30 Years Later: "The Dream Has Come True..."

Two days ago, we looked back at the 30th anniversary of Game Six of the 1986 World Series.  Miraculous as that game was, the Mets did not win their second championship that night.  The improbable comeback only forced a seventh and deciding game.

Do you remember seeing the replay of Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk hopping and waving his arms in the hopes that his long fly ball would stay fair in the 1975 World Series?  That home run gave Boston a thrilling 12-inning victory over the Cincinnati Reds in Game Six.

That's right.  It also happened in Game Six.  But just like the Mets' dramatic Game Six victory in the 1986 World Series, the home run by Fisk did not clinch the title for the Red Sox.  All it did was force a seventh game, a game won by the Reds to give Cincinnati the championship.

Had the Mets followed up their Game Six heroics with a loss the following night, the miracle comeback would have been for naught.  The Mets had to win Game Seven to validate their incredible campaign.  The stage was set at Shea Stadium for the final game of the 1986 baseball season.  It was up to the Mets to make the dream come true for their fans.

Game Seven was originally scheduled for Sunday, October 26.  However, a steady rain forced the postponement of the game until the following night.  Red Sox starter Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd was supposed to start the seventh game against Ron Darling.  However, with an extra day of rest, the Red Sox chose to bypass Boyd (who had given up six runs to the Mets in his Game Three loss) and gave the ball to Bruce Hurst.

Hurst had already defeated the Mets in Game One and notched a complete game victory against New York in Game Five.  Although he was pitching Game Seven on three days rest, the Mets were still wary about Hurst.  His performances against the Mets in the World Series were reminiscent of Mike Scott's outings in the NLCS.  If the Mets were going to beat Hurst, Ron Darling was going to have to match him pitch for pitch.  Unfortunately, that was not the case in the early innings.

Bruce Hurst was his usual strong self in the early innings, keeping the Mets off the scoreboard.  Ron Darling?  Not so much.  After a scoreless first inning, he gave up three runs in the second inning, including back-to-back home runs by Dwight Evans and Rich Gedman.  By the time the fourth inning rolled around, Darling had already given up six hits and walked a batter.  He then hit Dave Henderson with a pitch to lead off the fourth inning.  After facing two more batters, Darling was relieved by starter turned reliever Sid Fernandez.  The score was still 3-0 in favor of the Red Sox and the game was slipping away from the Mets.  It was up to El Sid to stop the fire from spreading.

In perhaps the guttiest (no pun intended) performance by Fernandez in his Mets career, he shut down the Red Sox.  After walking his first batter (Wade Boggs), Sid retired the next seven batters he faced, with four of them coming via the strikeout.  Fernandez did everything he could to keep his team in the game, but his efforts would go in vain unless the Mets could finally solve the puzzle that was Bruce Hurst.

With time running out on the Mets and their dream season, Davey Johnson was forced to make a difficult move in the bottom of the sixth inning.  After Rafael Santana grounded out to start the inning, the Mets were down to Sid Fernandez's spot in the batting order.  Would Johnson take Sid out for a pinch hitter, hoping that the Mets would start a rally or would he leave him in the game, possibly giving up on another inning in which to mount a comeback against Bruce Hurst?  Johnson chose to pinch hit for Fernandez and it ended up being one of the best managerial decisions he ever made.

Lee Mazzilli stepped up to the plate in lieu of Fernandez.  He greeted Hurst with a single to left.  Game Six hero Mookie Wilson followed Mazzilli with a hit of his own, followed by a walk to Tim Teufel.  The base on balls loaded the bases for Keith Hernandez and brought the crowd of 55,032 to its feet.  The cheering rose to a crescendo when Hernandez delivered a two-run single to center, scoring Mazzilli and Wilson and sending Teufel to third.  Since Teufel represented the tying run, Davey Johnson sent in the speedier Wally Backman to pinch run for him as Gary Carter stepped up to the plate.  Carter came through as he drove in Backman with a ball that would have been a base hit to right had a confused Hernandez not been forced out at second base when rightfielder Dwight Evans rolled over the ball.  Hernandez had to freeze between first and second until he knew that the ball had not been caught.  Despite the out being recorded, the Mets had tied the game at 3.  They had finally gotten to Bruce Hurst and hope was alive at Shea.  That hope became greater when Ray Knight came to bat in the seventh inning against a familiar face.

Calvin Schiraldi had been brought in by the Red Sox to start the seventh inning.  Schiraldi was the losing pitcher in Game Six, having allowed Gary Carter, Kevin Mitchell and Ray Knight to deliver hits off him in the tenth inning.  This time, he was facing Knight with no one on base, trying to erase the bitter memories of his previous outing.  Knight would not provide him with the eraser.  On a 2-1 pitch from Schiraldi, Knight got under a pitch and launched it to deep left-center, barely clearing the outfield wall.  A jubilant Knight celebrated as he rounded the bases.  The Mets finally had their first lead of the game and they made sure that they weren't going to give it back.  The hit parade continued in the seventh inning, as an RBI single by Rafael Santana and a sacrifice fly by Hernandez gave the Mets a 6-3 lead.  The Mets were in front, but the Red Sox weren't going to go away quietly.

