24
2011
The Midnight Massacre Resurrected
An article by Hojo's Mojo
Shannon over at Mets Police posted the Dick Young column from the June 15, 1977 edition of the Daily News (sorry no link) that many still call the precursor to the infamous trade that sent Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds for a package that included Pat Zachry, Steve Henderson, Doug Flynn, and Dan Norman.
Here is parts of it, but you can read the whole article in it’s entirety at Mets Police.
Tom Seaver is after more money. He wants to break his contract with the Mets. “Renegotiate” is the pretty word he used for it in this time of pretty words.
So, Tom Seaver said, over and over, that the Mets were not competitive in the free agent field. He said the front office was not spending money the way it should. He made it appear that he wanted the money to be spent on others, but really he wanted it to be spent on him. He talked ideals, but actually he was talking hard cash.
Like O’Malley, Tom Seaver couldn’t say that out loud. How would it sound for Tom Terrific, All-American boy, to disavow a contract he had signed in good faith?
It comes down to this: Tom Seaver is jealous of those who had the guts to play out their option or used the threat of playing it out as leverage for a big raise—while he was snug behind a three-year contract of his choosing. He talks of being treated like a man. A man lives up to his contract.
That was harsh. What a shill Dick Young was for the Mets, not an ounce of objectivity whatsoever. I don’t know, maybe reporters were more opinionated and cynical back then and not as politically correct as they are today, but the worst part of this story is that Young himself bolted the Daily News in the middle of a contract a few years later, so he could take a sweeter deal to write for the New York Post. I guess he had no regard for his own manhood.
Seaver himself always said that it was the Dick Young article that stoked his fire and he knew his days were numbered after reading that. “That Young column was the straw that broke the back,” Seaver told the Daily News in 2007. He was right, his days were numbered all right and that number was one. That same night Seaver was traded and although I’m not really a conspiracy theorist by nature, I wonder if that article was written with some firsthand knowledge that a deal had already been agreed to with the Reds? You know, to help put the Mets in a better light? (As if there was any chance of that happening.)
Anyway, pretty wild stuff and in that same Daily News retrospective, Bill Madden asked Seaver how he felt now about that dark day in Mets history?
“It was both the worst day of my career and the best day as I look back on it now,” says Seaver. “The team was being run into the ground by Grant – and really had started to go down after Gil (Hodges) died (in 1972). If I had stayed, once the whole face of the club had begun to change, would I have won 300 games? As it was, I got to play with Rose and (Johnny) Bench in Cincinnati, then I got to see the other league and got to play with Pudge (Carlton Fisk) and even got to experience the Red Sox in 1986 and all that Boston energy. It would have been nice to be a Met my whole career, but I’m eternally grateful to have experienced all I did.”
Where Are They Now?
These are some of the the notables from that day that will forever live in Mets infamy.
Tom Seaver - A winemaker in Calistoga, Calif. (just north of Napa) where he has just bottled his first vintage (2005) of Cabernet Sauvignon, Seaver still does occasional promotional work for the Mets.
M. Donald Grant - Died Nov. 28, 1998 at age 94 in Hobe Sound, Fla. A year after the trade, Grant was forced out as Mets board chairman and in a press conference at “21″ he told a group of writers he “was tired of being kicked around” while insisting, “I’m a good guy. The press made such a martyr of Seaver that it killed me.”
Dick Young - Died Aug. 31, 1987 at 69. Vilified by Met fans for his role in the Seaver trade, Young was booed lustily on the occasion of his induction into the writers’ wing of the Hall of Fame a month later. Typically defiant, he began his speech by taunting them: “Ladies and gentlemen and members of the Tom Seaver fan club…” In a touch of irony, Young, who had criticized Seaver for wanting to renegotiate his contract, was guilty of the same thing himself when, in 1981, he broke his contract with the Daily News to jump to the Post.
Jack Lang - Remained Mets beat writer until 1985 and retired from The News in 1989. Lang, who was inducted into the writers’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987, died of liver disease on Jan. 25 in Huntington, L.I. He was 85. “He was a dear friend,” said Seaver. “Jack was a guy who always played it straight with you.”
