Did you ever notice that certain players that have toiled in the minors for a while tend to exhibit surges in production when they finally get a crack at the big time? It’s as if they had those hits stockpiled for the Show and can’t wait to get them out of their systems once fortune and the front office permits.

So it seemed to be with Benny Agbayani, a stocky outfielder who physique evoked the same comparisons with a pineapple that were applied to his predecessor as the resident Hawaiian Met, Sid Fernandez. Benny flaunted a somewhat more athletic build however, and for a time looked to be a greater source of batting power than his record on the farm had indicated.

A 30th round draft pick by the Mets in 1993, Agbayani spent the better part of six seasons moving up the rungs of the farm system with stops at Pittsfield, St. Lucie, Binghamton and Norfolk before getting a 15 AB cameo with the big club in 1998.

However, he failed to make a good enough showing to remain, going 2 for 15, and was returned to AAA where he found himself assigned once again the following season. Never a major power threat, Benny had nonetheless endeared himself to Norfolk manager Bobby Valentine during his tenure there with a combination of hustle and timely hitting.

When Bobby V moved up to take the reins of the varsity squad, he lobbied for Benny’s promotion when a wave of outfield malaise necessitated a call up. And so, in May of 1999, Agbayani was given another shot at the majors.

At this point, Benny was a 27 year-old spare part who was generally regarded as a non-prospect by much of the baseball intelligentsia of the time. Prospect or not, he seized the chance afforded by this second go-round and went on a power binge that was so out of character with his past performance that it amazed even him.

Inserted into the lineup against the Colorado Rockies (in a weird instance where both starting pitchers that day were named Bobby Jones), Benny collected two hits including his first big league home run. He continued to mash after that, collecting 6 more bombs over the next 2 weeks and an amazing 10 in his first 73 at-bats. He reached the All Star break with a total of 11, but came back to earth in the second half of the season and finished the year with 14.

Still, he had put up solid numbers for the year, batting .286 in 276 at-bats while knocking in 42 runs with an OPS of .888. More importantly, he had played a not-insignificant role in helping the Mets reach the post-season for the first time in 11 years. He would save his playoff heroics for the following year however, and batted a soft .235 between the Division Series and LCS in ’99 with only 1 RBI.

The 2000 season began with the Mets facing the Cubs in the Tokyo Dome in the first major league game played on a continent other than North America. Benny hadn’t had a particularly glorious showing in spring training that year and was lower in the club’s pecking order of outfielders.

In the opening series, Valentine had opted to go with Jay Payton, Darryl Hamilton, Rickey Henderson, and Derek Bell, the latter coming over in the trade that had netted new rotation ace Mike Hampton. Agbayani was relegated to the bench, the vantage point from which he watched the team drop the first contest by a score of 5-3.

The next day found him there again as the teams took a 1-1 game into extra innings. As the game moved to the top of the 11th inning, the Mets looked for a chance to push the go-ahead run across and avoid a sweep.

Cubs reliever Danny Young was brought in to start the inning, the seventh pitcher used by manager Don Baylor that day. After getting two out, he surrendered a single to Mets first baseman Todd Zeile and then issued back-to-back walks to load the bases. The pitcher’s spot in the lineup came up and Valentine tapped Benny as a pinch hitter.

After tossing his first pitch to Agbayani wide of the strike zone, Young made his next offering a little too good and Benny promptly knocked it over the center field wall for a grand slam.

The prodigious blast would prove the decisive blow as Dennis Cook closed out the Cubs in the bottom of the inning for a 5-1 Met victory.

That game marked the initial win in the season that would see the Mets return to the World Series for the first time since the fabled run of 1986.

Along the way, Benny would contribute another solid season, hitting a total of 15 HR’s and driving in 60 runs in part-time duty. He continued to shine during the post-season that year, crashing a walk-off 3-run shot off the Giants’ Aaron Fultz to win game 3 of the Divisional Series, and contributed during the subsequent NLCS against the Cardinals and the World Series against the Yankees where he drove in the winning run in the sole Met victory that fall.

After that, alas, the bloom was off the rose as Benny had a somewhat injury-plagued 2001 and saw his numbers dwindle along with his appearances in the lineup.

That offseason saw him shipped to the Rockies where he toiled for a time with mediocre results, and then he was briefly with the Red Sox before leaving for the greener pastures of Japan’s Pacific League. There, he found glory with the Chiba Lotte Marines, reuniting with manager Bobby Valentine and helping to win a championship in 2005.

Agbayani may not have been among the greatest of Mets players, but found a measure of glory during his brief tenure that secured him a spot among the most beloved. Aloha, Benny.

The post Amazin’ Moments: Benny Agbayani Slams The Cubs appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Brodie Van Wagenen’s first off-season as the Mets’ GM proved eventful (to say the least) and provided no shortage of head-scratchers as his roster moves appeared to many as being questionable in terms of asset valuation and strangely redundant.

