WILLIE MONTANEZ: The Hot Dog

On December 8, 1977, the Mets were one of four teams involved in one of the most complex deals in the history of baseball. This was it :

• The Mets sent John Milner to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• The Atlanta Braves sent Willie Montanez to the New York Mets.
• The Texas Rangers sent Adrian Devine, Tommy Boggs, and Eddie Miller to the Atlanta Braves.
• The Texas Rangers sent a player to be named later and Tom Grieve to the New York Mets.
• The Texas Rangers sent Bert Blyleven to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates sent Al Oliver and Nelson Norman to the Texas Rangers.
• The New York Mets sent Jon Matlack to the Texas Rangers.
• The Texas Rangers sent Ken Henderson (March 15, 1978) to the New York Mets to complete the trade.

I wish I could tell you who conceived this deal and how it fell into place, but frankly, I have no idea. For the Mets’ part, they replaced John Milner with Willie Montanez and sent Matlack away for Tom Grieve and Ken Henderson.

Montanez was considered a better all-around player and certainly flashier than Milner, but I think that Met fans were disappointed with Willie’s production and expected a major upgrade from Milner. Actually, the one full year Willie spent with the Mets wasn’t bad statistically (.256, 32 2B, 17 HR, 96 RBI), but he seemed to fail a lot in big spots and hit his best in one-sided games. Ironically, the following season, the Mets sent Montanez to Texas, another of the parties in the original deal, in exchange for Ed Lynch and Mike Jorgensen and a couple of years later, the Pirates traded Milner even-up to Montreal for Montanez.

As for the other part of the trade for the Mets, it turned out to be a lot less than either side expected. Matlack had one solid year for the Rangers, but that was about it. Neither Grieve nor Henderson was anything other than a part-time player, though the Mets were expecting more, I’m sure.

The big names in the deal were Blyleven and Oliver, so maybe the deal started out as a one-for-one and other general managers just joined the party. I suppose after giving up Blyleven, the Rangers needed another pitcher and that’s how Matlack got involved, but it looks to me like the Mets were a pawn in this trade, and they were probably fortunate it didn’t turn out any worse than it did for them.

What pitcher won the most games for the Mets without ever winning a game for any other major league team in his entire career?

I posed this question to several Mets’ fans and only one came up with the correct answer without researching it. Can you?

One of the better guesses was Mike Pelfrey who won 50 games with the Mets and has yet to appear with another major league team. But Mike is now a member of the Twins and unless he somehow winds up back with the Mets before winning a game elsewhere, won’t have a chance at the record.

Another pretty good guess was Sid Fernandez, but El Sid managed to get in a few wins for Baltimore after his tenure as a Met was over.

No, the answer is…

Husky righthander Craig Swan who was the ace of the Mets’ staff during the down years of 1978 and 1979.  Although he pitched for the Mets for all or part of 12 seasons, various injuries and ailments had him in and out of the rotation most years. Originally drafted in the third round of the 1972 amateur draft out of Arizona State, he had a few shots with the Mets before staying up for good in 1976. Although Swan never became the star pitcher Mets’ fans were hoping for, there were several notable highlights in his career.

In 1978, he led the National League with a 2.43 ERA while going 9-6 for the last-place Mets. The following year, he pitched 251 innings, winning 14 games for the Mets who again finished last. He also came back from a torn rotator cuff injury in 1982 to post an 11-7 record before injuries sidelined him again. Yet, possibly his most unique achievement is that he still holds the record for most career wins by a Mets pitcher who never won a game for any other major league team with 59. He did have a very brief late-career stint with the Angels, but didn’t win a game with them.

An interesting anecdote about Swan involves his potential trade to the Angels in 1979. The Mets were discussing dealing Swan and Elliott Maddox for veteran first baseman Willie Mays Aikens and a young minor league infielder named Dickie Thon.

After Mrs. Payson’s death, her daughter Lorinda De Roulet became principal owner and Chairman of the Board. Mrs. De Roulet, hardly a baseball expert, reportedly vetoed the deal when she remarked “We can’t do that. Thon is just a baby”. Thon of course wound up in Houston where he became the regular shortstop for several years.

Swan who was always seemingly receiving treatment for one ailment or another had his career shortened by arm trouble. One of the many treatments he underwent in hopes of resurrecting his career was Rolfing or Structural Integration. Swan was so impressed by the technique that he went to school to learn it and today is a highly successful licensed Rolfing practitioner in Connecticut.

In the early sixties, you could make up a pretty good core for your major league rotation with the likes of Bob Friend, Bob Shaw, and Ralph Terry – all workhorses who each had one outstanding season, and some other pretty good ones. Couldn’t they help the Mets?

Bob Shaw

Well, Shaw and Friend did, but only in the short term and when a team goes on to lose 95 games, maybe it would have been better to look at some younger pitchers. Still, it made sense to take a chance on these veterans to help stabilize the pitching staff. After all, the Mets were willing to pay the “big” salaries that came along with these pitchers, even though their best years were behind them. They were each acquired in cash transactions, so no prospects (or non-prospects) were sacrificed to get them.

On June 10th of 1966, the Mets purchased Bob Shaw from the Giants. The previous season, he had gone 16-9 with San Francisco, but was off to a shaky start at 1-4 in ’66. Shaw was 34 years old at the time, but proved he still had one good season left in him. From the time he arrived, he was arguably the Mets’ best starting pitcher, going 11-10 in 25 starts. After a 3-9 start in 1967, Shaw was sold to the Cubs. Shaw always seemed like the type of guy who had to be doing a good job in order to keep his place on any team. I don’t remember exactly why, but I seem to recall that he was pretty set in his ways and not exactly the easiest person to get along with.

Five days later, the Mets purchased veteran Bob Friend who had previously starred with the Pirates, but at the time was with the Yankees. At age 35, having thrown a ton of innings when he was in Pittsburgh, his career was at its tail-end  He managed to post a 5-8 record with the Mets that season, but the Mets were 6-6 in the games Friend started, not bad for a team that would finish 66-95.

Ralph Terry

On August 6, 1966, the Mets purchased former Cy Young Winner Ralph Terry from Kansas City. A 23 game winner for the Yankees in 1962, Terry was never quite the same after that, with unsuccessful stints with Cleveland and Kansas City. The A’s gave him 10 starts in 1966, where he went 1-5.

By the time he came to the Mets, he was little more than a mopup man, although the fans and the organization were probably hoping for a lot more, since Terry was still only 30 years old. Terry made the Mets’ roster again in 1967, but appeared in just 2 games and was released in May. That was the end of his baseball career.

Of course, throughout their history, the Mets (and in general, every other baseball team), tried to mix in some veterans along with younger pitchers. For the Mets, it finally clicked in 1969, when pitchers like Don Cardwell, Ron Taylor, and Cal Koonce were integral parts of the staff along with younger arms like Seaver, Koosman, Gentry, Ryan, and McGraw.

