The Most With The Least: Wayne Garrett (1969-76)

In the early 1980s, James Ingram sang, "I did my best, but I guess my best wasn't good enough."  The opening line from his hit song, "Just Once", referred to a relationship that continued to fail despite the repeated attempts to make it work.  The lyric could also apply to an infielder on the Mets who gave his best effort to the team for nearly eight full seasons, yet could never do enough to satisfy the club.

Although this player was equally adept at three infield positions (second base, shortstop and third base), the Mets already had two middle infielders starting most of their games in Ken Boswell and Bud Harrelson.  The team then acquired three-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner Felix Millan to play second, leaving third base as the only position with a vacancy sign on it.

Despite having good pop and a tremendous eye at the plate, the Mets were still reluctant to give this young and talented player a longer look at third base.  As a result, the club made two ill-advised trades to acquire veteran players who were deemed better suited to handle the hot corner.  Neither third baseman panned out in New York, while the players they were traded for went on to become legends for their respective teams.  And while all this was happening, the player who was never trusted to play third base on a regular basis ended up having a solid career of his own - one that could have produced fantastic numbers had the team just had a little more faith in his abilities.

Wayne Garrett could have solved the third base conundrum, if only the Mets had noticed.  (Focus On Sport/Getty Images)

In 1965, Ronald Wayne Garrett, a 17-year-old infielder from Sarasota, Florida, was selected by the Milwaukee Braves in the sixth round of the inaugural June amateur draft.  A year later, the Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta, just as Garrett was moving from one minor league affiliate to another.  Following the 1968 campaign - his fourth in the Braves' system - Garrett was scooped up by the New York Mets in the Rule 5 draft, which required him to stay on the Mets' 25-man roster for the entire 1969 season.

Even before Garrett took the field for the first time as a Met, the team had already set its sights on acquiring a regular third baseman in five-time All-Star Joe Torre.  But Mets general manager Johnny Murphy decided not to complete the deal with the Braves, as Atlanta GM Paul Richards was asking for outfielder Amos Otis and pitcher Nolan Ryan in return - a price Murphy considered too steep.  When their plans to acquire Torre fell through, the Mets decided to go with an assortment of players at third base, hoping to find one player who could stand out above the others.

Although Garrett was in the starting lineup as the Mets' third baseman more than any other player on the roster in 1969, he still only started 63 games at the position, as manager Gil Hodges used Ed Charles at the hot corner 45 times and Bobby Pfeil on 40 occasions.  The three players combined to produce a .222 batting average and .281 slugging percentage.  At a position known for power hitting, Garrett, Charles and Pfeil hit just four home runs between them in 780 at-bats.  But as the sole left-handed hitter among the three third basemen, Garrett got the nod to start at the hot corner in the National League Championship Series against the Braves, who used right-handed starting pitchers in all three games.  The move paid off for the Mets, as Garrett reached base seven times in the series, tying him for the team lead.  Garrett didn't just reach base often; he also reached base during key moments of the series.

In Game One, the Mets trailed the Braves, 5-4, as the teams moved to the eighth inning.  Garrett began the frame with a double off starting pitcher and future Hall of Famer Phil Niekro.  He then scored the tying run on a single by Cleon Jones.  Garrett's hit kicked off a five-run rally by the Mets, giving them a 9-5 lead, which became the final score an inning later.

Garrett contributed in several ways in Game Two, coaxing a walk from pitcher Ron Reed in the first inning, then participating in a double steal with Jones, which eventually led to the game's first run.  Two innings later, Garrett delivered an RBI single off reliever Paul Doyle to give the Mets a 6-0 lead.  In his next at-bat, Garrett doubled and scored to increase the lead to 9-1.  The extra runs were crucial, as the Braves rallied for five runs in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 9-6.  But the bullpen combo of Ron Taylor and Tug McGraw kept Atlanta off the scoreboard the rest of the way to seal the victory for the Mets.

The third game saw the series go back to New York, and Garrett saved his most clutch at-bat for the Shea faithful.  Trailing 4-3 in the fifth inning after Orlando Cepeda took Nolan Ryan deep for a two-run homer, Garrett returned the favor, blasting a go-ahead two-run shot of his own off Braves starter Pat Jarvis.  The Mets then tacked on two more runs to win the game and the series, with Garrett fielding a Tony Gonzalez grounder and throwing to first baseman Ed Kranepool for the pennant-clinching out.

Garrett's star turn in the NLCS didn't lead to many at-bats in the World Series, as the American League champion Orioles used left-handed starting pitchers in four of the five games.  But Garrett still reached base twice in four plate appearances in the Fall Classic to give him an impressive .357/.500/.714 slash line in the 1969 postseason.

This was one of Wayne Garrett's few at-bats in the 1969 World Series.  (Focus On Sport/Getty Images)

Despite Garrett's heroics in October, the Mets did not trust him to be the team's starting third baseman in 1970.  A year after not wanting to trade Amos Otis to the Braves for Joe Torre, general manager Johnny Murphy parted ways with the outfield prospect, sending Otis to the Kansas City Royals for third baseman Joe Foy.  Within six weeks of the deal, Murphy suffered two massive heart attacks and died.  The Mets' dreams of repeating as world champions, along with Foy's career, died as well in 1970.

Foy, who was never comfortable defensively at third base, committed 18 errors in 94 starts at the position for the Mets in 1970.  He also underachieved as a hitter, batting .236 with 12 doubles, six homers and 37 RBI in his one season in New York, after averaging 20 doubles, 13 homers, 61 RBI and a .250 batting average in his first four major league seasons.

While Foy was flushing away his career in Flushing, Garrett was continuing his development as a fine major league player.  Garrett started 67 games at third base and 34 games at second.  Despite collecting only 366 at-bats (just 44 more than Foy had in 1970), Garrett was third on the team in homers (12), second in runs scored (74), second in walks (81), fourth in slugging percentage (.421), third in OPS (.811) and he led the Mets with a .390 on-base percentage.  With the Mets losing Foy to the Washington Senators in the 1970 Rule 5 draft, Garrett's road to the starting third base position appeared to be free of obstacles.  That is, until the United States military came a-callin'.

Because of the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, Garrett was required to spend the first half of 1971 on active duty.  Once he completed his service, the Mets sent him to AAA-Tidewater, where he hit three home runs in 11 games.  With Garrett away, the Mets handed over the third base job to veteran Bob Aspromonte, who was the last member of the Brooklyn Dodgers to play in the majors (he had one at-bat for Brooklyn in 1956).  The 33-year-old Aspromonte - who was nearly ten years Garrett's senior - hadn't started more than 74 games at the hot corner in any season since 1967, but Hodges inserted him in the starting lineup at third base in 73 of the Mets' first 95 games.  Aspromonte was a disappointment as Garrett's fill-in, batting .244 with a .298 on-base percentage and grounding into as many double plays (12) as he had doubles (7) and homers (5) combined.  Just as disappointing was Wayne Garrett, who returned from Tidewater in late July to bat just .213 with one homer and 11 RBI in 235 plate appearances.

General manager Bob Scheffing, who took over for Johnny Murphy after his untimely passing, had grown impatient with the lack of production at third base.  Garrett's poor production despite having been away from baseball for several months while serving his country led Scheffing to make what many still consider to be the worst trade in franchise history, as he sent Nolan Ryan and three other players to the California Angels for shortstop Jim Fregosi, who had never played a single inning at third base in his 11 seasons with the Angels.  Scheffing assumed Fregosi could make a smooth transition from one infield position to another, yet failed to consider that Fregosi's offensive production in 1971 (.233, 5 HR, 33 RBI in 107 games) was eerily similar to what the Mets got from Aspromonte in the same campaign (.225, 5 HR, 33 RBI in 104 games).  Needless to say, Fregosi was a bust as a Met, while Ryan embarked on a Hall of Fame career as an Angel.