While injuries prevented the overlap in certain positions from resulting in what could have been a roster jam, one still has to wonder what the thinking was behind the amassing of so many candidates for second base, third base, and left field when the possibility of finding  sufficient playing time for each seemed remote at best.

Yes, a case can be made that injuries are inevitable and yes, platooning and spot-starting are legitimate strategies in management (witness the legacy of Earl Weaver), yet were it not for essentially season-ending injuries to Dominic Smith, Jed Lowrie, and Yoenis Cespedes along with the loss of Cano for a significant piece of time, it is unlikely that J.D. Davis would have received the opportunity he did to emerge as a legitimate bat.

Consider it a fortunate side-effect of what appears more and more to be a flawed approach to roster design and one that can likely be attributed to BVW’s pedigree as a player agent instead of one who came up through the ranks of a typical MLB organizaiton.

So we find ourselves at season’s end contemplating the things that went wrong, savoring what went right (praise be to Polar Bears), and wondering how best to address the shortcomings that prevented what could clearly have been a playoff team from fully realizing its potential. The obvious place to start would be finding some way to fix the record-setting awfulness of the back end of the bullpen, but much of that will likely rest on the shoulders of the coaching staff rather than the front office.

The real question now is just how will the seeming reincarnation of “Trader Jack” McKeon that currently occupies the Citi Field executive suite best utilize the chips he has to bring a winner to Flushing and shake a team label of “underachiever?”

A month or so ago I wrote a piece suggesting that in light of the present state of the Met roster heading into 2020, J.D. Davis was profiling as a primary trade chip rather than as an integral part of the team’s core going forward. The response from the MMO faithful was, shall we say, largely in disagreement. A few commenters were even what some would term “vociferous” in their refutation of my thesis, not to mention (to put it politely),  somewhat disparaging in their assessment of my perspicacity. No matter – everyone’s entitled to their opinion.

Regardless, even though Mickey Callaway recently stated that Davis was “penciled in” to left field for the upcoming season (suggesting that one could infer that the Mick was also penciling himself in as manager despite the looming possibility of his replacement by someone with a better grip on sensible substitutions and in-game strategy), it is clearly conceivable that before opening day of next season arrives we will be looking at a team sans Davis if there is a reasonable expectation of Cespedes being available to provide a degree of value for his $29.5 million salary.

Let’s get something straight – I’m all in favor of the Mets retaining the services of J.D. Davis. If you choose to interpret this as a mea culpa to those who suggested that I possess an intellect in keeping with a standard toilet brush, so be it. My point has always been that if one were managing the Met roster with the expectation that all possible components would be available, you could do worse than trying to use a what could translate as a highly desirable trade chip (i.e. a highly valuable asset) to land players from another organization to fill a glaring hole and/or restock a depleted farm system.

As they say, “It takes money to make money.” If the Mets retain Davis and go into spring training with both a healthy Cespedes and J.D., I won’t be disappointed. I’ll just wonder where the at-bats and (in the event Davis is slotted in at third) the defense will come from if the team is faced will carrying both on the roster simultaneously.

Now, the obvious comeback to this concern would be to point out that a modicum of patience would likely serve to put these concerns to rest as Cespedes will almost certainly be gone after next year and that Davis’ defense could improve with a degree of dedication. Still, one has to ponder whether or not this represents the optimal use of the resources the Mets have going into the next few seasons.

The very things that make Davis such a no-brainer to retain are the same things that make him a hugely valuable trade asset. A young, cheap middle-of-the-order hitter with mid-line power, the ability to play multiple positions (albeit as a defensive compromise), who has demonstrated the ability to hit .300 along with a clear enthusiasm for the game is someone to desired, right?

Right.

Which is exactly why he could fetch an equally valuable component as a trade return.

Lest we forget, Zack Wheeler’s future with the team is in question. Personally, I’d have no hesitation in offering him an extension but my opinion matters as much to the Met front office as it does to much of the MMO readership. If he’s allowed to walk with a qualifying offer, the team will look to replace him from one of three places, these being the bullpen, with Seth Lugo being the best choice due to his established dominance over hitters and professed desire to start, the free agent market (where Wheeler himself would likely be the best available starter), and the trade market where it would probably take an asset like Davis to obtain a proven starter.

With the farm system largely stripped of upper level talent by virtue of the deals that netted Cano, Diaz, and Stroman, BVW will go into the off-season with Davis and Smith as his primary trade chips. I, for one, am praying that we don’t witness the departure of the likes of Ronny Mauricio, Brett Baty, Andres Gimenez, Matthew Allan, Thomas Szapucki, or Francisco Alvarez if possible, and if we do, that we get someone damn good in return.

This is a team that is clearly close to dominance and one that would appear to only need some judicious tweaks to rise to the level of play required to land a post-season berth with regularity. Could installing Joe Maddon on the bench be one of those tweaks? Guess that’s a question for another column.

The post How Best To Leverage The Mets’ Roster Surpluses appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

As the season approaches its final month, the gap between the Mets’ performance against weaker competition and “real” competition (basically most NL teams with a winning record) prompts consideration as to how that gap might be bridged.