Joe McDonald - Was replaced as Mets GM in 1980 by Frank Cashen when Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon became owners. Later worked as GM of the St. Louis Cardinals and is now a scout for the Red Sox based out of his home in Lakeland, Fla.
About the Author: Rob Johnson
21 Comments + Add Comment
Recent Comments
- DAP: on If Zack Wheeler Is In, Then Who’s Out?: does it even matter? Hefner would...
- Alex68: on It’s Not The Approach That’s The Mets’ Problem, It’s The Execution: Heybatter, well, According the WAR, Miguel Cabrera...
- Matt Balasis: on It’s Not The Approach That’s The Mets’ Problem, It’s The Execution: I think in the end "the approach"...
- Heybatter: on It’s Not The Approach That’s The Mets’ Problem, It’s The Execution: What philosophy does Miguel Cabrera use.......see the...
- Vinny B: on Mets Need More Time To Get Better Understanding Of Ike Davis?: I understand you perfectly, but what you...
Need Tickets To The Mets Game?
Check Out These Great MLB Links!
Photographs From Gordon Donovan
5393 Fans Follow Us On Twitter!
1269 Fans Like Us On Facebook!
2341 Fans Read Our Feed!
1702 Fans Subscribe via Daily Email!
there is a MMO commenter that goes by the name of SRT here that knows that day pretty well i would bet.
I am sure she has the details burned on her brain.
Just saw this.
And you’ve got that right. I still remember reading the ‘rumors’ leading up to this and still remember reading the story in the Star Ledger. My first thought was: ‘I can’t believe those rumors were true’. My second thought was: ‘We got back WHO? in return?’.
Ugh…dark day indeed.
What a bad day that was, I’ll never forget it. I remember the highlights on the news, no ESPN or even cable back then. I was going from channel to channel to absorb it all and get every detail I could before the next mornings paper. It felt like someone close to you died that day and I cant even describe the animosity we all had for Grant. Initially, Young wasn’t getting much blame, mostly because back then people were a one paper person, you either read the Daily News or the New York Times and they never called each other out. As time went by, we all learned more details and realized the role Dick Young played. I still remember the video highlights of Tom Seaver and Nancy crying at the airport.
Thanks for taking that look back to the 1960′s and 1970′s. I had forgotten how many papers there were and how important they were to readers. Most folded after labor strikes in the 1960′s. Besides the New York Daily News, the New York Times, the New York Post, and Newsday, the ones I remember after thinking back are:
New York Journal American
New York Daily Mirror
New York Herald Tribune
New York World Telegram
Long Island Press
Long Island Star Journal
I’m sure there were many newspapers in New Jersey, Westchester, and Connecticut too. By the time of the infamous day, most were gone.
By the way, I remember that Dick Young was often in conflict with Jackie Robinson. I remember one spring when Jackie went to the Dodger’s camp in Vero Beach overweight. He then suffered some nagging injuries. Young tied Robinson’s age and injuries together and implied that Jackie was past his prime. Robinson’s competitive instincts took over and he was furious with Young. They squabbled a lot from then on.
M.DONALD GRANT… Here’s how I portrayed my recollections of him to some friends & family, please excuse the generous use of CAPSLOCK i choose to use in my personal communiques…
M.DONALD GRANT WAS NOTABLE AS NYM,PRES.& CHAIRMAN OF FAKHNSTOCK & CO., RENOWNED ON WALLSTRREET AS THE “TRAINING SCHOOL” FOR TRADERS SINCE THEY WOULD HIRE SOME OF THE BRIGHTEST GRADUATES & TRAIN THEM AS TRADERS, ONLY TO LOSE THEM ONCE THEIR TRAINING WAS COMPLETE AS FAHNSTOCK WAS RENOWNED FOR THEIR LOW SALARIES & FOR NOT REINVESTING IN THE COMPANY. IN THE SIXTIES IBM REVOLUTIONIZED “GLASSHOUSE CENTRALIZED” DATA PROCESSING BY INTODUCING THE 360 FAMILY OF MAINFRAMES TO REPLACE THEIR STALWART 1400 SERIES THAT WAS RELATIVELY THE STANDARD FOR ANY BROKERAGE HOUSE ON TYHE STREET. IMMEDIATELY MERRILL LYNCH, PAINE WEBBER & THE OTHER BIG HOUSES CONVERTED THEIR SYSTEMS REPLACING THEIR OLD MORE MECHANICAL, SLOWER MAINFRAMES. FAHNSTOCK MADE THE CONVERSION FROM 1400 TECHNOLOGY IN THE EARLY 90s A FULL 30 YEARS AFTER THEIR COMPETITORS.
