We’re looking back at the 50th anniversary of the Mets’ 1973 National League pennant-winning team by reviewing the most inspirational figures of that remarkable run. We continue with a hero of 1969 who while he didn’t have the same year-long success as four years before was instrumental when it counted most. It’s impossible to think about the Miracle Mets season and not...
Perhaps the most important trade in Mets’ history wasn’t even for a player. In the story of a franchise, there are a few seminal moments. The acquisition and appointment of Gil Hodges as manager is definitely one of them. He had been a Met, a member of the original 1962 club in the twilight of his playing career. More famously, Hodges was a significant part of the Dodgers’ success in...
The words on the giant Shea Stadium scoreboard captured the seminal moment: “Look Who’s No. 1.” The Mets swept a doubleheader from the Montreal Expos and got a solid from the Philadelphia Phillies as they beat the Chicago Cubs. On the board in right-center field, a snapshot of the up-to-date standings with the accompanying headline. Just a night earlier, the Cubs had left New York...
Good Morning, Mets fans! Latest Mets News The Mets opened up Summer Camp 2.0 in MCU Park, the Mets’ alternate training ground. The club sent a bevy of minor-leaguers, including David Peterson, Ryley Gilliam, Drew Smith, among others, to the site. Jacob deGrom left his simulated game yesterday after pitching an inning due to a sore back. It must be tired from carrying the team on it....
On this date in 1962, the Mets signed 17-year-old Ed Kranepool. He would make his Major League debut later that year at 17 years and 318 days old. Kranepool, 75, recently battled renal disease and had a successful life-saving kidney transplant. Eddie was on a waiting list for two years before he finally found a donor who was a perfect match, Deborah Barbieri, a 56 year old Mets fan from Nassau...
Brian Wright selects: Cleon Jones Statistically, some of his overall rankings in Mets history have been overshadowed mainly due to the offense-friendly eras that followed him and the era in which he played — when offense was more at a premium. Even among left fielders like Kevin McReynolds, he falls short in home runs, slugging percentage, and adjusted OPS. But when we measure the weight...
Well, the Mets lost. It’s not as if that’s a shock. Let’s face it, the Mets rarely win. Aside from the Miracle Mets of 1969 and the New York squad of 1986, the Mets have fallen short of a World Series championship during their other 55 campaigns. But this time was supposed to be different. It was online baseball. Instead of playing in the spacious Citi Field with...
You could say that center fielder Tommie Agee never hit the ground running when the New York Mets acquired him along with Al Weis from the Chicago White Sox for Jack Fisher, Tommy Davis and a pair of minor leaguers. In fact, after consecutive All Star campaigns for the White Sox, Agee had a dreadful ’68 season for the Mets. It started out by getting beaned by the hard-throwing Bob Gibson...
In our continuing attempt to help fill the baseball void, we present the first-ever World Series home game in Mets history — better known as the “Tommie Agee Takeover.” Agee thwarted the Baltimore Orioles’ chances to gain a 2-1 edge in a series they were almost universally expected to win. His bat helped give New York the early lead, then his dazzling defense took over...
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...
The Mets have now lost seven games in a row. Of those, the team has blown a late lead five times. As of Sunday, the club is 37-47 and 13 games out of first place in the National League East. Despite the tribute to the 1969 Miracle Mets this weekend, frustrations boiled over on Saturday at Citi Field. Right-handed reliever Seth Lugo allowed back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning that gave...
The Mets can’t seem to find their way out of the headlines around the media outlets these days, and not for good reason. Despite their struggles on the field, the weekend of June 28-30 was slated to be a happy one, as the franchise honored the 50th anniversary of the 1969 World Series champion “Miracle Mets.” However, not even that went seamlessly, as the Mets erroneously...