As Brodie Van Wagenen’s first off-season in the GM chair has shown, the likelihood of multiple moves involving valuable assets seems high, One of those assets could be J.D. Davis, whose breakout performance at the plate combined with his youth and controllability should make him an attractive bargaining chip.

Undoubtedly some will question why the Mets wouldn’t choose to retain him for just those very reasons. The answer becomes clear when envisioning a likely 2020 lineup with certain roster constraints taken into consideration.

The two primary constraints will come in the form of Yoenis Cespedes and Robinson Cano whose contracts -barring a highly unlikely swap for players who come with a similar financial burden-basically demand their presence on the field.

Not that the prospect of that pair’s availability as legitimate lineup components presents a less-than-desirable scenario – it’s just that the idea that either or both will maintain their health and performance throughout the majority of next season is one best regarded as wishful thinking.

Nevertheless, I fully expect the organization to take the approach that Cespedes and Cano will be penciled in to next year’s lineup in left field and second base respectively, likely pushing Jeff McNeil to third where his glove and bat will provide a more than reasonable replacement for the departing Todd Frazier and leaving Davis and Jed Lowrie (when and if he comes back) without a position.

While it is possible that the team could look to retain Davis on the roster and employ him in utility role and bat off the bench, it would seem that one could anticipate sufficient demand for him on the open market as a regular to net a return that could address a more pressing need on the part of the Mets.

Those particular needs have become glaringly obvious in the course of the current season regardless of the winning streaks that have served to salvage what looked to be a lost campaign.

They are: the bullpen, which has largely remained an ongoing quagmire of crapshoots despite the emergence of stalwarts such as Seth Lugo; the bench, which will probably be depleted by the loss of Dominic Smith – another valuable trade chip; and the upper minors which have become a storehouse of four-A talent and some genuinely useful fringe veterans looking for a final hurrah.

If dealing Davis and Smith can serve to address at least two of these concerns, the current rotation and the return of Cespedes and Cano to at least part-time effectiveness (along with the hoped-for restoration of Brandon Nimmo to his 2019 level of production) should serve to place the 2020 Mets squarely in contention for a post-season berth.

Naturally, other possibilities for tweaking next year’s roster could surely alter this scenario (e.g. dealing Wilson Ramos back to the AL where his dependable right-handed bat and ability to serve as a backup catcher would prove more valuable and signing Yasmani Grandal), but unless a trading partner is found that could accommodate either Cespedes or Cano, the 2020 alignment projected by the current state of the Mets’ roster looks to be the most logical outcome.

If this proves to be the case and Cespedes can provide 75-80% of the production he delivered during the time he managed to be on the field since arriving in New York, and if Cano can provide at least a smidgen above league-average production from his slot, this wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

The major concern would be having sufficient backup to their positions to cope with what seems to be an almost inevitable requirement for time on the IL for the two of them. Given Van Wagenen’s apparent ability to find reasonably effective support at both the major league level and Triple-A, a plan like this would appear to have the potential for providing enough talent to field a winning lineup.

When J.D. Davis was obtained in January from Houston for three prospects, I wasn’t familiar with him and was intrigued by the fact that he had won a PCL batting title in 2018.

His performance this season has done much to suggest having some faith in Van Wagenen’s trade judgment in light of the potential disaster of the Edwin Diaz and Robinson Cano deal for a package including Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn. Nevertheless, his emergence as a definitively bat-first utility player suggests his future lies in the AL.

If he ultimately winds up providing enough offense to provide some thrills for the 2019 squad and enough trade value to bring back effective reinforcements for 2020, then the deal that netted him will prove to be one of Brodie’s more canny moves.

The post J.D. Davis Shaping Up as Strong Trade Chip For Offseason appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Here’s an Amazin’ Moment I won’t soon forget because it involves one of my favorite Mets of bygone days, Rusty Staub.

On Dec. 16, 1980, New York resigned Le Grand Orange for his second tour of duty with the team. He would spend the next five seasons with the Mets and retire in blue and orange.

In 1983, Staub tied the National League record for most consecutive pinch hits in a season with eight, and tied the record for most pinch hit RBI in a season with 25.

During his first go-round with the Mets, Rusty provided more in the way of consistent offense and heady play than fans had come to expect from a Mets team that relied primarily on the arms of Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack, Tug McGraw and whatever offense could be scrounged from the day’s lineup.

In 1973, two years into their second decade of existence, the Mets had still not had a player produce a 100 RBI season. The team would make its second trip to the World Series that year, but would wind up second to last in the NL in runs scored with a paltry 608.

As a result, defense was a key component to go along with that vaunted pitching staff. In June of that year, the Mets were playing a series at Shea against the Dodgers. The Saturday game of that set (on June 9) was Old Timers’ Day and a good crowd was on hand. The offensive heroes for the day were Staub, with two doubles and three RBI, and Willie Mays who homered for the other run in what would be a 4-2 complete game win for Jon Matlack.

