The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of the Mets: Frank Cashen

Stand at the corner of Riverside Drive and West 122nd St. in Manhattan and you'll see the General Grant National Memorial.  Grant's Tomb, as it is more commonly known, is the final resting place of former president Ulysses S. Grant and is the largest mausoleum in North America.

Stand at the corner of Roosevelt Ave. and 126th St. in Queens and you'll see where Shea Stadium used to be.  In the late 1970s, nearly a century after General U.S. Grant passed away, Shea was not-so-affectionately known as Grant's Tomb after Mets chairman M.D. Grant.  And not even an experienced doctor could have saved the Mets from going six feet under during Grant's tenure.

Shea Stadium resembled a mausoleum in 1979, with fewer than 800,000 fans braving the tumbleweed that passed through the park's empty concourses to watch the men who passed as players tumbling over each other on the field.  But things began to change a year later in 1980, when the ownership team of Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon purchased the Mets from the Payson/de Roulet family.

After many years of misguided machinations by M. Donald Grant, the Mets were looking for a general manager who could make the team relevant again.  They found him after receiving a tip from the beer guy.

The architect and the building he worked in.  (Manny Millan/Getty Images)

John Francis Cashen was a sportswriter in Baltimore for 15 years.  When he wasn't writing, the bow tie aficionado was studying law at the University of Maryland.  On top of that, Cashen worked as a publicity director at a race track owned by local businessman Jerold Hoffberger, which led to a job in advertising for Hoffberger's National Brewing Company.

In 1965, Hoffberger, whose "Natty Boh" beer was the main sponsor of the Baltimore Orioles, gained controlling interest in the O's and asked Cashen to be the team's executive vice president.  Although Cashen had no experience working for a major league club, he enjoyed immediate success in his new role.  The Orioles won four pennants in his first six years on the job, taking home the World Series title in 1966 and 1970.

But after ten highly successful seasons with the Orioles, Cashen left the team to manage the brewery, which wasn't experiencing as much success.  Hoffberger eventually lost control of the National Brewing Company and ended up selling the Orioles in 1979.  No longer attached to his former boss, Cashen returned to baseball, accepting a position as Commissioner Bowie Kuhn's assistant.  Within a year, Cashen was changing jobs again, with a little help from his previous employer.

The New York Mets had new ownership in 1980, and were looking to build a winner from the ground up.  To do that, Doubleday and Wilpon needed a savvy general manager.  But before they could start the interview process, they first had to answer the phone.

"I understand you just bought the Mets," said the voice on the line.  "Well, the best general manager in the business is Frank Cashen."

Doubleday had never met Jerold Hoffberger, but once he took the former Orioles' owner's call, he figured he had nothing to lose by contacting Cashen.

"We called him," Doubleday said.  "He was the only one we talked to.  It only took a week."

And with that, the Mets had their new general manager.  However, it took a little longer than a week for the Mets to have a competitive team.

The 1979 Mets needed to win their last six games of the year to avoid losing 100 games.  But the season-ending skein couldn't keep them from finishing in the N.L. East cellar for a third consecutive campaign.  Cashen knew the roster needed a total shakeup if he wanted to field a competitive team that would bring the fans back to Shea Stadium.

"I took over a huge mess," Cashen said.  "Talent-wise, we had nothing.  Fan support, there was nothing.  In my estimation it was as ugly as you could get.  Just terrible.  We needed a complete overhaul of everything."

(Chuck Solomon/Getty Images)

One of the first things Cashen did as part of his overhaul was hire Jerry Della Famina and his advertising agency.  Due to his past work in advertising for the National Brewing Company in Baltimore, Cashen knew that the team had to promote a new image to its fans; one that promised that the losing ways of the club were coming to an end.  Della Famina came up with "The Magic Is Back" as the team's slogan in 1980, which led to much ridicule after the team ended the year with a 67-95 record.  His initial failure caused Cashen to realize exactly what was needed to help bring fans back to the ballpark.

"You can go overboard with marketing and advertising," Cashen said.  "The real thing that sells the team is the team.  You have to have the players."

At first, Cashen did not have much success importing veteran talent via the trade market, as players such as Ellis Valentine, Randy Jones and George Foster all underperformed after being acquired by the Mets.  But Cashen knew young talent when he saw it.  And his trades for prospects, as well as his draft strategy, were key in building a cohesive unit that would end the Grant's Tomb era of baseball at Shea.

Cashen's first-ever draft pick was Darryl Strawberry, who went on to set the franchise record for home runs.  Over the next three years, Cashen went on to draft Dwight Gooden, Lenny Dykstra, Roger McDowell and Randy Myers, among others.  He also signed several amateur free agents such as Kevin Mitchell and Ed Hearn.  And he traded away fan-favorite Lee Mazzilli in exchange for minor league pitchers Ron Darling and Walt Terrell, flipping Terrell a few years later for Howard Johnson.

When he first came aboard, Cashen said it would take four or five years to make the team competitive.  In 1983 - Cashen's fourth season with the team - the Mets were still languishing at the bottom of the division standings.  But by then, Strawberry and Darling were major-league ready.  In addition, Cashen finally made a trade for a veteran player that worked out for the club, acquiring first baseman Keith Hernandez from the defending world champion St. Louis Cardinals.  The Mets won just 68 games in 1983, but that represented the franchise's highest win total in seven years.

The 1984 season began with a loss before the team had even taken the field, as the Mets foolishly failed to protect Tom Seaver - Cashen had brought back the prodigal son just a year earlier - in the free agent compensation draft.  But Seaver's departure opened up a spot in the starting rotation, one that was filled when new manager Davey Johnson insisted to a hesitant Cashen that 19-year-old phenom Dwight Gooden was equipped to succeed in the big leagues after striking out 300 hitters in 191 innings at Single-A Lynchburg in 1983.

"He's ready, I know it," Johnson said.  "And don't worry because I'll protect him.  That's what I do with young arms."

With Cashen's young talent beginning to spread its wings at the major league level, the Mets exceeded all expectations by winning 90 games in '84 - the second-highest total in franchise history up to that point.  New York played meaningful games in September for the first time in nearly a decade, but ultimately fell short of the postseason.  Nevertheless, the team drew over one million more fans than they did in the year prior to Cashen's hiring.  Knowing that the team had to remain competitive to keep its new and returning fans, Cashen had to once again trade one of the club's most popular players.  But this time, instead of acquiring prospects in the deal, Cashen went for the gold.

On December 10, the Mets sent fan-favorite third baseman Hubie Brooks to the Montreal Expos, along with catcher Mike Fitzgerald, speedy outfielder Herm Winningham and pitching prospect Floyd Youmans.  In return, the Mets received veteran catcher Gary Carter, who was a seven-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glove winner and three-time Silver Slugger Award recipient.  In other words, Carter was the missing link, both as a hitter and groomer of young pitchers.

"As easy as the trade for Hernandez was, the trade for Gary Carter was much, much, much, much more difficult," Cashen said.  "It took about 10 telephone calls and a couple of face-to-face meetings and was done over a period of a couple of months before I could finalize the deal.  He [Expos president John McHale] didn't want to do it.  I thought the possibility of getting him was slim and none.  We needed a hitter and a catcher and he fit the bill completely.  I hung in there for a long time, much longer than you do for an ordinary kind of trade."