(Focus On Sport/Getty Images)

Garrett did not perform particularly well as the understudy to Fregosi in 1972, batting .232 with two homers and 29 RBI in 298 at-bats, but despite the low batting average, he still managed to lead the team with a .374 on-base percentage (Fregosi reached base at a relatively unimpressive .311 clip).  In doing so, Garrett accomplished something no other Met - past or present - has been able to match.  During the 1972 campaign, Garrett collected 69 hits and walked 70 times in 114 games, making him the only Mets player who played in at least 100 games to have more walks than hits.  The only players to come close to matching Garrett were Bud Harrelson in 1974 (75 hits, 71 walks in 106 games) and Ike Davis in 2013 (65 hits, 57 walks in 103 games).

When the 1973 season started, the Mets were four years removed from their world championship season and had yet to win more than 83 games or finish higher than third place in the division in any subsequent season.  Once again, the Mets turned to Fregosi at third base, with the veteran starting seven of the team's first eight games.  But by early May, Fregosi's batting average had dipped below .200, he had yet to produce a home run and he had driven in just three runs, all while striking out once every four at-bats.  Meanwhile, Wayne Garrett was off to a fantastic start, posting a .268/.388/.439 slash line in his first 99 plate appearances through the middle of May.  In early June, shortstop Bud Harrelson was placed on the disabled list with a fractured wrist, moving Fregosi to his natural position and allowing Garrett to become the team's everyday third baseman for the first time in his five-year career.  By late June, Fregosi was still not producing at the plate, causing the Mets to cut ties with the six-time All-Star by selling his contract to the Texas Rangers.

With Garrett finally entrenched as the team's starting third baseman, the 25-year-old produced his best season in the majors.  In July, Garrett reached base 50 times (31 hits, 19 walks) in 128 plate appearances and he also scored 19 runs while driving in a dozen.  Even though Garrett was finally enjoying personal success, the team was not, as the Mets found themselves in last place with a 58-70 record on August 26.  But on August 27, in the Mets' 6-5 victory over the San Diego Padres, Garrett reached base four times as the team's leadoff hitter and scored the run that gave the Mets a lead they never relinquished.  That win began a season-ending stretch in which the Mets went 24-9, overtaking every team in the N.L. East to win their second division title in five years.  A key reason for New York's surge from worst to first was the play of Wayne Garrett.

Beginning with his effort on August 27, Garrett started 30 of the Mets' final 33 games, producing an impressive .328/.415/.603 slash line.  Garrett collected 16 extra-base hits (seven doubles, two triples, seven homers) and scored 26 times during the five-week stretch.  He also drove in 18 runs - a phenomenal total for a leadoff hitter in such a short period of time.  On the defensive side, Garrett played a key role in the memorable "Ball On The Wall" play, which took place on September 20 against the first place Pittsburgh Pirates.  In the top of the 13rd inning, Bucs outfielder Dave Augustine hit a long fly ball that bounced off the top of the left field fence, staying in the park before it settled into the glove of left fielder Cleon Jones.  Jones then fired the ball to cutoff man Garrett, who had replaced Bud Harrelson at shortstop three innings earlier, and Garrett threw a perfect strike to catcher Ron Hodges to nail Richie Zisk at the plate.  The Mets won the game in the bottom of the 13th on an RBI single by Hodges and moved into first place the following night.  Less than two weeks later, they were crowned champions of the National League East.

Looking back at the pivotal play that helped propel the Mets into first place, Jones admitted that he knew the ball was not going to clear the left field fence, and credited Garrett's positioning as the cutoff man as the main reason why the Mets were able to retire Zisk at the plate.

"Luckily, Garrett was at short," said Jones.  "If Harrelson had been there, he would have taken the relay much further in the outfield and we would never have gotten Zisk."

YouTube video courtesy of Warren Zvon

In 1973, Garrett started 118 games at third base - the first time he started more than 70 games at the position.  Garrett produced career highs across the board, finishing the regular season with 20 doubles, 16 homers, 58 RBI and 74 runs scored.  He was either first, second or third on the team in almost every offensive category and finished fourth in the National League in assists by a third baseman (280) and second in double plays turned (36) despite not starting at the hot corner in 43 of the team's 161 games played.

Garrett's second trip to the postseason wasn't as productive as his first, as he reached base just twice in 24 plate appearances against the Cincinnati Reds.  But he made up for it in the World Series, reaching base ten times in the seven-game loss to the Oakland A's.  Garrett homered off Vida Blue in Game Two and led off Game Three with a home run against future Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter.  But he also made the final out of the Fall Classic, popping out to shortstop Bert Campaneris with two runners on base when a third home run of the series would have tied the game.

After a disappointing end to the 1973 season, Garrett went into the 1974 campaign knowing he was the everyday third baseman for the first time in his career.  Garrett started a career-high 136 games at third in 1974, but the team suffered through its first losing season since 1968 - when Garrett was still bouncing around in the Braves' organization.  Garrett continued to be one of the Mets' more productive players at the plate (13 HR, 53 RBI, 89 walks), but his teammates were not as successful with a bat in their hands, as the Mets finished the season at or near the bottom of the league in many offensive categories.

Although Garrett had proven himself to be a capable third baseman and one of the better offensive players on the team in 1973 and 1974, the front office felt the Mets needed to upgrade their offense, acquiring power-hitting Dave Kingman to play left field and 15-year veteran Joe Torre to play third base - the same Joe Torre who could have been a Met six years earlier had the Mets wanted to part ways with Amos Otis and Nolan Ryan.

Once again, Garrett stood to lose playing time to a more experienced player and once again, Garrett's replacement did not perform well.  Just four years removed from his MVP season in which he led the league in batting average (.363) and RBI (137), Torre had the worst full season of his career, batting a career-low .247.  Torre's six home runs ended a streak of 12 consecutive seasons in which he reached double digits in homers.  He also managed just 35 RBI in 400 plate appearances, or more than 100 fewer than he had during his MVP campaign.

What made Torre's acquisition seem like more of a bust was that Garrett - who was never a high-average hitter - produced a higher batting average (.266) than Torre.  Garrett also matched Torre in homers and finished just one RBI short of Torre's total, even though Garrett had nearly 100 fewer at-bats than Torre did in 1975.  And for the third time in his seven seasons with the team, Garrett led the Mets in on-base percentage, this time with a robust .379 mark.

Wayne Garrett poses with The Coop and Joey Beartran in 2011.  (Photo by Ed Leyro/Studious Metsimus)

In 1976, the Mets posted the second-highest win total in franchise history, going 86-76 under new manager Joe Frazier.  But Garrett was long gone before the team got to celebrate its successful season.  After starting 58 of the team's first 90 games at third base, Garrett was traded to the Montreal Expos, ending his long career with the Mets.  At the time of the trade, Garrett was among the team leaders in runs scored and walks, but he was only hitting .223 and had produced just four homers - his lowest total in four years.  Although Garrett did not believe the Mets would trade him, he knew his lack of production wasn't doing him any favors.

"I am surprised, certainly, but it hasn't been a good year for me," said Garrett.  "I guess that was the reason (for the trade)."

Garrett played nearly eight seasons with the Mets, reaching the postseason twice.  His three postseason homers have been surpassed by just seven Mets players (through 2015) and only eight Mets have walked more times in the playoffs than Garrett, who drew nine bases on balls in 17 career postseason games.  When he played his final game for the Mets in 1976, Garrett ranked among the team's all-time leaders in several offensive categories, despite starting more than 70 games at his familiar third base position in just two of his eight seasons with the team.  Garrett was fifth in hits (667), eighth in doubles (93), tied for fourth in triples (20), ninth in homers (55), sixth in RBI (295), fourth in runs scored (389), fourth in stolen bases (33) and second in walks (482).  Through the 2015 season, Garrett still ranks in the team's all-time top thirty in hits, triples, RBI and runs scored.  He's also in the top twenty in games played (883; 16th), on-base percentage (.348; 19th) and WAR (13.9; 19th).  And only David Wright, Darryl Strawberry, Bud Harrelson and Howard Johnson drew more walks in their Mets careers than Garrett.

