The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of the Mets: Bobby Valentine

There are moments in history that are so unforgettable, people can always remember where they were at the moment the historic events took place.  Where were you on November 22, 1963?  Probably mourning the death of President John F. Kennedy.  Do you remember what you were doing on July 20, 1969?  Most likely it involved a small step for man and a giant leap for mankind.  (For some of you, it might also have involved the Mets and Expos splitting a Sunday doubleheader at Parc Jarry.)

Mention the date June 15, 1977 to a Mets fan, however, and they'll all respond with the same two words: Midnight Massacre.

The darkest day in Mets history saw the team deal its best player, Tom Seaver, to the Cincinnati Reds at the trade deadline.  In a separate transaction, the Mets rid themselves of their best power hitter, Dave Kingman, sending him to the San Diego Padres for a seldom-used relief pitcher and a light-hitting utility player.  By the end of the 1978 campaign, the reliever (Paul Siebert) had pitched his final game in the majors.  The other player acquired for Kingman wore a Mets uniform far longer than Siebert did.  And when he took his jersey off for the final time, he had managed to make a little history of his own.

The field general responsible for a great run in Mets history.  (Scott Jordan Levy/Getty Images)

Robert John Valentine became a Met because of a Massacre.  He then proceeded to kill what was left of his playing career, producing a .222/.295/.280 slash line for the Mets in 1977 and 1978 before he was released by the team mere days before the start of the 1979 campaign.  Valentine, who was originally selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the fifth overall pick in the 1968 June Amateur Draft, played briefly for the Seattle Mariners after he was let go by the Mets before calling it a career at the age of 29.

Despite never quite fulfilling the expectations that come with being a top-five pick in the draft, Valentine spent much of his playing career studying the game.  One of his minor league managers, Tom Lasorda, was influential in Valentine's decision to continue to be a part of the game once his playing career had come to an end.

"Tommy had told me to start thinking about how I could stay in baseball," Valentine said.  "That's what I wanted to do.

Valentine became a coach with the Mets just four years after playing his final game in the majors.  Two years later, he was hired by the Texas Rangers to replace Doug Rader after the Rangers got off to a miserable 9-23 start.  Although Texas finished in last place in the American League West in 1985, Valentine turned things around in his first full season as the team's skipper in 1986, leading the team to a second-place finish and an 87-75 record.  Valentine remained in Texas until 1992, when he was fired by then-managing general partner George W. Bush after getting off to a 45-41 start.

Although Valentine never led Texas to the postseason, he was the Rangers' all-time leader in managerial wins for over two decades.  Valentine was not surpassed in that category until Ron Washington bumped him down to No. 2 in 2014.  But once he was fired, the always opinionated Valentine made sure to remind his former employers who he thought was responsible for the Rangers' turnaround from cellar dwellers to contenders.

"I don't think anybody would've done better than I did while I was here," Valentine said.  "People are going to look back and say in 1985, this is where the Texas Rangers were and in 1992, this is where they were when he left.  I think people are going to say that's one hell of a job."

After working for the Cincinnati Reds in 1993 as a scout and third base coach, Valentine returned to the Mets' organization in 1994 to manage the team's Triple-A affiliate in Norfolk.  With major league players on strike from 1994 to 1995, Valentine took the opportunity to become a manager in Japan in 1995 before he returned to Norfolk to manage the Tides once again in 1996.  Under Valentine, the Tides went 82-59, which was the second-best record in the ten-team International League.

Meanwhile, the Mets, who were on their way to a sixth consecutive losing season, had gotten tired of manager Dallas Green's comments about their young pitchers not belonging in the majors.  With 31 games left in the 1996 season, Green was fired, allowing Valentine to make the jump from Triple-A to the big leagues to manage the Mets.  And just like he did with the Rangers, his leadership was instrumental in the revival of a moribund franchise.

The 1996 Mets finished the year with a 71-91 record, with Valentine going 12-19 after replacing Green at the helm.  Valentine, who had a reputation of getting the most out of otherwise ordinary players, continued to thrive in that respect during his first full season as the Mets' skipper.  Butch Huskey (.287, 24 HR, 81 RBI) had a career year in 1997, while Edgardo Alfonzo batted .315 and reached double digits in home runs and stolen bases for the first time.  On the pitching side, Bobby Jones (15-9, 3.63 ERA) became an All-Star and journeyman Rick Reed (13-9, 2.89 ERA, 1.042 WHIP) finally found a home in New York.  What did all four of those players have in common besides having breakout years for the Mets in 1997?  They all played for Valentine at Norfolk during his two stints as the Tides' manager.

Fonzie was one of many who thrived under Bobby V in both the minors and majors.  (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

New York surprised the league in '97, staying in contention for the National League wild card berth until the final week of the season.  The Valentine-led Mets finished the year with an 88-74 record, which represented a 17-win increase from the previous year.  Only the 1969 and 1984 Mets had shown a greater improvement from one year to the next.

Another reason why the Mets were so successful in 1997 was the acquisition of first baseman John Olerud, who batted .294 with 22 homers in his first season with the Mets.  Olerud led the team in doubles (34), runs scored (90), RBI (102) and on-base percentage (.400), while providing Gold Glove-caliber defense at his position.

The Mets' sudden rise to contention in 1997 caused a flurry of transactions during the off-season.  First, the Mets re-signed Olerud to a two-year deal.  They then traded for veteran left-handed starting pitcher Al Leiter.  But the coup de grâce didn't come until the season had gotten underway, when general manager Steve Phillips acquired All-Star slugger Mike Piazza from the Florida Marlins.

Olerud and Piazza batted .354 and .348, respectively, making Valentine's job of filling out the lineup card that much easier.  But they weren't the only players who helped prove that the previous season's resurgence wasn't a fluke.  Alfonzo continued to blossom under Valentine, improving his power numbers (17 HR, 78 RBI) from the previous year.  In addition, new center fielder Brian McRae's vision of a 20/20 season came to fruition, as he hit 21 homers and stole 20 bases.  But it was Valentine's use of the bullpen that really helped the team succeed.

For the first time in franchise history, five relievers appeared in 50 or more games.  Closer John Franco set a team record with 38 saves, while Dennis Cook and Turk Wendell combined to appear in 139 games, with Cook becoming the first left-handed reliever to pitch in 70 or more games for the Mets in a single season and Wendell appearing in a club-record nine consecutive games during the team's playoff push in September.

Alas, Valentine and the Mets fell short in their quest to end their decade-long postseason drought, as the team lost its final five games of the season to once again finish the year with an 88-74 record.  Valentine had now managed over ten years in the major leagues with nary a playoff berth to show for his efforts.  He was poised to finally crash the postseason party in 1999.  But first, he had to stop everything from crashing down on him.

The Mets played decently, but not spectacularly over the first two months of the season before losing eight straight games from late May to early June.  The eighth defeat in the skein gave the Mets an unsightly 27-28 record, which moved them under the .500 mark for the first time since their Opening Day loss to the Marlins.  The loss also led to the sudden firing of the team's hitting, pitching and bullpen coaches.  Although Valentine's job was spared, he knew that if the team didn't improve quickly after their less than mediocre 55-game start, his days as the team's skipper were numbered.  And so, Valentine decided to share a few numbers of his own.

"In the next 55 games, if we're not better, I shouldn't be the manager," Valentine proclaimed. "I'd rather have a sustained run; something like 40 and 15 would be good."