Have bat, will travel - from Montreal to New York.  (Bob Vedral/Sporting News via Getty Images)

Prior to the acquisition of Carter, the most prolific offensive season by a Mets catcher was by John Stearns in 1978, when the Bad Dude smacked 15 homers and drove in 73 runs.  Carter surpassed both of those totals easily, cranking out a 32-homer, 100-RBI campaign in his first year with the team.  Carter nearly single-handedly carried the Mets to a division crown, batting .323 with 15 homers (Stearns' full-season total in '78) and 38 RBI over his last 34 games.  But alas, the Mets fell short of the playoffs once again, as their 98-64 record left them three games behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the N.L. East.

The Mets had won 188 games between the 1984 and 1985 seasons with nary a postseason berth to show for it.  The team now had veteran leadership in Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter, and Cashen's key early '80s draft picks had all graduated to the big club.  With the core of the team already in place, Cashen decided to add smaller pieces to complete the championship puzzle, acquiring second baseman Tim Teufel to platoon with incumbent middle infielder Wally Backman and trading for left-handed starting pitcher Bob Ojeda to fill out the starting rotation.

The less splashier moves were a tremendous success, as Ojeda led the Mets with 18 victories in 1986, while Teufel's presence allowed Backman to play primarily against right-handed pitchers.  Backman responded by batting a career-high .320, while Teufel brought some pop to the lineup, contributing 25 extra-base hits in just 279 at-bats.  After two years of being the runner-up in the division, the Mets finally ended 13 years of frustration, advancing to the postseason for the first time since 1973.

With the right mix of veterans and homegrown talent, the team Cashen built won it all in 1986, defeating the Boston Red Sox in seven games to win the franchise's second World Series championship.  It took four years of rebuilding before the Mets became contenders and then another couple of seasons before they had the talent (and the luck - Thanks, Buckner!) to bring the trophy home, but Cashen kept the promise he made to his bosses.  He stitched together a ragtag group of imperfect players and came up with the perfect season for long-suffering Mets fans.

Of course, once a team climbs to the top of the mountain, the only place to go is back down.  And the descent started when Cashen traded away Kevin Mitchell just six weeks after the Mets had won the World Series.  Although the Mets received slugger Kevin McReynolds in the eight-player deal with the San Diego Padres, Mitchell was "one of the guys" who embodied the identity of the never-say-die Mets, whereas McReynolds' idea of hunting for a trophy usually ended with an animal's head on his wall.  McReynolds wasn't a rough-and-tumble Met like Mitchell and several of his former teammates were, but Cashen felt that Mitchell would be a negative presence in the clubhouse, especially around Gooden and Strawberry.  The news of the transaction did not sit well with manager Davey Johnson.

"That's the one trade I really fought," Johnson said.  "They felt Mitch was a bad influence on Doc and Straw.  I knew that wasn't the case.  Mitch came from a tough background but he wasn't a problem at all.  I tried to convince the powers-that-be, but they kept saying, 'we think he'll self-destruct.' "

This photo clearly depicts Kevin Mitchell as a self-destructing bad influence.  (Bill Turnbull/NY Daily News)

What Mitchell did do over the course of his career after his departure from New York was destroy baseballs.  After playing just 62 games in his hometown of San Diego, Mitchell was dealt to the San Francisco Giants, where he hit 143 homers in less than five full seasons.  Mitchell helped the Giants win two N.L. West titles and the 1989 National League pennant, taking home the league's Most Valuable Player Award in the Giants' World Series campaign.

While Mitchell was becoming one the game's most feared hitters, McReynolds had a solid career with the Mets.  In 1988, McReynolds finished third in the N.L. MVP vote and helped the Mets win a division title.  But that was the only time he played in the postseason with the team, as the '88 squad didn't have the fire and resilience that their '86 counterparts had.  They did have David Cone, however, who became one of the league's best pitchers after Cashen traded for him.

In what is widely considered to be the best post-championship trade made by Cashen, the Mets acquired Cone from Kansas City for catcher Ed Hearn and pitchers Rick Anderson and Mauro Gozzo.  Cashen wasn't even asking for Cone in particular, but stuck to his mantra about who to select in a trade when given the opportunity.

"We knew Kansas City needed a catcher and we had Eddie Hearn," Cashen said.  "I'd like to tell you that we were that brilliant, but we looked into their system for a pitcher.  You know my philosophy: if you don't know what you want, take pitching." 

Cone had an up-and-down 1987 campaign, filling in as a starter when the staff was overcome with injuries and serving as a reliever when the other pitchers were healthy.  Cone himself wasn't immune to the injuries that plagued the pitching staff in 1987, missing nearly three months with a broken right little finger.  But Cone blossomed in 1988, becoming the first Met not named Seaver, Koosman or Gooden to win 20 games in a single season.  As good as Cone and his teammates were in 1987 and 1988 - the Mets combined to win 192 games during the two seasons - they had no pennants to show for their regular season success.  What they did have was a group of rapidly aging veterans and memories of a time when the team was expected to win a championship every year - something that Cashen was becoming well aware of.

At the tail end of the 1988 campaign, the Mets promoted 21-year-old wunderkind Gregg Jefferies.  Jefferies, who had torn the cover off the ball at every minor league level, would split time between second and third base during the final month of the season and started all seven games against Los Angeles in the National League Championship Series at the hot corner.  But after the disappointing defeat to the Dodgers, the Mets decided that Jefferies' future in New York would be at second base.  Wally Backman, who had been with the organization for a dozen seasons, including the last nine at the big league level as the team's second baseman, was the odd man out, causing him to ask for a trade.  In December, the Mets granted his wish, sending the gritty fan-favorite to the Minnesota Twins for three minor league pitchers.

Unfortunately, Jefferies didn't become the next hitting superstar for the Mets, playing just three more seasons in New York after Backman was traded to make room for him.  The .321 batting average and .961 OPS posted by Jefferies during his late-season call-up in 1988 proved to be a fluke, as Jefferies batted just .272 and had a .732 OPS for the Mets from 1989 to 1991.  In addition, Jefferies rubbed his more experienced teammates the wrong way with his immature behavior and childlike temper tantrums.  If anything, Jefferies became the clubhouse cancer that Cashen thought Kevin Mitchell was going to be just a few years earlier.

Six months after the departure of Backman, Cashen continued to part ways with some of the other characters from the '86 club.  On Father's Day 1989, the Mets traded Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell to the division rival Phillies for Juan Samuel.  The second baseman turned center fielder failed miserably in New York, and was an ex-Met the following season.  Meanwhile, Dykstra and McDowell both played well into the '90s, with Dykstra providing the spark in Philadelphia's pennant-winning 1993 campaign.  Needless to say, the trade to cut ties with Dykstra was unpopular with Mets fans and with the team's manager.

"The only thing I wanted Dykstra to do was stop trying to hit home runs," Johnson said.  "I never wanted him out of there.  He was part of the grit and the grind, along with Backman."

After 1986, Davey Johnson and Frank Cashen didn't see eye-to-eye very much.  (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

As the 1980s came to a close, so did the tenures of many long-time Mets players.  In addition to the trades of Backman, Dykstra and McDowell, the team shipped off beloved outfielder Mookie Wilson to Toronto at the trade deadline in 1989 and chose not to renew the contracts of Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter at the end of the season.  That was followed by the firing of Davey Johnson in May 1990 and the failure to re-sign Darryl Strawberry six months later.