However, it wasn’t Rusty’s offense that made this game memorable for me, but his defense- specifically, his role in a play that took place in the top of the seventh inning.

By virtue of a pinch-hit double by future Met Tom Paciorek and a bunt single by Davey Lopes, the Dodgers had runners at the corners with no one out and Bill Buckner (of all people) coming to the plate. The Mets were clinging to a 3-2 lead at this point that looked to be in jeopardy.

Buckner was an up-and-coming young batsman of 24 at this time, but was coming off a season where he had hit .319 and shown a penchant for making contact. With Lopes dancing off first, Matlack made a successful pickoff throw and a rundown ensued.

Rundowns always make me nervous if it’s my team trying to execute one. We’ve all heard how, if properly done, only one or two throws should be needed to nail the runner. Invariably, as the number of throws involved in the play increases, so does the percentage that one will ultimately wind up in the stands, the dugout, or the outfield while the runner advances.

On this particular play the infielders involved, Bud Harrelson, Felix Millan, and John Milner, were no slouches with the glove  but Lopes was fleet and managed to elude a tag. A number of throws were made, back and forth, with Paciorek looking for a chance to score from third.

Ultimately, with the middle infielders out of position, Lopes dashed for second, seemingly uncovered until…Rusty Staub, having run in from his position in Right Field, took the throw at second, slapped a tag on Lopes diving for the base, then fired a strike to the plate to catch Paciorek trying to sneak in with the tying run. Double play! Buckner flied out to center and the inning ended with no damage done.

As a mere 16 year-old at the time, my depth of baseball knowledge was not substantial, but I had been bitten by the bug at a young age and had read more about the game’s history than many of my peers. Nowhere had I come across an account of a similar play, which, while not the weirdest thing to happen on a baseball field, was without a doubt the most heads-up piece of fielding I had ever witnessed.

Rusty went on to play heroically in the LCS (three HR and a great catch where he badly injured his shoulder), and World Series that year (hitting .423 with a five RBI game while playing hurt). In 1975, he became the first Met to reach the century mark in RBI while setting a club record with 105. Management rewarded this by trading him to Detroit for a washed-up Mickey Lolich and fans were left to pin their hopes on Mike Vail. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work out too well.

Regardless, Rusty’s place in the annals of Metsdom is assured, but is just that much more deserved, in my opinion, because of that nifty double play.

The post Amazin’ Moments: Rusty and the Rundown appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Edgardo Alfonzo remains one of the most beloved Mets alumni, both for his post-season heroics (e.g. 3 HR’s including a ninth inning grand slam in the space of two vital 1999 playoff games against the Reds and Diamondbacks), and his role as part of the “Best Infield Ever” as dubbed by Sports Illustrated.

His flexibility as a player made him an invaluable asset to the team which moved him from his original spot at second base over to third, back to second upon the signing of Robin Ventura, and then to third again with the trade that brought Roberto Alomar into the fold. Despite a modicum of grousing due to all the defensive shifts, he provided consistent quality play during one of the upswing periods in Mets history.

As a batsman, Fonzie developed in almost textbook fashion before the delighted eyes of fans. Coming up, he had a reputation for a good eye at the plate, some evidence of moderate power, and the ability to make contact.

Following his major league debut in 1995, the young Venezuelan worked diligently to refine his game both in the field and at the plate. By 1999, he had blossomed into one of the league’s premier middle infielders, hitting over .300 and slugging over .500 for the first time in his career. His peak game, and likely the peak offensive game by any Met, came in late August of that year as the Mets were heading toward a post-season berth under the guidance of Bobby Valentine.

The team was in Houston for a series against the Astros during their last go-round in the vast dimensions of the Astrodome. The following year, the team would move to the bandbox originally known as Enron Field (or “Ten Run Field” to fans for its propensity to produce high scoring games) and now dubbed Minute Maid Park.

In stark contrast to the home run haven the Astros now inhabit, the ‘Dome was a pitcher’s dream and a slugger’s graveyard. Not only was the field characterized by expansive proportions, the roof insured that the very atmosphere itself was endowed with what batters swore was a deadening effect. But it was in this most unlikely of settings that the Mets’ version of the Fonz chose to put on perhaps the greatest display of slugging in team history.

Ah, 1999 was a bumper year for runs scored by the Mets as they pushed 853 across the plate, good for 5^th in the league and still the club record for a single season. Even 40 year-old leadoff batter Rickey Henderson was having a renaissance year, batting over .300 for the first time since in four campaigns. On the night of August 30 of that year, the team would rack up a run tally that was impressive even by the standards of that era, blasting the Houston squad by a score of 17-1.

The key figure in the onslaught was Edgardo Alfonzo who began his evening by rocketing a solo home run his first time up to give the Mets an early lead. After the Astros were retired in order in the bottom of the first, the New Yorkers erupted for six additional runs in the next inning with Alfonzo contributing a single and a run scored in the process. He then homered in his next two at-bats registering a two-run shot in the fourth and another solo round-tripper in the sixth.