The 1966 edition was nowhere as successful, but the Mets did manage to escape the cellar that year for the first time as a young franchise and certainly part of that could be attributed to the contributions of Shaw and Friend.

Part 1 - The Spring Of 1968
Part 2 – The 1968 Offseason
Part 3 – The Spring Of 1969

Enjoy…

At the June 15th trade deadline, the Mets were in second place, nine games behind the Cubs. Led by  Leo Durocher, the Cubs were practically a collection of all-stars led by Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo. Randy Hundley, Glenn Beckert, Don Kessinger, and ace pitcher Ferguson Jenkins.  Behind Jenkins, the Cubs had a pair of solid starters in Ken Holtzman and Bill Hands. Rounding out the lineup and rotation respectively were ex-Mets Jim Hickman and Dick Selma. Even the most optimistic Mets fans were probably hoping the Mets could make a nice run at the Cubs before settling into second place. Since the Mets were already exceeding  reasonable pre-season expectations, trade talk had died down, although acquiring another bat could make the rest of the season a lot more interesting.

The trade the Mets were about to make seemed like a “nothing-to-lose” type of deal. The Mets sent Kevin Collins, still considered a pretty good prospect, a promising if somewhat wild AAA pitcher named Steve Renko, who was readily expendable with the Mets’ deep well of young pitching talent, and two non-prospect minor leaguers, Jay Carden and Dave Colon to the Expos for veteran first baseman Donn Clendenon.

Through 1968, Donn had spent his entire career as a solid righthanded hitting first baseman with the Pirates. With first base prospect Al Oliver ready to take over, the Pirates left the 33-year old Clendenon unprotected in the expansion draft, and he was selected by  Montreal.  In January, the Expos sent Clendenon to Houston as part of a package for Rusty Staub, but Clendenon had issues with Houston’s manager, Harry Walker, who had previously managed the Pirates, and he refused to report. After the deal was re-tooled, Clendenon remained an Expo, but the team went with Bob Bailey and Ron Fairly at first base and Clendenon’s role was mostly as a pinch-hitter with just an occasional start. As of June 15th, he was batting .240 with 4 home runs and 14 RBIs. Still, he figured to get a lot of playing time with the Mets , mostly facing lefthanded pitching..

Clendenon’s acquisition was one of many turning points in the season that of course, ended up spectacularly with the Mets rocketing past the Cubs and then cruising to a division title, sweeping the Braves in the LCS in a series dominated by Mets’ hitting and then stunning the powerful Orioles by winning four straight after Tom Seaver lost Game 1. Clendenon was named World Series MVP. Throughout the season, there were so many highlights, so many heroes, and when the season was over, so many explanations on how it happened.  Here are two of the most popular :

Explanation  #1 – the Mets had superior pitching depth, got great years from Cleon Jones, Art Shamsky and Tommie Agee and their reserves stepped up when needed. Almost every player had a memorable game-winning hit, game-saving fielding play, unexpected contribution, or to put it in modern vernacular, “a highlight reel”. To be sure, Jones and Agee were the steady foundation players at bat and Harrelson and Grote in the field, but everyone (with the possible exception of highly-touted Amos Otis)  seemed  to contribute. The team also had tremendous leadership from manager Gil Hodges, pitching coach Rube Walker, young and determined ace Tom Seaver, field general catcher Jerry Grote, and veteran clubhouse leaders Ed Charles and Donn Clendenon.  This is a team that performed well beyond what the raw individual statistics would have indicated.

Explanation #2  – Cubs’ manager Leo Durocher overworked his starting pitchers and most of his lineup, playing the same men every day. With the Cubs playing a high percentage of day games in the hot sun, they were worn down by August.

I could list many remarkable moments or even a game-by-game recap of great plays from that very memorable season, but so many books have already been written on the subject.(The best of those is noted below). Rather than look up all the dates and highlights, I’ll just list a few, in no particular order, from memory. It’s been over 40 years, so please excuse me if my recollections are off a little…

• A ninth-inning game winning hit by Ed Kranepool  off Ferguson Jenkins at Shea Stadium to give the Mets a pivotal win over the Cubs.
• Ron Swoboda hitting a pair of 2-run homers in a 4-3 victory over Steve Carlton, a game in which Carlton struck out 19 Mets.
• Al Weis, who rarely hit home runs, hitting his first of the year to beat the Cubs in a game at Wrigley Field.
• Jerry Koosman and Don Cardwell shutting out the Pirates In both games of a doubleheader in Pittsburgh with the Mets’ pitchers driving in the only run in each game.
• A spectacular throw by Rod Gaspar from left field on a hit by Willie McCovey in San Francisco to cut down a runner at the plate. Then, Grote thinking it was the third out, rolled the ball back to the mound where Clendenon raced to pick it up and threw to Bobby Pfeil  to get McCovey at third for the final out of the inning.

The Mets were two-and-a-half games back of Chicago when the Cubs came to Shea Stadium for a two-game set on September 8. The Mets swept to move within one-half game of first place and then won another 6 in a row to put some distance between themselves and the fading Cubs. The Mets finished with a 39-11 record over their last 50 games to win the division by 8 games over Chicago.

The LCS sweep against the Braves and World Series victory against Baltimore have been chronicled so often that even young fans can replay most of the highlights in their minds, so I won’t go into that here. Let’s just say that 1969 was a spectacular year for the Mets – Seaver won 25 games and Cleon Jones battled Pete Rose for the batting title, but there was so much more.

Players like Kranepool and Swoboda who we once envisioned as perennial all-stars but instead became part-time players had their moments of glory. Supposed fading veterans like Ed Charles, Don Cardwell, Ron Taylor, and Donn Clendenon always seemed to rise to the occasion as did career minor leaguers like Bobby Pfeil and Jack DiLauro and fringe major leaguers like Wayne Garrett and Rod Gaspar. Swoboda’s catch in the World Series will long  be remembered and his disappointing career forgotten. Al Weis, as weak a hitter as there was in baseball, stunned with his hitting against the Orioles. Every injury created an opportunity,  every platoon move seemed to work. It couldn’t have been as perfect as it seems in retrospect, or the Mets wouldn’t have lost a game all year, but it was truly a season for the ages and for Mets fans, it was paradise.

Footnote 1: If you enjoyed reading my posts, I would highly recommend the book, “The Miracle Has Landed”, a publication from the Society for American Baseball Research edited by Matthew Silverman and Ken Samelsen. It is a treasure for devoted Mets fans.  Rather than a chronological replay of the 1969 season, it gives an extremely in-depth baseball biography of EVERY member of the 1969 team in alphabetical order, focusing on their contributions to the ’69 team but also examining their careers in depth. You won’t find it in the bargain racks, but if you are going to own only one book about the 1969 Mets, this should be it.