Just as Cashen had no problem sending Kevin Mitchell back to his hometown four years earlier, he had no qualms about letting Strawberry return to his place of birth in Los Angeles.  The Mets had offered what they thought was a fair deal, putting four years and $15.5 million on the table for the right fielder, but the Dodgers were willing to give Strawberry a longer commitment and the corresponding financial compensation that came with such a commitment.  When the deal was announced, Cashen remained unapologetic about not bringing back the 28-year-old superstar.

"We offered him four years; they offered him five," Cashen said.  "The money was the same.  I've never offered a ballplayer a contract for $15.5 million.  I don't have to apologize for it."

And just like that, the first player Cashen drafted when he became the Mets' general manager was gone.  

When the Mets rallied to defeat the Red Sox in Game Six of the 1986 World Series, the miraculous comeback featured two-out singles by Gary Carter, Kevin Mitchell and Ray Knight, followed by a wild pitch and a little roller up along first by Mookie Wilson.  Within three seasons, they were all gone.  In fact, by the time 1990 came to a close, all nine players who started Game Six and the manager who wrote their names on the lineup card were no longer with the team.  The house that Cashen built so meticulously had been all but torn down.  A year later, the architect walked away as well.

In 1991, the Mets had a solid first half under manager Bud Harrelson, and by late July the team was 15 games over .500 despite having a suspect offense.  But the Mets won just 24 of their final 70 games to finish the year under .500 for the first time in eight years.  That was enough for Cashen, who resigned at the end of the year after 12 seasons as the Mets' general manager.  Cashen remained with the team as its chief operating officer in 1992 and then as a consultant, briefly filling in as general manager in 1993 and once again in 1998.
 
Nearly two decades after spending his last day as the team's full-time general manager, Cashen was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame.   He received the honor in 2010 along with two of his former first round draft picks (Strawberry, Gooden) and the manager he hired that helped turn the team around in 1984, leading to a championship two years later.

The Mets' turnaround in the 1980s might never have happened if not for these four men.  (Nick Laham/Getty Images)

Cashen, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 88, wasn't without his faults, as he frequently had disagreements with manager Davey Johnson.  Cashen's old-school approach to running a club, expecting professionalism from his players at all times, was frustrating to Johnson, especially when it came to women traveling with the team and the players' behavior off the field.  Cashen was also quick to trade away players, as seen by the jettisoning of Mitchell, Backman and Dykstra for players who either couldn't handle New York (Juan Samuel), couldn't make it to the big leagues (all the minor leaguers who came back in return) or couldn't feign interest in the game (Kevin McReynolds).  The fast trigger finger eventually led to the team's decline in the early '90s and the subsequent drop in attendance at the ballpark.  A team that had surpassed three million paying fans in 1987 and 1988 was barely drawing half that amount just five years later.  Shea Stadium wasn't quite Grant's Tomb again, but the magic that had permeated the park in the 1980s had certainly dissipated by the 1990s.

Despite his various flaws, Cashen's legacy remains untarnished and he is still revered as one of the greatest general managers in franchise history.  He may not have had everyone on his side during his time with the Mets, but even his fiercest detractors knew how important he was to the team.

"Frank was our leader," Strawberry said upon hearing of Cashen's passing.  "I always admired the way he put together our team.  He mixed young guys, like me and Doc, with guys like Carter and Hernandez.  He was able to find the perfect blend to build a championship."

The Mets were one of the worst teams in the league at the beginning of Cashen's tenure in New York.  When he left, they were once again a second division team.  But for all the agony Mets fans endured waiting for a competitive club to root for, the one championship squad Cashen constructed has remained something they can look back on with pride.

A man who got his start working for the local beer guy will always have Mets fans raising a glass in his honor.


Note: The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of the Mets is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets players and personnel who experienced the best of times and the worst of times with the team.  For previous installments, please click on the names below:

January 2, 2017: Tom Seaver
January 9, 2017: Mike Piazza
January 16, 2017: Wally Backman
January 23, 2017: Daniel Murphy

 

The Most With The Least: Pat Zachry (1977-80)

One of the toughest things for any athlete to do is replacing a living legend.  In addition to fulfilling his personal goals and the team's needs on the field, the new player has to prove himself to the fans of the player he replaced.  It's not an easy task, and some players, despite performing relatively well, are never able to live up to the fans' expectations.

In 1977, one such player joined the New York Mets.  This player had already tasted individual and team success before he called Flushing home, and he continued to succeed in the Big Apple.  There was only problem.  The Mets were a team in disarray when he joined them and most importantly, he was asked to fill the shoes of a franchise player.  Not just any franchise player, but "The Franchise" himself.  And because of that, his personal successes with the team were never fully appreciated by the fans who only wanted their team leader back.

Tall, lanky and not Tom Seaver.  That was Pat Zachry in a nutshell.  (Image courtesy of Topps)

Patrick Paul Zachry took his time making it to the big leagues.  Drafted out of high school in 1970 as a 19th round pick by the Cincinnati Reds, Zachry was never a top prospect.  But after slowly rising through the ranks, Zachry had a stellar season at AAA-Indianapolis in 1975, leading the American Association with a 2.43 ERA (min. 10 starts).

The Cincinnati Reds also had a memorable 1975 campaign, winning their first World Series title in 35 years.  The Big Red Machine, as they were known, had All-Stars and future Hall of Famers at every position.  Their starting rotation, however, was a little suspect.  Only two pitchers on the 1975 Reds made more than 26 starts and the combined 3.62 ERA of the team's starting pitchers was nearly a run higher than the bullpen's ERA.

Cincinnati then traded Clay Kirby and his 4.72 ERA in 19 starts to the Montreal Expos during the off-season and went with Pat Darcy as the fifth starter in 1976.  This allowed Zachry to join the Reds in 1976 as a relief pitcher.  But Darcy was awful in three April starts, allowing 14 runs in 16⅓ innings.  By mid-May, Darcy was out of the rotation and Zachry had stepped in.  Five months later, Zachry was on top of the world.

Despite not earning his first win until May 9, Zachry finished his first year in the majors with a 14-7 record and 204 innings pitched.  He allowed just eight home runs and finished among the league leaders in ERA, FIP and K/9 IP.  Zachry was also the winning pitcher in Game Two of the National League Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies and Game Three of the World Series versus the New York Yankees.  By season's end, Zachry had earned a World Series ring and the National League Rookie of the Year Award, which he shared with San Diego Padres pitcher Butch Metzger.

Zachry had a poor start to the 1977 campaign, as did the Reds, who were playing .500 ball for most of the first two months of the season.  At the same time, the relationship between the Mets and their ace pitcher, Tom Seaver, was rapidly approaching its breaking point.  After a Daily News article by Dick Young claimed that Seaver was upset at former teammate Nolan Ryan's new contract with the California Angels and mentioned the wives of both players, Seaver demanded a trade.

"That Young article was the straw that broke the (camel's) back," Seaver said.  "Bringing your family into it with no truth whatsoever to what he wrote, I could not abide that.  I had to go."

