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

Joey's Soapbox: The Mora Things Change, The Flores Stays The Same

I feel like I'm stuck in a snow globe writing about our Mets this off-season.

Greetings, everyone!  This is Joey Beartran, taking over the Studious Metsimus blogging duties on this snowy first day of spring.  My colleague, Ed Leyro, has finally allowed me to write something on the current Mets since he seems to have forgotten they still exist, what with all the ten-million word "One Mo-MET In Time" posts he's been writing this off-season.  Maybe you have the patience to read them, but I'm a fast-talking bear in a fast-moving world.  I don't have time for that.  What I do have time for is telling you about a mistake I hope the Mets don't make regarding the current shortstop situation - a situation that goes by the name of Wilmer Flores.

But before I get to Flores, I have a question to ask you.  Do you remember the 2000 season?  That was the year Mets were coming off a memorable 1999 campaign in which they made the playoffs for the first time since the Reagan administration.  That was also the year Rey Ordoñez got hurt, fracturing his left forearm on a tag play at second base in late May.

Ordoñez was a three-time Gold Glove winner at shortstop, swallowing up ground ball after ground ball, sometimes in spectacular fashion.  But once he got hurt at Dodger Stadium, the Mets were left with a defensive hole at the shortstop position.  They tried to fill it with Melvin Mora, who was in his first full season with the Mets, but he was much more comfortable with a bat in his hands than a glove.

Mora started 37 games at the shortstop position, batting .265 with four homers, 18 RBI and 27 runs scored in just 147 at-bats.  Compare that to Rey Ordoñez, who had a total of four homers in his five-year career up to that point.  Mora also boasted a .442 slugging percentage and .750 OPS in his seven-week trial at short while Ordoñez had a lifetime .292 slugging percentage and .580 OPS prior to his season-ending injury.

The Mets scored 216 runs in Mora's 37 starts, averaging nearly six runs per game.  They scored 212 runs in the 44 games started by Ordoñez prior to his injury, an average of 4.8 runs per game.  Now let's compare the offensive numbers put up by the two players while playing shortstop during the 2000 campaign, especially since they both had almost the same number of plate appearances in their abbreviated seasons.

• M. Mora (164 PA): .265/.308/.442, 12 doubles, 1 triple, 4 HR, 18 RBI, 27 runs, 5 SB.
• R. Ordoñez (155 PA): .188/.278/.226, 5 doubles, 0 triples, 0 HR, 9 RBI, 10 runs, 0 SB.

There's no question that Mora was clearly the better offensive contributor of the two in a similar sample size.  But from a defensive standpoint, Mora was no Ordoñez.  In fact, he wasn't even average.  In the 37 games he started at short as Ordoñez's replacement, Mora committed seven errors in 144 chances for a .951 fielding percentage.  He also participated in just 14 double plays and had 93 assists.  According to baseball-reference.com, Mora's defensive WAR was -0.1 in 2000.  For all you kids out there, that means from a defensive standpoint, he wasn't better than nothing.  Nothing was better than him.

Meanwhile, Ordoñez had a lifetime 8.8 dWAR leading up to his injury.  That's the highest dWAR through five seasons of any Met in the history of the club.  To this day, only Bud Harrelson (13.6 dWAR in 13 seasons) and Jerry Grote (11.2 dWAR in 12 seasons) have posted a higher lifetime dWAR than Ordoñez.

With Mora, the Mets sacrificed defense for offense.  They did the opposite when Ordoñez was in the starting lineup.  But back in 2000, general manager Steve Phillips panicked when Mora couldn't cut it defensively, even with the team scoring a run per game more than they did when Ordoñez was in the lineup.  So just days before the trade deadline, Phillips, in his infinite wisdom, dealt Mora to the Baltimore Orioles for shortstop Mike Bordick.

O, Melvin Mora.  If only you could have fielded like Rey O.  (James Lang/US Presswire)

Bordick basically did what Mora did as a Met, both offensively and defensively, although Bordick played more games at the position for the Mets than Mora.  In 56 games with the Mets, Bordick batted .260 with eight doubles, four homers, 21 RBI and a not-so-impressive 0.1 dWAR.

So what happened in the years after the Bordick-for-Mora trade?  Well, Bordick went back to Baltimore as a free agent at the conclusion of the 2000 campaign, where he became Mora's teammate.  In nine full seasons with the Orioles, Mora reached 20 doubles eight times, 20 homers three times, double digits in stolen bases four times, batted over .300 twice, led the league in on-base percentage once (.419 in 2004), made the All-Star team twice (2003, 2005) and won a Silver Slugger award (2004).  Meanwhile, Ordoñez played two more seasons with the Mets and played his final game in the big leagues as a member of the Chicago Cubs in 2004 - right around the same time Mora was becoming a legitimate star.

