Happy Thanksgiving Mets Fans!
Yesterday we covered part one of the all-time Mets Turkeys, those Mets who were supposed to do great things but didn’t. Today we cover part two, once again in no particular order.
Let’s see….don’t fight a man old enough to be your father. Don’t fight your child’s grandfather. Don’t fight in the clubhouse. Don’t injure yourself in the fight. Welcome to the Turkeys, K-Rod.
Charlie Samuels. Don’t allegedly bet on baseball. How hard is that rule to follow? Don’t allegedly do that. It’s a very simple rule. As a general rule avoiding any FBI investigation will help keep a person off the Turkey list.
Willie Randolph. Go over to some Yankees blog if you want to wax poetic on this guy. He managed the biggest choke job in history and then dug a hole for the 2008 Mets that ended with the worst stadium closing of all-time.
Fran Healy. ExTRUH BAYsus! You know how Howie Rose is awesome? Imagine how bad you would have to be to make a Howie Rose Metscast unlistenable. That was Sportschannel/FSNY’s booth. Awful.
Mickey Lolich. Here’s some data I grabbed off wikipedia that will tell you the story. What it doesn’t tell you is that he was 8-13 for the Mets, and hated New York so much that he sat out 1977 (opened a donut shop and then rejoined baseball in 1978).
- 2,679 strikeouts is #1 on the Tigers all time list
- 39 shutouts is #1 on the Tigers all time list
- 459 games started is #1 on the Tigers all time list
- 329 home runs allowed is #1 on the Tigers all time list
- 109 wild pitches is #2 on the Tigers all time list (behind Jack Morris)
- 207 wins is #3 on the Tigers all time list (behind Hooks Dauss and George Mullin)
- 508 games is #3 on the Tigers all time list (behind John Hiller and Hooks Dauss)
- 3,361 innings pitched is #3 on Tigers all time list (behind George Mullin and Hooks Dauss)
Juan Samuel. Look at the picture of Lenny Dykstra in a Phillies uniform. Feel the pain. They traded a beloved CFer and another beloved player in Roger McDowell, two of the key 1986 Mets for Juan Samuel. Sammy played 86 games for the Mets and hit .226 Dykstra was an All-Star and flirted with .400 for a while.
Victor Zambrano. Ah Victor, we surrendered Scott Kazmir for you. Well, we didn’t, the Mets did. Any fat blogger worth his salt wouldn’t have made that trade although it hurts less as time goes by.
When I first started this list I forgot one of the all-timer turkeys (which in turn makes me a blogger turkey) in Jim Fregosi. If you watched Mets Yearbook 1971 you know how excited the Mets were to get him. In 146 games across two seasons he hit .243 with 5 HRs and 43 RBI. Never mind how annoying trading Nolan Ryan for Fregosi was, the Mets sent him to Texas for a player to be named later. Nolan Ryan for “send me someone when you get around to it.” Awful.
Vince Coleman. Our next turkey was from the “if you can’t beat ’em sign ’em” Mets philosophy (under this philosophy Chase Utley will be a Met around his 39th birthday). Hit Dwight Gooden with a golf club, check. Throw a firework, check. Suspended? Check. Ever see a Coleman jersey at Citi Field? Keep waiting.
Speaking of “if you can’t beat ’em sign ’em” say you needed to win one game to save your season? Seven runs in 1/3 of an inning to complete the 2007 choke. 61-56 as a Met but my lasting memory of Tom Glavine will always be that last day.
Jeff Kent. I’m pulling out of field 6 at Jones Beach and I put on WFAN. The Mets have traded David Cone for Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson. What??? Thompson was a turkey but didn’t play enough to be an all-time turkey. Kent managed to win an MVP (elsewhere) and maybe even accumulate enough stats to make the Hall of Fame, but he’ll always be hated around these parts. He didn’t like us and we didn’t like him. We won’t see Jeff at too many Old Timer’s Days not that we have those…I mean the team has only been around for 50 years.
Steve Chilcott. The Mets had the first pick in the 1966 amateur draft. Their scouts had focused on a young outfielder attending Arizona State University. The kid had power and speed. He was a sure bet to advance though the system. Yet as the draft drew near, the Mets changed their plans and drafted Steve Chilcott, a catcher out of Lancaster, CA. The supposed reason? The young OFer was black and his girlfriend was white. Chilcott never played a game in the majors. The young OFer is in the Hall of Fame: Reggie Jackson.
Now on to 2009 inductee. Doesn’t this picture make you mad? No the Yankees didn’t just win the World Series in this photo, they just won a Subway Series game because Luis Castillo can’t catch a pop-up. We’ll be talking about that one 50 years from now. Congrats Luis, you are an unforgettable Met.
The Promenade. I’m tempted to go all-in and name the entire ballpark a turkey, but it has some nice aspects…but the upper deck is a turkey. How you could sell someone this seat and expect not to lose a customer is beyond me. I don’t know how this happened, but the Promenade is a terrible place to see the game, and in left field you can’t see the left fielder. They made better ballparks 100 years ago.
baerga!!
Happy thanksgiving to you & your family Shannon & Dan Btw you forgot Tony Fernandez & Rey Sanchez
Thanks! Going to do a readers edition of turkeys tomorrow plus or minus my energy levels.
shannon, having been at every game in ’77 and ’78 (worked for parks dept. fixing seats etc) you forgot to mention that the great and beloved rusty staub was involved in the lolich deal. here was a great ballplayer (staub) who was playing great baseball and he was sent away and in return this big fat redneck slob at the end of his career comes to shea in his place..this deal is never talked about much but in my opinion ranks maybe third in the bonehead trades the mets have made over the years. seaver is first and ryan second.
Yes…they thought Mike Vail would replace Rusty
one other thing shannon, in right field you cannot see the right fielder and most plays hit to right as well..
I nominate Roger Cedeno the sequel.
Shea had some awful seats under the overhang, in one of the mezzanine sections, completely orthogonal to viewing a baseball game.
The new Yankee Stadium’s $5 bleacher seats are even worse. Price be damned, they’re an insult to the paying customer.
I agree though, seats like these should be deeply discounted. I know enough to not get anything lower than 6 rows down in the Promenade. These particular seats close to the plexiglass aside, the Prom’s at Citi put me close to the game. I’ve seen some guys complain about sightlines, who don’t realize that this style ballpark dicatates there will be a part of the field obscured from view no matter where you sit.
About Willie, sure they had a choke job, but didn’t the Yanks have a choke in 2004, and the Sox in 78, etc.?
The fact is, when you play well, you put yourself in a position to make a spectacle of yourself when the chips are down, and sometimes you will.
I think Willie was weakened by vague support as time went along. He took a franchise which was dead and made it fun and competitive. He brought his childhood Mets fandom to the game.
Ok, maybe he was a little uptight with the press, but the press is a loathable mass of malcontents. Imo, it’s not the key aspect of his job.
We can criticize Willie all we want, but he got us within a pitch of the world series, a world series they probably would have won. I think he should have been retained, frankly. I like Delgado, but I think that he and Willie had some kind of issue, and it affected things in the clubhouse.