Roger McDowell had come into the game in the seventh inning once Sid Fernandez had been pinch hit for.  He continued where Sid had left off by retiring the Red Sox in order in the seventh.  However, things went a little differently for McDowell in the eighth inning.  Bill Buckner led off the inning with a single.  Jim Rice followed Buckner with a single of his own.  After Dwight Evans doubled into the gap in right field, scoring both Buckner and Rice, the lead had been cut to a single run.  The Red Sox were down 6-5 with the tying run on second base and nobody out.  It was time for Davey Johnson to make one last move, with the World Series on the line.

Jesse Orosco came in from the bullpen, hoping to shut down the Red Sox to preserve the lead for the Mets.  His first batter, Rich Gedman, had homered earlier off starting pitcher Ron Darling.  This time, he hit the ball hard again, but in the direction of second baseman Wally Backman.  Backman caught the line drive in the air, holding Evans at second base.  The next batter was Dave Henderson.  He had given the Red Sox the lead with a home run in the tenth inning of Game Six.  Now he had a chance to duplicate the feat, as a home run would have given Boston the lead.  This time, the only thing he made contact with was the air.  Orosco struck him out on four pitches and then induced Don Baylor to ground out to short to end the threat.  The Mets were now three outs away from a championship, but they weren't finished scoring yet.

The Red Sox called upon Al Nipper to face Darryl Strawberry to lead off the bottom of the eighth inning.  Nipper was trying to keep the Mets' lead at one so that the Red Sox could make one last attempt in the ninth inning to tie the game or take the lead.  It didn't take long for that one run lead to grow.  Strawberry greeted Nipper with a towering home run to right field that almost took as long to come down as it did for Strawberry to round the bases.  After Darryl finally finished his home run "trot" (To call it a trot would be putting it mildly.  It was more like a stroll and it led to a bench-clearing brawl the following season in spring training when Nipper and the Red Sox faced Strawberry and the Mets again.), the Mets had a 7-5 lead.  After a hit, a walk and an RBI single by Jesse Orosco on a 47-hopper up the middle (how appropriate since 47 was Jesse's number), the Mets had regained their three-run lead.  After being held scoreless by Bruce Hurst for the first five innings of the game, the Mets had exploded for eight runs in the last three innings to take an 8-5 lead into the ninth inning.  Orosco was still on the mound, hoping to throw the season's final pitch.

With the champagne ready to be uncorked in the Mets clubhouse, Orosco went to work on the Red Sox batters.  Ed Romero popped up to first base in foul territory for the first out.  That was followed by Wade Boggs grounding out to second base for the second out.  The Mets were one out away from a championship.  Nothing was going to stop them from winning this game.  Well, nothing except for the pink smoke bomb that was thrown onto the field.

That did not matter to Jesse Orosco or the Mets.  After the smoke cleared, Marty Barrett stepped up to the plate.  Barrett had already collected a World Series record-tying 13 hits, trying to set the record and keep the season alive for the Red Sox.  However, that was not to be.  We now turn the microphone over to the late Bob Murphy for the final pitch.

"He struck him out!  Struck him out!  The Mets have won the World Series!  And they're jamming and crowding all over Jesse Orosco!  He's somewhere at the bottom of that pile!  He struck out Marty Barrett!  The dream has come true!  The Mets have won the World Series, coming from behind to win the seventh ballgame!"

The Mets had completed their dream season with a World Series championship.  After 108 regular season victories and a hard-fought six-game NLCS against the Houston Astros, the Mets were able to bring the trophy home.  At times, it seemed as if the season was going to come to a screeching halt, but through determination, perseverance and perhaps an extra pebble or two around the first base area during Game Six, the Mets came through for themselves, for their fans and for the city of New York.

In 1986, the Mets owned New York.  They were a blue (and orange) collar team for a blue-collar city.  Thirty years ago today, the Mets became the World Champions of baseball.  Victory never tasted so sweet.


One final postscript on the whereabouts of Jesse Orosco's glove:  I'm sure many of you who watched Game Seven remember Jesse Orosco flinging his glove up in the air after striking out Marty Barrett to end the World Series.  Have any of you wondered what happened to that glove?  Now it can be told!

If you have the 1986 World Series DVDs, watch the final out of Game Seven.  After Orosco throws the glove up in the air and falls to his knees, he gets up just as Gary Carter and the rest of his teammates mob him at the pitcher's mound.  Now hit the "slow" button on your remote and watch closely as Bud Harrelson (wearing No. 23) runs around the crowd of players to the left of them.  He has nothing in his hands as he goes around the pile of ecstatic players.  Right before he goes off-camera, you can see him start to bend over.  When he comes back a split second later to celebrate with the team on the mound, he has a glove in his left hand.  That's Jesse Orosco's glove.