That brings us back to the current day shortstop situation with our good pal, Wilmer Flores.  (You thought I had forgotten about him, didn't you?)  In case you've been hibernating in a cave somewhere, let me remind you that Flores is generally not considered a good fielder.  But no one is complaining about how much better he is at the plate than Ruben Tejada.  In 2014, Flores split his season between AAA-Las Vegas and the Mets, spending approximately half of his time at the big league level.  Flores's numbers were strikingly similar to the overall numbers put up by Melvin Mora in 2000 prior to his trade to Baltimore.

• W. Flores (2014): 78 games, .251 average, 13 doubles, 1 triple, 6 HR, 29 RBI, 28 runs.
• M. Mora (2000): 79 games, .260 average, 13 doubles, 2 triples, 6 HR, 30 RBI, 35 runs.

Taking it a step further, Flores's offensive and defensive WAR in 2014 were also right on par with what Mora produced 14 seasons before him, as Flores had a 0.7 oWAR and -0.2 dWAR, while Mora put up a 0.6 oWAR and -0.1 dWAR with the Mets in 2000.

Let me give it to you straight.  Tejada is a good fielder, one who's clearly better with the leather than Flores.  But the difference between Tejada and Flores defensively doesn't even compare to the difference between Ordoñez and Mora.  Ordoñez was one of the best defensive shortstops of his era.  The nicest things we can say about Tejada is that he has nice eyebrows and he won't hurt the Mets in the field.

We've already seen how big of a mistake it was to let Melvin Mora go without giving him a chance to prove himself for more than 37 games.  We can't make the same mistake with Wilmer Flores, especially since Flores is also five years younger now than Mora was in 2000 and can still mature in every facet of the game.

Wilmer Flores may never become a Silver Slugger-winning All-Star like Melvin Mora was, but he certainly has the potential to establish himself as a very good baseball player.  We already know he can hit.  Let him prove to us that he can learn from his mistakes on the field.

At the very least, it would prove that the Mets are trying to learn from their mistakes off the field.  The team certainly doesn't need another Mike Bordick situation in Flushing.

Let him play!  Let him play!  (Brad Barr/USA TODAY Sports)

The Mets That Got Away: Melvin Mora

Some players aren't pegged to be stars by the teams that employ them, even as they're coming up through their minor league system.  Edgardo Alfonzo was never expected to become the player he turned into as a member of the Mets.  He's now considered to be one of the most underrated and beloved Mets of all-time, as evidenced by his selection as the greatest second baseman in the history of the franchise.

It took Alfonzo a few years to become an All-Star caliber player in the major leagues, but at least the Mets gave him a chance to become that player.  The Mets gave the kid from Venezuela his first shot at the big league level four years after they drafted him in 1991.  One of Alfonzo's fellow countrymen waited a bit longer to make his big league debut with the Mets after toiling in the minor leagues for the better part of a decade.  He was never considered to be a top prospect at any minor league level, but gradually moved up the minor league chain until he made his debut with the Mets in 1999.  One year later, he was gone.

Trying to find a short-term solution, general manager Steve Phillips created a long-term problem when he traded away Melvin Mora to the Baltimore Orioles for fill-in shortstop Mike Bordick.  Although the Mets didn't know it at the time, they were letting go of a player whose offensive numbers would rival and eventually surpass those put up by fellow Venezuelan and former teammate Edgardo Alfonzo.  The trade marked the unofficial beginning of the downfall of Phillips as the team's GM, which was followed soon after by the regression of the team in the NL East standings.

Melvin Mora, before he was a Met that got away.

Melvin Mora was originally drafted as a 19-year-old by the Houston Astros in 1991.  Mora made his professional debut with the Gulf Coast League Astros in 1992, hitting .222 with only three extra-base hits in 144 at-bats.  Mora did not have much power as a young minor leaguer, managing only 23 home runs in six seasons with various Astros' farm teams.  He did, however, possess good speed, stealing 83 bases in 126 attempts from 1992 to 1995.  But in 1996, Mora only stole seven bases in 19 attempts between the Double-A and Triple-A level.  One year later, he once again managed only seven stolen bases, but saw his batting average drop from .284 to .257.  He also saw a drop in what little power he had picked up over the years, falling from eight homers in 1996 to two homers in 1997.

After six years in the Astros' organization (and a stint in the Chinese Professional Baseball League), Mora was granted free agency.  Halfway through the 1998 season, Mora contacted Edgardo Alfonzo's brother, Edgar, who was a coach with the Mets' Class A affiliate in St. Lucie.  Not wanting to go back to Taiwan, Mora accepted a job as a utility player and spent the rest of the year in St. Lucie and AAA-Norfolk.  In 28 games, Mora's numbers resembled the ones he put up during his first professional season in 1992, as he batted .241 with only one extra-base hit in 96 plate appearances.  Once again, Mora was granted free agency, but after receiving no offers from other teams, Mora re-signed with the Mets in February 1999.

