30 Years Ago Today: Mets Score Club Record 23 Runs in a Game

The late Harry Caray probably wishes he hadn't been taken out to the ballgame on August 16, 1987.

The New York Mets are currently playing the crosstown rival Yankees in a four-game home-and-home series.  Thirty years ago today, the Mets were playing another of baseball's storied franchises, taking on the Chicago Cubs on a lazy Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field.  One year after winning the 1986 World Series, the Mets were battling the St. Louis Cardinals for the division title and needed to win the finale of their four-game set against the Cubs after dropping the first three games.  They were in the throes of a poor stretch that saw them lose six out of eight games after they had cut the Cardinals’ lead in the division from 10½ to 3½ games.  In that eight-game stretch, they had scored only 20 runs.  They needed to bust out of their slump quickly if they were going to continue to stay in the race with St. Louis.  Fortunately, the wind was blowing out at Wrigley Field on August 16, 1987 and the Mets’ bats were ready to take advantage.

The starting pitchers were Ron Darling for the Mets and a kid for the Cubs who had just been recalled from the minors after being sent down two weeks earlier due to a poor 6-10 start for the big club.  You may have heard of him.  He was a scrawny 21-year-old kid named Greg Maddux.

The Mets jumped out of the box quickly, scoring three runs in the first inning to take an early lead.  The lead had extended to 7-0 by the time the Cubs came up to bat in the bottom of the fourth inning.  However, Darling struggled in the fourth, giving up a grand slam to catcher Jody Davis.  That was followed up by a home run from the next batter, a rookie who was pinch-hitting for Cubs reliever (and former Met) Ed Lynch.  That neophyte was Rafael Palmeiro, who hit the tenth of his 569 career home runs to cut the Mets lead to 7-5.

Fortunately for Darling, manager Davey Johnson did not remove him from the game despite the poor inning.  He was allowed to put out the fire he started and pitch the minimum five innings required to qualify for the victory.  Because of that, Darling was able to stick around to reap the benefits of the additional fireworks displayed by his teammates as they continued to ride the jet stream out of Wrigley Field.

The Mets immediately responded to the Cubs’ five-run fourth by scoring three runs in the fifth inning and seven additional runs in the sixth.  They now had a commanding 17-5 lead, but the Cubbie carnage continued.  Not satisfied with a lead of a dozen runs, they scored three additional runs in both the seventh and eighth innings.  Jesse Orosco relieved Darling in the seventh and gave up four runs in his inning of work, but by then, the Mets had already put the game away.  A run by Chicago in the ninth inning off Jeff Innis produced the final tally in the Mets’ 23-10 shellacking of the Cubs.

The offense was powered by Lenny Dykstra and Darryl Strawberry.  Eights were wild for the two Met outfielders, as they combined for eight hits, eight runs scored and eight runs batted in.  Strawberry in particular smoked the Cubs’ pitchers, as all four of his hits went for extra bases (two doubles, a triple and a home run).

Dykstra and Strawberry - two smiling California kids who put lots of frowns on Cubs fans' faces on August 16, 1987.

In doing so, Strawberry became just the third Met to produce four extra-base hits in one game, joining Joe Christopher, who accomplished the feat in 1964, and Tim Teufel, who turned the trick just six weeks prior to Strawberry.  Strawberry added a stolen base in the second inning, making him the first Met to collect four extra-base hits and a stolen base in the same game.  The Straw Man was the only Met to accomplish this feat until Yoenis Céspedes matched him with four extra-base hits (three homers, one double) and a steal against the Colorado Rockies on August 21, 2015.

Strawberry also became just the third Met to score five runs in a game, after Lenny Randle in 1978 and Lee Mazzilli in 1979.  In addition, the Straw Man drove in five runs, making him the first Mets player to have a five-run, five-RBI game in franchise history.  The only other Mets to accomplish that rare feat since August 16, 1987 are Edgardo Alfonzo, who produced six runs and five RBI against the Houston Astros on August 30, 1999, and Céspedes in the aforementioned 2015 affair.  He had seven RBI to go with his five runs scored.

