The 16-man Contemporary Baseball Era Committee elected a newest member into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown Sunday night. Out of eight nominations, Jim Leyland was the only new selectee, receiving 15 votes. The former Pirates, Tigers, Marlins, and Rockies manager spent 22 total years at the helm as a manager. He totaled 1,769 wins, the 18th most in major-league history. Of those wins,...
There are 11 players or managers eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame with the Mets on some portion of their resume. As the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee results await and eight former managers, executives, and umpires on the ballot, here’s how it stacks up for the leader of the franchise’s last championship. The confidence Davey Johnson exuded as a manager for 17...
When 21-year-old Darryl Strawberry made his major league debut with the New York Mets on May 6, 1983, against the Cincinnati Reds at home, fans were eager for an impact player to help turn the organization’s fortunes around. After all, the club hadn’t made the postseason since they lost to the Oakland Athletics in seven games in the 1973 Fall Classic. In addition, the Mets...
The Contemporary Baseball Era Committee for Managers/Executives/Umpires ballot for the Hall of Fame Class of 2024 was announced on Wednesday, and former Mets manager Davey Johnson is one of the candidates. The ballot is made up of former managers, executives, and umpires whose primary contributions to the game came since 1980 were eligible for consideration. This year’s ballot included...
The New York Mets made several shrewd moves in the early-to-mid eighties that aided the club in winning their second World Series championship in franchise history. From their trade with the St. Louis Cardinals for Keith Hernandez and adding southpaw Sid Fernandez from the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1983, to trading for Ray Knight from the Houston Astros and acquiring Gary Carter from the Montreal...
It seemed like the baseball gods intended for the Mets to win it all and the Red Sox curse to continue. But the postscript to Game 6’s epic theater was anything but a formality. Sunday rain let Boston manager John McNamara give Bruce Hurst the starting nod. Hurst proceeded to reinforce his credentials for series MVP — an award all but in possession before the Mets’ epic comeback two nights...
Game 6 of the 1986 World Series resonates strongly with Mets fans. Even with its dramatic ending and what it meant for its fortunes, that may not even be the best postseason game the franchise ever played. It may not even be the best Game 6 of that remarkable October of ’86 if you ask some. The contest that put the Mets into the Fall Classic that year speaks more to the team’s...
There were two themes to Mets’ regular season of 1986. Total dominance was one. The National League East was all but secured by early summer. They held a vice-grip-like 13-game lead, and had the skipper of the defending NL champs, the Cards’ Whitey Herzog, waving the white flag in surrender. They didn’t just beat the opposition, they beat them down. Which gets us to the other...
The Mets hosted an All-Star Game for the first time in nearly a half-century, when he team’s past, present, and future were represented. David Wright, playing in his seventh mid-summer classic, served as unofficial ambassador. He caught the ceremonial first pitch from Tom Seaver, who not surprisingly has the most All-Star appearances of any Met with nine. Wright also won the fan vote at third...
The Mets of the mid and late 1980s was not short on star power. Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry and Gary Carter were vital to their success, but they all revolved around Keith Hernandez: the leader of that group and the primary reason why those teams were perennial winners and champions in 1986. He’ll receive the highest franchise honor Saturday and on the eve of his No. 17 being retired,...
“I saw things I had never seen before,” Keith Hernandez said later. Hernandez had hit for the cycle and it registered as pretty ordinary on the scale of events that took place at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. What began on Independence Day evening and lasted until 3:55 a.m. on July 5 became a regular-season saga unlike any other. There were 29 runs, 46 hits, 37 left on base, 43 players,...
Dramatic confrontations between the Mets and Cardinals are nothing new. The incredible ninth-inning comeback and the bench-clearing incident in April was just the latest in a lineage of notable games. Here are a few of the best—ranging from historic, thrilling, devastating, and unending. April 11, 1962 It all goes back to day one. The Cards were host to the inaugural regular season game in Mets...
