Over the Mets 52 seasons, there have been 23 different players who could be classified as “primary” starting First Baseman. With first base being a big question mark going into the upcoming season, it’s hard to believe that Ike Davis has already played more games (426) at first than all but four other men in the history of the franchise.
Some of these starters didn’t play a tremendous amount of games at the position – the 5 starters with the fewest games played at first base as a Met were:
1 – Mike Piazza – the primary first baseman in 2004. 69 games at first, 68 in 2004 with 66 starts.
2 – Doug Mientkiewicz – our 2005 starter. 83 games at first with 79 starts.
3 – David Segui – our 1994 starter. 85 games at first. In 1994, he appeared in 78 games at first with 70 starts.
4 – Butch Huskey – our 1996 first baseman. 97 games at first. 75 in 2004 with 69 starts.
5 – Marv Throneberry – Marvelous Marv was the 1962 first bagger. 100 games at first with the Mets. 97 were in 1962 with 89 starts.
But who were the best First Basemen in the history of the Mets? I’ve assembled a list of the top 10 contenders – they were all starters in at least two seasons and appeared in the most games at first base for the Mets.
I thought it would be fun to throw the vote out to you, the fans – and see how we’d rank the Best of the Mets.
The contenders – the years they were the primary starter are in parenthesis:
10 – Eddie Murray – (1992-1993). He played in 308 games at first with 306 starts. In 1993, the Hall of Famer hit .285 with 27 HR and 100 RBI.
9 – Dave Kingman – (1981-1982). He played 340 games at first with 314 starts. 191 of his starts came in 1981-1982. In 1982, Kingman led the NL with 37 HR to go with 99 RBI while batting .204.
8 – John Milner – (1973-74, 1977). He played in 366 games at first with 342 starts (305 in 1973-74 & 1977). In 1973 for the Ya Gotta Believe! team, he hit .239 with 23 HR and 72 RBI.
7 – Todd Zeile – (2000-2001). Todd played in 367 games at first with 327 starts (293 coming in 2000-01). For the 2000 World Series team, Todd hit .268 with 22 HR and 79 RBI and 36 doubles.
6 – Dave Magadan (1989-91). Dave played in 417 games at first with 354 starts (288 coming in 1989-91). For the 1990 team, he hit .328 with 6 HR, 72 RBI and a .417 OBP. In 1990, he was 3rd in the NL in hitting and 2nd in OBP.
5 – Ike Davis (2010, 2012-13). Ike has played in 426 games at first with 401 starts (365 in 2010, 2012-13). In 2012, he hit .227 with 32 HR and 90 RBI.
4 – Carlos Delgado (2006-08) Carlos played 458 games at first – all starts (433 in 2006-08). In 2006, he hit 265 with 38 HR and 114 RBI.
3 – John Olerud (1997-99) John played 463 games at first with 449 starts. In 1998, he hit .354 with 22 HR, 93 RBI, 36 doubles and a .447 OBP. In 1998, he was 2nd in the NL in hitting and 2nd on OBP.
2 – Keith Hernandez (1983-1988). Keith played 854 games at first with 835 starts (780 from 1983-88). In 1986, Keith hit .310 with 13 HR, 83 RBI, 34 doubles, 94 walks, and an OBP of .413. Keith won 6 consecutive gold gloves as a Met from 1983-1988.
1 – Ed Kranepool (1964-69, 71-72, 75-76). Ed played 1,302 games at first with 1,165 starts (1,019 in his 10 seasons as the primary first baseman). He had a career high 138 starts in 1965 when he hit .253 with 10 HR and 53 RBI.
So how would you rank these top 10 First Basemen in Mets History? Email me your votes at [email protected] and we’ll see how the fan base decides Who’s on First?