Eight years after signing his first professional contract with the Astros, Mora was invited to spring training with the Mets, hoping to make the team.  He responded by putting up fantastic Grapefruit League numbers, batting nearly .400 and providing extra-base hit after extra-base hit.  He also showed off the versatility he acquired at St. Lucie by playing six different defensive positions.  Mora didn't make the team out of spring training, as the final roster spot was given to Mike Kinkade.  Upon hearing the news, a clearly disappointed Mora was quoted as saying "I feel like I want to go to a bridge and jump off."

Mora was sent back to Norfolk, where he performed brilliantly.  While Mora was flourishing at Triple-A, Kinkade was languishing in his role as one of the Mets' top utility players.  Through May 20, Kinkade could only manage a .196 batting average.  He also had three times as many strikeouts as walks and was downright dreadful as a sub, batting .125 in 19 games.  Kinkade's failures as a Met led to his demotion to Norfolk and finally gave Mora the long-awaited break he needed to reach the majors for the first time.

On May 30, 1999, Mora played in his first game with the Mets, starting at shortstop against the Arizona Diamondbacks.  However, he was given the unenviable task of facing perennial All-Star Randy Johnson, who was in the middle of a Cy Young Award-winning campaign.  Naturally, Mora went 0-for-3 against Johnson, but was not one of the Big Unit's ten strikeout victims in the Mets' 10-1 loss to the Diamondbacks.  The loss was the third in a row for the Mets, a skein that reached eight consecutive losses before Phillips cleaned house by firing most of the Mets' coaching staff.  The Mets' bench was now full of new coaches for Mora to learn from.  Mora would get plenty of opportunities to get that education as he didn't start another game for the Mets until July 17.

More spent the month of June and the first two weeks of July as a late-inning defensive replacement and pinch-hitter.  Through his first 19 games in the big leagues, Mora had only collected 13 at-bats and was still looking for his first big league hit.  On July 6, more than five weeks after playing in his first game with the Mets, Mora finally collected his first hit as a major leaguer.  With the Mets already blowing out the Montreal Expos, Mora pinch-hit for third baseman Robin Ventura, delivering a single off future Met pitcher Miguel Batista.

Mora would continue to play sparingly for the Mets after July 6.  Through August 1, Mora had played in 38 games for the Mets, but had only started three of them.  The extended stays on the bench caused Mora's bat to suffer, as he was hitting an anemic .083 (2-for-24) through the first of August.  Mora spent the next month of the season at AAA-Norfolk, where he once again began to pound the baseball.  Combined with the numbers he put up at Norfolk prior to his first call-up to the Mets, Mora hit .303 with 17 doubles, eight home runs and 18 stolen bases for the Tides in only 82 games.  He also reached base at a .393 clip and continued to play various positions while getting the regular playing time he was denied at the major league level.

When the rosters expanded on September 1, Mora was once again promoted to the parent squad to serve as a late-inning defensive replacement and pinch-hitter.  Mora only had six official at-bats from September 1 to October 2, collecting two hits during that stretch.  Mora had played in 64 of the team's first 161 games, collecting only four hits and scoring five runs as the forgotten man on the roster.  But when he collected his fifth hit and scored his sixth run, everyone knew who Melvin Mora was.

On October 3, 1999, the Mets went into their 162nd game of the season deadlocked with the Cincinnati Reds in the National League wild card race.  After finding themselves two games off the pace entering their season-ending three-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Mets took the first two games against the Bucs while the Reds dropped their first two games against the Milwaukee Brewers.  The Mets needed to win the series finale to guarantee themselves of at least one more game.  After a relatively easy 7-0 win over the Pirates in the middle game of the series, the Mets found themselves in a taut, tension-filled game in Game No. 162.  Future Met Kris Benson and former Met killer Orel Hershiser were locked up in a pitcher's duel at Shea Stadium, with each pitcher allowing one run.  The game remained tied as the Mets came up with a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth.

Bobby Bonilla, who had been booed for much of his two stints with the Mets, was greeted with cheers when he was announced as a pinch-hitter for Shane Halter leading off the ninth.  Four pitches later, those rare cheers morphed back into the more customary boos, as Bonilla grounded out to first.

That brought up Melvin Mora, who had entered the game in the seventh inning as a pinch-runner for all-time stolen base king Rickey Henderson.  On a 1-0 pitch, Mora lined an opposite field single to right field off reliever Greg Hansell.  Mora then advanced to third base on a single to right by Edgardo Alfonzo.  After intentionally walking John Olerud to set up a force out at any base, Hansell was relieved by former Met Brad Clontz.  With Mike Piazza now standing at the plate and Mora standing 90 feet away from extending the Mets season, Clontz uncorked a wild pitch that bounced up into the netting behind home plate, allowing Mora to scamper home with the winning run and whipping the Shea Stadium crowd (myself included) into a joyous frenzy.

After defeating Cincinnati in a one-game playoff the following day (Cincinnati had defeated Milwaukee in their 162nd game to force Game No. 163), the Mets advanced to the postseason for the first time in 11 years.  Despite only having a .161 average in 31 big league at-bats, Mora had proven himself to be a valuable commodity to the Mets.  Six months after being the final man cut by the team after spring training, Mora did not find himself on the outside looking in when the postseason rosters were set.  He was joining his teammates in Arizona for their National League Division Series matchup against the Diamondbacks.