June 16, 1977 Daily News cover

On June 15, Seaver got his wish, as the Mets completed "The Midnight Massacre" trade with the Reds, sending Seaver to Cincinnati for Zachry, Steve Henderson, Doug Flynn and Dan Norman.  At the time of the trade, Zachry had a 3-7 record and a 5.04 ERA with the Reds, which was the exact opposite of Seaver's 7-3 mark and 3.00 ERA with the Mets.  Although Zachry managed to turn his season around in New York, going 7-6 with a 3.76 ERA in 19 starts with his new team, Seaver was even better in Cincinnati, winning 14 of his 20 starts and finishing the year with a 21-6 record - his fifth and final 20-win season.  Seaver also led the league with seven shutouts and a 1.01 WHIP.  The Mets ended the year without "The Franchise" and with a new pitcher who couldn't prevent the team's first last place finish since Seaver's rookie season in 1967.

In 1978, the first full year after the departure of Seaver, Zachry had a Seaver-like first half of the season.  When Zachry pitched a two-hit shutout against the Phillies on July 4, his record stood at 10-3 with a 2.90 ERA.  Making his phenomenal first half even more impressive was that the team was 22-41 in games started by other pitchers.  For his first-half efforts, Zachry was named to the National League All-Star team for the first time, although he wasn't called upon to pitch in the Midsummer Classic.  Even with the All-Star nod, Zachry still hadn't become the fan-favorite Seaver was.  However, he was giving the team the best chance to win games, just as his trade counterpart used to do.  Unfortunately, as much as Zachry was matching Seaver in the wins department, he couldn't match Seaver's run of good health.

From 1967 to 1976, Seaver made at least 32 starts in each season for the Mets.  Zachry combined to make 31 starts with the Reds and Mets in 1977, but could only make 21 starts with the Mets in 1978.  Zachry's first full season as a Met ended on July 24, when he injured himself upon being removed from a game against his former team.  After Pete Rose singled for Cincinnati in the seventh inning to extend his hitting streak to National League record-tying 37 games, Zachry allowed George Foster to drive Rose in with a single of his own.  When manager Joe Torre removed Zachry from the game, the right-hander took out his frustrations by kicking a concrete step in the dugout, fracturing his left foot and ending his season.

It was more of the same for Zachry in 1979, as he had a fantastic start to the season, going 5-0 with a 2.89 ERA in his first six starts, but once again, the injury bug defeated him more often than opposing teams did.  Zachry missed a month after his third start of the season because of inflammation in his pitching elbow, then aggravated the injury once he returned in late May.  He did not return to the Mets again until early May 1980.

Despite winning just six of his 26 starts in 1980, Zachry may have had his finest season with the Mets after his year-long stay on the disabled list.  Unfortunately, the Mets gave him very little run support when he was on the mound in 1980, which explains his 6-10 won-loss record.  Zachry allowed two earned runs or fewer in 14 of his 26 starts.  He earned a loss or no-decision in eight of those 14 starts.  He also held the opposition scoreless in six of his starts, but the Mets somehow managed to lose three of those games.  In all, the Mets lost 15 of Zachry's 26 starts during the 1980 campaign.  They scored a total of 26 runs in those losses, averaging 1.7 runs per game in the defeats.  Even Seaver in his prime would have had a tough time winning games with that putrid run support.

Through the 1980 season, Zachry had a 28-23 record as a Met, making him only pitcher - starter or reliever - who pitched for the team in each season from 1977 to 1980 to post a cumulative winning record.  Zachry was also second to Craig Swan in that time period in ERA (3.35), ERA+ (107) and batting average allowed (.252).  The Mets were 38-35 in Zachry's 73 starts during his first four seasons with the team, posting a .521 winning percentage in his starts.  When any other pitcher started, they were a completely different team, going 207-323 for a .391 winning percentage.

The strike-shortened 1981 season changed baseball forever.  It was also a turning point in Zachry's career.  Prior to the season, the Mets signed Zachry to a five-year, $2 million contract.  The Mets took a chance on Zachry, even though the Texan had not been able to stay healthy for much of his Mets career.  It was something that had frustrated Zachry ever since he kicked the dugout step in 1978, but with the new contract signed, Zachry aimed to leave his injury history in the past.

Image courtesy of Donruss

"I'm looking forward to staying in one piece for the year.  I'm relieved that the whole thing is over.  I felt O.K. physically, and now I feel better mentally, too."

General manager Frank Cashen also looked forward to having Zachry's services through the 1985 season, although he also couldn't help but discuss Zachry's injury history.

"If Pat Zachry can stay free of injuries, he has the natural equipment to be a great pitcher, " Cashen said.  "At the age of 28, (he) should be just coming into his prime.  He figures to be one of our starting pitchers for the next five years."

Zachry did manage to stay healthy in 1981 for the first time in four seasons, but he did not perform as well as the team expected, leading the league with 14 losses.  (On the flip side, Seaver paced the National League with 14 wins.)  In addition to his league-leading loss total, Zachry finished with an ERA above 4.00 for the first time as a Met.  Once again, the lack of run support was front and center in Zachry's starts, as the team scored two runs or fewer in 11 of his 24 starts.  But this time, Zachry also contributed to his high loss total, as he allowed four runs or more in ten of his 24 starts after allowing 4+ runs in just 23 of his first 73 starts in a Mets uniform.

At the conclusion of the 1981 season, Joe Torre - the only manager Zachry had pitched for as a Met - was relieved of his duties.  Torre was replaced by George Bamberger, who used an unorthodox approach when managing his starting pitchers during the 1982 campaign.  No pitcher made more than 24 starts for the Mets in 1982, and every starter pitched out of the bullpen as well.  Other than Randy Jones, who made 20 starts and eight relief appearances, every other pitcher who made at least a dozen starts for the Mets also made at least 12 appearances out of the bullpen.  Included in that group was Pat Zachry, who started 16 games and pitched in relief 20 times.

Zachry suffered without a set role, posting his second straight 4.00+ ERA in 1982.  He also had a 1.50 WHIP and struck out just 69 batters (both figures were his worst in any season he made 10+ starts).  Two months after the conclusion of the 1982 campaign, the Mets re-acquired Tom Seaver, as general manager Frank Cashen sent Charlie Puleo, Jason Felice and future major league manager Lloyd McClendon to Cincinnati for the beloved Met.  Eleven days after that trade was completed, Cashen sent Zachry to Los Angeles for outfielder Jorge Orta, ending the 30-year-old's tenure as a member of the Mets.  Zachry spent the final three years of his five-year contract as a relief pitcher for the Dodgers (1983-84) and Phillies (1985), hanging up his spikes at the age of 33.

(Photo by Tony Triolo/Getty Images)

In six years with the Mets, Zachry went 41-46 with a 3.63 ERA, which didn't exactly make Mets fans forget about Seaver.  But from 1977 to 1980, a Pat Zachry start was as good a chance as Mets fans had to see their favorite team win.  When he played his final game with the Mets in 1982, Zachry ranked in the team's all-time top ten in wins (41; T-7th), complete games (20; 9th), shutouts (6; T-7th) and WAR (7.3; 7th).  To this day, he still ranks in the team's top twenty in games started (113; 19th) and is 13th in both complete games and shutouts.  And he accomplished all this despite missing significant chunks of time due to injuries and playing for Mets teams that performed poorly on the offensive side.