The Studious Metsimus staff and friends of the staff had the pleasure of meeting both Bud Harrelson and Jesse Orosco (see photo, below right). 

During the 50th anniversary conference at Hofstra University in 2012, staff member Taryn Cooper and friend of the staff, Jason Bornstein (who remembers Shea very well), met the former Mets shortstop, third base coach and manager and confirmed with Harrelson that he was the one who picked up the famously thrown glove.

We also ran into Orosco at Darryl Strawberry's restaurant (an eatery which sadly is no longer with us) and asked him if he knew who retrieved the glove for him after he recorded the final out of the 1986 World Series.  For over a quarter century, he was under the impression that it was bullpen coach Vern Hoscheit, but wasn't sure.  When we informed him that it was Bud Harrelson and explained how he retrieved it, he was surprised to hear the news and thanked us for finally giving him confirmation.  Hey, it was the least we could do for the man who gave us one of our fondest Mets memories!

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: Mark Carreon (1989-91)

Throughout history, baseball players have begun their careers expecting to excel in one role before their managers found them to be better suited to play another role.  Players such as Rick Ankiel and all-time legend Babe Ruth famously began their careers as pitchers before shifting to the outfield.  Of course, Ankiel made the move to the outfield because he couldn't control where his pitches were going and Ruth made his transition because opposing pitchers couldn't keep his batted balls in the park.

Whereas players such as Ankiel and Ruth made position changes so they could help their teams by appearing more often at the plate, some players have been more useful to their teams by making fewer appearances in the batter's box.  Take, for example, a former Met who was a contact hitter and stolen base threat as an everyday player in the minor leagues before specializing in timely power hitting off the bench at the major league level.

For seven years in the Mets' minor league system, this player dreamed of becoming a major leaguer who would line drive an opposing pitcher to death, then frustrate the pitcher's battery mate by swiping a bag or two.  He didn't do much of that once he got called up to the Mets.  Nor did he find himself on the field all that often.  But he did find a way into the Mets' record books using a skill he never thought he'd use.

No one produced long balls in a pinch better than Mark Carreon.  (B. Bennett/Getty Images)

Mark Steven Carreon was the Mets' eighth round pick in the 1981 June amateur draft, taken five rounds ahead of Lenny Dykstra and four rounds before the Mets selected a skinny pitcher named Roger Clemens, who spurned the team to pitch against collegians in Texas.  While in the minors, Carreon saw players drafted in future years rocket past him to join the Mets, including 1982 draftees Dwight Gooden and Roger McDowell, who helped the team win a championship just four years after they were drafted.  Meanwhile, Carreon spent seven long years in the minors, excelling as a contact hitter with a tremendous eye at the plate (.308 batting average, 389 walks, 240 strikeouts in 3,517 plate appearances).  Carreon was also a speedster, producing three seasons of 30+ steals on his way to a seven-year total of 159 stolen bases in 201 attempts.  One thing he didn't do very well was hit for power, as evidenced by his 32 homers in over 3,500 plate appearances.

In his first seven minor league seasons, Carreon had proven that he could be a successful player at the next level.  But as an outfielder, Carreon's road to everyday success with the Mets was blocked by Kevin McReynolds, Darryl Strawberry, Mookie Wilson and fellow '81 draftee Lenny Dykstra, who were all established major leaguers by the late '80s.  Although Carreon finally made it to the majors as a late-season call-up in 1987, he was once again stuck at AAA-Tidewater for his eighth minor league season in 1988.

Carreon did finally show some power as a member of the Tides in 1988, blasting 14 homers in 102 games, but the extra power came at a cost, as he batted a career-low .263 and had more strikeouts (53) than walks (40).  Carreon was called up twice to the Mets in 1988, but only managed to get into seven games.

The 1989 season - Carreon's ninth in professional baseball - began with Carreon at Tidewater again.  Carreon had been a member of the Tides since late 1985 and was desperate for a break to finally latch on to a spot on the Mets' big league roster, especially with McReynolds, Strawberry, Wilson and Dykstra still manning the outfield at Shea Stadium.  But it wasn't an injury to an outfielder that got Carreon his much-deserved opportunity.  Rather, it was a trip to the disabled list by Mets catcher Gary Carter.

Carter, who was batting .114 at the time, was sidelined in mid-May by a swollen right knee.  The Mets were struggling on offense, batting .232 with a .299 on-base percentage through their first 30 games, and needed someone - anyone - who could help the team turn things around at the plate.  Carreon, who had 21 RBI in 32 games with Tidewater before his call-up, continued to hit at the major league level, collecting a run-scoring single as a pinch-hitter in his first at-bat following his promotion to the Mets.  Making the hit more noteworthy was that it came off Padres closer Mark Davis, who went on to win the Cy Young Award that year.

