This Day In Mets Infamy With Rusty: The “Four Your Consideration” Edition

In four days from now there will ne the sound of cowhide covered baseballs hitting leather catchers mitts – in other words pitchers and catchers will finally commence at the Mets spring training facilities at Citi Field. So this tidbit of useless information brought me to ponder “who are the best players/managers/coaches to ever wear the number  4 for our Metsies ?”.

Well I went to the Mets By The Numbers site to do my research of the four best/most prolific people to wear the number 4 and the list was huge. According to the site there have been 28 people in Mets history to wear this number. Everybody from recent history ( Wilmer Flores), the mundane (Colin Cowgill, Bruce Boisclair, John Valentin) to original Met, Charlie Neal.

So here is the list of the top four Mets to ever wear the number 4 (According to me ).

4. Ron Swoboda: “Rocky” wore the number four from his sophomore year as the Mets outfielder in 1966 until the 1971 offseason when he was traded to the Montreal Expos for outfielder, Don Hahn. In his six seasons with the Mets Ron compiled 69 homers, 304 rbi’s , but he will always known for making “The Catch” during game four of the ’69 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles.

3. Lenny Dykstra: The player known as Nails is quite possibly the one of the most exciting cogs of the ’86 World Championship teams. He made his debut in ’85 as a platoon partner for Mookie Wilson and wore the number four until he along with reliever, Roger McDowell and starting pitcher, Tom Edens were traded to the Philadelphia Philies for second baseman turned centerfielder, Juan Samuel in 1989. To this day that trade ranks in my top 5 of worst Mets trades ever. Lenny was a sparkplug at the top of the line up.  Him and Wally Backman when they both were in the line up were the prototypical table setters.

2. Robin Ventura : Ventura wore the number 4 from Opening Day of ’99 until he was traded to the New York Yankees in ’01 for a past his prime David Justice. In his three seasons with the Mets, Robin was an offensive force.  he may have only batted .260 during his Mets career but he hit 77 homers and knocked in  265 RBI’s in regular season games. Robin’s offense had slipped during the ’99 and ’00 post seasons, but he will always be known for the “Grand Slam Single” that  he hit in the 15th inning of game six against the Atlanta Braves in ’99.

And for me the best player to ever wear the number four for the Mets is none other than Rusty Staub (’72-’74) If you wonder why I have him as my number one than you are oblivious to my nom de plume (Rusty Jr) or to Mets history in general !

Well do you agree with my list ? Who would you add or omit ?

And with that said… HERE COMES THE INFAMY !!!!!

Mets alumni celebrating a birthday today includes:

Spot starter/middle reliever from the ’67 season, Chuck Estrada is 77 (1938).

Mets middle reliever from the ’92 season, Barry Jones is 52 (1963).

Sadly on this date in 2011, Joe Frazier, the Mets manager from ’76-’77 passed away.

Transactions Of Note Include:

The San Diego Padres signed starting pitcher, Bobby Jones of the New York Mets as a free agent on February 15, 2001. I still don’t understand until this day why the Mets let Jones walk. He had compiled a 74-56 record in 8 seasons with the Mets and he will always be remembered for the one hit shutout that he threw against the San Francisco Giants.

The Detroit Tigers signed middle reliever, Vic Darensbourg of the New York Mets as a free agent on February 15, 2005.

The New York Mets signed free agent reserve outfielder,  Brady Clark on February 15, 2008.

The New York Mets signed free agent reliever,  Jason Isringhausen on February 15, 2011. This was a homecoming of sorts for the one time “Generation K” phenom. He earned his 300th career save that season.

Mo Vaughn has been known to eat four whole trays of L&B Pizza !!!!