Just as he had done in his major league debut in May, Mora's first postseason at-bat came against Randy Johnson.  Mora had been inserted into the lineup via a double switch in the sixth inning by manager Bobby Valentine and came up to the plate to face Johnson in a tie game in the seventh.  Mora did not contribute to a potential go-ahead rally in that at-bat, grounding out to third.  But he was a major contributor to a go-ahead rally the next time he faced Johnson.

The game was still tied at 4 when the Mets came up to bat against Johnson in the top of the ninth.  Robin Ventura led off the inning with only the tenth hit by a left-handed batter off Johnson all year.  Roger Cedeño tried to sacrifice Ventura to second but popped out to Johnson for the first out.  Light-hitting shortstop Rey Ordoñez then pulled a single to left, advancing Ventura to second base.

Up stepped Melvin Mora, who had never struck out against Johnson in four previous at-bats, but had also never reached base against him.  A double play could have gotten Johnson out of the inning.  Instead, Mora drew a walk off the tiring southpaw, loading the bases and sending Johnson to the showers and Bobby Chouinard into the game to face Rickey Henderson.  After Henderson hit into a force play, with Ventura being thrown out at home, Edgardo Alfonzo launched a grand slam down the left field line, scoring Ordoñez, Mora and Henderson to give the Mets an 8-4 lead, a lead they would hold on to for a Game 1 victory.

Mora would not collect an official at-bat for the rest of the series, coming into Games 3 and 4 as a late-inning defensive replacement, but his walk off Randy Johnson in Game 1 helped set up what might have been the turning point of the series.  By winning Game 1, as well as taking Games 3 and 4 at Shea Stadium, the Mets did not have to face Randy Johnson in the series again.  Once Todd Pratt blasted a series-ending home run off closer Matt Mantei, the Mets advanced to face the division rival Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series.  The Mets fell short in their quest to reach the World Series, but Melvin Mora did everything he could to get them as close as possible to the pennant.

Edgardo Alfonzo's grand slam might not have been possible without Melvin Mora's key walk against Randy Johnson.

After playing in three of the four division series games, but collecting only one official at-bat, Mora was given an increased role in the NLCS against the Braves.  But he needed the removal of Rickey Henderson in Game 2 to prove that he could be productive in a role other than designated double switch player.

After Henderson ran gingerly to first base on a groundout in the second inning, he was replaced in the lineup by Mora, who promptly blasted a home run - his first in the majors - in his first at-bat following Henderson's removal.  Mora's homer extended the Mets' lead to 2-0, a lead they held until Kenny Rogers allowed a game-tying two-run homer to Brian Jordan and a go-ahead two-run homer to Eddie Perez in the bottom of the sixth.  Mora did his best to start a rally for the Mets in the eighth inning, reaching base on an error and scoring all the way from first on a double by Edgardo Alfonzo.  Mora's 270-foot-dash cut Atlanta's lead to a single run, but the Mets failed to produce the tying run after Alfonzo's two-bagger and went down in order in the ninth.  The Mets lost the game, 4-3, to fall behind the Braves in the NLCS, two games to none.

Mora got his first postseason start in Game 3 at Shea Stadium and got into the action quickly, although this time it wasn't with his bat.  In the top of the first, the Braves pushed across an unearned run against Mets starter Al Leiter.  After a leadoff walk to Gerald Williams, Leiter allowed Bret Boone to reach on an error.  A second error, this time on a throw by catcher Mike Piazza on an attempted double steal, allowed Williams to score and Boone to move to third base.  But with the Braves threatening to score more, Melvin Mora caught a fly ball by Brian Jordan and threw Boone out at the plate, keeping the score 1-0.

At the plate, Mora also contributed, collecting hits in each of his first two at-bats against Braves starter Tom Glavine.  But Mora's first career multi-hit game was not enough, as Glavine devastated the Mets with seven shutout innings.  The bullpen did the rest, as the lone run scored by the Braves in the first held up.  Atlanta won the game, 1-0, to put the Mets one game away from elimination.  But Mora would not let the Mets go down without a fight.

Rick Reed started Game 4 for the Mets and was absolutely brilliant through seven innings, facing the minimum 21 batters through seven innings.  The only baserunner he allowed - Bret Boone, who singled in the fourth inning - was erased on a failed stolen base attempt.  The Mets had taken a 1-0 lead on a solo homer by John Olerud and were six outs away from ending the Braves' chances of a sweep.  But before you could say Chief Noc-A-Homa, Brian Jordan and Ryan Klesko blasted back-to-back home runs off Reed, quickly turning one of the greatest pitching performances by a Met into a 2-1 deficit.  Melvin Mora got a good view of both home runs, as he had just been inserted into the game as a defensive replacement for Rickey Henderson.  The Braves didn't score again in the inning, but were now in position to close out the series.  All they needed were six outs.