Footnote 2: I cannot deny that part of my motivation for writing this series was to show how an organization built primarily on young pitching could overcome teams loaded with all-stars if the secondary players make contributions as well. As the Mets go into the 2013 season, most of their prospects are pitchers. The hope is that some will emerge as the next Seaver, Koosman, Gentry, Ryan, and McGraw while others can be used as trade chips to fill in the holes in the lineup. The team that wins is not always the team that looks the best on paper and if 2013 can be like 1968, is it possible that 2014 can be like 1969?

Footnote 3: After 1969, Mets’ fans were looking forward to many more championships, but except for a fluke in 1973 (the “Ya Gotta Believe” Mets), it wasn’t to be. Trying to fill the hole at third base turned out to be the downfall of a potential dynasty as Amos Otis and Bob Johnson (yet another Mets’ pitching prospect) were traded for Joe Foy and later Nolan Ryan, Lee Stanton and 2 other players were dealt for Jim Fregosi. The Mets’ system would also develop players like Jon Matlack and John Milner as well as Ken Singleton and Jim Bibby who were traded away. Go back a few years and there’s always that “we should have drafted Reggie Jackson instead of Steve Chilcott” lament. Wow, what a team the Mets might have had in the 1970’s if they had made a couple more good trades, instead of those awful ones or maybe hardly any trades at all (just trying to relate this to the current front office).

With no major acquisitions over the winter, the focus in spring training was primarily on the young players. The one exception was Tommie Agee. Coming off a disastrous first season, Agee was surprisingly handed the centerfield job in spring training, with manager Gil Hodges showing unwavering faith in Agee’s ability to bounce back. This was in spite of the fact that two of the prominent rookies in camp were all-star center fielders in the minor leagues, Amos Otis at AAA Jacksonville and Rod Gaspar at AA Memphis.

On the pitching front, Gary Gentry was penciled in to the rotation and Tug McGraw was ticketed to replace Don Shaw as the team’s primary lefty reliever. The Mets felt that their biggest need which could be solved internally was at third base where veteran Ed Charles would be phased out, if not replaced entirely.

The Mets’ best rookie position player, Amos Otis would be given first shot at the job. In the minors, Otis, a one-time minor league Rule 5 selection from the Red Sox, had played all over the field, and with third base perceived as the Mets’ greatest need, Otis would be given every opportunity to succeed there despite the fact that he was primarily an outfielder in 1968.

There was also talk that the Mets, in need of a legitimate slugger would package Ed Kranepool and several other players possibly including Otis, Grote, and  one of the young pitchers to get  Joe Torre from the Braves, but that never materialized because the Mets were especially reluctant to give up Otis who was considered “untouchable”.  At the time, Torre was still primarily a catcher, although he had played some first base. Had the Mets been able to get him without surrendering Grote, he would have probably played first. In any case, Torre wound up going to the Cardinals for Orlando Cepeda.

When spring training ended, rookies Wayne Garrett and Rod Gaspar were added to the bench as was rookie catcher Duffy Dyer. The Otis experiment at third was considered a failure and Otis would spend most of the year back at AAA playing the outfield while Charles reclaimed the starting job with Garrett in reserve. So, basically, the Mets went into 1969 with virtually the same team that won 73 games in 1968 and without acquiring the cleanup hitter they were seeking. There was always hope that the young players would continue to get better, but really, was this a team that could challenge the defending league champion Cardinals or the Cubs?

The regular season started and as they had done every year before, the Mets lost on Opening Day. This time it was particularly embarrassing, losing at home to the expansion Expos 11-10 with ex-Met Don Shaw the winner in relief. Things didn’t get much better as the Mets started the season going 18-23 looking to hold off the Expos and possibly the Phillies and potentially finish fourth.

Then suddenly, things changed. Playing the Dodgers and Giants had never been a pleasant experience for the Mets, but somehow the Mets were able to win 11 games in a row, 7 against Los Angeles and San Francisco and 4 against the expansion Padres. Their record rose to 29-23 and Mets fans began to think that maybe this would be the year the team could turn it around and finish over .500. The Mets still appeared to be in desperate need of a power hitter and veteran presence in the clubhouse if they wanted to be considered legitimate contenders and trade rumors started circulating again. The best was yet to come.

The 1968 Off-Season

The Mets had just completed their most successful year winning 73 games and finishing in 9th place under new manager Gil Hodges. Even though it wasn’t that much of an improvement over previous years, there were definitely some positive developments in ’68. Second-year man Tom Seaver and rookie Jerry  Koosman won 16 and 19 games respectively to give the Mets two reliable young pitchers to head the rotation.

Nolan Ryan was inconsistent and plagued by blisters, but showed great potential. Cleon Jones was solid in left field raising his average from .246 in 1967 to .297 and driving in 55 runs. Jerry Grote at catcher and Bud Harrelson at shortstop excelled defensively and Grote also hit well enough to solidify himself as the undisputed #1 catcher on the team.  Unheralded Jim McAndrew came up from the minor leagues and showed that he could be a useful 4th or 5th starter. On the farm, although Les Rohr had an injury-plagued and wasted year , the Mets were developing another good crop of young pitchers such as Rich Folkers, Jim Bibby, Barry Raziano, and Steve Renko and both Gary Gentry and Tug McGraw pitched well enough at AAA Jacksonville to contend for major league jobs in 1969. But there had also been many disappointments in 1968.

For the third year in a row, it seemed like the Mets had traded for a centerfielder who was a complete bust. Following in the footsteps of Billy Cowan and Don Bosch, Tommie Agee, playing in 132 games batted .217 with five home runs and 17 RBI, while striking out 103 times. Would Agee get another chance ? Ed Kranepool and Ron Swoboda who had once been hailed as the future hitting stars of the team, disappointed once again. Nobody on the team had more than 15 home runs and that was old man Ed Charles who won the third base job in spring training. Nobody on the team drove in as many as 60 runs.

The good news was the Mets had to finish better than ninth in 1969 because divisional play had begun and the worst the team could do was finish 6th. The first order of business was to prepare the list of eligible players for the expansion draft to stock the new Montreal and San Diego franchises. Although the Mets’ full list was never divulged, I read that Ed Kranepool was eligible, but was withdrawn after the Expos picked Don Shaw because Shaw and Kranepool were 2 of M. Donald Grant’s favorites and the Mets weren’t about to give up both.

The Mets also wound up losing Dick Selma who had been a useful swing man, but never really established himself, as well as several minor leaguers including outfielder Jerry Morales and pitchers Ernie Mc Anally and John Glass. Following the draft, the Mets sold Don Bosch to the Expos. In the Rule 5 draft, the Mets selected infielder Wayne Garrett. Before spring training, the Mets sent one-time stellar catching prospect Greg Goossen to the expansion Seattle Pilots for veteran minor leaguer Jim Gosger. Other than that, the Mets did not make a single deal in the off-season. Most experts thought that the Mets had a good shot at beating out the expansion Expos, although even that was In doubt because in Rusty Staub and Donn Clendenon, Montreal had 2 professional hitters the Mets couldn’t match.