(B. Bennett/Getty Images)

Less than two weeks later, Carreon came up once again in a pinch-hitting role against the Padres.  This time, the Mets and Friars were hooked up in a pitchers' duel, with New York leading San Diego, 1-0, as the game entered the seventh inning.  The starting pitchers for the two teams were Ron Darling and Bruce Hurst, who had last matched up against each other in Game Seven of the 1986 World Series.  In that memorable game, Hurst had to watch from the bench as Ray Knight led off the seventh inning with a home run that swung the momentum of the game in the Mets' favor.  This time, Hurst was still on the mound when the seventh inning started, but the result was the same.  Leading off the seventh as a pinch-hitter for Darling, Carreon took Hurst deep down the left field line to give the Mets a two-run cushion.  The Mets then added another run late in the game to earn a hard-fought, 3-0 victory.

With Strawberry and McReynolds firmly entrenched in the corner outfield positions and with the newly-acquired Juan Samuel trying his best to play center field (Samuel came over from Philadelphia in a much-maligned trade for Dysktra and McDowell in late June), Carreon knew that the only way he'd stick with the Mets would be as a pinch-hitter.  And although he never fully embraced it, he flourished in his new role.

Just eleven days after delivering his first pinch-hit homer, Carreon came through again, although this time, his blast was directly responsible for a Mets victory.  Facing the Pirates' Bob Kipper in a 3-3 tie, Carreon batted for catcher Mackey Sasser in the seventh and homered to break the tie in the Mets' 4-3 victory.  Manager Davey Johnson was rewarded for his faith in the neophyte and lamented that he couldn't find a bigger role for him on the team.

"It's a tough role for a youngster," Johnson said.  "I have confidence in him, and he's had some big hits for us.  I really don't like to sit him."

Carreon started just 13 games for the Mets from the time he was called up in May until the end of August.  Although he didn't fare well as a starting player, he was phenomenal as a pinch-hitter.  On July 26, he hit his third pinch-hit home run of the season off tough Pirates left-hander John Smiley.  Then on September 22, he clubbed his fourth homer as a pinch-hitter, a shot that broke a 2-2 tie against Montreal that gave the Mets a 3-2 victory.  Carreon's deciding blast versus the Expos tied Danny Heep's single-season club record, which Heep set in 1983 when he produced four pinch-hit home runs of his own.  (The record has since been broken by Jordany Valdespin, who hit five home runs as a pinch-hitter in 2012.)

By the start of the 1990 campaign, the Mets had rid themselves of Lenny Dykstra and Mookie Wilson, and had pulled the plug on the Juan Samuel experiment.  Davey Johnson, who had always wanted to give more regular playing time to Carreon finally found a way to get him into the starting lineup by making him a part-time center fielder now that the Mets had put the Dykstra/Wilson/Samuel trio behind them.  Unfortunately, Johnson didn't stick around long enough to find out how Carreon would perform with the added playing time, as he was fired by the team in late May.

New manager Buddy Harrelson did not share Johnson's feelings on Carreon's ability to play regularly at the major league level.  Harrelson wrote Carreon's name in the starting lineup just 27 times after Johnson was fired and Carreon struggled, save for an eight-game stretch in June in which he batted .478 with four homers, which included his fifth career pinch-hit home run that took place during a wind-plagued doubleheader at Wrigley Field on June 13.

A year after batting .308 under Davey Johnson's tutelage in 1989, Carreon finished the 1990 season with a mediocre .250 batting average.  However, he did manage to hit ten home runs in just 188 at-bats.  In doing so, Carreon became the first Mets player to reach double-digit homers during a season in which he failed to collect 200 at-bats.  (Carreon's teammate, Tim Teufel, duplicated the feat, although Carreon reached the ten-homer mark before Teufel did in the 1990 campaign.)

During the 1990-91 off-season, Darryl Strawberry left the Mets to sign a free agent contract with his hometown Los Angeles Dodgers.  Although the Mets found Strawberry's replacement in Hubie Brooks, trading Bob Ojeda and minor league pitcher Greg Hansell to the Dodgers to acquire him, and also signed free agent Vince Coleman to play center field, Harrelson didn't get the best seasons from either player, and as a result, he had to mix and match his outfielders more often than he would have liked.  That allowed Carreon to start 53 games and surpass 200 at-bats for the first time in his career.  But even with the increased playing time, it was clear where Carreon's best role with the team was.

In 1991, Carreon produced a .245/.277/.281 slash line as a starting player, producing just five extra-base hits (four doubles, one home run) in 206 plate appearances.  But as a pinch-hitter, Carreon was otherworldly, putting up a .343/.425/.629 slash line.  He also matched his extra-base hit total as a starter in 166 fewer plate appearances, producing two doubles and three homers in 40 appearances as a pinch-hitter.  When Carreon went deep off Pirates starter Randy Tomlin on April 16, he matched the team record of six career pinch-hit homers, which had been shared by franchise greats Ed Kranepool and Rusty Staub.