Despite the Mets' best efforts to replace him at third base with players such as Joe Foy, Jim Fregosi and Joe Torre, Garrett ended up playing 711 games at the position for the Mets, while Foy, Fregosi and Torre combined to play just 287 games at the hot corner.  To this day, only David Wright and Howard Johnson have played more games at third than Garrett.

Wayne Garrett probably would have liked to play more for the Mets, but the team always felt there was someone better suited to play third base.  After not wanting to part ways with Amos Otis and Nolan Ryan for third baseman Joe Torre in 1969, the Mets eventually did trade away both players in separate deals for two third basemen who both flopped in Flushing.  Otis went on to become a five-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glove winner and had four top-ten finishes in the MVP vote, while Ryan became the greatest strikeout pitcher and no-hit artist of all-time, eventually being inducted in the Hall of Fame and having his number retired by every team he played for after he left the Mets.

In Matthew Silverman's book, "Swinging '73: Baseball's Wildest Season", Garrett explained how he never changed his approach to playing the game even as the Mets were constantly trying to change the identity of their starting third baseman.

Image courtesy of Topps

"I would just go out and play.  I'd play every game the same, as hard as I could. ... I can't go out and make demands.  They're the ones that make the choices as to who plays and who doesn't play.  I'd just do the best that I could and if they wanted to play me at third base, then I'd play third base."

For nearly eight full seasons, Wayne Garrett did his best for a team that always seemed ready to replace him.  But the Mets constantly wanted the next best thing at third base instead of using a player they already had.  And through it all, Garrett just kept on chugging, making his way up the Mets' all-time leader board even as the team kept sitting him on the bench more often than he probably deserved.

The team lost so much when it traded away Amos Otis and Nolan Ryan.  Imagine what the Mets could have gained had they just noticed that the solution to their third base conundrum was wearing No. 11 the whole time.


Note:  The Most With The Least was a thirteen-part weekly series (that's "was" - as in the past tense of "is" - because you just read the final installment) spotlighting those Mets players who performed at a high level without receiving the accolades or playing time their more established teammates got, due to injuries, executive decisions or other factors.  For previous installments, please click on the players' names below:

January 4, 2016: Benny Agbayani
January 11, 2016: Donn Clendenon
January 18, 2016: Tim Teufel
January 25, 2016: Hisanori Takahashi
February 1, 2016: Chris Jones
February 8, 2016: Claudell Washington
February 15, 2016: Moises Alou
February 22, 2016: Pat Zachry
February 29, 2016: Art Shamsky
March 7, 2016: Mark Carreon
March 14, 2016: Jose Valentin
March 21, 2016: Pat Mahomes

The Most With The Least: Art Shamsky (1968-70)

One of the worst feelings for a promising minor league talent is knowing his path to the majors is being blocked by a productive veteran.  It happens to young prospects all the time, causing those players to be misused at the major league level when a space eventually opens up for them on the parent club's roster.  Unfortunately, many of those misused players end up having relatively short careers and their potential on the big league diamond is never fully realized.

Occasionally, a team that can't guarantee playing time to a young star at the major league level ends up trading that player to a team that can offer him a more steady job.  Sometimes, all it takes is a trade to a new environment for that player's talents to shine.  And in the late 1960s, one such player found his way to success as a member of the New York Mets.

Art Shamsky's left-handed power was crucial in the Mets' drive to October glory.  (Warren Zvon/Mets Fantasy Cards)

Arthur Louis Shamsky was born in 1941 to Jewish parents in St. Louis.  Signed as an amateur free agent by Cincinnati in 1959, Shamsky was a power-hitting outfielder in the Reds' minor league system, clubbing 92 home runs from 1960 to 1964.  Even though he had proven himself in the minor leagues, spending the entire 1963 and 1964 campaigns at the Triple-A level, his road to everyday success in the majors was blocked by the Reds' potent outfield.  With young star Tommy Harper manning one corner outfield position and future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson handling the other, Shamsky didn't make the jump to the majors until 1965, and even then, the Reds could only give him 96 at-bats, mostly as a pinch-hitter, as he started just 12 of the 64 games he played in.

Cincinnati had two 20-game winners in 1965 in Sammy Ellis and Jim Maloney, but the team's combined ERA was ninth in the ten-team National League, with only the Mets posting a worse earned run average as a team.  Because of the Reds' shortcomings on the mound, Reds owner Bill DeWitt went into the 1965-66 off-season coveting starting pitchers.  At the same time, he thought 30-year-old Frank Robinson was past his prime and felt he was expendable.  As a result, DeWitt traded Robinson to the Baltimore Orioles for two-time All-Star pitcher Milt Pappas and two other players in what became one of the most lopsided trades in major league history.

Pappas never panned out in Cincinnati, while Robinson went on to win a Triple Crown in his first season in Baltimore and eventually wore an Orioles cap on his Hall of Fame plaque.  The Robinson trade didn't help the Reds, but did help further the career of Art Shamsky, who appeared to be in line to earn more at-bats in 1966 with the departure of Robinson.  Or so he thought.

In 1966, the Reds moved third baseman Deron Johnson - who had a league-leading 130 RBI in 1965 - to left field and shifted Tommy Harper from left to right.  As a result, Shamsky started just 63 games for the Reds in '66.  However, Shamsky made the most of his opportunity when he did receive a rare start, blasting 21 homers in 234 at-bats.

Although Shamsky was one of the team's top home run hitters in 1966, he did not cross the plate very often nor did he drive in many runners other than himself.  Despite his 21 homers, he scored just 41 times and produced 47 RBI.  In doing so, he became the first player in major league history to hit 20 or more homers while failing to score 50 runs or drive in 50.  And since then, only seven players have been able to match Shamsky's feat.

Without the Baseball Reference Play Index, Shamsky's feat would have remained an urban legend.

Shamsky failed to capitalize on his breakout season, batting .197 with just three homers in 147 at-bats during the 1967 campaign.  Although he was still only 26 years old, the Reds traded him to the New York Mets at the conclusion of the season for veteran utility infielder Bob Johnson.  Nineteen days after Shamsky became a Met, the team made an unorthodox trade, sending pitcher Bill Denehy and cash to the Washington Senators for manager Gil Hodges.

The arrival of Hodges changed Shamsky's career forever, as Hodges believed in a platoon system in which he assembled his starting lineup according to the opponent's starting pitcher.  Now, rather than being relegated to the bench the way he was throughout most of his career in Cincinnati, the left-handed hitting Shamsky would get an opportunity to start against right-handed pitchers.  As a result, Shamsky started in 87 of the Mets' 162 games in 1968, collecting 30 extra-base hits (including 12 homers) in 345 at-bats.

Although Shamsky batted just .238 in his first year with the team, that was still higher than the team's .228 overall batting average in what became known as "The Year of the Pitcher".  Shamsky finished eighth on the team in at-bats, yet still finished third in doubles (tied with Ron Swoboda), second in triples (tied with Cleon Jones) and third in homers.  His 48 RBI were also good for fourth on the team, just 11 behind team leader Swoboda.  If there was one negative about Shamsky's 1968 campaign, it was his 58 strikeouts against 21 walks.  By today's standards, that may not seem like a tremendous number of whiffs.  But it was highly unusual for Shamsky, who prided himself on being a good contact hitter.  The "high" strikeout total was something Shamsky set out to correct in 1969, and in doing so, he enjoyed his most complete season at the plate and his greatest team success.