After collecting his second single of the game in the eighth amidst another rally, he came up for a final time in the ninth. Urged by his teammates to shoot for the elusive 4-homer mark, he banged a shot off the right field wall for a run-scoring double, missing another 4-bagger by a matter of a few feet.

All told, Fonzie had recorded 6 hits in as many at-bats including three homeruns and a double. In the process he set Mets club records for hits, runs, and total bases in a game as well as collecting five RBIs. Naturally, his performance set off the stat freaks at Elias who determined that the only other player to accomplish a comparable feat was none other than Ty Cobb some 74 years prior when he also recorded a 3-homer, 1-double, 2-single game against the St. Louis Browns.

Fonzie and Cobb, Cobb and Fonzie. A rather exclusive club with one member a Met.

The post Amazin’ Moments: Fonzie Goes 6-For-6, Homers Three Times! appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

As we all know, the Mets were created to fill the gap left after the departure of the Giants and the Dodgers from the city of New York following the 1957 season. In the four year period before the advent of the Amazin’s, Gotham’s National League fans were left to follow their teams as best they could from afar. Remember, there was no cable TV at this time, nor webcasts, and radio coverage was spotty at best if you were following a west coast team.  It was rough.

For die-hard fans, and there were many, this was a hardship that was duly noted by the fledgling Met ownership which sought to assuage (or exploit, depending on how you look at it) their feelings of abandonment by bringing in notable Dodger greats like Gil Hodges and Duke Snider for a last go-round in a Met uniform.

But for fans of the “New York baseball Giants” as they were once referred to, there were no remaining links to the glory days of the team. Instead, they were left to scan the box scores or change their allegiance to the Yankees. The latter choice was anathema to most of the Giant faithful, including my father, who had regaled me with stories of following the 1951 pennant race by radio as many had done, and had exulted with much of the city as Bobby Thomson’s  “Shot Heard Round the World” was broadcast. His favorite player was not Thomson, however. It was the Giants’ wunderkind, Willie Mays.

Mays had a place in New York baseball folklore as part of a triumvirate of great center fielders along with Mickey Mantle and the Duke, but had a penchant for near-mythical displays that seemed to supersede his contemporaries. Who could forget “The Catch” where he tracked down Vic Wertz’ missile in the 1954 World Series or “The Throw” where he ran to catch a shot in the right field gap and spun on the dead run to unleash a throw like no one had ever seen to catch the Dodgers’ Billy Cox at the plate? Not to mention an MVP season in 1954 and a 1955 season where he clubbed 51 homers, a feat that was downright uncommon in the pre-steroid era.

Mays would go on to more glory with the Giants, including a pennant in 1962, another MVP in 1965, Gold Gloves, perennial All Star appearances, and all the things that fans bask in when their team and their favorite player are in the limelight. But Mays was San Francisco’s now, even if those fans more readily embraced Willie McCovey. New York fans were left with their memories…and the Mets.

So, when the buzz began in May of 1972 that a deal was in the works to bring Willie back to the east coast, the “sleeping Giant” so to speak, of 1950’s New York baseball fandom began to stir. And lo, so it was, for a mere $50,000 and a middling right-hander named Charlie Williams, the Mets finally obtained what may have been the most symbolic link to the city’s baseball legacy.  And, largely symbolic it was, because at 41 years of age, Mays was clearly a shadow of his former self as a player. Still, his mere presence in a Met uniform was enough to drive fans into a state of excitement usually reserved for visits from the President or the Pope.

Fans flocked to Shea for the series against Mays’ now former employers the Giants. Willie was set to make his debut as a Met in the Sunday game on May 14th, but when the team needed a pinch hitter in the Friday game prior, fans began clamoring for manager Yogi Berra to send him to the plate. When John Milner emerged from the dugout instead, he was booed roundly “for not being Willie Mays” as I recall the announcer Lindsey Nelson reporting. Finally, the big day arrived and Mays was in the lineup, leading off and playing center field.

My dad and I watched the game together. He had been a fairly hard core NY Giants fan but had come over to the Met side of the dugout for the most part as his kids had “caught baseball fever” as a MLB marketing campaign had urged and gotten swept up in the championship run of 1969. But today was all about number 24 and his return to the fold.

If you are familiar with the game, you know that it began auspiciously for the Mets, with Giants pitcher Sam McDowell walking the bases full and then surrendering a grand slam to Rusty Staub. By the bottom of the fifth however, the Giants had tied the score and McDowell had been lifted in favor of right hander Don Carrithers. Mays led off the inning and unloaded on a fastball. As the ball cleared the fence in left and Mays trotted around the bases for the 647th time in his career, my father stopped grinning long enough to tell me “That’s the way it should be.” Cornball, but I swear it’s a true story.

That homer provided the winning edge as the Mets prevailed 5-4, and even though moments like that would be few and far between for the balance of Mays’ Mets career, the memory of that triumphant return and its near-poetic climax (hitting the homer in the bottom of the ninth would have clinched the poetic part, but let’s not squabble over details) remains indelible. The Mets and Mays had helped the New York branch of Giant fans to reclaim at least part of their legacy and gave the team that abandoned them a swat in the process. For that day, it was enough.