The team responded to the firings by winning their next three games in lopsided fashion, outscoring the Yankees and Blue Jays by a combined 26-7 score.  The outburst of offense seemed to come to an end in the series finale against Toronto, as the Blue Jays took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning.  But a three-run rally by the Mets, which included a rare stolen base by Piazza, sent the game to extra innings.  In the 12th, a questionable catcher's interference call led to Valentine's ejection.  Valentine left the dugout briefly, only to be replaced a few minutes later by what appeared to be his mustachioed doppelganger.  Except it wasn't his hirsute twin.  It was Valentine himself attempting to go incognito behind Orel Hershiser in the corner of the dugout.  The disguise was discovered by Major League Baseball and Valentine was fined $5,000 and suspended for two games.  One thing that couldn't be disguised, however, was the Mets' newfound streak of success, as two innings after Valentine was ejected, the Mets won in walk-off fashion for their fourth consecutive victory.

The Mets were winning again?  That's incog-NEAT-o!  (Fox Sports Net screen shot)

By early August, the Mets' 27-28 record had turned into a 67-43 mark, as the team did indeed win 40 of their next 55 games as per Valentine's prophetic statement.  New York had five separate winning streaks of four or more games during their torrid two-month stretch, while never losing more than two in a row.  The Mets briefly took over first place in August before the Braves reclaimed their customary spot in the division by the end of the month.  New York then pulled back to within one game of Atlanta as they entered a critical three-game series at Turner Field on September 21.  When the series was over, the focus had shifted from the division race to the wild card chase, as the Chipper Jones One-Man Wrecking Crew had essentially torn down the Mets' N.L. East aspirations.

No matter who Valentine put on the mound, Jones found a way to take that pitcher deep.  Jones homered four times in the series, hitting long balls off southpaws (Al Leiter, Dennis Cook) and right-handed hurlers (Rick Reed, Orel Hershiser).  Jones drove in seven runs in the three games, or one more run than the Mets scored in the series.  After the final game, Jones reflected on what had transpired in the Braves' three-game sweep of the Mets.

"It was one of those dream series," Jones said.  "It's almost like the ball is hitting my bat.  I don't think I'm doing anything different, but it seems like the ball keeps hitting my sweet spot."  

Meanwhile, in the other clubhouse, Valentine had his own feelings on the sweep, one that increased the Braves' lead in the division to four games over the Mets.  He was particularly vocal about what Jones had been able to accomplish.

"They sure did the job they needed to give themselves some room.  At least Chipper did," Valentine said.  "It's uncanny that he's so hot right now."

The use of the word "uncanny" caused the media to suggest that Valentine was accusing Jones of cheating, especially after Jones had hit several well-placed pitches with authority.  Valentine, who was known to occasionally suffer from foot-in-mouth syndrome, had to quickly recant his unfortunate utterance, saying: "Maybe I shouldn't have used that word."

Although the Mets' dreams of winning the division were derailed by the Braves, the wild card was still well within reach, as New York still had a two-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds with nine games to play.  There was only one problem.  The Mets kept losing.  And losing.  And losing some more.

Following the sweep in Atlanta, the Mets traveled to Philadelphia and promptly lost three more games.  This wasn't the perennially contending Braves the Mets got swept by; it was a Phillies team that was 11 games under .500 entering the series.  The loss in the series finale officially gave the Braves the division title.  It also vaulted the Reds over the Mets in the wild card race.

The Mets limped home from Philadelphia to open their final homestand of the season, still having memories of the previous season, when the team lost its final five games to deny them a spot in the playoffs.  Their losing streak extended to seven games in the opener of a three-game set against the Braves.  New York finally won a game when they walloped Greg Maddux in the middle game of the series, thanks mostly to a grand slam by John Olerud, but then dropped an extra-inning heartbreaker in the finale after coming back twice in the late innings to tie the game.  After the game, the uncanny Jones made a very candid statement, one that forever made him Public Enemy No. 1 in Flushing.

"Now all the Mets' fans can go home and put their Yankees stuff on."

If Jones's comments suggested that the fans would be watching playoff baseball from their couches instead of from their seats at Shea Stadium, he was gravely mistaken.  With the Mets two games out of the wild card spot with three games to play, they responded by sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Starting pitchers Kenny Rogers and Rick Reed struck out 22 batters between them in the first two games, while Orel Hershiser and four relievers combined to pitch a three-hitter against the Pirates in the series finale.  But it was a move by Valentine in Game No. 162 that may have saved the Mets' season.

Melvin Mora had played in 65 games for the Mets coming into the season's final home game.  He had started just three of them, with Valentine using him mostly as a late-inning defensive replacement.  Mora had just 38 plate appearances in those 65 games, which didn't allow him to remain fresh as a hitter and resulted in a .133 batting average entering the finale against the Pirates.  With the game tied, 1-1, in the bottom of the seventh, Mora came into the game as a pinch-runner for Rickey Henderson.  Although it was the tenth time Valentine had used Mora to run for a teammate, it was the first time Mora had run for the game's all-time stolen base leader.  The Mets failed to score in the inning, but Mora stayed in the game as the new left fielder.  More importantly, he took over Henderson's leadoff spot in the batting order.  That came into play two innings later, when the bottom of the ninth rolled around with the game still tied.

Pinch-hitter Bobby Bonilla led off the inning by grounding out.  That brought up Mora, who had just four hits in 30 at-bats.  Rather than replacing the light-hitting Mora, Valentine rolled the dice and allowed him to take his turn at bat.  The gamble paid off, as Mora delivered an opposite-field single.  Two pitches later, Edgardo Alfonzo also went the other way with a hit, pushing Mora over to third base.  An intentional walk to Olerud set up a force play at every base.  But it also brought up Mike Piazza to the plate.  New pitcher Brad Clontz didn't even have time to get nervous about facing the future Hall of Famer, as his first pitch bounced up and over the tall protective screen behind the plate, allowing Mora to scamper home with the winning run.

The mojo was risin' for Melvin Mora when Bobby V allowed him to hit in the '99 finale.  (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

The sweep of the Pirates, coupled with the Reds losing two out of three to the Milwaukee Brewers, forced a one-game playoff to determine the wild card winner.  After the tight affair that forced the 163rd game, the Mets had a relatively easy time in Cincinnati against the Reds, scoring early and extending their lead throughout the game before Al Leiter put the icing on the cake with a masterful complete-game, two-hit shutout.

For the first time since 1988, the Mets were going to the postseason.  That drought wasn't nearly as long as Valentine's, as he had endured ten seasons as a player without appearing in the playoffs, followed by a decade as a manager with his season ending after the 162nd game.

Valentine's first postseason series ended on a high note, with backup catcher Todd Pratt hitting a game-winning home run off Arizona closer Matt Mantei in Game Four of the National League Division Series.  The thrilling victory sent the Mets to the NLCS to face Chipper Jones and the Braves.  During the regular season, Atlanta had taken nine out of 12 matchups against New York, outscoring the Mets, 63-40.  But Arizona had been just as dominant against the Mets in the regular season, winning seven of nine games by a combined 63-39 tally before the Mets defeated the Diamondbacks in the NLDS.  That gave the Mets hope against an experiences Braves squad.  By the end of Game Three, however, that hope was nearly gone.

Atlanta took the first three games of the series, defeating Masato Yoshii, 4-2, in Game One, followed by two one-run victories in Games Two and Three.  The Mets recovered to eke out a comeback win against Braves' closer and renowned people watcher on the No. 7 train, John Rocker, forcing a fifth game at Shea Stadium.  The 15-inning, rain-soaked affair featured Valentine at his best.  First, he removed Yoshii after three innings even though he had allowed just two runs.  He then brought in Turk Wendell in the seventh inning to face Chipper Jones.  Wendell's trademark slider proved to be too much for the switch-hitting Jones, who struck out much to the home crowd's delight.  Valentine also ordered five intentional walks during the game.  None of the recipients of the free passes came around to score.

