On August 25, 1985, Dwight Gooden of The New York Mets defeated the San Diego Padres by a 9-3 score at Shea Stadium to record his 20th win of the season. “Doctor K” would go on to post a 24-4 record for the 1985 season with a sparkling 1.53 ERA, He struck out 268 batters that year in 276 2/3 innings pitched. His ERA+ was a gaudy 229, and these numbers combined to earn Gooden the...
Good morning, Mets fans! The day has finally come! Major League Baseball Opening Day is officially upon us! Unfortunately, the Mets have to wait another day. But let’s take a look at some of the games on the slate for today. The first game on the docket is the Orioles who will be hosting the Angels while Corbin Burnes makes his Baltimore debut. The Mets’ crosstown rival Yankees go to...
Good morning, Mets fans! Wednesday night, the lone game on the docket was the Houston Astros going into Arlington to take on the Texas Rangers in Game 3 of the ALCS. The major headline heading into the game was the return of former Met Max Scherzer, who would make his postseason debut as a Ranger. The last time he was on the mound in October, it did not go well, to say the least, Scherzer went 4...
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 player who over a 23-year career compiled over 2,700 hits and many more fans—revered in Montreal and adored in New York. The passion exuded by redhead Daniel Joseph Staub was not outward. He was a...
The 2023 baseball season will see pitch clocks, larger bases, a restriction on infield shifts, and let’s not forget, a new schedule format in which every team will play every other team for the first time in history. That’s a lot, but why stop there? Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to expand to 32 teams, but questions remain on when this will happen, and which cities would be awarded...
We all have Aunts down in Florida. Okay, maybe not everyone, but I do. And recently she sent some “vintage” mid-80s Mets cards up to me in NY from a neighbor who wanted to get rid of them after her spouse passed on. In looking through them, I came across the 1986 Mets card shown below: Several things about this card. Firstly 1986 is not “vintage”. In 1986...
The pages of Mays’ storybook career were yellowing at the edges. But his star had yet to fade. Now, the Giant icon was returning to the city where it all began. Willie Mays became the game’s best player in San Francisco. Yet he remained a beloved figure in New York — even 15 years after the Giants had moved to the West Coast. Mets owner Joan Payson, once a New York Giants stakeholder when...
On April 2, 1972 Mets skipper and Gil Hodges passed away from a heart attack during spring training after playing a round of golf. He was two days shy of his 48th birthday. Rob Silverman of MMO accurately wrote that Donn Clendenon was the final piece to the championship puzzle in 1969. Hodges was the first piece. Hodges, who played 18 seasons (16 with the Dodgers, two with the Mets) and slugged...
On March 29, 2018 (Opening Day of the baseball season), Rusty Staub, one of the most popular players ever to wear the orange and blue of the New York Mets, passed away in a West Palm Beach, Florida hospital from multiple organ failure just three days shy of his 74th birthday. He had spent eight weeks in the hospital prior to his death. The Mets had obtained Daniel Joseph Staub before the 1972...
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 months — but what if we...
In between the regretful trades of Nolan Ryan to Anaheim in 1972 and Tom Seaver to Cincinnati in 1977 was the departure of one of the most beloved players in franchise history. Months before that infamous Ryan-for-Fregosi deal with the Angels, the Mets were on the receiving end of a great trade for Montreal’s Rusty Staub. It was a move that broke the hearts of a city that had fallen in...