The post Amazin’ Mets Moments: Willie Comes Home appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Following the defection of John Olerud to the Seattle Mariners as a free agent following the 1999 season, the Mets found themselves casting about for a first baseman. To the surprise of many, Steve Phillips announced the signing of Todd Zeile to fill the position.

Zeile had come to the majors as a catcher with the Cardinals and had subsequently been shifted to third where he had spent the bulk of his career. In the course of an 11-year sojourn through the big leagues, Zeile had followed his time in St. Louis with stints with the Cubs, Phillies, Orioles, Dodgers, Marlins, and Rangers before landing in Flushing.

Although he had seen limited action at both first and the outfield from time to time, Todd had plied his trade primarily at the hot corner for the bulk of his big league tenure. Nevertheless, it was as the Mets’ newly-anointed first sacker that he now helped form the heart of a lineup that included Mike Piazza and Robin Ventura, a crew that would help carry the team to the World Series that year.

During the October showdown with the rival Yankees that year, Zeile was involved in one of the more teeth-gnashing moments in Mets history when his Game 1 shot to the edge of the lower left field deck in Yankee Stadium morphed from an apparent 2-run jack to a double by virtue of a hotly contested call by umpire Tim McClelland.

The truly maddening result of the play was the fate of base runner Timo Perez who, after taking the opportunity to showboat ahead of what he was sure would be a leisurely trot from second to home, was summarily thrown out trying to score as the ball was relayed in by Yankee left fielder David Justice. At that time, instant replay was still 8 years away, so despite protestations to the effect that the ball had been interfered with by a fan and thus prevented from landing in the stands, the ruling stood. The rest, as they say, is history.

Todd’s 2001 Met campaign was a down year as his offensive numbers fell off significantly and during the following winter he was traded to Colorado as part of a package in a 3-way deal that reunited the Mets with their one-time minor league slugging prodigy Jeromy Burnitz.

Zeile resumed his journeyman ways and after spending a season as a Rockie, moved on to stints with the Yanks and then the Expos the year after that before ending up back with Mets in 2004 for what he declared would be his final season in the bigs.

It would not be a particularly memorable final run as the Mets were in year 2 of the Art Howe era and would finish a disappointing fourth in the division. But Todd managed to reach some career milestones along the way, hitting his 250th career home run and reaching the 2,000 mark in career hits.

When the last game of the year arrived, the Mets were set to play the Expos in what would be that team’s  final game as a franchise before moving on to Washington, D.C. the next season.

Todd thought it would be fitting to go out the way he came in and persuaded manager Howe to let him start the game behind the dish one last time.

The Mets were leading the soon-to-be-no-longer Montreal squad by a score of 4 to 1 when Zeile stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 6th with two on and none out, facing Expos pitcher Claudio Vargas.

After working the count to 3-1, Todd whacked the next pitch high over the left field fence. “I floated around the bases” he later reported, and described the experience as “surreal.” After catching the next two innings he was called back from the plate for a pinch hitter before his next at-bat to allow the fans to give him a sendoff ovation. The crowd of over 33,000 cheered appreciably and provided a fitting backdrop as Todd stepped from the field and moved on to the next phase of his life.

Todd has busied himself in a number of pursuits since the end of his playing days, most notably as a filmmaker and he was a producer on Charlie Sheen’s former network television series “Anger Management.” His baseball career, while perhaps not of Hall of Fame caliber, was nonetheless marked by some unusual and notable achievements such as his record of having homered with no fewer than 11 different major league teams. His parting shot with the Mets showed that he also knew how to go out with style.

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Here’s an Amazin’ Moment I won’t soon forget because it involves one of my favorite Mets of bygone days, Rusty Staub.

On Dec. 16, 1980, New York resigned Le Grand Orange for his second tour of duty with the team. He would spend the next five seasons with the Mets and retire in blue and orange.

In 1983, Staub tied the National League record for most consecutive pinch hits in a season with eight, and tied the record for most pinch hit RBI in a season with 25.

During his first go-round with the Mets, Rusty provided more in the way of consistent offense and heady play than fans had come to expect from a Mets team that relied primarily on the arms of Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack, Tug McGraw and whatever offense could be scrounged from the day’s lineup.

In 1973, two years into their second decade of existence, the Mets had still not had a player produce a 100 RBI season. The team would make its second trip to the World Series that year, but would wind up second to last in the NL in runs scored with a paltry 608.

As a result, defense was a key component to go along with that vaunted pitching staff. In June of that year, the Mets were playing a series at Shea against the Dodgers. The Saturday game of that set (on June 9) was Old Timers’ Day and a good crowd was on hand. The offensive heroes for the day were Staub, with two doubles and three RBI, and Willie Mays who homered for the other run in what would be a 4-2 complete game win for Jon Matlack.

