What happened to the Mets after 1976?

DyHrd posted this as a comment, and I believe it’s sincere.  Even if it’s drenched in sarcasm, it’s worth the discussion.

After watching the 1976 Mets Yearbook, I really want to root for the Mets in the mid-late ’70s.  They look like a team that I could get behind, from 2 years before I was born.  Someone, please, tell me what happens after that season.  There seems to be a black hole until 1984.

1977 was my first season following the Mets. At about 7 years old it was mostly about baseball cards and the fact that I lived off Roosevelt Avenue.   That there was this other team winning the World Series in that scary place called the Bronx (where the fires and Son of Sam were) meant nothing to me.  Dad took me a few stops on the 7 and we saw the Mets.

Basically, Dick Young ran Seaver out of town.  You can read a very long recap here in the Daily News.

June 15, 1977 came and the Mets shipped off #41 and Kingman.  Even at 7 that stung.  I maintain that on paper, if you’re going to trade The Franchise, the trade made sense.  They got a young lefty, a starting 2B, starting OF and some other stuff.   Unfortunately none of that panned out.

Meanwhile, the Mets had no true owner.  Long-time owner Joan Payson had died, and the family had no real interest in running the team.  So fewer people came out, to see no-name stinky players, and the Yankees won back to back in a brand new (sort of) ballpark.

I think 1979 was as bad as it gets.  63 wins.  788,905 fans (back when MLB counted actual fannies, not tickets sold).  I remember going to games when the upper deck was closed.

In 1980 the Mets finally got a new owner in Doubleday who brought in a new GM in Frank Cashen and new team president Fred Wilpon (who owned 1% of the team).

1981 and 1982 are forgettable.  I could look it up, but that would defeat my premise that they were forgettable.  SOme fun players named Mookie and Hubie (Brooks) showed up.  My boy Lee Mazzilli was dealt away for someone named Darling.

This entire period was awful.  You’d watch the All-Star game and there would be one Met (Lee Mazzilli or Stearns or a guy yo’venever heard of Joel Yongblood).  None of them started.

Seaver would do things like pitch no-hitters and pitch playoff games.  In a Reds uniform.

Oh yeah, the Yankees played in the World Series in 1981 again.

Some slogans came and went…”The Magic is Back”, “Catch the Rising Stars”, none of which was true.

1983 had one memorable game.  Opening Day.  Seaver was back.  I will never ever forget the way he walked in from the home bullpen in right, and instead of using the tunnel he walked down the right field line.  To this day it’s my favorite on-field memory, well except for the time I met Tom as a kid, a story I must share one of these days.

The sun began to rise in 1983.  The Mets fleeced the Cardinals for Hernandez, and there was a fun outfielder with a cute name Strawberry.  Good things were about to happen, and 1984 would become my favorite season ever because of all the garbage above that I lived through.  All I knew was this crap.  I didn’t see ’69 or ’73.

The reason there is a black hole is that there’s nothing to tell you about.  Nino Espinosa.  Richie Hebner.  George Foster.  George Bamberger.   Alex Trevino.  The return of Tim Foli.  An annual battle for 5th place against the arch-rival Cubs.

Any old-timers care to jump in and comment or correct my memory where it got foggy?