Joe Frazier & The 1976 Mets

Stumbled across this really cool piece about the 1976 Mets and Joe Frazier.

That’s a year before my time – my earliest Mets memory must be like June 10, 1977 since I remember being devastated that both Kingman & Seaver were gone – and I remember Joe Torre being manager.

Joe Frazier?  I couldn’t pick him, Salty Parker or Wes Westrum out of a Mets police lineup.

A few weeks back I obsessed with and learned how to correctly spell Jon Matlack (read here and here ) so it was nice to get a glimpse into the ’76 Mets.

Here’s a one paragraph excerpt and then do the right thing and send Jimmy Scott’s Blog some hits for the rest.

There is always 1976 to look at.  Frazier’s rookie year was his only full season managing in the big leagues.  With a big three pitching staff of Tom Seaver, Jon Matlack and Jerry Koosman, who won 21 games, followed up by Swan and Mickey Lolich, the team was able to overcome a problem that plagued those mid-1970s Mets, an anemic offense.  They couldn’t follow that up the next year.  Forty-five games into the 1977 season, Frazier was fired.  Joe Torre took over for the 15 and 30 team on May 31st, 15 games under .500.   With Torre at the helm, Grant would trade away Seaver and the team would go 19 games under .500 and go on to lose 90 games.  The New York Mets did not post a winning season for another 7 years.

www.metspolice.com