However, it wasn’t Rusty’s offense that made this game memorable for me, but his defense- specifically, his role in a play that took place in the top of the seventh inning.

By virtue of a pinch-hit double by future Met Tom Paciorek and a bunt single by Davey Lopes, the Dodgers had runners at the corners with no one out and Bill Buckner (of all people) coming to the plate. The Mets were clinging to a 3-2 lead at this point that looked to be in jeopardy.

Buckner was an up-and-coming young batsman of 24 at this time, but was coming off a season where he had hit .319 and shown a penchant for making contact. With Lopes dancing off first, Matlack made a successful pickoff throw and a rundown ensued.

Rundowns always make me nervous if it’s my team trying to execute one. We’ve all heard how, if properly done, only one or two throws should be needed to nail the runner. Invariably, as the number of throws involved in the play increases, so does the percentage that one will ultimately wind up in the stands, the dugout, or the outfield while the runner advances.

On this particular play the infielders involved, Bud Harrelson, Felix Millan, and John Milner, were no slouches with the glove  but Lopes was fleet and managed to elude a tag. A number of throws were made, back and forth, with Paciorek looking for a chance to score from third.

Ultimately, with the middle infielders out of position, Lopes dashed for second, seemingly uncovered until…Rusty Staub, having run in from his position in Right Field, took the throw at second, slapped a tag on Lopes diving for the base, then fired a strike to the plate to catch Paciorek trying to sneak in with the tying run. Double play! Buckner flied out to center and the inning ended with no damage done.

As a mere 16 year-old at the time, my depth of baseball knowledge was not substantial, but I had been bitten by the bug at a young age and had read more about the game’s history than many of my peers. Nowhere had I come across an account of a similar play, which, while not the weirdest thing to happen on a baseball field, was without a doubt the most heads-up piece of fielding I had ever witnessed.

Rusty went on to play heroically in the LCS (three HR and a great catch where he badly injured his shoulder), and World Series that year (hitting .423 with a five RBI game while playing hurt). In 1975, he became the first Met to reach the century mark in RBI while setting a club record with 105. Management rewarded this by trading him to Detroit for a washed-up Mickey Lolich and fans were left to pin their hopes on Mike Vail. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work out too well.

Regardless, Rusty’s place in the annals of Metsdom is assured, but is just that much more deserved, in my opinion, because of that nifty double play.

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His flexibility as a player made him an invaluable asset to the team which moved him from his original spot at second base over to third, back to second upon the signing of Robin Ventura, and then to third again with the trade that brought Roberto Alomar into the fold. Despite a modicum of grousing due to all the defensive shifts, he provided consistent quality play during one of the upswing periods in Mets history.

As a batsman, Fonzie developed in almost textbook fashion before the delighted eyes of fans. Coming up, he had a reputation for a good eye at the plate, some evidence of moderate power, and the ability to make contact. Following his major league debut in 1995, the young Venezuelan worked diligently to refine his game both in the field and at the plate. By 1999, he had blossomed into one of the league’s premier middle infielders, hitting over .300 and slugging over .500 for the first time in his career. His peak game, and likely the peak offensive game by any Met, came in late August of that year as the Mets were heading toward a post-season berth under the guidance of Bobby Valentine.

The team was in Houston for a series against the Astros during their last go-round in the vast dimensions of the Astrodome. The following year, the team would move to the bandbox originally known as Enron Field (or “Ten Run Field” to fans for its propensity to produce high scoring games) and now dubbed Minute Maid Park. In stark contrast to the home run haven the Astros now inhabit, the ‘Dome was a pitcher’s dream and a slugger’s graveyard. Not only was the field characterized by expansive proportions, the roof insured that the very atmosphere itself was endowed with what batters swore was a deadening effect. But it was in this most unlikely of settings that the Mets’ version of the Fonz chose to put on perhaps the greatest display of slugging in team history.

Ah, 1999 was a bumper year for runs scored by the Mets as they pushed 853 across the plate, good for 5^th in the league and still the club record for a single season. Even 40 year-old leadoff batter Rickey Henderson was having a renaissance year, batting over .300 for the first time since in four campaigns. On the night of August 30 of that year, the team would rack up a run tally that was impressive even by the standards of that era, blasting the Houston squad by a score of 17-1.

The key figure in the onslaught was Edgardo Alfonzo who began his evening by rocketing a solo home run his first time up to give the Mets an early lead. After the Astros were retired in order in the bottom of the first, the New Yorkers erupted for six additional runs in the next inning with Alfonzo contributing a single and a run scored in the process. He then homered in his next two at-bats registering a two-run shot in the fourth and another solo round-tripper in the sixth. After collecting his second single of the game in the eight amidst another rally, he came up for a final time in the ninth. Urged by his teammates to shoot for the elusive 4-homer mark, he banged a shot off the right field wall for a run-scoring double, missing another 4-bagger by a matter of a few feet.