Pat Zachry was never going to replace Tom Seaver in the hearts of Mets fans.  Nor was he ever going to replicate Seaver's gaudy numbers on the mound.  But for four seasons before signing his long-term deal, Zachry performed as best as he could given the circumstances he was faced with.  The Mets were a shadow of the team they were in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when they won two National League pennants and a World Series title.  By the time Zachry joined the team in 1977, the Mets had already begun what turned into the darkest seven-year period in club history.  Zachry was one of the lone bright spots on the club, making an All-Star team and winning games when most other Mets pitchers were having difficulty doing the same.

But Zachry was just part of the franchise, not "The Franchise".  He filled his own shoes quite admirably during his time in New York.  If only he hadn't been expected to fill someone else's at the same time...



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
 

The Most With The Least: Claudell Washington (1980)

There have been many players to have long and distinguished careers in baseball who made brief pit stops as members of the Mets.  Warren Spahn, Willie Mays and Roberto Alomar had already established themselves as future Hall of Famers before they reported for duty in Flushing.  But by the time they joined the Mets, they were a shadow of their former selves and were out of baseball soon after their Mets debuts.

Very rarely has a player come to the Mets as a former All-Star, played well for the team, then left New York to become an All-Star again.  One such example was a player who came to the team as a gifted 25-year-old athlete who had tremendous speed and solid pop in his bat.  He exhibited both of those qualities during his brief tenure with the Mets, but once his 17-year stay in the majors was over, his time with the team was mostly met with "oh, he was once with the Mets?" comments from even the most die-hard fans.

He spent less than four months in a Mets uniform, but his mostly overlooked time with the team produced several magical moments, giving Mets fans credence that "The Magic is Back" was more than just a team slogan.

In 79 games as a Met, Claudell Washington had a full year's production compared to most of his teammates.  (Topps Image)

Claudell Washington was a superstar at a very young age.  Drafted as a 17-year-old amateur free agent by Oakland in 1972, Washington rocketed through the A's minor league system.  After batting .361 with 11 homers and 33 stolen bases in just 74 games at the Double-A level in 1974, Washington was promoted to the majors eight weeks before his 20th birthday, winning a World Series ring with the A's just three and a half months after his call-up.  In his first full season in the big leagues (1975), Washington made the American League All-Star team, collecting a hit and stealing a base in the Midsummer Classic, before getting picked off by Mets pitcher Jon Matlack, who earned the victory in the game.  Washington ended the 1975 campaign with a .308 batting average, ten homers, 40 steals and placed 14th for the A.L. Most Valuable Player award.

But Washington had a disappointing 1976 campaign, showing very little power (5 HR) and having his batting average drop more than fifty points and his OPS tumble by more than one hundred points.  At the same time, the A's were a team in transition.  The advent of free agency caused team owner Charlie Finley to part ways with most of the players that helped the team win five consecutive division titles from 1971 to 1975.  Free agent departures, trades and player releases resulted in four future Hall of Famers - Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Billy Williams and Rollie Fingers - leaving the team.  Veteran players weren't the only casualties of Finley's fire sale, as 22-year-old Claudell Washington was dealt to the Texas Rangers just days before the start of the 1977 season for two minor league players and cash.  It would not be the last time Washington changed uniforms.

Washington was traded five times and signed three free-agent deals with new teams over the course of his lengthy career.  In 1980, he was traded from the Chicago White Sox (his third team) to the Mets.  At the time of the deal, the Mets had recently undergone an ownership change and were desperately trying to attract fans to Shea Stadium.  The team was the first in baseball to hire an advertising agency when they brought in Jerry Della Famina and his partners to come up with a slogan for the team.  "The Magic Is Back" sought to foreshadow that good times were just around the corner at Shea.  But by mid-May, the team was mired in the N.L. East cellar with a 9-18 record.  A month-long burst of energy gave the Mets hope, as the team went 13-8 in their next 21 games.  That was when new general manager Frank Cashen decided he had to bring in a big bat to help the team continue down the winning path, and he did so by trading for Washington.

The Mets had homered just 11 times in their first 48 games, with two of the homers coming in the season's third game.  From April 16 to May 23, the team managed to hit just three homers in 30 games.  Although Washington wasn't a classic slugger, he had an innate ability to drive the ball, as evidenced by his 33 doubles and 13 homers in 131 games for the White Sox in 1979.  And given that Washington was only 25 years old when the Mets acquired him, he still had the potential to develop more power.

His first hit as a Met came during one of the most memorable innings in Mets history, as his RBI single with two outs in the ninth on June 14 brought Steve Henderson to the plate, who delivered a game-ending three-run homer off San Francisco Giants reliever Allen Ripley to complete the improbable five-run ninth-inning rally.  Washington's single in the "Hendu Can Do" game was the only hit he produced in his first two weeks with the team.  His next three hits traveled just a little farther than his first.

Image courtesy of Fleer

On June 22, the Mets played the finale of a three-game series at Dodger Stadium, hoping to escape with a victory after dropping the first two contests, which included a shutout loss to Jerry Reuss the day before.  New York wasted no time putting runs up on the scoreboard, using Washington's first home run as a Met to take a 2-0, first-inning lead.  Washington then homered again in the fifth, becoming the first player on the power-starved Mets to have a multi-homer game in 1980.  Two innings later, he completed the trifecta, becoming the third player in franchise history - after Jim Hickman in 1965 and Dave Kingman in 1976 - to hit three home runs in one game.  Washington had a chance to hit a fourth homer in the ninth inning, but singled instead.  He then stole second base, becoming the first Met to have three homers and a stolen base in the same game.  No Mets player matched Washington's feat until Yoenis Cespedes turned the trick in Colorado on August 21, 2015.

Washington's three-homer game was the first time since June 30, 1979 that the team had hit three home runs in one contest.  It was also just the second time during the 1980 campaign that the club had homered more than once in a game.  It didn't take long for the Mets to produce another three-homer game, doing so the next time they took the field two days later in Chicago, and once again Washington left the yard.  With the Mets trailing by two runs in the fifth inning, Washington clubbed a three-run homer off Cubs starting pitcher Rick Reuschel, giving the Mets a 6-5 lead, which the bullpen was able to hold at windy Wrigley Field.

The four homers in two games for Washington proved to be contagious, especially once the calendar turned to July.  After hitting just 15 homers in their first 62 games, the Mets hit 19 home runs in the first 19 games they played in July.  Washington's prodigious power displays rubbed off on fellow outfielder Lee Mazzilli, who hit 11 of those 19 home runs.  Washington played in 14 of the 19 games, putting together a streak where he drove in at least one run in 10 of 11 games.  He also doubled once, legged out three triples, homered twice and stole six bases in the 14-game stretch.

New York reached the .500 mark during the Mazzilli and Washington-fueled hot streak, but then stumbled in August, going 9-20 from August 3 (when the team was just one game under .500 and six games out of first place) until the end of the month.  The Mets scored just 98 runs in those 29 games, as the team's early summer magic went poof.  But the one player who continued to wave a magic wand in August was Claudell Washington.

Washington played in 25 of the 29 games, batting .352 with a .545 slugging percentage.  While his teammates were dormant at the plate, Washington contributed six doubles, a triple, three homers and 14 RBI in just 88 at-bats.  When Washington finally cooled down, the team completely stopped winning.  Literally.  From August 31 to September 27, Washington played in 18 games, putting up a .169/.210/.220 slash line.  The Mets lost all 18 games.