The game remained tied until the 15th inning, when the Braves finally broke through for a run against the Mets' tired bullpen.  New York could have easily conceded the pennant right there, but Valentine and his players would have nothing of it.  Shawon Dunston, who had been put into the game by Valentine five innings earlier, ran the count full before fouling off six consecutive pitches.  On the 12th pitch of the at-bat, the man who wore No. 12 for the Mets hit a sharp ground ball up the middle for a single.  Dunston then stole second.  After reliever Kevin McGlinchy walked pinch-hitter Matt Franco, Alfonzo bunted the runners over to second and third.  An intentional walk to Olerud brought up cleanup hitter Todd Pratt, who came in for Piazza in the 14th inning when Piazza injured his left forearm.  Pratt drew the third walk of the frame, tying the game and bringing Robin Ventura up to the plate, who delivered his famous Grand Slam Single to win the game for the Mets.

After five hours and 46 minutes, the Mets had finally forced their way back to Atlanta for a Game Six showdown.  Tired and bruised, the Mets fell behind by five runs in the first inning before coming back to tie the game in the seventh.  An inning later, they had gone out in front of the Braves.  The Mets failed to hold that precarious lead, then coughed up another one-run lead in the tenth.  Finally, in the 11th inning, after the two teams had played for over ten hours in their last two games, Valentine went to starting pitcher Kenny Rogers in an attempt to extend the game and their season.  It was one of the few decisions that did not go right for Bobby V in his first postseason experience.  A double, a sacrifice bunt, two intentional walks and one unintentional walk later, the Braves had ended the Mets' storybook season, leaving a stunned Valentine to repeatedly say "no, no, no" while pounding his fists on the dugout railing as Gerald Williams crossed the plate with the pennant-winning run.

The look of disappointment on Bobby V's face says it all.  (NBC Sports screen shot)

The most successful year in over a decade had come to a crashing halt for the Mets after their Game Six defeat.  But despite the sudden end to the season, Valentine was proud of his players and praised their ability to fight back when all appeared lost.

''I'm going to take some time in the winter to watch these games, and try to enjoy them,'' Valentine said.  ''I told my guys after the game that it might be a shorter winter or a longer winter for them but I think they played like champions.  They should feel like champions.  It's very difficult to come back from five runs and have a couple of leads.  It's difficult to give it up, but we gave everything we had."

A year after being told by their manager that they played like champions in defeat, the Mets became champions of the National League.  Unlike the 1999 campaign, the Mets did not need to produce a 40-15 record during the middle of the 2000 season, nor did they require a frenetic finish to qualify for the playoffs.  Instead, they clinched the wild card with several games to play and nearly beat out the Braves for the division title.  And once the St. Louis Cardinals knocked off Atlanta in the division series, the Mets were faced with the reality that they would not have to go up against the Hall of Fame triumvirate of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.  Rather, they'd be facing a Cardinals' pitching staff that had produced a 4.38 ERA during the regular season and allowed a then-franchise record 196 home runs.  It was enough to make the Mets' hitters salivate in anticipation of their NLCS feast.

New York defeated St. Louis in five games, scoring six or more runs in each of their four victories.  In addition to going homer happy against the Cards, the Mets produced a deluge of doubles, with four balls leaving the park and a dozen more ending up with the Mets' batter on second base.  The Mets were on their way to the World Series for the first time since 1986, as Valentine joined the pantheon of pennant-winning managers in franchise history.  Their opponent was the crosstown New York Yankees, creating the first Subway World Series since 1956.  But just like they did in 1999, the Mets came up short in a series where every game was decided by one or two runs.

Going into the 2001 season, Valentine was trying to become the first manager in Mets history to lead the team to back-to-back World Series berths.  At the same time, he was trying to keep general manager Steve Phillips off his back.  Just like Davey Johnson and Frank Cashen couldn't see eye-to-eye at the end of their respective tenures with the Mets, Valentine and Phillips were also in a strained professional relationship.  Valentine wasn't a fan of some of the trades Phillips made.  He also didn't like that Phillips wouldn't allow him to talk to other teams about their vacant managerial positions after gaining some leverage with his consecutive postseason appearances.  The feud would continue into the 2001 campaign, and got progressively worse once the Mets got off to an awful start.

By mid-May, New York was ten games under .500 and showing no signs of improvement.  Instead of being buyers at the trade deadline, they started to part ways with several of the key players that helped them rise to the top of the baseball world.  In an eight-day span, the Mets traded backup catcher and 1999 postseason hero Todd Pratt, cut ties with set-up men Turk Wendell and Dennis Cook and dealt starting pitcher Rick Reed, all of whom were favorites of Valentine.  Phillips had raised the white flag on the season.  Valentine, on the other hand, never surrendered his dreams of raising another kind of flag at Shea.

After the Mets reached their nadir in mid-August with a 54-68 record, Valentine led his troops to victory in 17 of the team's next 22 games.  Although the Mets still had a losing record at 71-73, they had climbed to within eight games of the first-place Braves with 18 games to play.  It would still take a monumental effort to cut further into the Braves' lead.  But then September 11 happened.  And Valentine had a new mission to accomplish.

Bobby Valentine was a healer at the helm.  In more ways than one.  (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

On the morning of September 11, 2001 the Mets were in Pittsburgh, waiting to open a three-game series against the Pirates that night.  But after the terrorist attack on the United States, the series was postponed and the Mets returned via bus to New York.  Upon arriving in their home city, Valentine immediately went to Ground Zero to offer assistance.  Valentine also worked tirelessly at Shea Stadium, working to distribute relief goods to those in need.  John Franco, himself a native New Yorker, noticed how involved his manager was in the healing process.

"Bobby was a great leader," Franco said.  "He had us out there, and even when we were done, he stood out there by himself helping everybody else, all the volunteers."

When baseball resumed a week later, the Mets returned to Pittsburgh with the entire country supporting them.  Overcoming fatigue and emotional stress, New York emerged victorious in all three games, moving them back over .500 and within five games of first place.  The Mets then returned to Shea Stadium to face the Braves and gave the patriotic crowd a reason to smile again.  Mike Piazza's home run in the series opener turned a loss into a thrilling victory.  The second game also went to New York, as RBIs by Tsuyoshi Shinjo, Rey Ordoñez and Armando Benitez (not a typo) helped turn a one-run lead into a four-run cushion.  It also moved the Mets to within 3½ games of the division lead.

Unfortunately, the Mets dropped the series finale to the Braves, then lost two out of three games in Atlanta the following week.  Although the Mets managed to finish the year with a winning record - Valentine's fifth straight as manager of the team - they failed to catch the Braves and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1998.  A year later, the Mets couldn't repeat their late-season magic and finished below .500 for the first time since Valentine took over for Dallas Green in 1996.  Valentine's first season of failure became his last season at the helm of a rapidly sinking ship, as he was fired by the Mets a few days after the season came to an end.  General manager Phillips got to keep his job, which finally brought out all the animosity Valentine had felt for him over the years.

"What (Phillips) has done isn't proper," Valentine said.  "He's done what he could so I wouldn't be around.  I told Fred (Wilpon) that he had to give the next manager authority in the clubhouse and on the field, that he had to get Steve off the field and out of the clubhouse.  You can't let a GM high-five guys and joke around after a win and then after a loss act like it's the end of the world.  Get him out of there for the sake of the next guy."

The Mets did indeed get Phillips out of there, but waited until the 2003 season was nearly half-over to do so.  By then, the manager with the second-most wins in franchise history was just a distant memory.

When Bobby Valentine became the Mets' manager in 1996, he took over a team that hadn't had a winning season since 1990 and was a combined 91 games under .500 since the start of the 1991 campaign.  He proceeded to lead the team to five consecutive winning seasons, which included two postseason appearances and a National League pennant.  Despite his final season in which he went 75-86, Valentine's .534 winning percentage ranks third in team history behind Davey Johnson (.588) and Willie Randolph (.544).