On April 28, Carreon accomplished two things no Met had ever done with one swing of the bat.  When Carreon came up as a pinch-hitter against Pirates starter John Smiley in the fifth inning, he swatted his seventh career pinch-hit home run, breaking the franchise record.  He also became the first - and to this day, only - Mets player to ever hit multiple pinch-hit home runs off the same pitcher, having previously homered off Smiley as a pinch-hitter back in 1989.

Six days after his record-breaking homer, Carreon put the icing on his career pinch-hit home run record cake, blasting a game-tying home run off San Francisco Giants closer Jeff Brantley in the bottom of the ninth inning.  Carreon's shot came immediately after Mackey Sasser delivered a pinch-hit homer of his own, marking the first time in team history that the Mets had hit back-to-back pinch-hit home runs.  Sasser and Carreon's blasts sent the game into extra innings, and the Mets won the game in the 12th frame, when Howard Johnson connected on a two-run homer of his own.

Even though Carreon had become the biggest home run threat off the bench in franchise history, he was frustrated that he wasn't being asked to make a steadier contribution to the team, especially since he felt that his talents were being wasted on the bench.

Photo by Barry Colla

"It's unfortunate that my career is at a standstill when I'm 27 years old and at the peak of my abilities.  There is no doubt I want to play and no doubt I would do (just) about anything so that I can play. ... I'm being used for their convenience when I have so much to offer.  It's a dead end street.  I see my career going straight to nowhere."

Without an everyday role on the team, the Mets gave Carreon the opportunity to become a full-time player elsewhere.  On January 22, 1992, the Mets traded Carreon to the Detroit Tigers for left-handed relief pitcher Paul Gibson.  Gibson, who had a 3.88 lifetime ERA before coming to the Mets, was awful during his two-year tour of duty in New York, posting a 5.22 ERA and 1.57 WHIP in 51 appearances.  Through the 2015 season, Gibson's 5.22 ERA is the fifth-highest of any Mets pitcher with at least 50 appearances.  Only Frank Francisco (5.36 ERA, 56 appearances), Craig Anderson (5.56 ERA, 57 appearances), Ryota Igarashi (5.74 ERA, 79 appearances) and Mel Rojas (5.76 ERA, 73 appearances) were worse than Gibson.  Gibson is also one of five Mets pitchers to have a WHIP of at least 1.57 while appearing in 50 or more games for the team, joining Anderson, Igarashi, Paul Siebert and Dwight Bernard.

While Gibson was attracting the boo birds in New York, Carreon was singing a happy tune elsewhere.  Carreon had 300 at-bats for the first time in his career in 1992 as a member of the Tigers, then signed a free agent contract with the San Francisco Giants, for whom he had a banner season in 1995, batting .301 with 24 doubles, 17 homers and 65 RBI in 426 plate appearances during the strike-shortened season.  A year later, Carreon split the season between the Giants and Cleveland Indians, batting .281 and collecting a career-high 34 doubles for the two teams while driving in 65 runs for the second straight season.

Unfortunately, Carreon never played in the majors again after the 1996 season, despite the two fine years as an everyday player in 1995 and 1996.  Carreon played in Japan as a member of the Chiba Lotte Marines in 1997 and 1998, then played in the independent Texas-Louisiana League in 2000, ending his professional baseball career as a .340 hitter for the Jackson Diamond Cats, half a country away from the bright lights of New York City.

Carreon spend the entirety of his Mets career playing a waiting game.  From 1981 to 1988, he waited to get a chance to stick around in the majors.  He had just 21 major league at-bats before he finally got the chance to stay on the roster in May 1989.  Then after establishing himself as the team's top pinch-hitter in 1989, manager Davey Johnson gave Carreon a chance at more playing time as one of the team's center fielders in 1990.  Johnson's firing caused Carreon to wait some more on the bench under new manager Buddy Harrelson.  Finally, in 1991, Carreon seemingly broke just about every career pinch-hitting record he could break.  He broke all these records, yet couldn't get the break he really wanted until he was traded by the team in 1992.

From 1989 to 1991, Carreon batted .302 as a pinch-hitter with a .616 slugging percentage.  In all other situations, those numbers dipped to .262 and .378, respectively.  While in the minors, Carreon was a contact hitter with good speed and little power.  As a major league player with the Mets, he stole just five bases, but set a still-standing franchise record of eight pinch-hit home runs.

Mark Carreon wanted so much more out of his career in New York.  But in the little playing time he did receive, he had more success than anyone could have expected.  Pinch-hitters for the Mets can only dream to have the type of success Carreon had with the team.