Once the 1980 season had come to its conclusion, with the advertised magic not being all the way back, Washington left the Mets as a free agent, signing a five-year, $3.5 million contract with the Atlanta Braves.  The contract was ridiculed by most baseball pundits, and several baseball owners were stunned by the money Braves owner Ted Turner was throwing at Washington.  Yankees owner George Steinbrenner called Turner "crazy", while Baltimore Orioles owner Edward Bennett Williams said the deal was "the most outrageous contract I have ever heard of" and went on to add other opinions on the signing, saying "it's absolutely crazy" and "a touch of madness".  Mets general manager Frank Cashen, who engineered the trade for Washington just five months earlier, had just one word to say on the subject.

(Keith Torrie/NY Daily News)

"Stupefying."

Washington was reunited with his former Mets manager, Joe Torre, in Atlanta after Torre was relieved of his managerial duties in New York following the 1981 season.  Torre's leadership and Washington's bat (he achieved a career high in home runs, RBI and runs scored, while adding 33 stolen bases) helped lead the Braves to a division title in 1982 - the team's first since losing to the Mets in the NLCS in 1969.  Two years later, Washington made his second All-Star team and first as a National League player, entering the game as a defensive replacement for Mets superstar Darryl Strawberry.  Ten years after he played his final game with the Mets, he retired from baseball, spending the final five seasons of his 17-year major league career with the California Angels and New York Yankees.

Claudell Washington's career with the Mets lasted all of 79 games.  He started just 68 times, but still managed to be one of the team's top offensive stars.  He produced a .275/.324/.465 slash line in 306 plate appearances and had 16 doubles, four triples, 10 homers, 42 RBI and 17 stolen bases.  Despite playing in less than half of the team's games in 1980, Washington was second on the Mets in home runs, sixth in doubles, third in triples, sixth in RBI and fourth in steals.  He also led the team in slugging percentage and his 121 OPS+ was second to Lee Mazzilli (126 OPS+).

In 1980, the Mets assured their fans that the magic of the team's past was on its way back to Shea Stadium.  Although the team did not fulfill their end of the bargain for a few more years, the team did give its fans a reason to come out to the ballpark when the trade for Claudell Washington was made.  Washington's performance at the plate and on the basepaths allowed him to leave for greener pastures after the season was over, but he still thrilled Mets fans during the brief time he called Flushing home.

Yes, it's true.  Claudell Washington was actually a Met, even if it was only for four months out of his 17 years in the majors.  If you blinked, you missed it.  But if you were an opposing pitcher facing the Mets during the summer of 1980, then you had a front row seat to what Washington was capable of doing on a baseball diamond.  It's no wonder Ted Turner broke the bank (and the minds of his peers) for a player like Washington.


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

The Best On The Worst: Joel Youngblood

In baseball, the big bucks go to the power hitters, speed demons and flamethrowers.  If you can hit a baseball 500 feet, you're going to get a lucrative deal.  Similarly, if you can cover two-thirds of the outfield while stealing 50 bases, you can run your way to the bank.  And hit 100 on the speed gun, you're set for life.

All of those players can contribute to the success of a team.  But sometimes the most invaluable player is the one who finds many ways to contribute.  Occasionally, that player is needed to fill more than one role on the team, either because of injuries to a teammate or because of extenuating circumstances that don't allow that player to remain tied down to one position on the field.  This player is known as the utility player.

The Mets have had a number of utility players in their 50-plus seasons.  The original Mets had Rod Kanehl hot rodding his way around the field, playing all three outfield positions, as well as all four infield positions.  But utility players aren't just reserved for last-place Mets teams, as Kanehl was.  Ted Martinez played five or more games at six different positions during the 1973 pennant-winning campaign.  Kevin Mitchell might have forgotten to put on his protective cup during the 1986 World Series, but he never forgot to pack all his gloves, as the rookie played six positions for the world champion Mets.  And who can forget Super Joe McEwing, who could hit Randy Johnson and play eight positions (including designated hitter) during his five seasons in New York, although he "only" played six positions for the 2000 National League champions.

As invaluable as Kanehl, Martinez, Mitchell and McEwing were, none of them were All-Stars during their time with the Mets, and only Kanehl had a season of more than 350 at-bats, barely getting there in 1962, when he had 351 official at-bats for the original Mets.  But the Mets have had a utility All-Star in their history, one who had multiple seasons of 500 or more at-bats despite never settling into one position on the field.  Unfortunately, he never shared in the team success experienced by the utility office of Martinez, Mitchell and McEwing during his six years with the Mets.

Joel Youngblood became a star in front of many empty seats at Shea Stadium.

Joel Randolph Youngblood was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the second round of the 1970 January draft.  Youngblood's ascent to the majors was slow, as he was mired at AAA-Indianapolis for three full seasons from 1973 to 1975 because the Big Red Machine didn't have any openings on their star-laden team.  The outfield consisted of up-and-coming slugger George Foster in left, Gold Glove-winner Cesar Geronimo in center and All-Star Ken Griffey in right.  And Youngblood wasn't about to crack an infield filled with all-time greats Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, Dave Concepcion and Pete Rose.

Despite Youngblood showing a penchant for playing multiple defensive positions in the minor leagues, he was a man whose talent just wasn't good enough for the team that drafted him.  Youngblood did eventually make it to the Reds in 1976, but he was relegated to mostly pinch-hitting, as he played in 55 games but only managed 57 at-bats with Cincinnati.  The extended time on the bench did nothing for Youngblood's confidence, as batted just .193 in his limited action.

With no future in Cincinnati, Youngblood was traded in March 1977 to the St. Louis Cardinals.  Eleven weeks later, Youngblood was on the move again, as he was dealt to the Mets for infielder and singles hitter Mike Phillips at the trade deadline - the same day of the infamous "Midnight Massacre".  It was the one trade made by the Mets on June 15, 1977 that was viewed as a positive move by the team, even though it didn't exactly lead to a bigger number in the win column.

After playing in 80 games but amassing just 84 at-bats for the Reds and Cardinals in 1976 and 1977, Youngblood started at third base in his first three games as a Met, collecting a hit in each contest.  But Youngblood came off the bench in 11 of his next 15 games, batting just .150 over the three-week period.  His second month in New York proved more productive, as Youngblood got more chances to start, playing games at second base, third base, center field and right field.  From July 24 to August 16, Youngblood batted .370, starting more than half the games he played in.  Youngblood finished his first half-season with the Mets batting .253 with 12 extra-base hits in 182 at-bats.  Although he didn't hit any homers, he showed he was capable of playing wherever manager Joe Torre put him.  He also proved he wasn't just a singles hitter, like the man he was traded for - Mike Phillips.

The 1978 season saw Youngblood without a position of his own again, as the Mets used Steve Henderson, Lee Mazzilli and newcomer Elliot Maddox in the outfield.  They also had Doug Flynn at second and Lenny Randle at third, two of the other positions played by Youngblood.  As a result, the 26-year-old Youngblood had just 266 at-bats in 1978.  But Youngblood made the most of his limited playing time, batting .252 with 27 extra-base hits.  He also hit seven homers after not hitting a home run in his first two major league seasons.  Most impressive was his eight triples, which placed him in a tie for 10th place in the National League.  But of all the NL players who had at least eight three-baggers in 1978, Youngblood was the only one to do it in fewer than 437 at-bats.