Optimistic Mets fans saw Nolan Ryan joining Seaver and Koosman in the regular rotation possibly along with Gentry or McGraw to give the Mets an outstanding young rotation. Gentry had been making steady progress ever since the Mets signed him out of Arizona State in 1967, but was he ready for the major leagues? McGraw was definitely ready for another shot, but would he stick this time, and would he start or relieve?

Personally,  I thought that the Mets had a chance to possibly beat out both the Expos and Phillies, and maybe even the Pirates, but the Cubs and defending league champion Cardinals looked like they would dominate the division. As we all know, things fell into place very nicely for the 1969 Mets. More in my next post.

Turn Back The Clock 45 Years – It’s the Spring of 1968.

Spring training of 1968 saw the Mets coming off another last place finish but with a few glimmers of hope for the future. There was a new manager in Gil Hodges and a new center fielder in former  A.L. Rookie of The Year Tommie Agee who came to the Mets in a deal for their best hitter, Tommy Davis.

Tom Seaver had a brilliant rookie year in 1967, winning 16 games and establishing himself as the team’s first legitimate #1 pitcher, but there were still a lot of question marks in the rotation. Optimistic Mets fans could point to an impressive crop of pitchers coming up through the farm system and maybe a couple would be ready to contribute in 1968. Other than Seaver, veteran Don Cardwell figured to fill one slot in the rotation. Dick Selma was still around, although he had been something of a disappointment so far. Tug McGraw and Jerry Koosman had been the best starters at AAA Jacksonville and maybe they were ready to contribute on the major league level. Another young pitcher, Dan Frisella would get a shot too. If all else failed, veterans Cal Koonce and the recently re-acquired original Met, Al Jackson might be pressed into service. Any of those guys might also wind up in the bullpen along with carry-overs Ron Taylor and Don Shaw. Veterans like Bob Hendley, Billy Short, and Hal Reniff would also get looks. Touted youngsters like Nolan Ryan, Les Rohr, Jon Matlack, and Gary Gentry were considered legitimate prospects, but didn’t figure to be ready for a couple of years, at least.

Behind the plate, Steve Chilcott and Greg Goossen were touted as future stars, but in the meantime, light-hitting (.195) Jerry Grote and J.C. Martin would have to suffice. Kranepool at first and Swoboda in right were still regarded as possible foundation players, but neither had lived up to their initial promise so far. Jerry Buchek was the incumbent at second base and was expected to be pushed by lefty hitting Ken Boswell who was regarded as a solid bat even though his minor league numbers didn’t reflect that. Defensively, Boswell was considered adequate at best. Shortstop Bud Harrelson had shown he could do the job in the field, but would he hit? Third base was a crap shoot with rookie Kevin Collins and ex-White Sox hopeful Dick Kenworthy likely to compete for the job. Buchek might play third if Boswell won the job at second or there was always veteran Ed Charles, a non-roster invitee whose play in 1967 led the Mets (and likely every other major league team) to believe that he might be at the end of the road.

Joining Swoboda and Agee in the outfield, Cleon Jones, once hailed as the best hitting prospect in the organization would get first crack at replacing Davis in left field. Defensively, Jones would certainly be an improvement, but his .246 average in 1967 while playing all over the outfield wouldn’t cut it.  Art Shamsky, a lefty hitter with power had been acquired from the Reds, for whom he batted a woeful .197 the year before. Rookies like Amos Otis and Clyde Mashore also figured to get a look and Don Bosch was still around too if a defensive replacement was needed.

Could this team even make it out of last place ? Were the Mets really building a winner ?

Next up. A look at how 1968 turned out and the outlook for 1969.

What made them so special was that pitching aside, they were primarily a very ordinary team of journeymen, disappointments, and discarded veterans who came together for one great and totally unexpected season.

I can assume that nearly every Mets fan has at one time or another seen the video of this series and the amazing catches made by Tommie Agee, a talented outfielder and Ron Swoboda, who was regarded as a less than adequate one.

Now, no one plays forever (with the possible exception of Satchel Paige and Julio Franco), but it seemed to me that both Agee and Swoboda should have been effective players for a few more years, and while I’m not one to say that someone should be untradeable, I remember how disheartened I was when both Swoboda and Agee were traded away. Had they brought back legitimate young prospects (several years later, a seemingly fading Jerry Koosman did bring back Jesse Orosco), it might have softened the blow, but I remember how hard I tried to justify the players the Mets received in exchange, knowing all along that they weren’t very good.

Prior to the 1971 season, at the age of 26, Ron Swoboda, at one time the shining hope for a legitimate power hitter in the Mets lineup was traded along with minor league infielder Rich Hacker to the Montreal Expos, for of all people, Don Hahn. Now the fact is that Swoboda never got any better after leaving the Mets, but at the time, despite the fact that he wasn’t living up to the potential everyone thought he had since he first burst on the scene, this looked like an incredibly awful dumping of a still young player who was clearly a fan favorite. His contribution to the 1969 Miracle team keeps his name alive, but that aside, yes, he was clearly a major disappointment. But to trade him for Hahn, a good outfielder with zero power, and little hope of being anything more than a defensive replacement was a real downer. And plus, it was the Mets who had to throw in a player to make the deal. The fact is that the trade did little to help either team, but at the time, it seemed utterly ridiculous from a Met fan’s point of view.

A couple of years later, Agee, for no reason I could figure out, had seemingly lost his center field job to a combination of 40-year old Willie Mays and the aforementioned Don Hahn. The Mets traded him to Houston for the uninspiring pair of outfielder Rich Chiles and pitcher Buddy Harris. Now, Agee had a poor year in 1972, but he was still barely 30 years old, and it wasn’t like the Mets had someone like Amos Otis ready to replace him. They had Mays, Hahn, and maybe Dave Schneck. The Mets, no doubt, would have been better off keeping Otis and trading Agee after the 1969 season, but that was all water under the bridge. So, when I heard the deal, I kept trying to convince myself that maybe this guy Chiles was really going to be a star. Both Chiles and Harris had some impressive seasons in the minors, but had been busts when given a shot in the majors.

Well, Chiles had maybe three hits for the Mets before they dumped him and Harris never even played for the team. It turns out Agee WAS just about done, and he didn’t even last a full season with the Astros, but that hardly softened the blow for Met fans.

Remember at the time of these trades, most Mets fans thought that Agee and Swoboda were still pretty good and in Swoboda’s case, still young enough to get better. As it turned out, the Mets might have been right about them, but to me, these trades really hurt at the time.

