I stumbled across this yesterday. Excerpts below. Worth a click to the entire thing.
6. I’ll name some names and you tell me what comes to mind. It can be a thought, a memory, or whatever you want.
Ed Kranepool= Steady Eddie. Was a Met forever. Best pinch-hitter of all time in my book. Trivia: What pinch-hitter holds the highest average for one season? Ed Kranepool, close to .490 as I remember.
Jerry Koosman= Koosman? You kiddin’? So far in this series you’ve passed by Tony Gwynn, Yastrzemski, Schmidt, the greats that we’ve all wanted to talk about. You throwin’ me a bone, or did you drop the ball, ’cause the Koos is in my top 5 Mets easy. If there’s no Koosman, there might not be a miracle. Seaver lost Game 1, Koosman won the first and last game for the Mets in the ’69 series. He also (if memory serves) staved off elimination against the A’s in ’73 with a win in Game 6. He never stopped tryin’. Had his best year, 21 or 22 wins, as part of those cellar-dwellers I spoke of. Best #2 starter the Mets ever had. Loved the Koos.
Ron Hodges= Jerry Grote got old, Duffy Dyer didnt pan out, and Hodges was our capable backstop for 3 or 4 years. I got less to say about him than his bat had to say.
Lee Mazzilli= Fan favorite, great utility player and another in a long line of great Met pinch-hitters. Believe it or not, I’d like to see this guy get another shot, a real shot at managing the Mets.
Doug Sisk= Where’s he at these days? He’d have fit right into last year’s bullpen: devastating sinker that was hardly ever seen near the strike zone.
Mackey Sasser= He was the Duffy Dyer to Gary Carter. As Dyer was supposed to be the next Grote, Sasser was supposed to be the next Carter. Same result, basically. The one thing that sticks out about Sasser was the hiccup in his throw back to the mound. It looked like he was pump-faking the pitcher. Pretty funny.
Bobby Jones= What happened to him? He was pretty good. Not a flame-thrower, but a good curve that was so slow it was like an offspeed pitch. Almost no-hit the Giants in the Playoffs in 2000. Damn Jeff Kent! Guy was good for win totals in the teens every year, and for the life of me I can’t remember what happened to him.
Butch Huskey= Mid-90’s role player for 2 or 3 years. Played everywhere but pitcher and catcher, I think. I guess he was there just waiting until the Mets got a real 3rd baseman.
Edgardo Alfonzo= Think he’s still playin’ minor league ball in the area? I dont know. This one leaves all Met fans scratching their heads. He was so good for about 2 years and then just got so bad so fast it made our heads spin. Kinda like Andruw Jones, he just lost it.
www.metspolice.com
Here’s what I think of:
Ed Kranepool: April 8 1978. Krane hits a Pinch-hit HR to beat Montreal. The whole place goes nuts. Ed-die. Ed-die. I was 8. He looked old to me then but I thought he was cool.
Jerry Koosman: Obviously a great pitcher but those later Met years were horrible.
Ron Hodges: A steady backup. I have no idea why but for years I also thought he threw lefthanded.
Lee Mazzilli: Should’ve been the MVP of the All Star game. He homered to tie the game and then walked in the go-ahead run. People say he was a fan favorite and that’s not totally true. Chicks dug him…he was a chick favorite.
Doug Sisk: The answer to a great trivia question. When the ball went through Buckner’s legs in ’86 who was warming up for the Mets in the bullpen?
Mackey Sasser: If he only could throw the ball back to the pitcher.
Bobby Jones: Really underrated as a MLB pitcher. I always felt they would win when he was on the mound.
Butch Huskey: One of the most hated men in the locker room. Would want to get more hits than anybody but would then wish his teammates 0-4.
Edgardo Alfonzo: Overrated. A nice player but never as good as people thought he was.