Roger Cedeño led off the bottom of the eighth with a single, but was still standing on first after Rey Ordoñez popped up a bunt attempt and Benny Agbayani struck out.  Up stepped Melvin Mora, who needed to get on base to continue the rally.  After a stolen base by Cedeño, Mora worked out a walk to bring up John Olerud.  Braves manager Bobby Cox replaced reliever Mike Remlinger with Public Enemy No. 1, John Rocker, who watched helplessly as Cedeño and Mora pulled off a daring double steal.  Olerud followed the timely steals with a two-run single, plating Cedeño and Mora to give the Mets a 3-2 lead.

Roger Cedeño and Melvin Mora celebrate at the plate, allowing John Rocker to ponder what time the next 7 train arrives.

The Mets held on to the lead in the ninth and avoided the sweep, needing to win one more game to send the series back to Atlanta.  They would get that win in Game 5, and once again, Melvin Mora was an unlikely contributor.

Game 5 of the 1999 National League Championship Series was an all-time classic.  Both teams scored early, with Olerud providing a two-run homer off Greg Maddux to give the Mets a first inning lead, only to have Masato Yoshii give it back in the fourth on an RBI double by Chipper Jones and a run-scoring single by Brian Jordan.  The game was still tied, 2-2, when the Braves came up to bat in the top of the thirteenth inning.

After using eight pitchers through the first twelve innings, the Mets were down to their final relief pitcher to start the 13th.  Rookie Octavio Dotel was the only non-starter left for the Mets and was sent to the mound to face the Braves.  Dotel had made only one appearance for the Mets in the postseason and fared miserably in Game 2 of the NLDS, allowing a double, two walks and a hit batsman in one-third of an inning against Arizona.  Now he was being called upon to save the Mets season after not having pitched in 11 days.  He might not have been able to do so without the help of Melvin Mora.

Dotel retired the first two batters he faced in the 13th inning, striking out pinch-hitter Jorge Fabregas and retiring Gerald Williams on a grounder to short.  If he could retire Keith Lockhart, he would avoid facing eventual league MVP Chipper Jones with the go-ahead run on base.  But Dotel couldn't retire the side in order, allowing Lockhart to reach him for a single.  Up stepped the man who was constantly reminded of his given first name by Mets fans at Shea Stadium.  But this time, the name on everyone's mind would be Melvin Mora.  Jones laced a double down the right field line, which was picked up by a hustling Mora near the right field corner.  Mora threw the ball to cut-off man Edgardo Alfonzo, who fired a quick throw to catcher Mike Piazza, nailing Lockhart at the plate by about 20 feet.  Mora's defensive effort took Dotel off the hook and sent the game on into the rain-soaked night.




The Mets did not score in their half of the 13th and neither team scored in the 14th inning.  Dotel was still on the hill in the 15th, facing the light-hitting part of the Braves' lineup.  But Walt Weiss led off the inning with a single and then surprised everyone by stealing second.  (Weiss stole only seven bases during the regular season and was never a big base-stealer during his 14-year major league career.)  Weiss was still on second base when Dotel retired Gerald Williams on a fly ball to left.  But Keith Lockhart, who was denied the opportunity to score the go-ahead run two innings earlier, delivered an RBI triple, scoring Weiss to give the Braves a 4-3 lead.

In the bottom of the 15th, the Mets refused to give in to exhaustion.  They rallied against Kevin McGlinchy, tying the game on a single and stolen base by Shawon Dunston, a walk to Matt Franco, a sacrifice by Edgardo Alfonzo, an intentional walk to John Olerud and an unintentional walk to Todd Pratt.  With Melvin Mora waiting on deck and pinch-runner Roger Cedeño standing 90 feet away from a hard-fought Mets victory, Robin Ventura delivered the now-famous Grand Slam Single, giving the Mets their second consecutive victory in their final turn at bat.

Although Mora went 1-for-6 in the 15-inning thriller, his defensive play in the 13th inning kept the season alive for the Mets and allowed Ventura to come through with his titanic blast two innings later.  The series moved on to Atlanta for Game 6.  Mora did not start the game, but provided a spark off the bench, and it almost led to another thrilling Mets victory.

The Mets fell behind early to the Braves as Al Leiter allowed five runs in the first inning without retiring a single batter.  Despite the quick punch to the gut, the Mets did not stop fighting.  First, they cut the Braves' lead to 5-3.  Then, after the Braves added two insurance runs in the sixth, the Mets tied the game at 7-7 in the seventh, using a home run by Mike Piazza to knot the score.  One inning later, Benny Agbayani led off with a single off reliever Mike Remlinger.  After Agbayani advanced to second on a sacrfice bunt by Rey Ordoñez, Melvin Mora was called upon to pinch-hit for pitcher Orel Hershiser.  Just three games earlier, Mora drew a crucial walk off Remlinger in the eighth inning to set up the go-ahead run.  This time, Mora took it upon himself to supply the go-ahead run in the eighth off Remlinger, delivering an RBI single to give the Mets an 8-7 lead.  Unfortunately, that lead was short-lived, as John Franco allowed the Braves to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth.  The game went on to extra innings, where once again Mora was in the middle of a run-scoring rally.