From 1965 to 1968, Shamsky posted a .231 batting average and .723 OPS.  He also struck out 166 times (and drew 78 walks) in 822 at-bats, averaging a strikeout every 4.95 at-bats.  A back injury suffered in spring training caused Shamsky to miss the first 30 games of the 1969 season.  But when he returned to the Mets in mid-May, he was far more focused at the plate, and the team benefited from the new Art Shamsky.

Shamsky made his season debut with a pinch-hit RBI single against the Atlanta Braves on May 13.   By the All-Star break, he was batting .343 with a .997 OPS in 140 at-bats.  He also drew 22 walks while striking out just 19 times as part of a right field platoon with Ron Swoboda.  Then, beginning in mid-August, Shamsky started 30 of the team's next 43 games.  Three of the 13 games he did not start were due to his observance of Rosh Hashanah, even though the team was facing right-handed starting pitchers in those games.  The Mets won all three games sat out by Shamsky - plus 25 of the 30 contests he did start - on their way to winning their first National League East crown.

Photo by The Sporting News

Despite spending the first month of the 1969 campaign on the disabled list with a back injury, Shamsky surpassed 300 at-bats for the second consecutive season.  He also batted .300 for the first time in his career, adding 14 homers and 47 RBI, while finishing the year with more walks (36) than strikeouts (32).  Shamsky finished second on the team in both batting average and home runs.  He was also the team's first runner-up in on-base percentage (.375), OPS (.863) and OPS+ (139).  And despite Cleon Jones's team-leading .340 batting average and Tommie Agee's club-topping 26 homers, it was Shamsky who led the team with a .488 slugging percentage.

Shamsky continued his torrid hitting in the National League Championship Series, collecting seven hits in the three-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves.  Atlanta used right-handed starting pitchers in all three games, allowing Shamsky to start each game over Swoboda, who did not have a single plate appearance in the short series.  Shamsky set the tone for the series in Game One, collecting the Mets' first hit and crossing the plate on a Jerry Grote single.  He then contributed another single - his third hit of the game - during the Mets' five-run eighth inning rally, which turned a 5-4 deficit into a 9-5 lead.  The Mets won Game One, then took the next two games, with Shamsky producing four more hits.  But just as Shamsky earned playing time over Swoboda in the NLCS, he spent most of the World Series on the bench, as the Mets faced southpaw starters four times in the Fall Classic.  Shamsky did not collect a hit against Baltimore in the World Series, but he did collect a ring after the Mets dispatched in Orioles in five games.

The Mets failed to defend their World Series title in 1970, but Shamsky finally succeeded in becoming a regular player for the first time.  Shamsky continued to platoon in right field with Ron Swoboda, but also logged significant time as part of a first base platoon with Donn Clendenon.  Originally, Ed Kranepool was supposed to be the left-handed hitting complement to the righty-swinging Clendenon at first, but Kranepool experienced the worst slump of his career during the first few months of the 1970 campaign and was subsequently sent to the minors, allowing Shamsky to become the starting first baseman whenever the Mets were facing a right-handed starting pitcher.

Used mostly out of the cleanup spot in the Mets' batting order, Shamsky started over 100 games for the first and only time in his career in 1970.  He had his greatest success in the month of May, when he put up a .341/.416/.580 slash line in 24 starts.  During the month, he produced six doubles, five homers and 17 RBI, all while splitting time between right field (13 starts), first base (nine starts) and left field (two starts).  He also struck out just seven times in 101 plate appearances, while walking a dozen times.

New York may not have recaptured the glory from their miraculous 1969 campaign in 1970, but Shamsky did have a spectacular season of his own, setting career highs in runs scored (48), RBI (49), hits (118) and extra-base hits (32).  He also led the team with a .293 batting average and produced his second straight season with an OPS above .800.  And once again, he finished the year with more walks (49) than strikeouts (33).

Sadly, the 1971 campaign would be Shamsky's fourth and final season in New York.  For the second time in three years, injuries curtailed his campaign, but this time Shamsky could not recover from his nagging aches and pains, batting .185 with five homers in 18 RBI in 135 at-bats.  The only positive thing to come out of Shamsky's 1971 season was that he once again walked more times than he struck out, drawing 21 bases on balls while fanning 18 times.

Just one day after the conclusion of the 1971 World Series, Shamsky was part of an eight-player deal between the Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals.  Unfortunately, he never played a game for his hometown team, as he was released by the Cards at the end of spring training and signed with the rival Chicago Cubs.  Shamsky then split the 1972 season between the Cubs and the Oakland A's before being released by Oakland in July, just three months before the A's won the World Series.

When he played his final game in the majors, Shamsky was 30 years old.  Only once in his eight-year major league career did he play enough to reach 400 at-bats, but he never had a problem with the fact that he did not become a true everyday player.  While in New York, Shamsky learned to love his adopted city, just as Mets fans - especially ones of the Jewish faith - embraced him.

(Barry Talesnick/Globe Photos)

"I learned that New York City is really one of a kind. ... The city energizes you.  There is never a dull moment in New York City.  After a few months I fell in love with the city. ... I was okay with it now."

---Art Shamsky, from his book "The Magnificent Seasons".




Art Shamsky found the role he was perfect for as a member of the New York Mets.  In his four years with the team, Shamsky accepted the platoon philosophy of manager Gil Hodges, becoming one of the most valuable members of a championship team.  To this day, he is beloved by Mets fans young and old.  He is also respected by his peers in the Jewish sports community, who inducted him into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.

He may have averaged just 296 at-bats per season during his tenure in New York, but Shamsky always made the most of those opportunities, appearing among the team leaders in virtually every offensive category despite his limited number of plate appearances.  That is why whenever the topic comes up of which player accomplished the most on the Mets with the least amount of playing time, Art Shamsky is sure to be one of the players in the conversation. 


Note:  The Most With The Least is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets players who performed at a high level without receiving the accolades or playing time their more established teammates got, due to injuries, executive decisions or other factors.  For previous installments, please click on the players' names below:

January 4, 2016: Benny Agbayani
January 11, 2016: Donn Clendenon
January 18, 2016: Tim Teufel
January 25, 2016: Hisanori Takahashi
February 1, 2016: Chris Jones
February 8, 2016: Claudell Washington
February 15, 2016: Moises Alou
February 22, 2016: Pat Zachry

The Best On The Worst: Al Jackson

In 1962, the New York Mets and Houston Colt .45s entered the National League as expansion franchises.  The previous October, a special draft was held so that the two teams could stock their rosters with major league talent.  Houston decided to draft younger players who had bright futures.  The Mets, on the other hand, felt like the best way to go was with veteran players, including several who had ties to New York.  That's just a nice way of saying the Mets drafted older players who had bright pasts.

Roger Craig, Gil Hodges and Don Zimmer - all former members of the Brooklyn Dodgers - were drafted by the Mets in the expansion draft.  By the end of the 1963 season, they were all former Mets.  The Mets also drafted just three pitchers with their first ten selections, so when it came time for the team to announce its 11th pick, the Mets set their sights on a 26-year-old southpaw who had pitched beautifully in the Pittsburgh Pirates' minor league system for half a decade, but had never been afforded much more than a cup of coffee at the major league level.

From 1958 to 1961, he posted a 55-34 record in the minors with a brilliant 2.58 ERA.  But despite his success, he only took the mound for the Pirates 11 times over those four years, making just five starts and six relief appearances.  Needing a left-handed starting pitcher after drafting three right-handers in their first ten picks, the Mets took a chance on the talented, but inexperienced pitcher.  A few years later, he became the team's first ace, or what passed for an ace on a last-place team.

Al Jackson was the best he could be for a team that was the worst anyone did see.

Alvin Neill Jackson wasn't a very tall pitcher.  Listed at 5'10", Jackson was never going to be an intimidating presence on the mound.  But he knew how to pitch, and he gave the fledgling Mets their best chance to pick up a rare victory during their seminal seasons.

