I saw Centerfield Maz (the blogger, not Lee) the other night at the bar and I told him how “these kids today” have no idea about Mets history. I was stunned when a 24 year old adult Mets fan came up to me and said that he had no idea that Nolan Ryan was a met, and he couldn’t believe that he was traded for “Jim Vregosi.”
Maz told me he had written the piece below, which I share in full, and invite you to check out the Centerfield Maz blog.
Former Met of the Day: Yikes !!! It’s Jim Fregosi
Jim Fregosi goes down in Mets history as being the guy we got when we traded Nolan Ryan. Yes it still is the worst trade the Mets ever made. Imagine a rotation of Seaver, Ryan, Koosman & Matlack!!! Only if………..but its Fregosi’s birthday & we’ll give him a break, here’s a quick bio on the Former Met of the Day. Born April 4, 1962 in San Francisco, Fregosi became one of the first stars of the Los Angeles/ California Angels in their early years. He led the AL in doubles twice, made five All Star appearances, won the 1967 Gold Glove Award and became known as one of the best hitting shortstops in the game. He was 7th in the AL in hitting in 1967 & was 7th in the MVP voting. 9 HRs 23 doubles 56 RBIs. In 1970 he was sidelined with a tumor on his foot, and the Angels gave up on him.
The Mets front office decided that Fregosi would be the answer to their third base problem, figuring he would be back to full strength again. Poor Wayne Garrett, again being over looked by the Mets organization as a capable third baseman. The 1971 Mets definitely needed some power in their line up and the thinking was Fregosi was their man. Besides with Seaver,Koosman, & Jon Matlack ready to come up the wild Nolan Ryan was expendable. Oh how wrong they were.
On December 10, 1971 Fregosi & Ryan were swapped, the Mets even threw in a good outfielder named Leroy Stanton & two other banannas. Fregosi was sidelined by several injuries including a broken thumb in 1972, and he struggled. In 100 games he hit a dismal .232 with 5 HRs and 32 RBIs, he was just awful. The next year, 1973 he was hitting .238 without any home runs and 11 RBIs when the Mets had enough. He was sold to the Texas Rangers by mid season.
Wayne Garrett went on to be the Mets third baseman and one of their more productive hitters as the Mets won the pennant. Nolan Ryan went on to win 19 games and strike out 329
batters with a 2.29 ERA in California, en route to Cooperstown. This trade haunted the Mets for years and still does for long time fans.
Fregosi stayed in Texas for 5 years then finished up in Pittsburgh by 1978. In his 18-year career, Fregosi batted .265 with 1726 hits, 151 HRs, 706 RBI, 264 doubles,in 1902 games played. He would go on to a successful managing career with the Angels, winning them their 1st AL West title ever in 1979, with guess who? Nolan Ryan as the ace of the staff. He replaced Tony Larussa as White Sox manager then won a pennant with 1993 Phillies. His number 11 is retired by the Angels. But there will certainly be no #2 hanging in the Citi Field rafters.
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