With John Rocker entering his second inning of work after a 1-2-3 ninth, the Mets pounced on the reliever.  Benny Agbayani drew a leadoff walk to get things started in the tenth.  Two batters later, Rocker attempted to pick off Agbayani and would have been successful had it not been for a miscue by first baseman Brian Hunter.  (Ironically, it was Hunter who had tied the game two innings earlier with an RBI single off John Franco.)  With the Mets getting unexpected help on Hunter's error, Mora came up and delivered a single that moved Agbayani to third.  Agbayani came around to score on Todd Pratt's sacrifice fly to give the Mets a 9-8 lead.  Mora then stole third, but was stranded there when Edgardo Alfonzo went down on a rare strikeout.  Mora's insurance run would have been the difference had he scored, especially after the Braves tied the game on an RBI single by Ozzie Guillen in the bottom of the tenth.  Unfortunately, Mora never got a chance to play postseason hero again, as the Mets walked off a loser when Kenny Rogers threw ball four to Andruw Jones in the 11th.

Although the Mets lost the NLCS to the Braves in six games, Melvin Mora did everything he could to extend the series.  After collecting just five hits in 66 regular season games, Mora picked up six hits in the NLCS, batting .429 with a home run, two runs batted in, three runs scored and two stolen bases.  He reached base in half of his 16 plate appearances and also began two plays in the outfield that resulted in runners being thrown out at the plate.  Despite the sad ending to the 1999 campaign, the future looked bright for Mora and the Mets.  But little did Mora know how short that Mets future would be.

Melvin Mora glided his way into Mets fans hearts in 1999, but he was skating on thin ice in the summer of 2000.

For the first time since signing his first professional contract in 1991, Melvin Mora began a season on a major league roster, accompanying the Mets on their season-opening trip to Tokyo to face the Chicago Cubs.  Mora still didn't have a regular defensive position, but was getting more at-bats than he did in 1999.  Mora played in 31 of the team's first 37 games, starting ten of them.  But he was only batting .245 with four extra-base hits in those 31 games, although one of those extra-base hits was a walk-off home run off Milwaukee's Curt Leskanic on April 20 - the first regular season home run of Mora's career.  After a 1-for-3 performance against the Marlins on May 12, Mora was sent back to AAA-Norfolk to get some regular at-bats.  Less than three weeks later, he would be getting regular at-bats at the major league level, but at the expense of a key member of the team.

On May 29, three-time Gold Glove winner Rey Ordoñez fractured his left forearm while attempting to tag the Dodgers' F.P. Santangelo.  Ordoñez would be lost for the season.  The Mets immediately recalled Mora from Norfolk and inserted him into the lineup the next day.  Mora reached base four times against the Dodgers on May 30, scoring three times and driving in a run.  Over the next month, Mora was unstoppable at the plate, batting .338 with seven doubles, three homers, 12 RBIs, 20 runs scored and five stolen bases.

By late June, Mora had taken over the everyday job at shortstop, even though general manager Steve Phillips was still looking for a veteran with better defensive skills to play the position.  Phillips was considering Rich Aurilia and Mike Bordick in a potential trade, as well as perennial All-Star and former NL MVP Barry Larkin.  But with Mora hitting and the Mets winning, it appeared as if Mora would be able to keep the job in Ordoñez's absence.  But everything changed once the Mets stopped winning.

After defeating the Braves on July 1, the Mets were tied with the Braves in the loss column.  But the Mets then lost 12 of their next 19 games, and after dropping two out of three in Atlanta from July 21-23, found themselves six games out of first.  Part of the problem was Melvin Mora, who hit .194 over the 19-game stretch and reached base at a .243 clip.  Mora would go on to play two more games with the Mets before Phillips had seen enough.  The slump in the win column, as well as Mora's slump at the plate, caused Phillips to pull the trigger on a deal with the Orioles, sending Mora to Baltimore for All-Star shortstop Mike Bordick.  (The Mets also sent Pat Gorman, Leslie Brea and Mike Kinkade to Baltimore in the deal - the same Mike Kinkade who almost caused Mora to jump off a bridge in 1999 after he made the team out of spring training and Mora didn't.)

Things were looking up for the Mets after the Mike Bordick trade.  No, wait.  That was just Mike Bordick looking up.  My bad.

At the time of the trade, Bordick was three weeks removed from playing in his first All-Star Game.  He had also already established a career high with 16 HR and was on his way to a career high in RBIs.   Mora, on the other hand, was hitting .260 with six HR and 30 RBI in 215 at-bats with the Mets.  On paper, it appeared to be a good deal.  After one at-bat, it looked even better, as Bordick hit a home run to endear himself to the fans for all of one game.  Bordick went 2-for-3 in his Mets debut and continued to do fairly well over the next three weeks, batting .311 with four homers.  But over his final 37 games, Bordick turned into Rey Ordoñez but without the flashy defense.  From August 18 till season's end, Bordick hit .229 with no homers and 12 RBIs.  The Mets would have loved to receive that production in the playoffs.