Jackson's career as a Met didn't start out very well.  But then again, neither did the Met careers of most of his teammates.  Jackson started the third game for the Mets in 1962, allowing six runs in his first outing for New York, a loss against the team that gave up on him just six months earlier.  He followed that up by allowing another half-dozen tallies in a 9-4 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.  But after two scoreless relief appearances, Jackson was tapped by manager Casey Stengel to start the first game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies on April 29.  Jackson responded by tossing the first shutout in Mets history, scattering eight hits in the team's 8-0 victory.

Despite ending April on a high note, the month of May was not very kind to Jackson.  By the end of the month, Jackson had a 2-6 record and an ERA approaching 6.00.  But his fortunes turned once the calendar turned to June.  From June 6 through August 28, Jackson made 18 starts, allowing two runs or less in ten of them.  Jackson actually won five of those ten games, which was quite an accomplishment on a team that went 28-101 after starting the season with a 12-19 record.  Three of the five victories were shutouts, including the first one-hitter in franchise history on June 22, but one of his better performances came in a game he actually lost.

On August 14, 1962, the Mets hosted the Phillies at the Polo Grounds.  Jackson was dominant in the game, allowing one run on two hits through nine innings.  But Phillies starter (and future Mets manager) Dallas Green was just as stingy, holding the Mets to just one run through the first nine frames.  Green was lifted from the game in the 11th, but Jackson soldiered on, scattering two hits in five scoreless innings from the 10th through the 14th.  Incredibly, Jackson had gotten the Phillies to ground out a whopping 25 times in the first 14 innings.  He appeared to have his 26th ground ball out when Tony Gonzalez led off the 15th inning by hitting a roller to Mets third baseman Sammy Drake, who had entered the game as a pinch-runner for regular third sacker Felix Mantilla six innings earlier.  But Drake's throw was mishandled by first baseman Marv Throneberry, allowing Gonzalez to reach second base.  Jackson then allowed two singles wrapped around an intentional walk, giving the Phillies a 3-1 lead.  Jackson stayed in the game to complete the 15th inning, but the Mets failed to rally for him in the bottom of the inning.  Jackson's final line: 15 innings, three runs (two earned), six hits, five walks, six strikeouts, another loss.  It was as typical as the 1962 Mets got.

For the season, Jackson went 8-20 with a 4.40 ERA.  But those numbers don't accurately represent how good Jackson was for a team that wasn't good at all.  From June 1 through September 10, Jackson posted a 3.38 ERA and was credited with six victories.  The Mets won seven of Jackson's 20 starts during that three-month time period.  They were a woeful 16-66 in the 82 games not started by Jackson from the beginning of June through the middle of September.  Jackson led the 1962 Mets in ERA and tied for the team lead with 118 strikeouts.  He also pitched the only four complete-game shutouts the Mets recorded in their inaugural season.  Considering the team of misfits he played for, Jackson pitched very well in 1962.  The Mets took a small step forward in 1963, but it was Jackson who made the greatest strides in the team's sophomore season.

In Jackson's second season with the Mets, he posted a 13-17 record with a 3.96 ERA and a team-leading 142 strikeouts.  His 13 wins represented 25.5% of the team's 51 victories in 1963.  To this day, Jackson remains one of only five Mets pitchers who were credited with victories in more than one-quarter of the team's wins in a single season.  The other four are Tom Seaver (1967, 1972, 1975), Jerry Koosman (1968), Bret Saberhagen (1994) and R.A. Dickey (2012).  Jackson was particularly strong over the final two months of the season, going 7-3 with a 2.49 ERA over his last 11 appearances (10 starts).  Unfortunately, the team went 9-29 in games Jackson did not appear in over that same stretch.

The Mets combined to win just 91 games in 1962 and 1963, but Jackson won 21 of them, more than any other pitcher on the team.  When the team moved from the Polo Grounds to Shea Stadium in 1964, Jackson found the new digs much to his liking.  Although Jackson's final record (11-16, 4.26 ERA) wasn't overwhelming, he pitched his best games that year at Shea.  Included among them was the first shutout (as the well as the first victory) in Shea Stadium's short history, a 6-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 19.  Overall, Jackson went 7-5 with a 3.68 ERA at the new park in 1964.  But he didn't save all his best games for the home fans.

On October 2, Jackson won a 1-0 pitcher's duel over future Hall of Famer Bob Gibson in St. Louis.  It was the second time Jackson had defeated Gibson by that score in three seasons, having previously accomplished the feat on July 27, 1962, also in St. Louis.  Those twin shutout victories by Jackson over Gibson were the only two times the Mets defeated the Cardinal legend from 1962 to 1966, as Gibson went 15-2 against New York in the years prior to the debut of their own Hall of Famer, Tom Seaver.  But by the time Seaver came aboard, Al Jackson was already gone.

After two seasons in which he led the team in wins, Jackson lost 20 games for the second time in 1965.  Jackson's ERA also went up to 4.34, while his innings decreased to 205⅓ - his lowest total in four seasons as a Met.  Although his 8-20 record said otherwise, Jackson wasn't horrible in 1965.  He still tossed three complete-game shutouts and posted a career-best 1.354 WHIP.  It was the team around him that got worse, especially when Jackson was on the mound.  Jackson made 31 starts in 1965.  The Mets scored two runs or less in 15 of those starts, putting extra pressure on Jackson to be as flawless as possible.  Even in his three complete-game shutouts, the Mets only managed to score a total of five runs for him.  And all but one of Jackson's eight wins in 1965 came in complete-game efforts.

By the end of the 1965 season, the Mets realized they needed two things.  They needed to abandon their "let's go with the proven veterans" philosophy.  They also needed a third baseman, a need that continued to haunt them into the 1970s when they inexcusably traded away future All-Stars like Nolan Ryan and Amos Otis in order to get help at the hot corner.  Apparently, their need for a third baseman was greater than their need to get younger.

Just weeks after the 1965 campaign ended, the Mets traded Jackson and Charley Smith to the St. Louis Cardinals for Ken Boyer, an 11-year veteran who was the league's MVP just a year earlier.  But after winning the award following a 1964 season in which he hit .295 with 24 homers and a league-leading 119 RBI for the World Series-winning Cardinals, Boyer regressed in 1965, batting .260 with 13 homers and 75 RBI.  Still, that didn't stop the Mets from trading Smith and their 29-year-old left-handed starting pitcher, who was also the team's all-time leader in wins at the time.

Boyer performed miserably as a Met, batting .258 with 17 homers and 74 RBI in one-and-a-half seasons in New York.  Meanwhile, Jackson went on to post his best season in the majors with the Cardinals in 1966, going 13-15 with a career-best 2.51 ERA and 1.148 WHIP.  Jackson finished 6th in the league in ERA in 1966 and 10th in WHIP.  He followed up his 1966 campaign by going 9-4 in 1967, although the 31-year-old Jackson was used mostly in relief by the team.  The Cardinals returned to the World Series that season, but by then, Jackson had already fallen out of favor with the team.  One day after St. Louis won their second championship in four seasons, Al Jackson was traded back to the Mets.

By 1968, the Mets had a young and talented starting rotation, led by Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman.  New manager Gil Hodges liked the youth in his starting rotation, which eventually also included 21-year-old Nolan Ryan and two 24-year-olds in Dick Selma and Jim McAndrew.  As a result, Al Jackson was only allowed to start nine games for the Mets in 1968.  He did not fare well as a starter in his second go-round with the Mets, going 2-6 with a 4.42 ERA.  But he did have great success coming out of the bullpen.  In 16 games as a reliever, Jackson posted a 2.52 ERA and 0.981 WHIP, holding opposing batters to a .257 on-base percentage.  Jackson had found a new home with a Mets team that was clearly better that they were when he left them after the 1965 season.  But his homecoming didn't last very long.