Yet, Gilkey remains possibly the only experienced hitter ever to come to the Mets and immediately respond with the very best year of his career.

Gilkey had been the regular left fielder for the Cardinals for a few years and always was solid, if unspectacular  In 1995, Gilkey batted .298 with 17 home runs and 69 RBI. Then in December of 1995, St. Louis signed Ron Gant as a free agent and suddenly Gilkey was out of a job.

Based on his past performances, it would have seemed that the Cardinals could have dealt Gilkey for much more than they got in return from the Mets in January, 1996 – minor league pitchers Eric Hiljus and Eric Ludwick (brother of current Cardinal of Ryan Ludwick) and outfielder Yudith Rosario.

It seemed like a trade the Mets really couldn’t lose on, unless one of the young players they sent away became a star. Of course, that didn’t happen.

Remarkably, though, Gilkey had an exceptional season for the Mets in ’96, batting .317 with 30 homers and 117 RBI – career highs in every department (compared to Gant’s .246, 30, 82 for the ’96 Cardinals).

Gilkey sort of reverted to form in 1997 and was soon gone from the Mets, but his legacy remains as possibly the only hitter in the 51-year history of the Mets to post a career year immediately after being traded to Flushing.

Did you know…

Bernard Gilkey had a small role in the 1997 film Men in Black? The climax of the film took place in Flushing Meadows where Gilkey appeared in his real life role as a Mets outfielder. Gilkey was distracted by a massive spacecraft above Shea Stadium (actually one of the two circular observation towers from the 1964 World’s Fair) and was hit on the head by a fly ball.

With the proliferation of web sites now dedicated to evaluating minor league prospects, fans have a fairly easy time reciting their team’s top prospects, usually “in order”. Back in the ’80′s, there was only Baseball America to provide this glimpse into the future. In retrospect, there were many more misses than hits, but it’s fun to look back on these lists and reflect on them. Like, whatever happened to one-time Mets’ top prospects like Tito Navarro and Rick Ownbey ?

Before Baseball America was born in 1980, prospect hunters looked forward to the annual March issue of Baseball Digest which was dedicated to providing scouting reports on every rookie listed on every major league team’s 40-man roster. These reports were usually extremely conservative. For example, several future Hall Of Famers were tagged with “has a chance at the big leagues”.

Baseball Digest listed the prospects alphabetically by team, so you’d have to read the reports in order to make a mental 1 to 10 list. Thankfully, I’ve saved all of these issues from the sixties. Just prior to the 1967 season, the Mets were loaded with prospects and had 17 of them listed, although a few like Al Schmelz and Bart Shirley weren’t even projected for the big leagues at any time. These lists also were restricted to the 40-man rosters, so #1 draft pick Steve Chilcott doesn’t show up (although he would have certainly rated near the top for potential alone).

Here then is my list of the Mets’ top prospects for 1967 with scouting reports courtesy of Baseball Digest. The rankings are based on how Baseball Digest projected the player’s chances, and the words are verbatim from Baseball Digest’s published scouting reports:

• 1. Don Bosch CF – Good speed, fine fielder. Can be a good centerfielder. Sure to make big leagues.
• 2. Tom Seaver RHP – Good fastball. Curve only fair. Control and fielding OK. First year man with hard fast one. Best of futures on Jacksonville club.
• 3. Greg Goossen C – Has a power bat. Very good looking young hitter. Crude catcher and needs work. Should improve and have chance for a solid long major league career.
• 4. Nolan Ryan RHP – Must be considered a major league future at this time. Fastball good and poise better than average.
• 5. Les Rohr LHP – Has tools including good arm. All he needs is to learn to move ball around and improve curve. Fastball is alive. If he continues improvement, has good future, even majors.
• 6. Ken Boswell 2B – Hitting improved from beginning to end of ’66. Fairly good fielder now and should get better. Not ready yet, but should be with another year of 3A.
• 7. Jerry Koosman LHP – Fair fastball. Average curve. Control only fair. Needs to improve curveball and help in control. Needs to pitch more.
• 8. Joe Moock IF – Pretty good hitter. Good arm. Needs improvement in field.
• 9. Terry Christman LHP – Has one of best moves to first seen in minors. Also has better than average curve and poise. Fair fastball, curve, and control.
• 10. Bob Heise IF – Good competitor. Good hustler. Hits better than average with fair power. Throwing fair.

Looking back on this list, of course Bosch was a major disappointment, Seaver, Ryan, and Koosman were severely underrated and Rohr never lived up to his “raw potential”. Goossen had a decent major league career after he left the Mets, but never was a star. Boswell basically became what was expected. So, even though this was 46 years ago, the list is not unlike the recent typical Top 10 Prospect lists when viewed in retrospect.

Of course, most teams’ annual prospect lists don’t include two future Hall Of Famers and another who was almost in that class. This was possibly the Mets’ best group of prospects ever.

Don Bosch, OF: Mets #1 Prospect in 1967.

Site News:

MMO is now looking for 2-3 writers with a passion for the minor leagues, prospects in general and the MLB Draft. One of these positions is to head up our minor league division and we would want someone who can lead the team, bring out the best in them, and coordinate the many features we currently have. Qualities we’re looking for is creativity, resourcefulness, enthusiasm, and passion. It’s a great opportunity for the one that is qualified and includes access to players. If you have plenty of time to spare and think you’d like to take a shot, email Joe D. at GetMetsmerized@aol.com.

Of course, we know R.A. Dickey is unique because of his age, his specialty pitch, and his back story, but all along I assumed if the Mets did trade him, they could hope to come up with a package of similarly rated players as those they once gave up for Viola, although the emphasis would be on position players, rather than pitchers coming back.

The 1988 Mets had won 100 games and their loss to the Dodgers in the league championship series was unexpected and greatly disappointing for a team that fans thought was going to be a powerhouse for years. In 1989, Dwight Gooden began to experience shoulder trouble and the Mets were hovering just above the .500 mark at the July 31 trade deadline. They had already made one questionable trade during the season sending Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell to the Phillies for Juan Samuel of whom manager Davey Johnson told GM Frank Cashen “get me Samuel and we’ll win the pennant”. Now they were looking to add a starting pitcher to replace Gooden in the rotation that was otherwise still very strong with David Cone, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, and Bob Ojeda.

Viola was the Twins’ ace, but had gotten off to a rough start with an 8-12 record and an ERA  close to 4.00, over a run a game over his previous season. What did it take to get Viola ? A package of 5 pitchers :

Rick Aguilera, an established, but still young major leaguer who had been used by the Mets exclusively in relief in 1989, mostly as a setup man for closer Randy Myers.

David West, a lefty who was once considered the best young pitcher in the Mets’ farm system, but who had been found wanting on the major league level.