Bordick hit .167 (2-for-12) in the four-game NLDS against the Giants, then hit .077 (1-for-13) in the NLCS against the Cardinals, a series in which five of the other seven regulars hit over .300.  Bordick continued his cold hitting in the World Series against the Yankees, batting .125 (2-for-16) over the first four games before being benched so that Kurt Abbott could start at shortstop in Game 5.  In 14 postseason games, Bordick combined to hit .121 (4-for-33) with no extra-base hits and eight strikeouts.  For his efforts, or lack of them, Bordick was not offered a contract to play for the Mets in 2001, instead choosing to return to Baltimore as a free agent.

As fate would have it, Bordick would only play 58 games for the Orioles in 2001, suffering a season-ending injury against the Mets on June 13.  He played one more year in Baltimore in 2002, before finishing his career as a member of the Blue Jays in 2003.  While Bordick's career was coming to a close, Mora's career was just taking off.

Mora's first full season in Baltimore had plenty of ups and downs.  Mora finished the season with a .250 average, 28 doubles, 7 HR, 48 RBI, 11 SB and 5 NB (newborn babies), as his wife, Gisel, gave birth to quintuplets on July 28, 2001.  He celebrated in 2002 by starting more games than he ever had in the past (145), albeit at five different positions.  Mora started 63 games in left field, 36 games at shortstop, 31 games in center field, nine games at second base and three games in right field.  He also started three games as Baltimore's designated hitter.  Mora only hit .233 in 2002, but set career highs in hits (130), doubles (30), home runs (19), RBI (64), runs scored (86) and stolen bases (16).

Although Mora was limited to 96 games in 2003, he showed great improvement at the plate and was rewarded for his efforts by being selected to his first All-Star team.  In his third full season as an Oriole, Mora hit .317 and reached base at a .418 clip, a figure that would have ranked third in the AL had he compiled enough at-bats.  Compiling the necessary number of at-bats was not a problem for Mora in 2004.

Photo by Brad Mangin

In 2004, Mora took his game to a level no one could ever have expected.  Mora finally had a position he could call his own, taking over as the Orioles' full-time third baseman after Tony Batista - an All-Star at the position for Baltimore in 2002 - left the Orioles to sign a free agent contract with the Montreal Expos.  In 140 games as the team's new third baseman, Mora batted .340, finishing second to Ichiro Suzuki in the batting race (Ichiro set a major league record with 262 base hits in 2004).  Mora did lead the league with his .419 on-base percentage and finished among the league leaders in hits (187), doubles (41), home runs (27), runs scored (111), RBI (104) and slugging percentage (.562).  Mora's spectacular season earned him his first Silver Slugger Award and MVP consideration.

To put Mora's 2004 campaign into perspective, consider this.  The Orioles franchise has been around since 1901, when they were playing as the Milwaukee Brewers.  After one season in Milwaukee, they moved to St. Louis to become the Browns, where they played for 52 seasons.  Since 1954, they have called Baltimore home.  In over a century of existence, no player had ever had a season for the Orioles in which he hit at least .320, with 40 doubles, 25 HR, 100 RBI and 100 runs scored.  Not Frank Robinson.  Not Eddie Murray.  Not even Cal Ripken.  The only player to accomplish all of those numbers in the same season is Melvin Mora, the same man Steve Phillips traded away because he wanted to rent Mike Bordick for half a season.  You're welcome, Baltimore.

Mora followed up his record-breaking season with another fine year in 2005, batting .283 with 30 doubles, 27 HR and 88 RBI.  Although the numbers were a slight dropoff from his 2004 form, he still managed to secure his second All-Star selection in 2005, after being snubbed for the team during his historic 2004 campaign.  Mora had two similar seasons in 2006 (.274, 25 doubles, 16 HR, 83 RBI, 96 runs scored, 11 SB) and 2007 (.274, 23 doubles, 14 HR, 58 RBI, 67 runs, 9 SB) before rebounding to give the Orioles one more great season in 2008 (.285, 29 doubles, 23 HR, 104 RBI, 77 runs scored) despite missing 27 games.

For the first time in nearly a decade with the Orioles, Mora had a subpar season in 2009, batting .260 with only eight home runs and 48 RBI in 125 games.  Mora was granted free agency following the 2009 season, finishing out his career in 2010 with the Colorado Rockies and 2011 with the Arizona Diamondbacks.  But before saying his final goodbyes to the big leagues, he gave the Mets one final reminder of what might have been on August 11, 2010, hitting a grand slam off Manny Acosta at Citi Field to turn a one-run Mets lead into a three-run deficit in the eighth inning.

"Oh, snap!  Did I just give up a grand slam to Melvin Mora?"

