Good morning, Mets fans! The Mets begin a four-game series against the Braves tonight at Truist Park, the first of 13 meetings between the teams. Last season, the Braves dominated the Mets, winning 10 of the 13 matchups, including five of the six games in Atlanta. The Mets haven’t won the season series against the Braves since 2017. Former Brave Julio Teheran will make his Mets debut in...
Good morning, Mets fans! The slate of postseason games Wednesday contained loads of fireworks as home runs were slugged and tickets were punched. The day started out in Philly, where Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos both sent two balls out of the park on their way to a 10-2 win over the Braves and a 2-1 series lead. The Diamondbacks took over the nightcap as they lit Lance Lynn up like a...
The baseball world lost a former pitcher and dynamic personality on May 6, when former Oakland Athletic, San Francisco Giant, and Kansas City Royal Vida Blue passed away in the East Bay Area of Northern California. He was 73 years old. Blue made his major league debut in July of 1969, making 12 appearances. He returned in 1970 to make six starts. In his first, he one-hit the Kansas City Royals...
One by one, the players who helped establish and sustain Mets success in the late 1960s and early 1970s departed. Rusty Staub in 1975. Tom Seaver in June 1977. Jerry Grote in August 1977. Jerry Koosman in 1978. All were traded, either due to front office negligence, player request, or some combination of the two. Harrelson’s turn came during spring training of ’78. The beloved...
People have been asking us all winter what we’ve been doing to pass the time during the MLB lockout. I’ll tell you what we do here at MMO — we come up with ideas that not only help us stay busy, but will help you all stay busy, too. Talking about the best teams and/or players in New York Mets history is always a good debate to have — especially during the cold winter...
In continued remembrance of Tom Seaver, here is an updated version of the chapter on him from my book “The New York Mets All-Time All-Stars,” released this February. The argument for the greatest Met ever isn’t an argument at all. Seaver rewrote the Mets history book with his golden right arm, leaving an indelible mark on this team that will be almost impossible to erase. It would be...
Ever have one of those days at either the office or the playground where you wanted to say, “I’ll show them”? Maybe as the boss walks you to the door as you lug a box of your personal items because, “It just isn’t working out”; or a now-former significant other who states, “It just isn’t working out”; or the Captain of the team selecting...
The New York Mets have had some terrific fielders make stops in Flushing over the years. Some were mainstays, others made brief visits and continued on their way. Bud Harrelson, John Olerud, Tommie Agee, Dave Magadan, David Wright, the list goes on. The offensive aspect of the game has and will continue to be baseball’s bread and butter, but elite glovework is something to behold and to be...
The New York Mets have had an odd variety of superstars, consistent cogs, placeholders, and prospects behind the plate over the course of the team’s 59-year run. While the catcher position hasn’t changed by definition over baseball’s hundred-plus-year history, the expectations and sources of value from the position have evolved over time and will continue to do so. Jerry Grote...
The New York Mets were founded in 1962 filling a void left by the departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, both going to California, and leaving the nation’s largest city without a National League franchise. The very colors of the nascent team, blue and orange, are a throwback to the two teams that went west. They started the decade of the 60s as laughing stocks, finding ways...
As a Mets fan growing up in Queens collecting baseball cards through the 1970’s, whenever I saw a Mets player was on another player’s card, it was sort of a free bonus – an extra Mets card. We’ve shown a few cards of that sort during this series, (1974 Gary Matthews with Wayne Garrett, 1989 Padres Team card with Gary Carter) and today we’re going to take a look at...
One of the greatest trades the New York Mets ever made was in the offseason of 1965, when they traded reliever Tom Parsons (who?) to the Houston Astros for a 23-year-old catcher by the name of Jerry Grote. He took over as the team’s starting catcher and would go on to become “one of the best defensive catchers the game has ever had.” Those are the words of Johnny Bench. Grote...
