This Day In Mets Infamy With Rusty: The ” Give Him The Full Nelson Treatment” Edition

This past Wednesday, June 17th one time Mets owner and publishing giant, Nelson Doubleday passed away at the age of 81. The New York Mets were quick to send out a press release to send their regards to the Doubleday family, but no details of any other type of tribute were released.

This past Friday the Mets finally announced that this coming Friday, June 26th against the Cincinnati Reds there would be a moment of silence to honor Nelson’s memory – but that would be all .

No Patch.

No armband.

No decal of tribute on the outfield wall of Citi Field.

And as usual this team shows how tone deaf they truly are.

It is no secret that by the end of their business relationship that neither Nelson Doubleday nor Fred Wilpon were on speaking terms. Reports suggested that Nelson was quite upset when an independent appraiser valued the Mets at a price that was quite lower than his estimates. Nelson also was against building a new stadium (Citi Field), and instead having Shea Stadium renovated and retrofitted at a fraction of the cost.

But still no matter what kind of bad blood existed between these two men should be set aside by the Mets ownership and a better tribute should be instituted. a patch was worn when Mets general manager, Frank Cashen passed away as it was with Gary Carter ( patch and centerfield wall decal), as did both Ralph Kiner and Bill Shea ( both patch and names emblazed with the retired numbers  on the Party City Party Deck. ) Mets radio announcer, Bob Murphy even had the honor of a  ceremonial patch upon his passing back in ’04.

Moments of silence from what I’ve seen with the Mets are usually relegated to former players that were not all time greats or long time employees that have passed. In my opinion the fact that Nelson will not be feted with a patch or a place for his name  on the outfield wall  comes across as an extremely petty action by the Mets ownership.

As a child I always saw Nelson as the defacto owner and Fred as the minority partner. And for many years that was true until Fred was able to raise enough capital to amass a 50% ownership stake in the team. We all know that it was Nelson that had the open checkbook and it was reported that when we traded for Mike Piazza it was because of Nelson’s insistence (and Fred’s alleged unwillingness) to import the slugging future Hall of Fame catcher from the Marlins.

I would love to say that if it was Fred and not Nelson who sold their team stake that these last 8 years would be a lot different- and when I say different I mean better, but that is just speculation and maybe romanticizing Nelson’s input to this team. But with that said Nelson deserves a better honor than he is being allotted.

Yesterday Shannon Shark ( @metspolice )urged you to bombard the New York Mets social media feeds to champion a better tribute to Nelson Doubleday. I am reiterating his sentiment and I hope that we can make this team change their plans because I think aside from winning, this is what the true New York Mets fans want.

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

Mets Alumni celebrating a birthday today includes:

The “true father” of the New York Mets, Bill Shea would have been 108 today (1907). It was Bill’s vision to bring National League baseball back to New York City after both the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants – lured by sweetheart deals and new stadiums left for the greener pastures of California. And after about 3 years of red tape, and threats of creating a new independent Federal League to compete with the MLB a deal, negotiated by Shea was struck and the Mets were born. If Joan Payson was the mother of the Mets then like a said earlier Bill was the father. Happy Birthday and Happy Father’s Day Mr. Shea.

Middle reliever from ’89-’90, Jeff Musselman turns 52 (1963). Jeff is mostly (in)famous for being the main piece that the Mets received in return for the deal that sent fan favorite Mookie Wilson to the Toronto Blue Jays in late ’89.

 Other transactions of note include:
The New York Mets sold the contract of reserve outfielder, Al Luplow to the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 21, 1967.

The New York Mets traded reserve infielder, Brian Ostrosser to the Cleveland Indians for minor league infielder, Dwain Anderson on June 21, 1974.

Mo Vaughn has announced that he will go on a hunger strike and not eat a lick of food until the Mets honor the legacy  of Nelson Doubleday with more than a moment of silence.