(Focus On Sport/Getty Images)

As controversial as Valentine was with his outspokenness and relationship with his general manager, his players - especially the ones that played for him in the minor leagues - remained fiercely loyal to him.  Benny Agbayani, who played for Valentine at Norfolk in 1996 and in New York from 1998 to 2001, followed his manager to Japan in 2004, then retired from the game once Valentine was unceremoniously fired in 2010.  Eric Hillman, who pitched for the Mets from 1992 to 1994, blossomed under Valentine in both the United States (Norfolk) and Japan (Chiba Lotte) before injuries ended his career in 1997.  Once he retired, Hillman had a telling statement about what it was like to play for Valentine.

"Either you love Bobby Valentine or you hate him," Hillman said.  "There's no middle ground.  I'll tell you what - I'd take a bullet for that guy.  He did everything for me in my career."

Valentine was both respected and reviled.  He was also cherished and criticized.  But no one can deny that Valentine was part of the Mets' renaissance in the late 1990s.  His relationship with management may have been testy at times, but his relationship with the win column was always strong.

He first came to the Mets in 1977 during one of the darkest periods in franchise history.  By the time Valentine left the team for good a quarter century later, he was responsible for some of the club's brightest moments.

Mets fans with vivid memories of the late '90s and early '00s will always have a place in their hearts for Valentine.


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
January 30, 2017: Frank Cashen
February 6, 2017: Ed Kranepool
February 13, 2017: Doug Sisk
February 20, 2017: Joan Whitney Payson 
February 27, 2017: John Franco and Armando Benitez 
March 6, 2017: Dwight Gooden

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
 

One Mo-MET In Time: Steve Henderson

Every once in a while, a player becomes known for something he has no control over.  It's then up to that player to give people something else to think about whenever his name pops up in a conversation.

One such player became known for a trade he was involved in - a trade that was arguably the most hated transaction in Mets history.  He went on to have a decent career in New York, but did not do nearly enough to make Mets fans forget who he was traded for.  But for one night, he became the talk of the town when he launched a ball into the Flushing sky to give the Mets an unexpected come-from-behind victory that is still being talked about to this day - a victory that made fans truly believe that there was something magical returning to Shea Stadium.

Steve Henderson was one of the key players received in the Tom Seaver trade.

Steven Curtis Henderson was one of the Cincinnati Reds' top outfield prospects in 1976.  During that season, he batted .312 with 17 homers and 44 stolen bases.  Henderson continued his onslaught against minor league opponents in 1977.  Through his first 60 games, Henderson batted .326 with seven homers and 19 steals.  It appeared as if Henderson was on the fast track to the major leagues, but there were three obstacles standing in his way.  Their names were George Foster, Cesar Geronimo and Ken Griffey.

The two-time defending champion Reds had one of the best outfields in the league with top slugger Foster in left, perennial Gold Glove winner Geronimo in center and batting title contender Griffey in right, making Henderson instantly expendable.  During their World Series-winning seasons in 1975 and 1976, the Reds had one of the top pitching staffs in baseball, posting ERAs of 3.39 and 3.51, respectively, on their way to back-to-back titles.  But Cincinnati struggled on the mound during the first two months of the 1977 campaign, with the team ERA ballooning above 4.00.  For the Reds to compete with the surging Dodgers, they needed an upgrade in the starting rotation.  They found a perfect suitor in the New York Mets, who were looking to rid themselves of the best pitcher they ever had.

On June 15, 1977, in a trade that was dubbed "The Midnight Massacre" by the New York media, Tom Seaver was shipped off to Cincinnati in exchange for Henderson, infielder Doug Flynn, outfield prospect Dan Norman and pitcher Pat Zachry (who was the 1976 National League co-Rookie of the Year).  Most of the four players who came to New York did not do much to erase the sting left by the trade of The Franchise.

Flynn did become the first - and only - second baseman to win a Gold Glove for the Mets when he took home the hardware in 1980, but he was as close to an automatic out with the bat as he could possibly be.  After hitting a respectable .275 in two and a half seasons with Cincinnati, Flynn posted a .234 batting average and .264 on-base percentage during his time in New York.

Norman played sparingly in his four seasons with the Mets, never collecting more than 110 at-bats in any campaign.  Like Henderson, he was a power/speed guy, hitting as many as 17 home runs and swiping as many as 33 bags in a minor league season.  But that never translated at the major league level, as Norman had a total of nine homers and eight steals in 139 games as a Met.

Zachry's promising rookie campaign with the Reds did not blossom into an illustrious career in New York.  Although Zachry was selected to the National League All-Star team in 1980, he never started more than 26 games in any of his six seasons with the Mets because of nagging injuries.  Zachry's 41 wins from 1977 to 1982 did not make anyone forget about another No. 41, and because Zachry wasn't Tom Seaver, he had no chance to be as good as he could have been in New York.

That left Steve Henderson to be "the guy" in the deal.  Manager Joe Torre was adamant that some day the trade of Seaver was going to be known as the Steve Henderson trade.  Henderson actually had a very good rookie campaign in New York in 1977.  Although he didn't make his Mets debut until June 16, Henderson still managed to post a .297/.372/.480 slash line in 99 games.  Henderson also collected 16 doubles, six triples, 12 HR and 65 RBI, while scoring 67 runs for a Mets team that finished with its worst record since Seaver's rookie season in 1967.

Henderson lost out on the Rookie of the Year Award by just one vote to future Hall of Famer Andre Dawson, despite posting a higher batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage than the Expos' right fielder.  Henderson also scored more runs, drew more walks and tied Dawson in RBI even though he played in 40 fewer games than the Hawk.

The 1978 and 1979 campaigns were mostly forgettable for the Mets, but quite solid for Steve Henderson, as the young left fielder posted career highs in doubles (30), triples (9) and runs scored (83) in 1978, then followed that up with his first .300 campaign, as he batted .306 for the Mets in 1979.  Clearly, Henderson had become one of the bright stars in New York, even with the team going through its darkest period.

In 1980, the team started to alter its course, as new majority owner Nelson Doubleday hired an experienced general manager with a winning pedigree in Frank Cashen.  Doubleday also enlisted the services of advertising executive Jerry Della Famina to come up with a catchy slogan for the Mets.  "The Magic Is Back" proclaimed to Mets fans that the team's losing ways were coming to an end, and that there would be good times to be had at Shea Stadium in the new decade.  Steve Henderson did his part to contribute to this magical feeling, and did it in a most dramatic and unexpected fashion.

Despite the new slogan, there was nothing that would suggest that the 1980 Mets were going to be a much better team than their 1979 counterparts. The '79 squad needed to win its final six games just to avoid a 100-loss season.  The '80 team appeared headed down that 100-loss road during the season's first month, losing 18 of its first 27 games.  But then something - perhaps something magical - began to happen at Shea Stadium.  The Mets started to win with regularity, going 17-10 over their next 27 games.  And they saved their best for last, winning four games in walk-off fashion over the 27-game stretch.

On June 14, the Mets were trying to pull to within one game of the .500 mark as they hosted the San Francisco Giants at Shea Stadium.  But after falling behind by five runs going to the bottom of the eighth inning, it appeared as if the team would have to wait another day before continuing their march to the .500 mark.  That is, until Steve Henderson took control of the night's festivities.

The Mets were four outs away from dropping a 6-1 decision to the Giants when Henderson lashed a two-out RBI single off John Montefusco.  It appeared to be a meaningless hit when John Stearns struck out to end the rally, leaving the Mets within four runs of the Giants going into the ninth inning.  Reliever Jeff Reardon struck out the side in the top of the ninth, giving the Mets one last chance to erase the seemingly insurmountable deficit.  But a pair of groundouts sandwiched around a Doug Flynn single left the Mets an out away from defeat with the tying run sitting somewhere on the bench.  The Mets needed, for lack of a better expression, magic to come back against Giants closer Greg Minton.  And magic they received.