Jackson was brutal to start the 1969 season, recording a 10.64 ERA in nine relief appearances.  In five of those nine games, Jackson allowed two or more runs.  The final straw came on May 22, the day after the Mets had reached the .500 mark for the first time in team history in the month of May.  In that game, a 15-3 loss to the Braves, Jackson came into the game in the seventh inning with the Mets already trailing by ten runs.  By the time the inning was over, the Mets were down by two touchdowns, as Jackson allowed an inherited runner to score, plus three of his own runners.

Soon after his meltdown in Atlanta, the Mets rolled off a team-record 11-game winning streak, but Jackson did not pitch in any of those games.  With the team feeding off its young pitchers, Jackson was no longer needed, so he was sold to the Cincinnati Reds on June 13.  The Mets went on to win the World Series without him, and Jackson went on to finish his career as a Red, as Cincinnati released him on April 13, 1970.  A career that began in Pittsburgh in 1959 was now over, but Jackson's life in baseball, especially with the Mets, was not.

Since throwing his final pitch in the big leagues, Jackson has coached at many levels.  He managed the Kingsport Mets for a spell in 1981, then served as Davey Johnson's pitching coach before Johnson's eventual promotion to manage the Mets in 1984.  Jackson molded the young arms that became All-Stars for the Mets in the mid-to-late '80s, and eventually made it back to the big club himself, serving as the team's bullpen coach for the only Mets squads to earn back-to-back postseason berths in 1999 and 2000.  Jackson had just missed appearing in the World Series on two separate occasions, first with the Cardinals in 1967 and then with the Mets in 1969, but he finally got to experience one in 2000, nearly four decades after pitching in his first game for the Mets.  His career had come full circle, and as noted in David Ferry's book, "Total Mets: The Definitive Encyclopedia of the New York Mets' First Half-Century", Jackson still hasn't reached the end of his baseball journey.

"The years that I spent [with the Mets], as a player, coach, whatever, it was a great ride.  An outstanding ride.  And I really haven't finished yet."





Al Jackson was diminutive in stature, but he was quite large for the Mets when it came to giving the team its best chance to win during its formative years.  From 1962 to 1965, Jackson went 40-73 with a 4.24 ERA for a team that was a combined 194-452 over its first four seasons.  During those four years, Mets pitchers hurled 25 complete-game shutouts.  Jackson was responsible for ten of them.  (Jackson is one of only six pitchers to toss ten shutouts as a Met.  The others are Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden, David Cone and Ron Darling.)  Jackson also led or tied for the team lead in wins three times, strikeouts three times, and ERA once.  His highs of 13 wins and 142 strikeouts in 1963 remained single-season team records until they were broken by Seaver and Koosman - two pitchers who went on to set a lot of club records in their time with the Mets.

Just 38 days after Jackson played his last game with the Mets in 1969, Seaver broke the lefty's franchise record of 43 career wins.  But Jackson's 80 losses were not surpassed until May 27, 1974, when Seaver lost his 81st game as a Met.  By then, Seaver had amassed 137 wins, nearly 100 more than Jackson's total.  To this day, only four Mets pitchers have lost more than 80 games - Seaver, Koosman, Gooden and Jon Matlack.  All four of those pitchers are considered to be among the best in franchise history.  However, all four of them also pitched for more successful Mets teams.  Jackson had the unfortunate luck of being the best pitcher on the worst Mets teams.

Al Jackson could have played for a number of World Championship teams.  He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1959 and 1961.  The Bucs won the World Series in 1960.  He was a member of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1967, but he didn't participate in their run to the World Series crown.  He also pitched for the 1969 Mets, though he was a member of the Cincinnati Reds when his former teammates celebrated their title on the Shea Stadium mound.

When Jackson was afforded the opportunity to pitch, it was usually for teams that did very little to help him earn a victory.  Jackson was the Mets' de facto ace from 1962 to 1965, although all that title got him was hard-luck loss after hard-luck loss, with a pinch of a one-hitter here and a couple of dashes over Bob Gibson there.  Jackson deserved better from his teammates, but that was like asking Marv Throneberry to play more alertly on the field.  You knew he would try his best, but in the end, he would just miss a base or two or drop a throw to cost his teammate a chance at a complete-game, 15-inning victory.

If anyone can define being the best on the worst, it's most definitely Al Jackson.  His final numbers as a Met certainly don't look pretty when compared to those posted by the likes of Seaver, Koosman and Gooden.  But his numbers were far better than the ones his teammates were putting up on the board.  Little Al Jackson may have been small in stature, but he was as big as they came in the early days of the New York Mets.

Photo by Herb Scharfman/Getty Images

Note:  The Best On The Worst is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting the greatest Mets players who just happened to play on some not-so-great Mets teams.  For previous installments, please click on the players' names below:

January 6, 2014: Todd Hundley

Nolan Ryan: Once A Champion, Always A Champion

On October 16, 1969, the New York Mets won their first World Series championship. The majority of the players on the team were experiencing their first ever title, including a 22-year-old Texan named Nolan Ryan.

Ryan was a flamethrowing right-hander, who could strike a batter out as easily as he could strike a batter, period. Opposing hitters feared him because they never knew where the ball was going to end up after it left Ryan's hand. Despite his control problems on the mound, Ryan was very important to the Mets during their run to the World Series title. Although he only made two appearances in the postseason, both were in crucial spots.

With the Mets one win away from winning the first-ever National League Championship Series, Ryan came on in relief of starter Gary Gentry. Although Gentry had a tremendous rookie season, winning 13 games for the Miracle Mets, he did not fare as well in his initial postseason start. Pitching on his 23rd birthday, Gentry allowed a two-run homer to Henry Aaron in the first inning, had a reasonably effective second inning (walking one batter), before giving up a leadoff single to Tony Gonzalez in the third, followed by a double to Aaron.

That was the end of Gentry's postseason debut, as Nolan Ryan was called upon by manager Gil Hodges to get out of the inning before any more damage was done. Ryan was brilliant in relief of Gentry, stranding both inherited runners in the third inning. He went on to pitch the remaining seven innings, allowing only two runs (a two-run HR by Orlando Cepeda in the fifth inning that temporarily gave the Braves the lead) on three hits. Ryan walked two and struck out seven, and was on the mound when Tony Gonzalez grounded out to third baseman Wayne Garrett to give the Mets their first National League pennant.

Just like he did in the NLCS, Ryan only made one appearance in the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles. Again, it was in a crucial part of the series (Game 3 with the series tied at one game apiece) and in relief of Gary Gentry. This time, however, Ryan was called upon to protect a lead, as Gentry was mowing down the powerful Orioles' lineup. Through six innings, the rookie right-hander had allowed no runs on three hits, while walking two and striking out four. The Mets were carrying a 4-0 lead into the seventh inning at Shea Stadium and were feeling good about their chances to take a 2-1 lead in the series. But after retiring the first two batters in the seventh, Gentry developed a case of wildness. He walked Mark Belanger, pinch-hitter Dave May and Don Buford in succession to load the bases and bring up the dangerous Paul Blair as the potential tying run.

Blair had just completed a breakout season for the Orioles, notching career highs in doubles (32), home runs (26), runs scored (102), RBI (76) and stolen bases (20), while making his first All-Star team and winning the Gold Glove Award in center field. Now he came up to bat with the bases loaded, but he wasn't going to face the suddenly-wild Gary Gentry. Out came Gentry, in came Ryan.

In what was perhaps the turning point of the 1969 World Series, Ryan retired Blair on a lineout to right-center to end the threat and the inning. Ryan would go on to finish the game, although not without getting into a little trouble of his own in the ninth, when he loaded the bases on two walks and a single before striking out (you guessed it) Paul Blair to end the game and give the Mets a one-game advantage in the World Series.