After a productive 1978 season in limited action, the stage was set for Youngblood to have a breakout year for the Mets in 1979.  All he needed was the playing time.  The Mets made sure to oblige and they were rewarded with one of the best all-around seasons by a player in their short history.

The 1979 season began with Steve Henderson and Elliot Maddox once again starting in left and right field, respectively.  But simultaneous injuries to both players allowed Joel Youngblood to start more games in the outfield.  With Henderson out two months with a severe ankle sprain and Maddox sidelined for a month with a pulled hamstring, Youngblood made it impossible for the Mets to keep him on the bench.  The utility man played in a career-high 158 games in 1979, batting .275 with 37 doubles, five triples, 16 homers, 60 RBI, 90 runs scored and 18 stolen bases.  He also had an accurate arm in the outfield, finishing second in the league with 18 assists.

Youngblood's 37 doubles in 1979 tied a franchise mark set by Felix Millan in 1975.  Youngblood's co-ownership of the club's single-season doubles record lasted until 1989, when Howard Johnson ripped 41 two-base hits.  Youngblood also became the fourth Met to score 90 or more runs in a season, joining Tommie Agee (1969, 1970), Cleon Jones (1969) and Rusty Staub (1975).  In addition, Youngblood became just the fourth Met to finish a year with at least 15 homers and 15 stolen bases, after Agee (24 HR/31 SB in 1970), Lee Mazzilli (16 HR/20 SB in 1978, 15 HR/34 SB in 1979) and John Stearns (15 HR/25 SB in 1978).  And Youngblood's 58 extra-base hits in 1979 represented the fourth-highest total in club annals, behind Agee (61 XBH in 1970), Frank Thomas (60 XBH in 1962) and Dave Kingman (59 XBH in 1975).  Defensively, Youngblood became the third Met with at least 18 outfield assists in a single season, joining Rusty Staub (19 assists in 1974) and Steve Henderson (18 assists in 1978).

Very quietly, Youngblood had a great all-around season for the Mets in 1979 without having a regular defensive position.  He played most of his games in the corner outfield positions, starting 82 games in right field and 53 games in left.  But he also saw time at third base (seven starts), second base (six starts) and center field (four starts).  The thing he saw the most in 1979 was the other team celebrating a victory, as the Mets needed to win their last six games to avoid their first 100-loss campaign since 1967.

In 1980, the Mets began to move away from using their overpriced veteran players and started to dig into their minor league system for talent more often.  As a result, Youngblood had almost 100 fewer plate appearances in 1980 than he did during his breakout 1979 campaign despite never missing more than two consecutive games at any point in the season.  Youngblood's .276 batting average remained consistent with his 1979 performance, but his other numbers fell off a tad, as you would expect from a player who spent more time watching the kids play.

Youngblood finished the 1980 season with 26 doubles, two triples, eight homers and 14 steals.  Although he hit half the number of home runs as he did in 1979, Youngblood did manage to drive in a career-high 69 runs in 1980, batting .290 with men on base as opposed to a .257 average in similar situations in 1979.  He also benefited from batting lower in the order in 1980.  Youngblood was the team's leadoff hitter 51 times in 1979, hurting his RBI chances.  A year later, his name was penciled in the fourth, fifth or sixth spot in the batting order nearly 100 times.

Going into the 1981 season, Youngblood had become one of the team's veterans.  He was also two years removed from his best season in the majors and was about to turn 30.  If Youngblood was going to prove that he should remain an everyday player with so many capable youngsters ready and willing to take playing time away from him, he was going to have to force the Mets to play him, even if his all-out style of play was conducive to injuries.  He did force the Mets to play him in 1981, but he also forced his way out of the lineup by being too aggressive.

Youngblood spent most of the first month of the 1981 campaign on the bench because manager Joe Torre had gone with an outfield of Lee Mazzilli in center, first-year player Mookie Wilson in right and the recently-reacquired Dave Kingman in left, despite Youngblood being one of only two players on the team to play in over 300 games in 1979 and 1980.  Torre didn't start Youngblood until the seventh game of the season and went with a Kingman-Mazzilli-Wilson outfield alignment in ten of the team's first 18 games.  In early May, a slumping Wilson finally forced Torre to give Youngblood the opportunity he needed to produce on a consistent basis.  And boy, did he ever produce when he got that chance!

Joel Youngblood is living proof that determination always leads to success.

From May 2 to May 26, Youngblood started 22 games for the Mets, batting a whopping .430 (37-for-86) and posting an eye-popping 1.150 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage).  The new everyday right fielder produced a dozen extra-base hits (six doubles, two triples, four homers) and drove in 19 runs in the 22 games.  By the time his streak came to an end, Youngblood was leading the league with a .368 batting average and had opened the eyes of All-Star voters across the country.  But Youngblood's storybook season was about to change, and not in a good way.

On May 29, Youngblood was forced to leave a game versus the Chicago Cubs in the third inning with back spasms.  That night, the team acquired right fielder Ellis Valentine from the Montreal Expos for reliever Jeff Reardon.  To add insult to Youngblood's injury, Valentine was acquired by the Mets while he himself was on the disabled list.  Youngblood was limited to one pinch-hitting appearance over the next five games before he was able to start a game against the Houston Astros on June 5.  A day later, Youngblood doubled and scored a run against the Astros, but had to be removed for a pinch-hitter prior to his next at-bat.  This time, it wasn't back spasms that kept Youngblood from continuing.  It was a ligament strain in his left knee.  And it required him to go on the disabled list.

Less than a week after Youngblood doubled against the Astros to hike his average back up to .359, Major League Baseball went on strike.  The strike actually helped Youngblood, as the two-month layoff caused him to miss just four games.  It also kept his average atop the National League leader board, which helped Youngblood make his first All-Star team.  As the Mets' sole All-Star representative in 1981, Youngblood made his return from the disabled list in the delayed All-Star Game, which was held in Cleveland on August 9.  Youngblood was the first player off the bench for the National League, pinch-hitting in the second inning for über-phenom Fernando Valenzuela, who would go on to win both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards in the strike-shortened season.  Youngblood flied out in his lone All-Star plate appearance.

Upon returning from the All-Star Game, Youngblood was back in the Mets lineup, collecting hits in four of his first five games following his time on the disabled list.  Youngblood has shifted over to left field to accommodate Ellis Valentine in right.  But just five days after playing in the Midsummer Classic, Youngblood had to be removed from a game once again due to injury.  And this time, he didn't have a players' strike to keep him from missing too much time.  Youngblood had injured his left knee for a second time, and he would not play again in 1981.  His final season totals in just 43 games played were excellent (.350, 16 extra-base hits in 143 at-bats), but Youngblood still considered his season a disappointment because he couldn't stay healthy and be a part of his team's unexpected march into second-half contention.  The Mets finished the second half of the season with a 24-28 record, competing for a split division title until the final two weeks of the season.

Despite the front office's insistence on bringing in veterans to play in the outfield (Ellis Valentine, Dave Kingman, etc.), Joe Torre had always been able to find a spot for Joel Youngblood in the lineup during his four-plus seasons as manager of the New York Mets.  It started immediately after Youngblood was traded to the Mets, when Torre removed the "player" from his player/manager status, opening up a roster spot for Youngblood.  (Torre was officially "released" by the Mets on June 18, 1977 to fully focus on managing the team.  Six days later, Youngblood made his Mets debut.)  But Torre was relieved of his managerial duties on the final day of the 1981 season, leaving Youngblood without the manager who believed in his ability.  The move shocked Youngblood, as well as several of his teammates, some of whom had difficulty coping with general manager Frank Cashen's decision.