With wands shaped like bats, New York mounted a furious comeback.  First, Lee Mazzilli drove in Flynn with a single to make it 6-3.  Then Frank Taveras walked to bring up the tying run to the plate in Claudell Washington.  Washington then singled to center, bringing home Mazzilli and putting the tying runs on base for Henderson.  Giants manager Dave Bristol then called upon reliever Allen Ripley to face Henderson.  Ripley was prone to serving up the long ball, having allowed 20 homers in 150⅓ career innings prior to his tête-à-tête with Henderson. But that was the furthest thing from Bristol's mind when he brought in Ripley because Henderson, surprisingly enough, had yet to go deep in 1980.

After reaching double digits in home runs in two of his first three seasons with the Mets, Henderson had not homered in any of his first 188 plate appearances in 1980.  His strength was in the batting average department, where he was hitting .340 to find himself among the National League leaders.  But with one swing of the bat, Henderson made Bristol pay for doubting his ability to hit with power and proved that at least for one night, the magic was indeed back at Shea Stadium.

(Please scroll to the 50:58 mark of the video to see the full ninth inning or just click on the link above.)

YouTube video courtesy of Larry Arnold/ClassicMLB11 

Henderson's three-run opposite-field homer completed the miraculous five-run rally against the Giants, giving the Mets a thrilling 7-6 victory and moving the team to within one game of the .500 mark.  New York would eventually reach the break-even point in mid-July, but couldn't maintain its good fortune throughout the season, although they did manage to stay out of the NL East cellar for the first time in four seasons.

Steve Henderson finished the 1980 campaign with a .290 batting average, 17 doubles, eight triples, eight home runs and 58 RBI.  He also scored 75 runs and stole a career-high 23 bases.  But by not hitting a home run until mid-June, even though that homer was the liveliest moment for a moribund team, the front office decided that there needed to be a more consistent power threat in the lineup.  After all, no Met had hit as many as 20 homers in a season since Dave Kingman launched 37 blasts in 1976.  With no internal options appearing to be headed toward a 20-homer season, Frank Cashen did what worked for the Mets in the mid-'70s.  He brought Kingman back to New York, trading Henderson to the Chicago Cubs for the surly slugger.

The irony of bring traded for Kingman, another victim of the Midnight Massacre trades conducted by the Mets in 1977, did not escape Henderson.

"It seems every time I get traded, it's for the big guy.  Tom Seaver in 1977.  Now, Dave Kingman."

Henderson was correct.  Seaver was a three-time Cy Young Award winner when he was traded to Cincinnati for a package that included Henderson, while Kingman crushed 111 homers and made the All-Star team twice in the three and a half years he was away from New York.

Upon his return to the Big Apple, Kingman produced the first 20-homer campaign for the Mets in five years when he collected 22 round-trippers during the strike-shortened 1981 season.  He then hit a league-leading 37 homers in 1982.  But by 1983, Kingman had worn out his second visit to New York and was released.  He was later signed by the Oakland A's, producing three seasons of 30-plus homers, the latter two as a teammate of Steve Henderson, who by then was a part-time outfielder and occasional designated hitter.  Henderson spent his final season in the big leagues in 1988 as a member of the Houston Astros, then played in the Pittsburgh Pirates' minor league system in 1989 until announcing his retirement from professional baseball at age 36.

When Tom Seaver was dealt to the Cincinnati Reds at the trade deadline in 1977, Steve Henderson became one of four players who were asked to fill the huge void left by the departure of The Franchise.  Doug Flynn, Dan Norman and Pat Zachry never became the players the Mets expected them to be.  But Joe Torre knew that Steve Henderson wasn't going to fail, which is why he expected the deal to someday become known as the Steve Henderson trade.  That didn't quite happen, but it wasn't because Henderson didn't become a good player.

Steve Henderson was one of the offensive leaders on a Mets team that didn't have much offense.  During his four years with the Mets, Henderson led the team in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS.  His 31 triples led all Mets players from 1977 to 1980 and only Lee Mazzilli had more hits and scored more runs.  When he played his final game as a Met, Henderson was the team's all-time leader in batting average (min. 1,000 plate appearances).  Henderson was also among the top ten leaders in runs scored, triples, stolen bases, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, while falling just outside the top ten in hits, doubles, walks and RBI.

Entering the 1980 campaign, the Mets had a new owner, a new general manager and a new attitude, proclaiming that the magic was back at Shea Stadium - magic that had been lost since Tom Seaver's last full season as a Met.  And for one night in mid-June, the magic did indeed come back on the strength of an incredible ninth-inning rally capped off by Steve Henderson's long overdue first home run of the season.  Fans at Shea Stadium on that glorious June evening did not want to leave the park, celebrating until minority owner Fred Wilpon urged Henderson to come back onto the field to acknowledge the euphoric crowd.

For as much as Henderson did in his four years as a Met, no moment was as big as what became known as the "Hendu Can Do" home run.  The Mets were a lousy team from 1977 to 1983, but even a second division squad can have its bright spots.  And that's exactly what Steve Henderson provided on June 14, 1980.  Henderson never quite replaced Tom Seaver in the hearts of Mets fans, but still provided a seminal moment during a time when Mets fans needed something to cheer about.

And it's a moment that still resonates with Mets fans who experienced it.


Note:  One Mo-MET In Time is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets players who will forever be known for a single moment, game or event, regardless of whatever else they accomplished during their tenure with the Mets.  For previous installments, please click on the players' names below:

January 5, 2015: Mookie Wilson 
January 12, 2015: Dave Mlicki

The Best On The Worst: Dave Kingman

In the late 1990s, Nike had a famous ad in which future Hall of Fame pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine wondered why they didn't get the attention afforded to slugger Mark McGwire.  Upon realizing that McGwire's adulation arose from his propensity to hit prodigious home runs, the two decided to hit the gym, "bulking up" so they could hit long batting practice blasts as well.  Actress Heather Locklear appeared to take notice at their newfound power, calling out Glavine's name and causing Maddux to utter the now-famous catch phrase, "chicks dig the long ball".  But in reality, all Locklear wanted to know was if the pitchers had seen McGwire around the batting cage.

The commercial, although funny and unrealistic (Maddux and Glavine combined to hit six home runs in nearly 3,500 career plate appearances), did get one thing right.  Baseball fans - including "chicks" - really do get excited about home run hitters, especially ones who hit titanic blasts.  Mark McGwire hit 583 home runs.  But he only had 1,043 hits that didn't leave the park, and he also struck out nearly 1,600 times in his 15-plus years in the big leagues.  But fans flocked to catch a glimpse of the red-headed slugger despite the fact that he was purely a one-dimensional hitter.

When McGwire was called up the majors for the first time in 1986, he became teammates with another great power hitter - one who could hit balls a mile whenever he didn't swing and miss at them, and one who also had no desire to keep his hits within the confines of the ballpark.  This slugger finished his career as McGwire's teammate in Oakland, but hit the plurality of his home runs as a member of the New York Mets.  And when he came to bat for the Mets in the mid-'70s and early '80s, "chicks" - and everyone else - stopped what they were doing to see what he was about to do.

More powerful than a locomotive.  It's a bird.  It's a plane.  It's Dave Kingman!

David Arthur Kingman was a huge man.  Standing six-and-a-half feet tall, the hulking first baseman and outfielder was selected by the San Francisco Giants as the first overall pick in the 1970 June secondary draft.  Kingman made his debut a year later, and made his first trip to the postseason as a member of the National League West champion Giants.  But after hitting .278 in 41 games as a rookie in 1971, Kingman could only muster a .218 batting average from 1972 to 1974.  However, he did manage to hit 71 home runs over the three seasons, giving him some value as a major league talent.