Kevin Tapani, a young pitcher who had been acquired by the Mets along with Wally Whitehurst when the Mets sent Jesse Orosco to the Dodgers. Tapani had been the Mets’ most effective AAA pitcher, but had no place in the Mets’ rotation.

Jack Savage and Tim Drummond, two mid-level prospects with AAA experience.

Although Viola only went 5-5 for the Mets in ’89 and the team finished second, he did win 20 games a year later as the Mets again finished second in the division. In 1991, Viola was 13-15 for the Mets before leaving as a free agent. Meanwhile, Aguilera established himself as one of the best closers in baseball, saving over 300 games after leaving the Mets, after a brief trial as a starter when he first went to the Twins. Tapani became a dependable starter for the Twins for the next 6 years and won 143 games  in a 13-year major league career.

West was basically a disappointment based on his initial promise, but he still managed to appear in over 200 major league games in a career that lasted until 1998. He had one particularly solid year with the Phillies as a lefty specialist.

Neither Savage nor Drummond made any impact in the major leagues, so their value in the trade as throw-ins was negligible.

So, in summary, the Mets did get a Cy Young winner who gave them 2 1/2 years of quality pitching, but in the long term, they certainly gave up more than they got. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a bad gamble at the time, because the Mets felt that a “pro” like Viola could lead them to a pennant and weren’t about to turn over a starting spot to a rookie like Tapani.

Now, all these years later, the Mets find themselves in an opposite position, where they are looking for young, potential impact players for a proven Cy Young winner. When I hear rumors that other teams won’t even give up one top prospect for someone like Dickey who can put them over the top, I can’t understand it and the Viola deal is a pretty good example of why I feel that way.

Those of us who read the posts on this site every day or in many cases, multiple times a day, are not the typical Mets fan. Think about it. In any office or group situation, you’ll have some people who have no interest in baseball at all, and then you’ll have those who say they are baseball fans. Of those who claim to be Mets fans, there are probably a handful who, like us, think they know about almost every major league player or potential major leaguer who might help the Mets. Then there are those who are fairly knowledgeable about baseball, but have never heard names like Wilmer Flores or Jeurys Familia, not to mention Wil Myers or Travis d’Arnaud. Another  group could probably only name about ten or so, players on the Mets, if that, but certainly know the names R.A. Dickey and David Wright and most of the “prominent” players on other teams.

How would those last two groups of fans react to a trade of R.A. Dickey for a player or players they’ve never heard of? To most of us, that shouldn’t be Alderson’s primary concern, but unfortunately, I think it is definitely one of them. Just recently, the Mets sent out a fan survey asking which promotions would have the most appeal.  I’d think that most readers of this site had little if any interest in that kind of survey and would have preferred a survey that asked “what is most likely to get you excited about the upcoming Mets season” with choices such as “signing RA Dickey to a long-term deal”, “Trading Dickey for some top prospects” or the likely most popular choice “Hearing that the Wilpons are putting the team up for sale”.

Trade Dickey, don’t trade Dickey, just show me that the Mets are making an effort to put a contending team on the field and I’ll be satisfied. So far, nothing’s happening to make the team better and I think ALL Mets fans can agree on that.

The 1963 Mets, of course, could use all the help they could get, and if Gonder was an incomplete player, he was still a better hitter than any catcher the Mets had. In fact, Howard Cosell, who in those pre-Monday Night Football days, did the Mets’ post-game show (one of the few authorized post-game shows that always seemed to take a negative slant on the team they covered!) called Gonder “one of the best natural hitters in the major leagues”. That may have been overstating it, but Gonder was certainly going to hit more than Sammy Taylor, the catcher they traded for him (along with a practically washed up Charley Neal).

Jesse actually had a pretty good year with the bat as the Mets’ #1 catcher in 1964, hitting .270 which was quite impressive for a Mets’ catcher back then. But he was dealt away and his defensive deficiencies coupled with a disappointing record as a pinch hitter shortened his major league career. Gonder needed to play full time in order to keep his batting eye sharp, but he couldn’t play any position other than catcher and was well below average defensively behind the plate, not a good combination. My most vivid memories of Gonder recall his throws in the dirt attempting to nail runners at second and his sweet lefthanded stroke. Jesse was one of many “incomplete” ballplayers who surfaced with the early Mets, but he did at least have one solid year as a regular.

Exuberant, energetic, and most of all productive, Steve was an immediate sensation with the Mets.  The talented rookie came up with a lot of big hits and put up very impressive numbers in his first year with the team. Driving in 65 runs in just 99 games. Henderson seemed well on his way to becoming a star, good for 20-25 home runs and 85-100 RBI a year, someone who the Mets could definitely build around and everything they expected when they traded for him. Mets manager Joe Torre was even quoted as saying “Someday the Seaver trade will be referred to as the Henderson trade”.

Of course, that never happened and as the years passed, it sort of became gospel that the Seaver trade was an awful one for the Mets. But a few weeks after the trade, there were many Mets fans, including myself who thought that the trade could actually pay big dividends for the Mets.  Henderson seemed to be that rare prospect who came over in a trade who not only offered hope for the future, but made an immediate impact on the Major League level.

In addition to Henderson, the Mets also got :

Pat Zachry, a starting pitcher who was co-rookie of the year in the NL the previous season and who figured to be good for about 12-15 wins a year. Unlike Henderson, Zachry was a sullen, brooding player who rarely smiled and looked like he was always annoyed about something. Fans who were up in arms over losing Seaver took out their frustrations on Zachry (never on Henderson) because he was expected to “replace” Seaver in the rotation. This certainly didn’t make it any easier on Zachry.  Actually Pat pitched much better for the Mets in ’77 than he did earlier that season with the Reds and made the NL All-Star team in 1978, but after that he injured his foot kicking the dugout steps one day when he was removed from a game and never was the same pitcher after that.

Doug Flynn, an outstanding defensive infielder who had no hope of breaking into the Reds’ infield but was an immediate starter at second base for the Mets. He was the Mets’ regular at second for the next five years and even won a gold glove, but his batting average was always in the low .200’s.

Dan Norman, the sleeper in the deal, a young outfielder who had 30- homer potential, or so we were led to believe. Norman did very little in several chances with the Mets over the next few seasons and faded from the scene without making any impact.

But Henderson clearly was the prize and he became one of the Mets’ best and most popular players in his first season with the team.  He finished a close second in the NL Rookie of The Year voting to future Hall-of-Famer Andre Dawson, but unfortunately, Steve’s first season was also his best. The following year, he played in 157 games, but his RBI total was the same 65 he produced in far fewer games the year before. His batting average was .266 down from .297, and he hit only 10 home runs, down from 12. Mets fans hoped it was just a case of the sophomore jinx, but unfortunately, Steve never fulfilled his promise and settled in as a complementary player, no more. His power numbers never improved, although he continued to bat around .300. Frank Cashen eventually dealt him to the Cubs, ironically, for Dave Kingman. When Tom Seaver rejoined the Mets a couple of years later, the Midnight Massacre had come full circle.

