. But in those years, he won Rookie of the Year, an MVP award, and a World Series. Doesn’t Mays’ number deserve to hang somewhere in the Big Apple, just as Aaron’s hangs in Milwaukee?

All this talk about retired numbers got me thinking about, well, retired numbers. And luckily the good folks at MLB.com list each team’s retired numbers on their respective websites. I found some things you’d expect, and many, many surprises.

Here’s something obvious – the Yankees have the most retired numbers, 16. That doesn’t include Jackie Robinson, whose 42 is retired by every team. But it does include one number twice (8), for both Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey. And when the Yankees eventually retire Derek Jeter’s 2 and Joe Torre’s 6, the team will have no single digit uniform numbers left to wear!

The Rockies, Marlins, Diamondbacks, Mariners and Blue Jays have no retired player numbers (the Marlins actually retired number 5, in honor of their first team President, Carl Barger). The first four teams make sense, but the Blue Jays? They won back-to-back World Series! Certainly, there are heroes from those teams who deserve to be honored (Joe Carter, anyone?).

Hell, even the Rays have a retired number – Wade Boggs (12), who played just two seasons in Tampa Bay. Oddly, Boston has not retired Boggs’s number, where he played 11 years and collected more than 2000 of his 3010 hits. Perhaps that’s the cost of defecting to the Yankees!

Nolan Ryan (left, in best uniform ever!) is the only player to have his number retired by three teams – the Astros and Rangers both retired his 34, while the Angels have laid his 30 to rest.

Just 7 players and one manager have had their numbers retired by two teams. Casey Stengel (37) is the skipper, by the Mets and the Yankees. Rod Carew (29), Angels and Twins; Reggie Jackson, A’s (9) and Yankees (44); Rollie Fingers (34), A’s and Brewers; Carlton Fisk, Red Sox (27) and White Sox (72); Frank Robinson (20), Reds and Orioles; Greg Maddux (31), Cubs and Braves; and the aforementioned Aaron (44), Braves and Brewers, are the players.

Some teams seem too generous in handing out the honor. The Astros are one such club. For a team without much of a history (no World Series titles and just one appearance in the Fall Classic in 46 seasons), they have 9 retired numbers. Compare that to the Tigers, who have been around for 107 years, and have just 5 numbers hanging at Comerica. The Astros apparently take the course of “let’s honor our crowd favorites,” so good, but not great players such as Jimmy Wynn (24), Jose Cruz (25) and Mike Scott (33) are immortalized in team history.

That same strategy must have led the Expos to retire Rusty Staub’s number 10 (left). He played with the club for just 4 years (1969-71, and 1979). But he was the face of the expansion Expos for the first three years of their existence, and that was apparently important enough to retire his number.

The Indians have a rich history, but apparently nothing noteworthy in the last half century. Bob Lemon (21) is the most recent number retiree to play with the Tribe, and his last season was 1958.

On the flipside are the Cardinals. Their 10 retirees span the century, from the 30s, Dizzy Dean (17); the 40s, Enos Slaughter (9); the 50s, Stan Musial (6); the 60s, Bob Gibson (45); the 70s, Lou Brock (20); the 80s, Bruce Sutter (42); and from the 90s, Ozzie Smith (1).

Speaking of Sutter, it doesn’t look like he will join the ranks of dual retirees anytime soon. He played just 4 years with the Cards, and 5 with the Cubs, but he’s wearing a Cardinal hat on his Hall of Fame plaque. And the Cubs are a team that apparently values loyalty above all else. Except for Maddux, Chicago’s retirees — Ron Santo (10), Ryne Sandberg (14), Ernie Banks (23), and Billy Williams (26) — all spent virtually their entire careers in the Windy City.

How about a guy like Steve Garvey? Certainly his number is retired, right? Yes, but not by the Dodgers, where he played for 14 seasons, won an MVP and was a perennial all star. No, Garvey’s number 6 hangs in San Diego, where he played the final 5 years of his career. But he hit what the Padres website calls “the most famous home run in Padres history” that propelled them to their first World Series appearance in 1984. By the way, the retirement-phobic Tigers thrashed the Padres in that series. No members of that Tigers squad have had their numbers retired.

As for the Dodgers, they have 10 retired numbers, which is tied for second most. This time that includes Jackie Robinson (42), since he had his number retired long before baseball made its historic decision. That’s a lot, but it still doesn’t seem like enough from a franchise with such a storied history. Where’s Fernando Valenzuela, who electrified all of baseball back in 1981, winning Rookie of the Year and Cy Young? And the infield Garvey anchored with Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey for a record 8 years? And Orel Hershiser and his 60 consecutive scoreless innings? And World Series hero Kirk Gibson?

It just goes to show how each team has its own criteria. One great franchise changing moment may be enough for the Padres, but it’s not enough for the Blue Jays or Dodgers. Some teams only seem to retire the numbers of its players who make the Hall of Fame, like the Orioles, Phillies, Pirates and Red Sox (in fact, according to the team website, that’s official Red Sox policy – elected to the Hall of Fame, and 10 years with the club. Yet still no Boggs. Hmm.). While other teams will retire a player’s number if they had a nice career for them, like a Frank White (20) with the Royals or a Jim Fregosi (11) with the Angels.

So which team does it right? On one hand, it’s kind of depressing to be a Mets fan and have your team basically tell you that you’ve only seen one truly great player wear its uniform. But maybe that’s better than a team which retires the numbers of popular, yet sub par players, giving fans the feeling “that’s the best we’ve ever had?” But only retiring the numbers of Hall of Famers feels a little too exclusive. So I’ll ask again – which team does it right? Damned if I know!

Cleon Jones (1963-1975)

2nd all time in hits, 4th in triples, 7th in doubles & RBIs. Batted .340 in 1969.  An underrated Mets career.

Tom Seaver (1967-1977, 1983)

Leads team in every pitching category. Won Rookie of the Year & 3 Cy Young Awards, and even had a save.

Jerry Koosman (1967-1978)

A career of almosts — almost won Rookie of the Year, almost won Cy Young. 3rd in wins & strikeouts.

Darryl Strawberry (1983-1990)

1st in homers, RBIs, runs, walks & strikeouts, 2nd in slugging. Won Rookie of the Year. Team’s best power hitter.

Dwight Gooden (1984-1994)

2nd in wins & strikeouts. Won Rookie of the Year & Cy Young. His 1985 season (24-4, 1.53, 268) best in Mets history.

Howard Johnson (1985-1993)

2nd in runs, 3rd in homers, RBIs, doubles & stolen bases. Nice moustache.

Edgardo Alfonzo (1995-2002)

3rd in hits & runs, 4th in doubles, 5th in batting average, 6th in RBIs. Hit .300 four times.

Mike Piazza (1998-2005)

1st in slugging, 2nd in homers & RBIs, 4th in batting average, 5th in doubles. Just the best Mets hitter ever.

Jose Reyes (2003-present)

Already the team leader in triples & stolen bases, with (hopefully) many more years ahead.

David Wright (2004-present)

3 doubles away from number one. 2nd in batting average, 5th in RBIs. Should be atop all categories when he’s done.

Mug Shots Courtesy Ultimate Mets Database, http://ultimatemets.com/mugshots.php