But according to Giants owner Horace Stoneham, Kingman was unhappy in San Francisco and wanted to be traded from the Bay Area team.  The Mets, who had coveted the young slugger for years, had offered pitcher Jerry Koosman for Kingman in 1973, but could not come to an agreement with San Francisco because the Giants asked for former Rookie of the Year pitcher Jon Matlack instead.  Two years after almost becoming a Met, Kingman finally switched coasts after the Mets purchased him from the Giants for $150,000.

When Kingman arrived in New York prior to the 1975 season, he did not have a position on the field to play.  Kingman preferred playing first base, but John Milner was the incumbent at that position.  Left field - another position Kingman could play - was also taken, as long-time Met Cleon Jones had manned the position for the better part of a decade.  But Jones had injured his knee and would not be coming north with the team for the start of the season, giving Kingman the opportunity to play every day until Jones came back from his rehab assignment.

Unfortunately, two problems arose for Jones during his time in extended spring training.  First, he was arrested for indecent exposure when police found him and a female companion sleeping nude in the back of a van.  And second, Kingman got off to a powerful start, hitting home runs in three of his first four games and reaching double digits in homers by his 46th game.  Jones, who finished the 1974 season as the team's all-time leader in home runs with 93, had hit 13 long balls for the Mets in '74.  Kingman had surpassed that number by the All-Star Break.  In fact, Kingman hit 13 homers in the month of July alone, setting a new franchise record for round trippers in a single month.  Less than two weeks after the Midsummer Classic, Jones' career with the Mets came to an abrupt end, as he was given his unconditional release by the team.

Jones' release came after an 11-game stretch by Kingman in which he batted .348 with seven homers and 14 RBI.  One month after Kingman's torrid stretch, he was finally moved to his preferred first base position to make room for rookie left fielder Mike Vail, who had embarked on a blistering streak of his own - a club-record 23-game hitting skein from August 25 to September 15.  Although Kingman continued to hit with tremendous power at his new position (12 HR in his last 39 games), he didn't do much else with the bat, batting .199 with 58 strikeouts in 161 at-bats.  Still, fans continued to watch in awe every time the Sky King stepped up to the plate, especially on September 18, when Kingman penned a new entry in the Mets' record book.

With the season winding down and the Mets barely hanging on to their division title hopes, the team welcomed the Chicago Cubs to Shea Stadium.  Starting pitcher Hank Webb made the Cubs feel very welcome, allowing four runs without retiring a batter.  In doing so, Webb became the ninth pitcher in Mets history to fail to record an out in a start, and just the second to accomplish the feat at Shea Stadium (Nolan Ryan was the first, turning the terrible trick in 1971).  The Mets trailed 4-0 before they came to bat, but slowly chipped away at the Cubs' lead, scoring a run in the third and two runs in the sixth.  After the Cubs tacked on an insurance run in the top of the eighth, the Mets tied it in their half of the inning - an inning that started on a double by Dave Kingman.

The game remained tied as the Mets came to bat in the bottom of the ninth, and extra innings loomed after Cubs' closer Darold Knowles retired the first two batters in the frame.  But Knowles - who just two years earlier had stymied the Mets as a member of the Oakland A's in the World Series, pitching in all seven games and recording the final out in Game Seven - couldn't retire Rusty Staub, who laced a single off the lefty reliever.  That brought up Kingman, who exorcised the Knowles demon from 1973 by exercising his right to walk off the field as a winner.  Kingman's two-run, game-winning blast gave the Mets a thrilling, come-from-behind 7-5 victory and also gave him 35 homers on the season, breaking Frank Thomas' single-season club record.

Kingman would go on to hit another round tripper before the end of the season, finishing the year with 36 homers and 88 RBI.  Although Kingman hit just .231 for the year, that figure still represented his highest batting average over a full season at the time.  Kingman also set a career high with 22 doubles and led the Mets with seven stolen bases, making him just the third Met to lead the team in homers and steals in the same season after Tommie Agee (1970, 1971) and John Milner (1974).  But with great power comes great strikeout totals, as Kingman fanned a career-high 153 times in 1975.  He also rarely scored when he wasn't driving himself in, as he crossed the plate just 65 times despite hitting 36 homers.  The 1975 Mets posted a winning record, albeit barely, ending the year with an 82-80 mark.

Despite his high strikeout totals and inability to round the bases without the ball leaving the yard, Kingman became an instant fan-favorite at Shea.  A Dave Kingman at-bat was a celebrated event in Flushing, giving fans a good reason to come rushing back from the concession stands at the risk of dropping their hot dogs or spilling their beer.  The peak of his popularity with Mets fans came in 1976, when he began the year on a sizzling pace.

After going 0-for-7 in his first two games, Kingman unleashed a barrage of booming blasts, belting seven homers over his next seven games and driving in 15 runs.  By late-May, Kingman was leading the league with 17 homers and was hitting around .250, which was quite admirable for a man who was a .226 lifetime hitter coming into the season.  Kingman's best game as a Met came in early June, when he and the team visited Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

The game on June 4 started out without pomp and circumstance for Kingman, as the right fielder (Kingman had been moved to right by new manager Joe Frazier to allow Ed Kranepool and Joe Torre to platoon at first base) popped out to first base in his first at-bat.  But Kingman homered in each of his next three at-bats, victimizing starting pitcher Burt Hooton for a two-run homer in the fourth inning and a three-run blast in the fifth.  Kingman then took reliever Al Downing deep in the seventh inning, launching his second three-run homer of the game.  In all, Kingman drove in eight runs in the Mets' 11-0 whitewashing of the Dodgers, setting a new club record for RBI in a game.  Kingman also became the second Met to produce a home run trifecta, joining Jim Hickman, who accomplished the feat in 1965.

By this time, Kingman had already established himself as the premier home run hitter in the league.  His 30 home runs before the All-Star Break set a team record and his name was being mentioned in the same breath as Hack Wilson and Roger Maris, the National League and major league single-season home run leaders, respectively.

For his outstanding performance during the season's first half, Kingman was selected by the fans to start the All-Star Game for the National League in 1976, making him the seventh Met to receive that honor after Ron Hunt (1964), Jerry Grote (1968), Cleon Jones (1969), Tom Seaver (1970), Bud Harrelson (1971) and Willie Mays (1972).  But less than a week after going 0-for-2 in the Midsummer Classic, Kingman's assault on the single-season home run record came to a crashing end, quite literally.

Dave Kingman always kept his eye on the ball.  He should have done the same with his thumb.

In a game against the Atlanta Braves at Shea Stadium on July 19, pitcher Phil Niekro knuckled a fly ball to left field, where Kingman was making just his fifth start of the season after playing much of the year in right field.  But the man known as Kong took a dive that resembled his namesake's fall from the Empire State Building rather than that of an All-Star outfielder.  As a result, the only thing Kingman caught on the awkward attempt was his thumb under his glove, causing him to spend nearly six weeks on the disabled list with torn ligaments in his left thumb.  Upon his return in late August, Kingman was a shell of his former self.  Other than a two-homer, five-RBI performance against the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 19, Kingman managed to produce just three homers and nine RBI in his other 31 games following his DL stint.

A year after finishing two homers behind Mike Schmidt for the National League home run crown, Kingman settled for second place again, as his time on the disabled list allowed Schmidt to pass him for the title during the season's final week.  Kingman did manage to break his own club record by hitting 37 homers in 1976, but he could have produced an all-time great season had he not been felled by his outfield play.  The Mets, on the other hand, were not hampered by Kingman's injury, as the team went on post an 86-76 record in 1976, which represented the second-highest win total in franchise history.  The team appeared to be headed in the right direction going into the 1977 campaign.  But then everything came crashing down, with Kingman being caught in the rubble.
 
