On this date in 1967, the New York Mets made a trade that would help put together a World Series winner. Ask any Met fan under 40 with a sense of the past about Tommie Agee and he’ll probably tell you that Agee was the terrific center fielder who helped the Miracle Mets win the 1969 World Series. And he’d be right. But, as trades for center fielders go, after his first season with the club, Agee...
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On this date in 1983, the New York Mets traded middling relief pitcher Carlos Diaz and the veteran utility man Bob Bailor to the Dodgers for a pair of minor leaguers, Sid Fernandez and infielder Ross Jones. Although I’d never seen Fernandez pitch, he had compiled some eye-popping minor league numbers and it was a surprise to me that the Dodgers would let him go for a couple of run-of-the-mill...
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In the 1963 NL Rookie Of The Year voting, the top two players were both second basemen – Pete Rose of the Reds who won the award, and Ron Hunt of the Mets who finished second in the voting. Neither had been expected to even make it to the big leagues that season. Rose had just finished a great season in the minors, but it was at Class A Macon. Hunt was a conditional purchase from the...
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Jon Matlack’s career record of 125-126 may be as mediocre as you can get, but Matlack was a much, much better than average major league pitcher. In fact, he was one of the very finest left-handed pitchers ever developed by the Mets’ organization. His other career marks – a 3.18 lifetime ERA (better than Steve Carlton, who was considered the best lefty of his generation), 97...
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With the 2017 season officially dead and buried for the New York Mets, we anxiously await the start of the Hot Stove season with the hope that Sandy Alderson can swing a deal or two that will help us improve the team and get us back to the postseason. Of course, Mets history has certainly given us many more bad trades than good. But let’s look on the bright side and reminisce about one of...
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