Unfortunately, the Mets' need for an injury-plagued shortstop to play third base exceeded their need for a future Hall of Fame pitcher. The Mets traded Ryan to the California Angels for Jim Fregosi following the 1971 season, where Ryan's legendary career began in earnest. Ryan won 295 games and struck out 5,221 batters AFTER leaving the Mets in stints with the Angels, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers. Although his uniform number has been retired by the three teams he pitched for after he was traded for Fregosi, the only World Series ring on Ryan's finger has a big "New York Mets" on it.

 If everything's bigger in Texas, why does Nolan Ryan's ring say "New York"?

Fast forward to four decades later. The Mets are nowhere near World Series contention and the Texas Rangers are going back to the Fall Classic for the second consecutive season. The Rangers have always had strong hitters, but their recent focus on developing pitchers has finally pushed them over the top in the American League. Who's responsible for taking the Rangers in this pitching-first direction? None other than team president and principal owner Nolan Ryan.

Ryan became the president of the Texas Rangers in 2008 and bought a share of the franchise in 2010, becoming the principal owner earlier this year when his ownership partner, Chuck Greenberg, sold his stake of the team. When Ryan became part of the Rangers' front office in 2008, the Rangers were a sub-.500 team. Their 79-83 mark in 2008 was their eighth losing record in nine seasons. Since then, the Rangers' win total has gone up every season. Texas won 87 games in 2009, followed by a 90-win season in 2010 and a franchise-record 96 wins in 2011.

As the wins have piled up, opponents' run totals have gone down. After allowing 967 runs in 2008, Rangers' pitchers allowed 740 runs in 2009. They got even better in their pennant winning years, allowing 687 runs in 2010 and 677 runs in 2011. The 677 runs allowed this year was the fewest allowed by a Ranger team since 1983. All of this happened with Nolan Ryan in charge.

Nolan Ryan was a winner in New York. He was part of a team that put its focus on young pitching and it carried them to an unexpected championship. Ryan pitched in the majors until 1993, but was never part of another championship team. Now, as president and principal owner of the Texas Rangers, Ryan has a chance to win his second World Series title, 42 years after he won his first.

It's been quite some time since Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Gary Gentry and Nolan Ryan anchored a young pitching staff as they forged their way to a World Championship. The names have now changed to C.J. Wilson, Derek Holland, Matt Harrison and Alexi Ogando, but the message remains the same. Pitching wins championships. It gave a title to the San Francisco Giants last year (over Ryan's Rangers) and it helped Texas win their second consecutive American League pennant this year. The Rangers may or may not give him his second World Series ring this year, but it's clear that Nolan Ryan has established the Texas Rangers as a force in the American League.

Forty-two years ago today, Nolan Ryan celebrated his first title. Now he is four wins away from celebrating his second. Through two generations and two teams, Ryan has proven that he is a true champion. Not bad for a kid from a small Texas town.

M.U.M.'s The Word (Most Underrated Mets): Ron Taylor

In the early years of the Mets, there weren't many games for a reliever to save. From 1962-1965, the Mets never had a season in which they collected more than 15 saves as a team. In fact, over those first four campaigns, Willard Hunter's five saves in 1964 represented the highest single season save total in the young franchise's history. They would be the only five saves of his career.

In 1966, after four consecutive seasons with 100 or more losses, the Mets started to show signs that they were breaking out of their expansion team doldrums. The team won 66 games and finally had one of its own save more than five games. However, their "closer" was actually one of their starting pitchers, as Jack Hamilton saved 13 games and made 13 starts (how unlucky of him).

Hamilton was traded to the California Angels the following June, after recording only one save in 16 relief appearances during the first two months of the 1967 season. The Mets had a promising rookie on the 1967 staff by the name of Tom Seaver, so they needed a dependable reliever to protect leads in games that Seaver did not complete. After Hamilton's trade to the Angels, they purchased Hal Reniff from the Yankees and used him as their closer. Reniff started out well, saving four games in July, but failed miserably over his final 18 appearances. In those 18 games, Reniff went 0-3 with a 6.55 ERA, allowing a whopping 54 baserunners (33 hits, 21 walks) over his final 22 innings.

Meanwhile, another reliever whom the Mets acquired prior to the 1967 season was having the best season of his career. After picking up two early saves in April, an injury kept him out of service until late May. Upon returning, manager Wes Westrum put him back in the bullpen, where he proceeded to have the best stretch of any relief pitcher in the Mets' six-year history. From June 13 to the end of the season, he won four games, saved five and registered a 1.26 ERA in 38 appearances. Although the Mets regressed somewhat in 1967, finishing with a 61-101 record, they could now say that they had their first bonafide closer in Ron Taylor.

Before becoming a medical doctor, Ron Taylor operated on opposing hitters from the Shea Stadium mound.

After a successful first season with the Mets in 1967, new manager Gil Hodges used Taylor more often in ninth inning situations in 1968 (Taylor finished 44 of the 58 games he appeared in). With Jerry Koosman joining Seaver in the rotation, the Mets now had more late-inning leads to protect. Prior to the 1968 season, only one Met had compiled a 10-save season (Jack Hamilton in 1966). That all changed in 1968, when both Ron Taylor (13 saves, 2.70 ERA) and Cal Koonce (11 saves, 2.42 ERA) reached double digits. The Mets now had a two-man show in the rotation as well as in the bullpen and the team avoided 90 losses for the first time, finishing with a 73-89 record. Pitching wins championships, and the Mets were strengthening themselves in that department. All that was left was the championship.

In 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong proclaimed that the lunar landing was "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". That same year, the Mets' strong arms were taking a giant leap forward in the National League, shooting for the moon and reaching the stars. The Mets shocked the baseball world by winning 100 regular season games and the first National League East division crown. Once again, Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman led the staff, combining for 42 victories. However, the 1969 team wasn't just "Seaver and Kooz, then the others we'll lose", as they appeared to be in 1968. This time, the rotation had a third successful pitcher, as rookie Gary Gentry entered the mix, winning 13 games.

However, not every Mets pitcher had a successful season in 1969. After a brilliant year in 1968, Cal Koonce struggled in the bullpen. With a 4.99 ERA, Koonce was rarely given the ball while the Mets were making their run at the division title, appearing in only ten of the team's final 65 games. In his stead, Tug McGraw (he of the 4-19 career record and one save prior to 1969), became the new co-closer on the Mets. Over the final two months of the season, the Tugger was virtually unhittable. In 18 appearances, the lefty won four games, saved seven and held opposing hitters to a .188 batting average. His barely-there 0.50 ERA over the final two months helped the Mets cruise to the NL East title.

Despite McGraw's rise in 1969, he didn't lead the Mets in saves. Once again, it was the dependable righty, Ron Taylor, who paced the team in that category. As he did in 1968, Taylor finished 44 games (in 59 appearances) and picked up 13 saves. He also won nine games and had his third consecutive sub-3.00 ERA, finishing the year at 2.72. As in the case of Tug McGraw, Taylor also saved his best for last. Over the final two months of the regular season, the veteran right-hander won four games, saved four and registered a 1.80 ERA.

Although the lefty-righty combo of McGraw and Taylor was virtually unhittable in the latter part of the 1969 season, manager Gil Hodges chose to use the young lefty only once in the postseason. McGraw's three innings of shutout ball in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Braves would be the only time Tug would take the mound in the playoffs. Instead, Hodges chose to rely on the 31-year-old Taylor, who had valuable postseason experience from pitching in two World Series games for the 1964 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals. In that World Series, Taylor pitched 4 2/3 hitless innings, allowing only one walk. The Cardinals won both games in which Taylor appeared on their way to winning the championship.

The decision by Hodges to rely more on his playoff-tested veteran ended up being one of the most important moves of the postseason, as Taylor rewarded his manager's faith in him with four crucial performances.