All told, Fonzie had recorded 6 hits in as many at-bats including 3 HR’s and a double. In the process he set Mets club records for hits, runs, and total bases in a game as well as collecting 5 RBI. Naturally, his performance set off the stat freaks at Elias who determined that the only other player to accomplish a comparable feat was none other than Ty Cobb some 74 years prior when he also recorded a 3 homer, 1 double, 2 single game against the St. Louis Browns.

Fonzie and Cobb, Cobb and Fonzie. A rather exclusive club with one member a Met.

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Did you ever notice that certain players that have toiled in the minors for a while tend to exhibit surges in production when they finally get a crack at the big time? It’s as if they had those hits stockpiled for the Show and can’t wait to get them out of their systems once fortune and the front office permits. So it seemed to be with Benny Agbayani, a stocky outfielder who physique evoked the same comparisons with a pineapple that were applied to his predecessor as the resident Hawaiian Met, Sid Fernandez. Benny flaunted a somewhat more athletic build however, and for a time looked to be a greater source of batting power than his record on the farm had indicated.

A 30th round draft pick by the Mets in 1993, Agbayani spent the better part of 6 seasons moving up the rungs of the farm system with stops at Pittsfield, St. Lucie, Binghamton and Norfolk before getting a 15 AB cameo with the big club in 1998. However, he failed to make a good enough showing to remain, going 2 for 15, and was returned to AAA where he found himself assigned once again the following season. Never a major power threat, Benny had nonetheless endeared himself to Norfolk manager Bobby Valentine during his tenure there with a combination of hustle and timely hitting. When Bobby V moved up to take the reins of the varsity squad, he lobbied for Benny’s promotion when a wave of outfield malaise necessitated a call up. And so, in May of 1999, Agbayani was given another shot at the majors.

At this point, Benny was a 27 year-old spare part who was generally regarded as a non-prospect by much of the baseball intelligentsia of the time. Prospect or not, he seized the chance afforded by this second go-round and went on a power binge that was so out of character with his past performance that it amazed even him. Inserted into the lineup against the Colorado Rockies (in a weird instance where both starting pitchers that day were named Bobby Jones), Benny collected two hits including his first big league home run. He continued to mash after that, collecting 6 more bombs over the next 2 weeks and an amazing 10 in his first 73 at bats. He reached the All Star break with a total of 11, but came back to earth in the second half of the season and finished the year with 14.

Still, he had put up solid numbers for the year, batting .286 in 276 at bats while knocking in 42 runs with an OPS of .888. More importantly, he had played a not-insignificant role in helping the Mets reach the post-season for the first time in 11 years. He would save his playoff heroics for the following year however, and batted a soft .235 between the Division Series and LCS in ’99 with only 1 RBI.

The 2000 season began with the Mets facing the Cubs in the Tokyo Dome in the first major league game played on a continent other than North America. Benny hadn’t had a particularly glorious showing in spring training that year and was lower in the club’s pecking order of outfielders. In the opening series, Valentine had opted to go with Jay Payton, Darryl Hamilton, Rickey Henderson, and Derek Bell, the latter coming over in the trade that had netted new rotation ace Mike Hampton. Agbayani was relegated to the bench, the vantage point from which he watched the team drop the first contest by a score of 5-3.

The next day found him there again as the teams took a 1-1 game into extra innings. As the game moved to the top of the 11th inning, the Mets looked for a chance to push the go-ahead run across and avoid a sweep. Cubs reliever Danny Young was brought in to start the inning, the seventh pitcher used by manager Don Baylor that day. After getting two out, he surrendered a single to Mets first baseman Todd Zeile and then issued back-to-back walks to load the bases. The pitcher’s spot in the lineup came up and Valentine tapped Benny as a pinch hitter. After tossing his first pitch to Agbayani wide of the strike zone, Young made his next offering a little too good and Benny promptly knocked it over the center field wall for a grand slam. That shot would prove the decisive blow as Dennis Cook closed out the Cubs in the bottom of the inning for a 5-1 Met victory.

That game marked the initial win in the season that would see the Mets return to the World Series for the first time since the fabled run of 1986. Along the way, Benny would contribute another solid season, hitting a total of 15 HR’s and driving in 60 runs in part-time duty. He continued to shine during the post-season that year, crashing a walk-off 3-run shot off the Giants’ Aaron Fultz to win game 3 of the Divisional Series, and contributed during the subsequent NLCS against the Cardinals and the World Series against the Yankees where he drove in the winning run in the sole Met victory that fall.

After that, alas, the bloom was off the rose as Benny had a somewhat injury-plagued 2001 and saw his numbers dwindle along with his appearances in the lineup. That offseason saw him shipped to the Rockies where he toiled for a time with mediocre results, and then he was briefly with the Red Sox before leaving for the greener pastures of Japan’s Pacific League. There, he found glory with the Chiba Lotte Marines, reuniting with manager Bobby Valentine and helping to win a championship in 2005.

Agbayani may not have been among the greatest of Mets players, but found a measure of glory during his brief tenure that secured him a spot among the most beloved. Aloha, Benny.

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