(video from Eyewitness News broadcast posted by Jon Bois on YouTube)

Cashen's firing of Torre (as well as long-time pitching coach Rube Walker) was the first of many moves the club made during the off-season in an attempt to end a five-year stretch of losing seasons.  Speedster Frank Taveras was traded to Montreal and Gold Glove-winning second baseman Doug Flynn was shipped off to Texas in December.  Lee Mazzilli was also sent to Texas, in a deal that wrangled Ron Darling and Walt Terrell away from the Rangers.  The Mazzilli trade opened up a spot for Mookie Wilson to become the everyday center fielder.  With Ellis Valentine firmly entrenched in right field, that left one outfield spot for Youngblood to claim.  The only problem was that Cashen had already found his man for the position.

George Foster, one of the many stars of the Big Red Machine in the mid-'70s, became a Met on February 10, 1982.  Cashen traded three players to Cincinnati for the slugging left fielder, then signed Foster to a five-year, $10 million contract, which at the time was the most lucrative deal ever given to a player by the Mets.  Six years after Foster contributed to keeping Youngblood out of the Reds' outfield mix in Cincinnati, he reprised that role with the Mets.  And this time, Youngblood didn't have Joe Torre to put him somewhere in the lineup.

The new Mets manager in 1982 was George Bamberger, a man who had no allegiance to the veteran Youngblood.  Bamberger used Foster and Wilson as his everyday left fielder and center fielder, but platooned Youngblood, Valentine and rookie Gary Rajsich in right.  Through the team's first 46 games, Youngblood had started 19 games in right, with Valentine starting 17 times and Rajsich getting the call on ten occasions.  Neither man played well enough to claim the everyday job so Bamberger started Mike Jorgensen and Rusty Staub in right field 17 times in July and August.  Still, no one player could make the position his own.

Although Youngblood had played in 80 of the team's first 104 games, he had only started 45 times through early August.  As usual, Youngblood bounced around the diamond, playing six defensive positions and starting games at four of them.  But since he was in the last year of a three-year contract signed after his breakthrough 1979 campaign, the Mets decided it would be better to trade him than to keep him mired on the bench.  On August 4, after going 1-for-2 against future Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins, Youngblood was removed from the day game at Wrigley Field, having been traded to the Montreal Expos for a player to be named later (Tom Gorman).  An ex-Met for just five hours, Youngblood then collected a hit off another future Hall of Famer, Steve Carlton, in Montreal's night game at Philadelphia.  In doing so, Youngblood proved his versatility in a different way, becoming the first player in major league history to collect hits for two teams in two cities on the same day.

The Youngblood trade was supposed to give Ellis Valentine the everyday job in right, but Bamberger continued to platoon several players at the position, causing Valentine to declare that there was a "conspiracy" against him by an organization that was "the worst in baseball".  Valentine also went on to say that Youngblood should have been traded earlier in the season, and was displeased by Youngblood's trade destination, saying "they traded Youngblood right back into our own division, and to a contending team.  That was stupid."

Needless to say, Valentine was also a former Met at the conclusion of the 1982 season.  Youngblood, on the other hand, never caught on with the Expos after his historic debut, signing a free-agent contract with the San Francisco Giants prior to the 1983 season.  Youngblood played six years in the Bay Area, spending more time in the infield during the beginning of his Giant tenure.  But after committing 36 errors in just 117 games as the Giants' third baseman in 1984 - tied for the fourth-most errors at the position in a single season since the end of World War II - Youngblood was moved back to the outfield in 1985 and spent most of his remaining years with the Giants alternating between the three outfield positions.  Although Youngblood was a member of San Francisco's division-winning team in 1987, he never played for the team in the postseason.  Two years later, Youngblood closed out his career as a member of the Cincinnati Reds, appearing mostly as a pinch-hitter, just as he did when he made his major league debut with the Reds 13 years earlier.

Joel Youngblood was a fine major league player, whose longevity in the big leagues was due mostly to the fact that he wasn't able to hold down a steady position.  Youngblood always knew his versatility would be advantageous to whichever team employed him, and to this day remains grateful that his former manager in New York noticed that as well.

"From a manager's standpoint, I gave (Torre) an insurance policy on the bench that could go in and play anywhere.  But it took away some of the opportunities for me to play regularly at one position because I was so valuable I could play all positions quite well. ... Joe's always been my favorite manager and I've had great managers - Sparky Anderson, Frank Robinson.  I always felt (Torre) was fair, he was open and listened.  It was great in New York."

Youngblood played in over 1,400 major leagues during his 14-year career, but never once became a regular at any one position.  In six seasons as a Met, Youngblood played 309 games in right field.  But he also spent time in left field (102 games), second base (99 games), center field (75 games), third base (53 games) and even found himself playing shortstop twice.

There are only ten other players in Mets history besides Youngblood who split time between second base, third base and the three outfield positions.  None of them played is as many total games as Youngblood did (Joe McEwing ranks second to Youngblood with 502 games as a Met, which is still more than 100 games short of Youngblood's total in New York) and none of the utility players came close to matching Youngblood's offensive production with the Mets.

From 1977 to 1982, Youngblood was one of only three Mets to produce 100 doubles, score 200 runs and collect 200 RBI.  (Lee Mazzilli and John Stearns were the others.)  When Youngblood played his final game as a Met, he ranked in the team's top twenty in several offensive categories, including hits (519; 14th all-time through 1982), home runs (38; 15th), runs scored (241; 15th) and RBI (216; 14th).  Youngblood cracked the top ten in doubles (108; 9th), triples (18; T-10th) and stolen bases (39; 10th).  All this from a player who could do everything on the field except claim a defensive position of his own.

In 1981, Robert Sullivan wrote an article in Sports Illustrated claiming Youngblood was "a star, not a starter".  It's true that Youngblood was never a fixture at any one position for the Mets or any of the other teams he played for.  But that didn't stop him from becoming an All-Star in 1981.

Although he played hundreds of games there, you couldn't really pigeonhole Joel Youngblood as an outfielder.  He also couldn't be referred to as a second baseman or a third baseman.  But if you had to define Youngblood's role on a team, it would be simple.  Joel Youngblood was a baseball player, and a damn fine player at that.

The Mets weren't very good between 1977 and 1982.  But that didn't mean they were bereft of good players.  Joel Youngblood was a very good player on some very bad teams.  It wasn't his fault he couldn't catch a break with the Big Red Machine.  Nor could anyone blame him for the Mets' troubles in the late '70s and early '80s.  Youngblood just did what he knew how to do - play baseball - and that's something Mets fans will always appreciate.

That's the smile of a much-appreciated Met.

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 
January 13, 2014: Al Jackson
January 20, 2014: Lee Mazzilli
January 27, 2014: Steve Trachsel
February 3, 2014: Rico Brogna
February 10, 2014: Skip Lockwood 
February 17, 2014: Ron Hunt
February 24, 2014: Craig Swan 
March 3, 2014: Hubie Brooks