Both Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman had inauspicious postseason debuts against the Braves in the NLCS, with Seaver giving up five runs over seven innings in Game 1 and Koosman being hammered for six runs over 4 2/3 innings in Game 2. With the Braves' bats smoldering against the two aces of the staff, it was Ron Taylor who silenced Atlanta's high-powered offense.

After the Mets rallied to score five runs in the eighth inning of Game 1, Taylor pitched the final two innings, holding the Braves scoreless to preserve the Mets' first-ever playoff victory. In Game 2, the Mets were cruising through the first 4½ innings, taking a 9-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth. But after giving up a three-run homer to Hank Aaron and a two-run single to Clete Boyer, Koosman was removed from the game in favor of Ron Taylor. Once again, Taylor quelled the Braves' bats, holding them to one hit over 1 1/3 scoreless innings. The Mets went on to sweep the Braves in the NLCS, advancing to their first World Series against the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles.

Once again, Tom Seaver struggled in a playoff series opener, allowing four runs over five innings of work in Game 1 of the Fall Classic. With the Mets down by three runs in the seventh inning, Gil Hodges brought in Ron Taylor to hold the Orioles at bay in the hopes that the Mets would start a rally against Orioles' starter Mike Cuellar. Taylor did his part, pitching two hitless innings, allowing one walk and striking out three. The Mets, however, were not able to mount a rally against Cuellar over the final two innings and they dropped the Series opener. It would be the only game the Mets would lose in the postseason.

In Game 2, Jerry Koosman and Dave McNally were locked up in a pitchers' duel over the first eight innings, with each pitcher allowing one run. With two outs in the top of the ninth, the Mets finally broke through against McNally, stringing together three singles off the Orioles' lefty to take a 2-1 lead. After retiring the first two Orioles in the bottom of the ninth, Koosman started to lose his control, walking Frank Robinson and Boog Powell. With two outs and the tying and winning runs on base, the Mets could not afford to let the game get away from them. Losing the first two games to the 109-win Orioles would almost certainly spell doom for the Mets in the World Series. Therefore, manager Gil Hodges removed Koosman from the game and brought in Ron Taylor to get the final out. In what was perhaps the turning point of the World Series, Taylor induced Brooks Robinson (who had hit .500 in the ALCS against the Twins) to ground out to third baseman Ed Charles, ending the rally and the game.

Taylor's services were not needed for the final three games of the World Series, as Gary Gentry and Nolan Ryan combined to shut out the Orioles in Game 3, which was followed by back-to-back complete game victories for Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman in Games 4 and 5, respectively.

When the Mets needed Taylor the most, he came through, stopping the bleeding on four occasions during the Amazins' October run to the championship. For the postseason, Taylor pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing no runs on three hits, walking one and striking out seven. He was the winning pitcher in Game 2 of the NLCS and recorded a crucial save in Game 2 of the World Series.

Wait a minute! I don't see the Seattle Pilots on this trophy!

The Mets came back to Earth in 1970, finishing with a mediocre 83-79 record (although that still represented the second-best record in franchise history). Despite the team's drop-off in the win column, Ron Taylor didn't suffer a similar drop-off in the save column. For the third consecutive season, Taylor recorded 13 saves. However, most of his saves occurred during the first half of the season. Through July 18, Taylor had been as good as he had been over his first three years in New York, posting a 2.84 ERA to go with 11 saves. However, the Mets struggled for most of the second half of the season, going 27-33 over their final 60 games. As the team stopped winning, the save opportunities were not there for Taylor. That, combined with the continued emergence of Tug McGraw, led to only four save chances for Taylor, who blew two of them en route to his first season with the Mets with an ERA over 3.00 (Taylor finished at 3.93).

In 1971, the Mets went with youth over experience in the bullpen, as 25-year-old Danny Frisella (8-5, 1.99 ERA, 12 saves) and 26-year-old Tug McGraw (11-4, 1.70 ERA, eight saves) were now the co-closers, while Ron Taylor was relegated to a mop-up and middle relief role. For the season, Taylor went 2-2 and picked up only two saves. If not for the quirkiness of the save rule in 1971, Taylor would only have finished with one save, but since he pitched the ninth inning of a 20-6 Mets win over Atlanta (the first time the Mets had ever scored as many as 20 runs in a game), the save rule at the time allowed Taylor to be given credit for the save, despite the Mets having a two touchdown lead over the Braves.

Taylor's "save" against the Braves would be his last one in a Mets uniform, as he was purchased by the Montreal Expos shortly after the completion of the 1971 World Series. Taylor never played for Montreal, but did spend the final year of his career in San Diego, pitching in four games, before retiring from baseball to enroll in medical school.

From saving games to saving lives, Dr. Ron Taylor has had quite a professional career.

Dr. Ron Taylor was the Mets' first "closer" to be used exclusively in the bullpen. In five years with the Mets, Taylor appeared in 269 games, all in relief. (Although Tug McGraw was most known for being a reliever, he started 36 games in nine seasons with the Mets, including 12 starts in 1966.) The 269 appearances were the most in franchise history until he was surpassed by McGraw in 1973.

At the time of his retirement, Taylor was the club's all-time saves leader with 49. Taylor was also one of the stingiest pitchers in Mets history when it came to allowing men on base. In 361 career innings as a Met, Taylor's WHIP was 1.14. Only three pitchers in franchise history who have pitched as many innings posted a lower WHIP - Tom Seaver, Bret Saberhagen and Sid Fernandez, who combined for 325 wins in 25½ seasons as Mets.

Had Taylor pitched more innings as a Met, he would be all over the franchise leaderboard. Only four Mets have posted a career ERA lower than Taylor's 3.04 (Tom Seaver, Jesse Orosco, Johan Santana, Jon Matlack). Nine Mets have allowed an average of eight hits or less per nine innings. With enough innings, Taylor would have been the tenth (he finished at exactly 8.00 H/9IP). Only Bret Saberhagen, Rick Reed, Ed Lynch and Frank Viola walked fewer batters per nine innings than Taylor's 2.3 BB/9IP. Also, if you needed someone to keep the ball in the ballpark, Taylor was your man. He allowed a mere 24 HR over his 361 innings of work, an average of 0.598 HR/9IP. The only Mets to fare better were Dwight Gooden (0.510 HR/9IP) and Jon Matlack (0.572 HR/9IP).

Baseball was played differently in the late '60s and early '70s. Teams did not have specialists in their bullpen. Even those who pitched primarily in the late innings always found a way to sneak in a start or two. Ron Taylor was not a typical pitcher for that era of baseball. He pitched exclusively out of the bullpen and registered three consecutive seasons with double-digit saves at a time when starting pitchers were left in the game to protect their own leads rather than giving way to a closer.

On a team with young pitching stars such as Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Gary Gentry, Nolan Ryan and Tug McGraw, it was the established veteran who bailed them out of numerous difficult situations during the 1969 postseason. Ron Taylor may not have been the best reliever in Mets history, but he was certainly one of the most important. The Mets didn't need a closer in 1969; they needed a stopper. Ron Taylor was that stopper, and by taking care of the Braves and Orioles' potent offenses during that magical October, the Mets ended up atop the baseball world. At a time when no one expected the Mets to win, Ron Taylor was truly just what the doctor ordered.


Note: M.U.M.'s The Word is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting some of the best Mets players of all-time who never got the recognition they deserved because they weren't the biggest names on the teams they played for. For previous installments, please click on the players' names below:

January 3, 2011: John Olerud
January 10, 2011: Sid Fernandez
January 17, 2011: Jon Matlack
January 24, 2011: Kevin McReynolds
January 31, 2011: Bobby Jones
February 7, 2011: John Stearns
February 14, 2011: David Cone
February 21, 2011: Rusty Staub
February 28, 2011: Rick Reed