Carreon's career didn't go straight to nowhere.  It went straight to the Mets' record books. (Photo by Barry Colla)

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
February 29, 2016: Art Shamsky

October 27, 1986: "The Dream Has Come True..."

Two days ago, we looked back at the twenty-seventh anniversary of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.  Miraculous as that game was, the Mets did not win their second championship that night.  The improbable comeback only forced a seventh and deciding game.

Do you remember seeing the replay of Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk waving for the ball to stay fair in the 1975 World Series?  That home run gave the Red Sox a thrilling 12-inning victory over the Cincinnati Reds in Game 6.

That's right.  It happened in Game 6.  Just like the Mets' dramatic Game 6 victory in the 1986 World Series, the home run by Fisk did not give the Red Sox the World Series trophy.  All it did was force a seventh game, a game won by the Reds to give Cincinnati the championship.

Had the Mets followed up their Game 6 heroics with a loss the following night, the miracle comeback would have been for naught.  The Mets had to win Game 7 to validate their season.  The stage was set at Shea Stadium for the final game of the 1986 baseball season.  It was up to the Mets to make the dream come true for their fans.

Game 7 was originally scheduled for Sunday, October 26.  However, a steady rain forced the postponement of the game until the following night.  Red Sox starter Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd was supposed to start the seventh game against Ron Darling.  However, with an extra day of rest, the Red Sox chose to bypass Boyd (who had given up six runs to the Mets in his Game 3 loss) and gave the ball to Bruce Hurst.

Hurst had already defeated the Mets in Game 1 and notched a complete game victory against them in Game 5.  Although he was pitching Game 7 on three days rest, the Mets were still wary about Hurst.  His performances against the Mets in the World Series were reminiscent of Mike Scott's outings in the NLCS.  If the Mets were going to beat Hurst, Ron Darling was going to have to match him pitch for pitch.  Unfortunately, that was not the case in the early innings.

Bruce Hurst was his usual strong self in the early innings, keeping the Mets off the scoreboard.  Ron Darling?  Not so much.  After a scoreless first inning, he gave up three runs in the second inning, including back-to-back home runs by Dwight Evans and Rich Gedman.  By the time the fourth inning rolled around, Darling had already given up six hits and walked a batter.  He then hit Dave Henderson with a pitch to lead off the fourth inning.  After facing two more batters, Darling was relieved by fellow starter turned reliever Sid Fernandez.  The score was still 3-0 in favor of the Red Sox and the game was slipping away from the Mets.  It was up to El Sid to stop the fire from spreading.

In perhaps the guttiest (no pun intended) performance by Fernandez in his Mets career, he shut down the Red Sox.  After walking his first batter (Wade Boggs), Sid retired the next seven batters he faced, with four of them coming via the strikeout.  Fernandez did everything he could to keep his team in the game, but his efforts would go in vain unless the Mets could finally solve the puzzle that was Bruce Hurst.

With time running out on the Mets and their dream season, Davey Johnson was forced to make a difficult move in the bottom of the sixth inning.  After Rafael Santana grounded out to start the inning, the Mets were down to Sid Fernandez's spot in the batting order.  Would Johnson take Sid out for a pinch hitter, hoping that the Mets would start a rally or would he leave him in the game, possibly giving up on another inning in which to mount a comeback against Bruce Hurst?  Johnson chose to pinch hit for Fernandez and it ended up being one of the best managerial decisions he ever made.

Lee Mazzilli stepped up to the plate in lieu of Fernandez.  He greeted Hurst with a single to left.  Game 6 hero Mookie Wilson followed Mazzilli with a hit of his own, followed by a walk to Tim Teufel.  The base on balls loaded the bases for Keith Hernandez and brought the crowd of 55,032 to its feet.  The cheering rose to a crescendo when Hernandez delivered a two-run single to center, scoring Mazzilli and Wilson and sending Teufel to third.  Since Teufel represented the tying run, Davey Johnson sent in the speedier Wally Backman to pinch run for him as Gary Carter stepped up to the plate.  Carter came through as he drove in Backman with a ball that would have been a base hit to right had a confused Hernandez not been forced out at second base when rightfielder Dwight Evans rolled over the ball.  Hernandez had to freeze between first and second until he knew that the ball had not been caught.  Despite the out being recorded, the Mets had tied the game at 3.  They had finally gotten to Bruce Hurst and hope was alive at Shea.  That hope became greater when Ray Knight came to bat in the seventh inning against a familiar face.