After being traded to the Cubs, Henderson had stints with several other big league teams as a part-time player and pinch-hitter. He later served as batting coach at Tampa Bay after coaching in the Pirates and Astros organizations. I will always remember him for his electrifying play in 1977 and how he did his best to try to make fans forget Seaver and Kingman, at least for a while.

Contrast what this regime has (or hasn’t) done with the work of Bing Devine whose tenure as GM of the Mets spanned the years 1965 to 1967 between stints with the St. Louis Cardinals.

I would hardly call Devine’s work with the Mets perfect, especially since he had the final call on drafting Steve Chilcott over Reggie Jackson, but he was certainly an aggressive executive who while building up the farm system was also always looking to improve the team with trades and waiver pickups

In his 2004 book, Memoirs of Bing Devine, he states that in 1967 alone, the Mets made FIFTY-FOUR deals.

While many of the players acquired did little or nothing to help the Mets, seven of those players, Tommie Agee , Ron Taylor, Cal Koonce, Art Shamsky,  JC Martin, Al Weis  and Ed Charles were later instrumental in helping the 1969 Mets win a World Championship.

Earlier in Devine’s tenure, he had also dealt for Jerry Grote and Don Cardwell.

None of these players carried a high price tag or cost the Mets any promising young talent.

Add to Devine’s accomplishments that it was completely upon his recommendation that George Weiss agreed to put their name in the hat in the Tom Seaver lottery and that he and assistant Joe McDonald persuaded Weiss to keep Jerry Koosman who he was ready to release after a poor season in the low minors.

Devine’s time with the Mets was relatively short, but he certainly accomplished a great deal in that time. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2007 at the age of 90 at his home in St. Louis.

Did You Know?

It was a trade engineered by Bing Devine that had the greatest impact on Major League Baseball and changed the game forever.

On October 7, 1969, Devine traded star center fielder Curt Flood, along with Tim McCarver, Byron Browne and Joe Hoerner, to the Philadelphia Phillies for Dick Allen, Cookie Rojas and Jerry Johnson.

Flood refused to go to Philadelphia, ultimately challenging baseball’s reserve system that bound players to one team. His suit against baseball set the stage for free agency, and was undeniably one of the most pivotal events in the game’s history.

Felix Millan: A popular Met who was a tough hitter to strikeout, and loved to choke up on the bat.

I was on vacation in Japan when the Mets acquired Felix Millan in the winter of 1972, so I found out about the trade – Millan and lefty pitcher George Stone from the Braves for starting pitcher Gary Gentry and reliever Danny Frisella – via a tiny box in the International Edition of the New York Times.

1972 had been a very disappointing, injury-filled season for the Mets. Prior to the season, the Mets had acquired perennial All-Stars Jim Fregosi and Rusty Staub. Adding them to the lineup to go along with the best pitching in baseball figured to make the Mets a strong favorite for another championship. Unfortunately, by the time the season ended, the pitching was intact, but the lineup was in shambles. In addition to the injuries, regular second baseman Ken Boswell finished the season at .211, bad any way you look at it, but especially for a second baseman whose bat was considered his best asset. So the Mets looked for a replacement.

Millan was a former all-star coming off his worst season, but undoubtedly a better second baseman than Boswell. Gentry was, at 26, still young enough to become a star, although he was no better than a third starter with the Mets. Stone was a fringe major leaguer and Frisella a good reliever who was behind Tug McGraw in the Mets’ bullpen hierarchy.

At the time, the deal didn’t look all that good to me, because Millan at best was “steady” and Stone looked like he’d struggle to make the Mets, while the two pitchers the Mets gave up were young enough and good enough to have long, productive careers. But it turned out to be a steal for the Mets.

Millan gave the Mets four very solid seasons before he was forced to retire in 1977 because of a serious shoulder injury he sustained in a brawl with Pirates catcher Ed Ott. After Ott slid hard into Millan to break up a double play, the smallish second baseman punched Ott in the face with his fist clenched around the baseball. Ott responded by lifting Millan off his feet and then slamming him hard onto the ground. He did attempt to resurrect his career playing in Japan, but that was the last MLB game Millan would ever play.

George Stone was remarkable for the 1973 Mets, finishing 12-3 with a 2.80 ERA in 148 innings. After ’73, Stone did little to help the Mets and was gone after two more mediocre seasons. But clearly, this trade put the Mets in the 1973 World Series as much as anything.

As for Gentry and Frisella, elbow problems plagued Gentry for the rest of his career and he never really helped the Braves. He got one last spring training shot with the Mets a few years later, but was quickly released. Frisella was a mediocre reliever the rest of his career before his untimely passing in a dune-buggy accident before the 1977 season.

Did You Know?

On July 21, 1975, Joe Torre set an MLB record by grounding into four double-plays in a single game. Felix Millan had a nice 4-for-4 day at the plate singling all four times while batting ahead of Joe Torre in that game. Afterward, Torre went into the clubhouse turned to the reporters at his locker and famously said, “I’d like to thank Felix Millan for making all of this possible.”

I’m sure most Mets fans remember when Milledge was the highly-touted first-round Mets’ draft pick who made a big splash in the major leagues after an impressive climb through the minors. Milledge seemed to have it all plus that special charisma that should have made him a star in New York.

But it all seemed to fall apart rather quickly and soon Milledge was labeled as a self-centered, self-promoting rookie who “didn’t know his place” and was shipped to Washington for what at the time seemed like an underwhelming package of Ryan Church and Brian Schneider. None of the principals in the trade really did much with their new teams and Milledge proved a disappointment everywhere he went from Washington to Pittsburgh to the White Sox.

Before the 2012 season, his major league career stalled, Milledge signed to play in Japan. Back in May, I read how Milledge was unproductive and disillusioned and found it hard to adjust to life in Japan and figured this is the end of the line, but a recent post on  NBC Sports’ Hardball site featured Milledge and noted he was “second in the CL in average and third in homers” as of August 31st.

I have to admit, I’ve always been a fan of Milledge. He was one of the few recent Mets’ #1 picks I was excited about and I loved his swagger and fan-friendly style even if teammates and the front office felt differently. He’ll be 28 years old next season and I think it would be fitting if he were given another chance with the Mets. Who knows? It could become a real feel-good story if he finally makes it and this is the kind of creative move I expected from Sandy Alderson and staff that they haven’t made so far.

I admit I don’t know Milledge’s contract status in Japan, but based on earlier reports, it didn’t seem like staying there was a life plan for him and I’m sure he’d welcome another shot to become the star in New York he thought he was meant to be.