Although no one would ever confuse Melvin Mora with the great hitters in Orioles history, Mora compares favorably with those greats on the team's all-time leaderboard.  Since the team moved to Baltimore in 1954, Mora ranks in the team's top ten in games played (1,256; 10th in Orioles history), runs scored (709; 9th), hits (1,323; 10th), doubles (252; 8th), home runs (158; 9th), RBIs (662; 8th), walks (465; 10th) and total bases (2,073; 8th).  Had Mora compiled those numbers as a Met, he'd be fourth in games played, third in runs scored, third in hits, second in doubles, fifth in home runs, third in RBIs, seventh in walks and second in total bases.  In other words, he'd be one of the best Mets hitters of all-time.

In 1971, the Mets needed help in the infield and traded a player that was incomplete in their minds, along with three other players, for an All-Star shortstop.  That incomplete player was Nolan Ryan and the All-Star shortstop was Jim Fregosi.  Ryan went on to become a Hall of Famer and Fregosi went on to become the answer to a trivia question that Mets fans would rather not answer.  Almost three decades later, the Mets once again needed help in the infield and traded away a player that had not performed well, along with three other players, for an All-Star shortstop.  This time, it was Melvin Mora who became an All-Star on his new team, while the player the Mets got in return (Mike Bordick) did almost nothing before going back to his old team the following season.

Melvin Mora has no business being mentioned in the same sentence as Nolan Ryan.  But like Ryan three decades before him, Mora is one of those Mets who never should have gotten away, but did.  The Mets thought they were helping their team by trading away these raw, but talented players.  They were wrong both times.  And the record books for several other teams serve as a constant reminder of what the Mets could have had.


Note:  The Mets That Got Away is a thirteen-part weekly series that spotlights those Mets players who established themselves as major leaguers in New York, only to become stars after leaving town.  For previous installments, please click on the players' names below:

January 7, 2013: Nolan Ryan

Hall of Famer Barry Larkin Was Almost a Met

Barry Larkin, the dynamic shortstop who played for nearly two decades as a member of the Cincinnati Reds, was the sole player chosen today by the Baseball Writers Association of America for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  He will join the late Ron Santo, who was voted in by the Golden Era Committee last month.

Larkin played in 2,180 games in the major leagues, all with the same team.  Only 26 players in major league history have played in more games exclusively for one team.  But that would not have been the case had then-Mets general manager Steve Phillips been able to get Larkin to say "yes" on July 22, 2000.

Twelve years ago, the Mets were in the midst of a heated race with the Atlanta Braves for the NL East lead.  But shortstop Rey Ordoñez had suffered what became a season-ending arm injury in late May and the Mets needed a replacement.  Kurt Abbott and Melvin Mora split the duties at short in Ordoñez's absence, but neither provided the defensive wizardry Rey gave the team.

At first, the Mets didn't appear to miss Ordoñez much.  On July 1, the Mets stood one game behind the first place Braves in the NL East.  But over the next three weeks, the Mets lost 11 of 17 games to fall six games behind Atlanta.  They needed a quick fix at short, one that was not being solved internally by Abbott and Mora.  That was when Steve Phillips turned to Cincinnati and their longtime shortstop.

A trade centered around Mets' top prospect Alex Escobar was offered to Reds' GM Jim Bowden, who accepted the deal.  However, with Larkin being a 10-and-5 player, it was his right to decline the trade if he chose to do so.  The Mets were given a 72-hour window to negotiate with Larkin and his agent, Eric Goldschmidt, but were unwilling to offer the All-Star shortstop a multi-year contract.

As a result, Larkin chose to stay in Cincinnati, where he played until his retirement in 2004.  The Mets eventually did make a trade for a shortstop, acquiring Mike Bordick from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for Melvin Mora and three other players.  Mora became a two-time All-Star with the Orioles, hitting over .300 twice and producing two 100-RBI campaigns.  Bordick played in 56 games for the Mets before re-signing with the Orioles prior to the 2001 season.

It's impossible to say what Larkin would have done had he played his final four seasons as a Met.  Injuries limited him to 45 games in 2001 and 70 games in 2003.  But at least with Larkin, the Mets would not have had to deal Melvin Mora before he blossomed into an All-Star and they would have had an All-Star of their own at short as they made their run to the 2000 National League pennant.

Barry Larkin is the 31st former Red to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and the ninth who played primarily for Cincinnati.  There have only been 11 former Mets to get the call to Cooperstown and the only one wearing a Mets cap on his plaque is Tom Seaver.  (Lest we forget, Seaver is also one of the 31 former Reds in the Hall of Fame.)

Had Larkin accepted his trade to the Mets in 2000, he could have become the 12th former Met in the Hall of Fame.  Instead, he chose to remain in Cincinnati to punch his ticket to Cooperstown while the Mets got 56 games of Mike Bordick as a consolation prize and a World Series loss to the Yankees.  Even the non-trades end up being bad trades for the Mets.