THE FUNNIEST THING FROM THAT TRANSACTION WAS IT OCCURRED CLOSELY AFTER IBM & IT’S CUSTOMERS CONVERTED FROM LEASE/RENT FINANCIAL ACQUISITIONING OF DP HEAVY EQUIPMENT TO STRAIGHT OUT PURCHASES. IT WASN’T UNTIL THE LATE 80s THAT FAHMSTOCK DEEMED TO CONVERT THEIR LEASED 1400s TO PURCHASE MAKING THE 1990-1992 QUESTION AS TO THE TRADEIN VALUE(t/i VALUE WAS ZERO TO WHICH I SUGGESTED GRANT USE THEM AS BALLAST IN HIS SAILBOAT) THEY HAD TOWARDS THEIR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS, IBM’S MIDSIZED 4300 SERIES(FAHNSTOCK DIDN’T HAVE EITHER THE CUSTOMER BASE OR THE TRANSACTION VOLUME TO SUPPORT A LARGER SYSTEM 390 AS THEIR ONCE PEERS WERE PURCHASING. THEREFORE M. DONALD GRANT SHOULD BE IMMORTALIZED FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY DEVALUING TWO SEPARATE BUSINESS ENTITIES THE NYM & FAHNSTOCK. TODAY, HE’D HAVE A VIABLE, VALUABLE CHAIR ALONGSIDE IMMELT ON THE PRESIDENT’S BUISINESS COMMITTEE
Interesting ’62. Perhaps their should be a bufoon of the 1/4 century award. Kind of like a JD Powers kind of thing only in reverse. An M.Donald Grant awarded to Enron, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, TWA, Pan AM ect.
Another idea might be for Tom Seaver to fund a course at the Wharton School of Business to examine what not to do when you are the Chairman of the Board using a generous sample of Grant’s folly’s as examples.
Perhaps Jerry Sienfeld could even write a screen play featuring some of Grant’s biggest hits to play on Broadway.
This would ensure that Grant’s legacy would remain alive for others to see for years to come.
I remember those news clips as well.
M Donald Grant may have thought he was portrayed as the bad guy but he was one antiquated, cheap SOB at that point. The game had changed, FA was here and like it or not, he was going to have to play. He choose not to and it cost him – and the team.
Dick Young was the guy that everyone loved to hate. Funny thing though, most never missed reading his column – so he was pretty good at keeping his finger on the pulse of his readers.
The story gets a little trickier when it turns out that a relative of Young’s was hired by the Mets during this time period.
I remember meeting Dick Young when he appeared on a radio show I was producing back in the 80′s. I was prepared to dislike him. Problem was, he was incredibly charming in person. He asked how my dad was (he was a relatively well known reporter) and unfortunately won me over.
He was a lightening rod in the newspaper sports business and was missed (but still hated) when he passed away.
Young was known as M Donald Ducks press mouthpiece. That day we new Tom was done and what a dark day it was. Joe Mac is great guy, it was a trade he didn’t want to make but forced into it by M.D D. Seaver was the heart and soul of the team, the one shining light among the cheapness of Grant. Ironically Kingman was dealt as well, a trade I would celebrate if not for the depression of the Seaver deal. Never met Young, did meet Lang several times. A gentleman, may he rest in peace.
Seaver demanded the trade after Young’s piece. Seaver DID renegotiate his contract. Grant agreed to it. This article made Seaver so mad he changed his mind and demanded the trade. Specifically he was livid about this part:
“Nolan Ryan is getting more now than Seaver, and that galls Tom because Nancy Seaver and Ruth Ryan are very friendly and Tom Seaver long has treated Nolan Ryan like a little brother.”