Going into the 1977 season, Mets chairman M. Donald Grant had made it clear that he did not want to pay his players much money nor did he want to go shopping in the free agent market.  The team's off-the field problems caused by Grant's thriftiness (some would call it cheapness) started to affect their play on the field.  The Mets began the year with a 9-9 record, then proceeded to lose 21 of their next 27 games.  Kingman had spent most of the season complaining about the direction of the team, as well as the fact that no one was listening to his demands for a multi-million dollar contract.

"My only demands are in line with the dollar figures given to other players on other clubs.  The Mets adhere to a policy of trying to remain in their own league on salaries," said Kingman, prior to the start of the 1977 campaign.  "I look around and see the dollar figures of other players and I ask, why?  Why should I play for the old figures the Mets are imposing?"

Clearly, with statements such as that one, Kingman's days as a Met were numbered.  It also didn't help that after the Mets' 9-9 start in 1977, in which Kingman batted .290 with six homers and 18 RBI, he proceeded to bat just .169 with three homers and ten runs batted in over his next 40 games.  Adding more fuel to Kingman's fire was an admission by general manager Joe McDonald, who used statistical data in an attempt to prove that Kingman's offensive production wasn't as valuable as it seemed.

"Dave hits home runs, but he also strikes out a lot.  And we found that he does not rank very high in production," said McDonald in a press conference that was held in response to one of Kingman's own press conferences.  "For example, in pressure situations late in games where you're three runs behind with men on base, Mike Schmidt of Philadelphia knocks in a run 42 percent of the time, Steve Garvey of Los Angeles 36 percent of the time, and Kingman only 18 percent."

As impressive as McDonald's knowledge of pre-sabermetrics was, there was just one little problem with his argument.  It was completely untrue.  Kingman and Schmidt were both .282 hitters in late inning pressure situations during the 1976 season, with Schmidt hitting just one more homer than Kingman.  Garvey was a better hitter in those spots, batting .339, but he hit three fewer homers than Kingman and drove in just five more runs despite having 33 more at-bats in late inning pressure situations than Kingman.

Nothing Kingman said was going to get him a contract similar to the one Reggie Jackson was given by the New York Yankees (five years, $2.96 million), no matter how similar their power numbers were.  It had now become a war of words between Kingman and the front office - a war which Kingman had no chance of winning.  On June 15, 1977, as the midnight hour approached, Kingman was traded to the San Diego Padres for pitcher Paul Siebert and infielder Bobby Valentine.  Siebert would go on to win two games as a Met and Valentine would hit two homers during his Mets tenure.  Kingman would do so much more over the next three-plus seasons.

After bouncing around from the Padres to the Angels to the Yankees in 1977, Kingman joined the Chicago Cubs in 1978, where he became more than just a home run hitter, batting .266 with 28 homers and 79 RBI in just 395 at-bats.  A year later, Kingman had his signature season in the major leagues - the one Mets fans thought they were going to get in 1976 before Kingman's thumb got in the way.  Kingman led the National League with 48 homers in 1979, becoming just the eighth NL player to hit that many home runs in a season.  Kingman also recorded career highs in RBI (115), runs scored (97), batting average (.288) and slugging percentage (.613), leading the league in the latter category.  And of course, he obliterated Mets pitching in 1979, batting .364 with nine homers and 20 RBI.  Six of his nine home runs came at Shea Stadium in just eight games played in his former home park.

How much did the Mets miss Kingman's home run power after they traded him?  From 1977 to 1980, no Met hit more than 17 home runs in a season.  Kingman had already hit 18 homers in 1979 before the season was two months old.  Without question, the Mets needed a powerful hitter in their lineup like Kingman, and as long as M. Donald Grant was calling the shots in the front office, that wasn't going to happen.  But once Grant lost his power and the team had new, forward-thinking owners in Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon, the Mets would get the slugger they coveted, and it would come in the form of - you guessed it - Dave Kingman.

It's snow joke!  After nearly four years away from the team, Dave Kingman was a Met again.

In 1981, the Mets brought back Kingman, as well as fellow mid-'70s slugger Rusty Staub back into the fold.  But familiar faces did little to erase what had become a familiar sight at Shea Stadium - losses.  The Mets got off to a 17-34 start in 1981, and another season appeared lost despite the new acquisitions.  Kingman was doing his part, producing 14 homers and 32 RBI by June 11, which included home runs in a club-record four straight games in late May.

But June 11 was also the last game the Mets played until August, as the players' strike wiped out the entire midsection of the 1981 season.  It also gave the Mets unexpected hope, as baseball decided it would give split division titles to teams that finished in first place before the strike.  That meant the slate was wiped clean for teams like the Mets who struggled during the season's first half, allowing them the opportunity to play well in the second half to earn the second half division crown.

The Mets took full advantage of their opportunity in the second half, competing for a split division title until late September.  As late as September 21, the Mets were only 2½ games behind the first-place Cardinals and one game in back of the second-place Expos with 12 games to play.  One of the reasons for the Mets' second-half surge was Kingman, who came back from the strike on fire.  In his first dozen games after the season resumed play, Kingman batted .319 with five homers and 14 RBI.  And during the team's mid-September push, Kingman was very much an integral part of the Mets' four-game winning streak from the 18th through the 21st, reaching base six times and driving in four runs.

New York fell short of a unique postseason berth in 1981, losing eight of its final 12 games to fall out of the race for the second-half division title, but Kingman came up big, leading the team with 22 homers and 59 RBI while splitting time between left field and first base.  However, Kingman was the only player on the team who hit for any power, as no one else on the club could muster more than six homers.

The Mets tried to give Kingman a power buddy in 1982, acquiring George Foster from the Cincinnati Reds.  On paper, it looked like a great deal for the Mets, as the team now had a dangerous one-two punch in the middle of the order in Kingman and Foster.  It also allowed Kingman to become the team's full-time first baseman, as Foster was a left fielder by trade.  It's too bad Foster forgot to pack his power when he made the trip from the Queen City to Queens.

From 1976 to 1981, Foster averaged 33 homers and 112 RBI per year, including a 22 HR, 90 RBI performance in the strike-shortened 1981 season.  But Foster came nowhere near the numbers he put up in the abbreviated '81 campaign despite playing in 151 games for the Mets in '82.  With 13 homers and 70 RBI, Foster was a colossal bust in his first year with the Mets, leaving Kingman to put the team on his back when it needed a power boost.  At least Kingman came through on his end of the deal.

By the end of May, the Mets were one of the most surprising teams in the league.  New York was in second place in the NL East as they headed into June - the proud owners of a 27-21 record - with Kingman providing his usual power (14 HR, 38 RBI).  His first home run in June proved to be quite memorable, as it was his 119th homer as a Met, breaking Ed Kranepool's franchise record.

(YouTube video courtesy of CourtsideTweets)

But Kingman, despite being known as a power hitter, was not producing extra-base hits other than home runs, as he had only been able to hit three doubles and no triples during the season's first two months.  That odd trend would continue throughout the rest of the season so that when Kingman went through any period of time in which he wasn't hitting home runs, the team would be left with a bunch of singles hitters.  They would also be left with a bunch of losses.

For example, after clubbing 14 home runs in April and May, Kingman managed just three homers in June.  Not coincidentally, the Mets were 9-18 for the month.  Likewise, from August 8 to September 3, the Mets lost 21 of 24 games, which included a 15-game losing streak.  During that 24-game stretch of futility, Kingman left the yard three times.  He also produced just one other extra-base hit in the 24 games - a double on August 29 against the Braves.  In 1982, Kingman drove in runs in 58 of the 149 games he played.  The Mets went 29-29 in those games.  They were 28-63 when Kingman failed to drive in a run. 