I’m sure a lot of disillusioned Mets fans would laugh at this idea and consider it as tired and ill-advised as penciling Jeremy Hefner in next year’s starting rotation. Sure I’d prefer one of the Upton brothers or maybe even Delmon Young in the Mets’ outfield next year, but bringing back Milledge would at least create a glimmer of hope that the front office is trying improve the team however possible given its financial constraints.

We soon learned that the Wilpons were cash-strapped and that high-price free agent signings were unlikely. Nevertheless, among Alderson and his soon-to-be-hired aides, Paul DePodesta, and J.P. Ricciardi, fans felt they were getting some of the best talent evaluators in the game, men who specialized in finding talent in players that other teams found wanting. So, the Mets weren’t going to be players for Albert Pujols, Yu Darvish, or Jonathan Papelbon. Maybe we could still be contenders with some judicious signings, waiver pickups, and cagey deals.

Unfortunately, the two-year performance of this Mets’ front office has been pathetic. Trades brought the Mets the likes of Chin-Lung Hu, Ramon Ramirez and Andres Torres. More importantly, not trading Jose Reyes and then letting him walk as a free-agent was a ridiculous move. Trading Beltran for Wheeler just may turn out to be a good or even great move if the scouts are right, but this is a team that needed to be much more active in the trade market.

The free-agent signings of players such as Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch when pitchers such as Fernando Rodney, Clay Rapada, and Wei-Yen Chin were available (to name just a few) and at considerably lower cost is unforgivable.

You might say hindsight is 20-20, but I say when you hire three former general managers, they should be able to evaluate major league-ready  talent. Reconstructing the Mets’ bullpen appeared to be goal #1 last off-season and let’s face it, Sandy and Co. did an awful job of allocating their resources to do so and have even admitted as much.

I expected this regime to be much more creative in finding talent whether from Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, or the independent  leagues. Look at the players the Mets have signed in the last 2 years. Have any of them made any kind of impact in the major leagues, aside from the one great catch Mike Baxter made to preserve Santana’s no-hitter?  I suppose you could make a case for Scott Hairston who the Mets should have traded for a prospect before this year’s deadline, and maybe Tim Byrdak who I suppose is better than no loogy at all, if that’s saying very much, but I really expected more.

Let’s see what happens this off-season, but I’m not getting my hopes up. I understand the Mets are not going to be playing “checkbook baseball” for a while, but that doesn’t mean they can’t pick up some new players who can actually make us fans look forward to next season.

Ed Charles, the veteran third baseman with the heart of a winner and the soul of a poet was a leader on and off the field and a genuinely nice guy who was an integral part of the 1969 Miracle Mets. His championship ring was the culmination of an 18-year professional career. Charles’ name is sometimes forgotten because he didn’t make any highlight reel plays in the World Series, but those of us who still recall the team celebration and the appreciation the young Mets showed their veteran leader will only have good memories of Ed, who officially retired at the end of the 1969 season.

Charles started his professional career in the Braves’ organization in 1952. At the time, the Braves were one of the more aggressive teams in the signing of African-American players such as Sam Jethroe, Bill Bruton, Jim Pendleton, and of course, Hank Aaron.  But unlike those players who soon surfaced as starting outfielders in the major leagues, Charles spent nearly 10 years in the Braves’ system without even a cup of coffee with the big club until he was traded to the lowly Kansas City A’s in December of 1962.

Many of Charles’ seasons were spent in places like Jacksonville, Florida and Louisville, Kentucky which had to be particularly rough at the time on a dark-skinned player. Also, having Eddie Mathews ahead of you had to be hard to overcome. Charles persisted, gaining a reputation as a poet who wrote about his minor league travails. Charles had many solid, if unspectacular minor league years until finally getting his opportunity with the Athletics for whom he played regularly in the big leagues at third base for five seasons. When a young third base prospect named Sal Bando looked like the real thing and Danny Cater was available to back him up, Charles was traded to the Mets in May of 1967 for outfielder Larry Elliot.

The perennially-losing Mets always seemed to need help at third base and Charles was brought in where he eventually supplanted Ken Boyer as the starter. Jerry Koosman soon gave Ed the nickname “The Glider” for his smooth gliding style at third base. It was odd that after more than 15 years of pro ball, Ed first picked up the nickname by which he’ll always be remembered.

Charles actually led the Mets in home runs with 15 in 1968 (a typical total for him), but the Mets’ grand plan had hot prospect Amos Otis ready to take over in 1969 and Charles was not even kept on the 40-man roster. Eventually, Charles was invited to spring training as a non-roster player, possibly to mentor Otis, or to fight for a position on the bench. It turned out Otis had little interest in playing third base and soon fell out of favor with Gil Hodges.

Charles won his way back on the roster and was at third base on opening day. Splitting time with rookie Wayne Garrett and minor league veteran Bobby Pfeil, Charles played in just 61 games and batted just .207 for the Mets in 1969, but he provided veteran leadership on and off the field and like most of the 1969 Mets, always made the most of his hits, made some memorable defensive plays and was far more valuable than the statistics might indicate. Mets’ fans felt extra-happy for him because he truly deserved to take home a World Championship ring after a long career in the minors and then with losing major league teams. He is fondly remembered.

I remember thinking that maybe this guy Baldwin was some super-prospect (he wasn’t) because otherwise, this trade was hard to justify.

Trade Staub? Maybe not unthinkable, because the Mets thought they had his replacement in the much younger Mike Vail. But for Lolich? Was that the best they could do ?

Mike Vail came to the Mets as a minor league throw-in in an otherwise inconsequential swap of utility infielders with the Cardinals. But Vail quickly established himself as a superior hitter at the AAA level, and he was an immediate sensation when the Mets brought him up. His 23-game hitting streak made fans and team officials think they had found a future long-term fixture in right field.

With Vail in the picture, maybe they thought Staub could be a valuable trade commodity to a team that had a solid starting three in Koosman, Seaver, and Matlack, but needed an established 4th starter.

In his heyday, Lolich was the Tigers’ pitching star of the 1968 World Series, but by 1975, he was still a workhorse, but a 35-year old, terribly out of shape workhorse who had lost 39 games in his last two seasons and didn’t figure to get much better. Would a change of leagues return Lolich to glory?

Well, Lolich went 8-13 for the Mets in 30 starts and was soon departed, while Staub continued to be a productive hitter for years. Fortunately, Rusty returned to the Mets a few years later and he became baseball’s premier pinch-hitter.

And Vail? He injured his knee playing basketball in the off-season, leaving a gaping hole in the Mets’ lineup and when he returned, he never lived up to his potential with the Mets, although he hung around with a few other teams for a while as a 4th outfielder and pinch hitter.

The 1976 Mets finished 86-76 with neither Vail or Lolich making many positive contributions. Could the Mets have been a legitimate contender if they had kept Staub ? We’ll never know.