I understand its easy to blame management. M. Donald Grant did what he thought was best for the team. He wanted Seaver to stay, but he also didn’t want to bankrupt the club. Maybe he could have done something to make Seaver stay, but frankly Seaver was being unreasonable. Sure, it didn’t work out for the Mets (what does), but there is no need to disparage M. Donald Grant. He loved the Mets. They were his life and it hurt him deeply when the fans turned on him. He truly believed that he was doing the only thing he could. It’s very easy to sit back and play 40 year later quarterback, but this wasn’t all his fault and whoever says it was is willfully ignoring the facts.
History has a funny way of being written. One side of the story gains traction and suddenly everyone believes it. Management doesn’t have any cheerleaders, and they will always lose in these battles. Say what you want about M. Donald Grant, but Seaver wasn’t the nice man in the world either. But he could pitch, so he’s blameless.
Without M. Donald Grant, and a variety of other incredibly dedicated people, there would probably be no New York Mets. Sure, I’m sure a lot of angry commentators will say that he had nothing to do with their founding (just wrong, trust me), or that he was a cheep bastard, or that he was a classist/racist (insert expletive). Say what you want, you are wrong. You didn’t know the man. I did. He was my grandfather.
I remember that day well. As a kid back then, it was the worst day of my young life. It was actually painful for years. And I was there in 83 when he came back. The most exciting game I ever went to was that opening day and when Seaver walked from the bullpen to the dugout before the game (which he never had done before) and got a standing O, it sent chills down my spine.
[...] http://metsmerizedonline.com/2011/01/the-midnight-massacre-resurrected.html [...]
Midnight, June 15th used to be the “trading deadline”. Only waiver transactions could be made after that date. My recollection of the days leading up to June 15, 1977 were of angry words between management and Tom Seaver. What I recall is that Seaver was requesting not so much a renegotiation but an extension of his contract. I also recall, that as June 15th approached, the acrimony between Seaver and management was subsiding due to efforts at reconciliation by Met’s owner, Lorinda De Roulet (daughter of original owner Joan Payson). However, Dick Young decided to pour a fresh batch of gasoline on the smoldering fire. At the time Mr. Young, who had a young relative employed by the Met’s front office (a nephew?) never failed to take a dig at Tom Seaver and Howard Cosell, irrespective of the subject matter of his column.
My memory is consistent with the post above, by Mike D, that Seaver demanded a trade after Young’s column was published on the morning of June 15, 1977, stating that Nancy Seaver was jealous of the Ryans. It was reported that Seaver was incensed that his wife was dragged into the argument and from his perception there was no distinction between being attacked by M. Donald Grant or Dick Young, both represented Met management. This was the context of Seaver’s demand for a trade and contrary to Mike D’s point of view (understandable due to his relation but not necessarily the most credible) it was the actions of Grant and Young that drove a reluctant Seaver out of town. I never liked Dick Young before that day and despised him thereafter. My lasting sense of Mr. Grant is having a ballpark banner confiscated that stated “Welcome to Grant’s Tomb”. The fallout from the trade was significant. At Shea, Met fans cheered Seaver’s return at the expense of poor Jerry Koosman, who started against Seaver that day. The best the Met’s management could come up with in the Summer of 77 was an ad campaign that said “Bring Your Kids to see Our Kids”. It took several years for the Mets fortunes to recover.
For younger fans, who may think the Mets started with Gooden, or Piazza, or Wright, before all those folks there was Seaver, and he was more than all of them combined. He simply was The Franchise. I cried that day. I was 11, born just a few years after my Mets. So I didn’t remember ’69 — I was only 3 1/2 — but I did remember 1973. Ya gotta believe, right?
I didn’t understand the business side and had only a vague notion of who M. Donald Grant was. General manager? Who’s that? But Seaver was OURS, not an ex-Cardinal or Expo, or ex-Dodger or Brave. He was ours. Ours. Mine. He was the Mets. We had Seaver, the greatest pitcher of his era. Sure, we had Koosman, Matlack and Kranepool, fine. But tearing my heart out to get Doug Flynn and Pat Zachry? Steve Henderson?
Then Sports Illustrated arrived, with its “Look who’s in Cincy?” cover. More tears.