Calvin Schiraldi had been brought in by the Red Sox to start the seventh inning.  Schiraldi was the losing pitcher in Game 6, having allowed Gary Carter, Kevin Mitchell and Ray Knight to deliver hits off him in the tenth inning.  This time, he was facing Knight with no one on base, trying to erase the bitter memories of his previous outing.  Knight would not provide him with the eraser.  On a 2-1 pitch from Schiraldi, Knight got under a pitch and launched it to deep left-center, barely clearing the outfield wall.  A jubilant Knight celebrated as he rounded the bases.  The Mets finally had their first lead of the game and they were going to make sure that they weren't going to give it back.  The hit parade continued in the seventh inning, as an RBI single by Rafael Santana and a sacrifice fly by Keith Hernandez gave the Mets a 6-3 lead.  The Mets were in front, but the Red Sox weren't going to go away quietly.

Roger McDowell had come into the game in the seventh inning once Sid Fernandez had been pinch hit for.  He continued where Sid had left off by retiring the Red Sox in order in the seventh.  However, things went a little differently for McDowell in the eighth inning.  Bill Buckner led off the inning with a single.  Jim Rice followed Buckner with a single of his own.  After Dwight Evans doubled into the gap in right field, scoring both Buckner and Rice, the lead had been cut to a single run.  The Red Sox were down 6-5 with the tying run on second base and nobody out.  It was time for Davey Johnson to make one last move, with the World Series on the line.

Jesse Orosco came in from the bullpen, hoping to shut down the Red Sox to preserve the lead for the Mets.  His first batter, Rich Gedman, had homered earlier off starting pitcher Ron Darling.  This time, he hit the ball hard again, but in the direction of second baseman Wally Backman.  Backman caught the line drive in the air, holding Evans at second base.  The next batter was Dave Henderson.  He had given the Red Sox the lead with a home run in the tenth inning of Game 6.  Now he had a chance to duplicate the feat, as a home run would have given Boston the lead.  This time, the only thing he made contact with was the air.  Orosco struck him out on four pitches and then induced Don Baylor to ground out to short to end the threat.  The Mets were now three outs away from a championship, but they weren't finished scoring yet.

The Red Sox called upon Al Nipper to face Darryl Strawberry to lead off the bottom of the eighth inning.  Nipper was trying to keep the Mets' lead at one so that the Red Sox could make one last attempt in the ninth inning to tie the game or take the lead.  It didn't take long for that one run lead to grow.  Strawberry greeted Nipper with a towering home run to right field that almost took as long to come down as it did for Strawberry to round the bases.  After Darryl finally finished his home run "trot" (To call it a trot would be putting it mildly.  It was more like a stroll and it led to a bench-clearing brawl the following season in spring training when Nipper and the Red Sox faced Darryl Strawberry and the Mets again.), the Mets had a 7-5 lead.  After a hit, a walk and an RBI single by Jesse Orosco on a 47-hopper up the middle (how appropriate since 47 was Jesse's number), the Mets had regained their three-run lead.  After being held scoreless by Bruce Hurst for the first five innings of the game, the Mets had exploded for eight runs in the last three innings to take an 8-5 lead into the ninth inning.  Orosco was still on the mound, hoping to throw the season's final pitch.

With the champagne ready to be uncorked in the Mets clubhouse, Orosco went to work on the Red Sox batters.  Ed Romero popped up to first base in foul territory for the first out.  That was followed by Wade Boggs grounding out to second base for the second out.  The Mets were one out away from a championship.  Nothing was going to stop them from winning this game.  Well, nothing except for the pink smoke bomb that was thrown onto the field.

That did not matter to Jesse Orosco or the Mets.  After the smoke cleared, Marty Barrett stepped up to the plate.  Barrett had already collected a World Series record-tying 13 hits, trying to set the record and keep the season alive for the Red Sox.  However, that was not to be.  We now turn the microphone over to the late Bob Murphy for the final pitch.

"He struck him out!  Struck him out!  The Mets have won the World Series!  And they're jamming and crowding all over Jesse Orosco!  He's somewhere at the bottom of that pile!  He struck out Marty Barrett!  The dream has come true!  The Mets have won the World Series, coming from behind to win the seventh ballgame!"

The Mets had completed their dream season with a World Series championship.  After 108 regular season victories and a hard-fought six-game NLCS against the Houston Astros, the Mets were able to bring the trophy home.  At times, it seemed as if the season was going to come to a screeching halt, but through determination, perseverance and perhaps an extra pebble or two around the first base area during Game 6, the Mets came through for themselves, for their fans and for the city of New York.

In 1986, the Mets owned New York.  They were a blue (and orange) collar team for a blue-collar city.  Twenty-seven years ago today, the Mets became the World Champions of baseball.  Victory never tasted so sweet.


One final postscript on the whereabouts of Jesse Orosco's glove:  I'm sure many of you who watched Game 7 remember Jesse Orosco flinging his glove up in the air after striking out Marty Barrett to end the World Series.  Have any of you wondered what happened to that glove?  Now it can be told!