Clearly, the Mets fared well when Kingman was hitting homers and driving in runs.  But becoming the first home run champion in club history in 1982 (Kingman's 37 homers tied his own franchise mark) and setting the team mark for RBI by a right-handed batter (99) wasn't going to do a thing for the team's success if he had no help around him.  The Mets vowed to get better in 1983, and they did in various respects.  The only problem was that Dave Kingman got worse.

In 1983, George Foster produced a bounceback campaign, leading the team with 28 homers and 90 RBI.  He was followed closely by National League rookie of the year Darryl Strawberry, who produced 26 homers and 74 RBI.   But Kingman got off to an awful start in '83, batting .168 with six homers and 13 RBI in the team's first 37 games.  Even after swatting four homers in four games in late May, Kingman couldn't continue to produce at the level expected of him, as he failed to hit a home run or drive in a run in each of his next 11 games.  By mid-June, general manager Frank Cashen felt a change was needed at first base, and when the Gold Glove-winning, former MVP Keith Hernandez was offered to him by the St. Louis Cardinals, Cashen jumped at the opportunity.

On June 15, 1983, the Mets completed a trade with the Cardinals that netted them the league's top defensive first baseman, as well as a consistent .300 hitter who could hit the ball to all fields and over the wall, if need be.  From 1977 to 1982, Hernandez averaged 37 doubles, six triples and 11 homers per season.  He also batted .303 with a .392 on-base percentage during the six years before his trade to the Mets.  In Kingman's six seasons with the Mets, he averaged 12 doubles, one triple and 26 homers a year, while batting .219 and reaching base at a .287 clip.  As powerful as Kingman was, his .453 slugging percentage in six seasons with the Mets was actually lower than the .456 mark posted by Hernandez in the half-dozen years prior to his trade to New York.  Needless to say, Kingman's days as a Met were all but over, and his production - or lack of it - showed his disappointment at being replaced.

After Hernandez became a Met, Kingman started just six games the rest of the season, appearing mostly as a pinch-hitter over the season's final three months.  Kingman batted just .175 after June 15, with one homer and six RBI - or two homers and two RBI fewer than what he produced in his record-setting three-homer, eight-RBI game against the Dodgers on June 4, 1976.  The Mets chose not to bring back Kingman at the conclusion of the 1983 season, allowing him to sign with the Oakland A's as a free agent.

In Oakland, Kingman experienced a power renaissance, belting 100 homers over the next three seasons.  Kingman also averaged 101 RBI per season as the Athletics' designated hitter and part-time first baseman, including a career-high 118 RBI in his first year with the team in 1984.  But Oakland chose not to re-sign Kingman after the 1986 season, choosing to give his spot on the team to rookie Mark McGwire.  McGwire went on to become the subject of Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine's ire in a television commercial, while Kingman had trouble finding a job after finishing second in the 1986 American League home run race.  It was later revealed that collusion by team owners kept free agent signings at a historically low level from 1985 to 1987, causing veteran players like Kingman to remain unsigned.  Kingman eventually signed a minor league contract in 1987 with his original team, the San Francisco Giants, but batted just .203 with two homers in 73 plate appearances before ending his comeback attempt.  After nearly two decades in professional baseball, Kingman decided to call it a career.  And what a unique career it was.

Kingman was a unique personality whose prime focus was on one thing - hitting the ball out of the park.

In 16 big league seasons, six of which were spent with the Mets, Kingman blasted 442 home runs and produced 1,210 RBI.  The only players in those 16 seasons with more home runs than Kingman were Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt (495 HR) and Reggie Jackson (448 HR).  But as great as his home run and RBI numbers were, Kingman struggled to produce lofty numbers in other offensive categories.

Going into the 2014 campaign, there have been 51 players in major league history who have reached the 400-homer mark.  Fifty of those players scored 1,000 or more runs in their careers.  The lone exception is Dave Kingman, who crossed the plate 901 times.  The player with the next fewest runs scored is Mike Piazza, who scored 1,048 times but played most of his career as a catcher, which limited the number of games he played each year.  Kingman also finished his career with 1,575 hits, a number that will become the fewest number of hits collected by a member of the 400-HR club once Adam Dunn picks up his 39th hit in 2014.  Kingman is already low man on the totem pole when it comes to doubles, as his 240 two-base hits have been surpassed by each of the other 50 players in the 400-HR club.  (Mark McGwire is one rung above him with 252.)

As a Met, Kingman became just the second man in big league history to hit 30 or more homers in a season where he failed to collect 10 doubles, joining Gus Zernial, who had 30 homers and nine doubles in 1955.  (Mark McGwire became the third player to join this group in 2000 when he collected 32 homers and eight doubles.)  But Kingman's 37 homers in 1982 are still the most for any player who couldn't reach double digits in two-baggers.

Kingman finished his Mets career with 154 homers, which still ranks fifth in club history 30 years after Kong played his last game with the team.  But he only cracked 70 doubles as a Met.  There have been 143 players in team history who have hit ten or more homers during their time in New York.  Kingman is the only one of those 143 players to finish his career with more than twice as many homers as he had doubles.  Similarly, there have been 215 players who scored 30 or more runs in their Mets careers.  Of those 215 players, the only one who drove himself in more than his teammates did (meaning more than half of his runs scored came on his own homers) was Kingman, whose 154 homers as a Met contributed to more than 50 percent of his 302 runs scored.

With Dave Kingman, you were going to get one of two things.  You were either going to see him hit the ball out of the park (442 HR) or you were going to witness a whiff (1,816 Ks).  But you were definitely going to see something.  After all, no one left his or her seat whenever the slugger stepped up to the plate, especially at Shea Stadium, where Kingman hit more home runs than he did at any other park.

Kingman's monster clouts got him the nickname Kong, and his high fly balls earned him the Sky King monicker.  But other words that stuck to him were "surly", as well as "grouchy" and "malcontent".  Kingman never had a favorable relationship with the media, as evidenced by the bucket of ice water he dumped on a media member's head while with the Cubs in 1980 and the live rat he sent to a female sportswriter during the 1986 season in Oakland.  Each incident occurred during his final season with his respective teams.  He also was never fond of the front office, as he regularly quarreled with his bosses over money, playing time and anything else that came to his mind.

But chicks dig the long ball.  And Kingman did plenty of that.

"I enjoyed the six years on the Mets.  I'm very happy and very content.  I can't imagine making a living any other way than hitting a baseball.  When you take a good cut and pitcher and hitter alike know where it's going, that's the joy of being a power hitter."

--Dave Kingman, as told to the NY Daily News
      (Photo by Ed Leyro/Studious Metsimus)

Dave Kingman may never be considered an all-time great.  He also may never be able to shake his status as a surly slugger.  But as a Met, no one made fans stay in their seats more than Kingman did.  In three of his six seasons with the Mets, Kingman had more than twice the number of home runs hit by any of his teammates.  Kingman finished the 1976 season with 37 homers.  John Milner was second on the team with 15.  Similarly, Kingman's 22 homers in 1981 were almost four times the amount hit by second-place finisher Lee Mazzilli, who hit a mere six homers for the '81 squad.  A year later, Kingman's 37 homers were two dozen more than runner-up George Foster, who was the only other Met besides Kingman to hit more than eight home runs in 1982.

Kingman played his first season in New York on a team that needed to win its final game to finish the year with a winning record.  His second year as a Met, the team finished ten games above .500.  But that was as good as it got for a Kingman-led team in New York.  The Mets never came close to .500 in any of his other four seasons with the team.

Dave Kingman had his share of flaws, both on and off the field, but he was also the best power hitter on some of the most powerless Mets clubs.  Unfortunately for the team, he was perhaps the only reason fans got excited to come to Shea Stadium during his time in New York.  As Kingman once said, that's the joy of being a power hitter.  That's also the sadness of playing for the Mets in the late 1970s and early 1980s.


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 
March 10, 2014: Joel Youngblood 
March 17, 2014: Jim Hickman