Greg, asctually, contractuually, for a mere nanosecond of legalese Seaver was first bound to Ted’s Braves until they discovered Turner broke the rules in signing him, thus was the lottery of teams willing to match Turner’s offer if their name came out of that hat, & in true NYM fashion thus, from out of a hat, through deaf, dumb luck, our true FRANCHISE was delivered into our arms & into Met lore history, the only viable reason for that NYM HOF Museum to truly exist, in my estimation.
While Grant & Young are a naturally vilified Met Satans, too many nerglect to villify Jerry Reinsdorf for stealing the relaimed icon as his unearned spoil of free agency compensation. I’m one fan, who while then recently promoted from Manhattan to Cherry Hill, NJ endured the long drive to Shea to personally witness the Terrific openning day return for his cameo 1983 return campaign at a time when every team was obligated to expose an unprotected portion of their official roster to create a pool of talent from which teams having lost a compensatable F/A could vulture their choice of replcement prospect or veteran, in 1984 the NYM crop of prospects was deeper than ever before & a calculated gamble to protect youthful promise before the iconic 40 yr old idol was decided, trusting that honorable baseball execs would respect the efforts & importance of Seaver’s ’83 return & would choose talented, unprotected youth to rebuild with & that honor would prevent someone from raping the relatively new Flushing ownership & deflowering it’s greatest accomplishment to that date(as there was supposedly an “understanding” in these matters trusted by Cashen that team’s iconic veterans typically were “passedover” by vulturing choosers “Honor be damned” choosing “THE NAME” before the talent Jerry Reinsdorf proceeded to pillage the greatest Met that has ever been.
Lovers in movies often refer to “ALWAYS HAVING PARIS” similarly I’ll ALWAYS have that first inning, first batter strikeout of Met villan Rose, by the triumphant;ly returning Franchise, my goosebumps get goosebumps recalling that moment shared with my daughter, born 10/22/69! born late as a true Met fan so as to not deny me a single second of BaLTIMORE’S DEMISE.
I was 15 years old and what a dark day that was. I still have the Star Ledger article. I completely demonized Dick Young and M Donald Grant for it. Looking back from the perspective of adulthood, they were just men doing their jobs and in their heyday they were pretty good at it, although I don’t believe M. Donald was ever a baseball personnel man. But very quickly they both were becoming or had already become outdated for their times and their business at the time this all went down. It’s very hard to look at that Dick Young article as anything less than a complete intentional hatchet job on Seaver. It was just so full of unfounded, unproven, personel speculation, and insinuations built upon insinuations, and conspiracy theories on his part trying to paint it all as just one big planned plot by Seaver. Dark dark days indeed.
Well over thirty years after the event, Met fans still upset about the trading of Seaver. Well, to those posters here who can’t wait for the day that Alderson lets Jose go, look at history, the franchise will suffer for years. Except this time, it may never bounce back. The Yanks were down when the Mets reached their 80′s heyday, but with the win at any cost attitude of the Yankees now, every fan lost, won’t be coming back any time soon. So enjoy pounding on Jose because he isn’y a triple crown dude, but when he’s gone the franchise will suffer financial losses at the gat and at the sporting goods store, and the Wilpons will be in a real hurry to get rid of Bud Selig’s pick and start over once again. Dark days coming for a long time lowyal Sandy dudes.
I really need to know who is as eager to get rid of Reyes as you say. The only thing close to that is your “hate they new FO before the season has started” crowd demanding that Wright get traded.
I’m pretty sure the overwhelming concensus around here and the majority of Mets fandom is for a Jealthy and Jappy Jose in a Mets uniform for a very long time.
“look at history, the franchise will suffer for years. Except this time, it may never bounce back.”
Yes cause Reyes is on par with Seaver right. pfft..
History has a way at times at presenting a better, more rational look at things that happened in the past and we tend to take a different if not more optomistic look at the event but the Seaver deal will never be able to be re-positioned in history to make Grant and Young look better.
I see how this was something that Seaver believes helped his career but as a Met fan following the death of Hodges this event will always be etched in my mind along with the many bad moments in Mets history, maybe the biggest one.