If you have the 1986 World Series DVDs, watch the final out of Game 7.  After Orosco throws the glove up in the air and falls to his knees, he gets up just as Gary Carter and the rest of his teammates mob him at the pitcher's mound.  Now hit the "slow" button on your remote and watch closely as Bud Harrelson (wearing #23) runs around the crowd of players to the left of them.  He has nothing in his hands as he goes around the pile of ecstatic players.  Right before he goes off-camera, you can see him start to bend over.  When he comes back a split second later to celebrate with the team on the mound, he has a glove in his left hand.  That's Jesse Orosco's glove.

The Studious Metsimus staff and friends of the staff had the pleasure of meeting both Bud Harrelson and Jesse Orosco (see photo, below right). 

During 2012's 50th anniversary conference at Hofstra University, staff member Taryn Cooper and friend of the staff, Jason Bornstein (who remembers Shea very well), met the former Mets shortstop, third base coach and manager and confirmed with Harrelson that he was the one who picked up the famously thrown glove.

We also ran into Orosco at Darryl Strawberry's restaurant (an eatery which sadly is no longer with us) and asked him if he knew who retrieved the glove for him after he recorded the final out of the 1986 World Series.  For a quarter century, he was under the impression that it was bullpen coach Vern Hoscheit, but wasn't sure.  When we informed him that it was Bud Harrelson and explained how he retrieved it, he was surprised to hear the news and thanked us for finally giving him confirmation.  Hey, it was the least we could do for the man who gave us one of our fondest Mets memories!

The Mets Who Believed A Walk Was As Good As A Hit

Lucas Duda is a great admirer of pitches.  After all, he's kept the bat on his shoulder for 91% of first pitches he's seen and 68% of all pitches, regardless of the count.  By not taking his hacks at the plate, Duda has walked 21 times through the Mets' first 26 games.  But by the same token, it's quite a challenge to pick up a hit without swinging at a pitch every so often.  That would explain why Duda only has 19 hits.

Through the season's first month, the Mets' leftfielder has reached base via a hit two fewer times than he has taken ball four.  How rare has this been in franchise history?  Almost as rare as a Rey Ordoñez home run.

Let's take a look at the players who have come closest to accomplishing this rare feat for the Mets, considering only those players who played regularly or semi-regularly and had no more than 20 more hits than walks (min. 300 PA).

   

Player	Year	Plate Appearances	Hits	Walks
Elio Chacon	1962	449	87	76
Bobby Klaus	1965	337	55	45
Joe Foy	1970	399	76	68
Wayne Garrett	1970	454	93	81
Ken Singleton	1971	366	73	61
Wayne Garrett	1972	377	69	70
Bud Harrelson	1974	412	75	71
Wayne Garrett	1976	305	56	52
Ron Hodges	1983	305	65	49
Robin Ventura	2001	549	108	88

As you can see from the list above, there have been just ten instances in Mets history in which a player with at least 300 plate appearances came within 20 walks of his full-season base hit total.  Wayne Garrett is the only player to accomplish the rare feat more than once, doing it three times.  Garrett is also the sole player to have more walks than hits in a season in which he compiled at least 300 plate appearances.

But why stop with 300 plate appearances?  Why not delve a little deeper to see how many players had more walks than hits, regardless of the number of plate appearances?  So that we don't have players with one hit and two walks on the list, let's just consider players with at least twenty hits and walks.  The list is shorter than Bill Pulsipher's career in New York.

 

Player	Year	Plate Appearances	Hits	Walks
Wayne Garrett	1972	377	69	70
Ron Hodges	1984	132	22	23
Tom Herr	1991	192	30	32
Rickey Henderson	2000	124	21	25
Jay Bell	2003	142	21	22

That brings us back to Lucas Duda.  With 19 hits and 21 walks in his first 99 plate appearances, Duda is one hit away from joining the walk firm of Garrett, Bell, Henderson, Herr and Hodges.  But since Duda stands to collect far more at-bats than his colleagues in the firm did in their unusual seasons, he might end up etching his name on the list that includes those everyday players with the best eyes and most patience at the plate.

Players such as Wayne Garrett, Bud Harrelson, Ron Hodges and Robin Ventura were fan-favorites during their time in New York, but none of them hit for a particularly high average.  Hodges was a .240 hitter in 12 years as a Met, while Garrett (.237) and Harrelson (.234) were regularly out of contention for the batting title by late April.  Ventura did hit .301 in his first year in New York, but hit .232 and .237 in his other two seasons as a Met.  They couldn't hit, but they didn't have to.  They found other ways to reach base.

Lucas Duda is hitting .250 through the Mets' first 26 games.  But with two more walks than hits, his on-base percentage sits at an impressive .424.  Duda is never going to compete for a batting title, but like a number of Mets before him, he doesn't have to.  He can still contribute to the team's offense even with his share of oh-fers at the plate, as long as those oh-fers include a walk or two.

Little leaguers are taught that a walk is as good as a hit.  For Lucas Duda and a select number of players in Mets history, it appears that major leaguers have been taught that mantra as well.