Dykstra also made Mets history in the game, becoming the first Met to collect seven at-bats in a nine-inning game.  The only Met to match Dykstra since then is Luis Hernandez, who went 3-for-7 in an 18-5 thrashing of the Cubs in 2010, which, just like Dykstra's record-setting effort 23 years earlier, took place on a lazy Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

Strawberry and Dykstra victimized several Cubs pitchers that day, including starting pitcher Greg Maddux.  Maddux collected almost 10% of his 355 career wins against the Mets.  His 35 victories (against 19 losses) are the most by any pitcher against New York.  However, one of his worst pitching performances against the Mets (or any other club) took place on that Sunday afternoon in the North Side of Chicago.

Throughout his major league career, which resulted in a much-deserved call to the Baseball Hall of Fame this year, Maddux was always known as a control pitcher, as he walked fewer than 1,000 batters in over 5,000 innings.  But on August 16, 1987 against the Mets, Maddux pitched 3⅔ innings and was charged with seven earned runs allowed.  He gave up six hits and a very un-Maddux-like five bases on balls.  Let's dissect Maddux's effort to see just how much of an anomaly this game was for him.

Greg Maddux would have preferred starting at Shea Stadium on August 16, 1987.

Greg Maddux made 740 starts in his big league career.  He issued five bases on balls or more in just 20 of those starts.  But in 14 of those 20 starts, he lasted at least six innings, giving him more time to issue those free passes.  Maddux wouldn't have another game in which he lasted fewer than four innings and allowed five or more walks until 2004, a year in which he produced his first ERA above 4.00 since - you guessed it - 1987.

Maddux also allowed seven earned runs in the game, which was the first time he had ever allowed that many runs in one of his starts.  Maddux would go on to allow seven or more earned runs in a start a total of 27 times in his career, including three more times against the Mets, but he never walked more than three batters in any of his other seven-run efforts.  The game on August 16, 1987 was the only time in his 23-year career that Maddux allowed seven or more runs and walked more than three batters.  And that was from a future Hall of Famer who beat the Mets more than any other pitcher in the 56-year history of the club.

Going into their series finale against the Cubs on August 16, 1987, the Mets were in a hitting slump and got out of it in a major way at Wrigley Field.  They scored more runs in that one game than they did in their previous eight contests combined.  By doing so, the Mets established a new franchise record with their 23-run outburst in Chicago and were able to use that game as a stepping stone that carried them all the way until the last week of the season, when they were eliminated from playoff contention by the Cardinals.  And it all happened exactly 30 years ago today.



 

August 16, 1987: Mets Score Club-Record 23 Runs

The late Harry Caray probably wishes he hadn't been taken out to the ballgame on August 16, 1987.

Note:  I originally published this piece five years ago on Mets Merized Online, but this Mets game from 1987 has always fascinated me, and I have since uncovered some more oddities about this game.  Therefore, I felt compelled to make some quick edits and share this piece once again with you.  Enjoy!


The New York Mets are currently playing a three-game set against the Chicago Cubs at Citi Field.  Twenty-seven years ago today, the Mets were also playing the Cubs, although the venue on that lazy Sunday afternoon was Wrigley Field in Chicago.  One year after winning the 1986 World Series, the Mets were battling the St. Louis Cardinals for the division title and needed to win the finale of their four-game series against the Cubs after dropping the first three games.  They were in the throes of a poor stretch that saw them lose six out of eight games after they had cut the Cardinals’ lead in the division from 10½ to 3½ games.  In that eight-game stretch, they had scored only 20 runs.  They needed to bust out of their slump quickly if they were going to continue to stay in the race with St. Louis.  Fortunately, the wind was blowing out at Wrigley Field on August 16 and the Mets’ bats were ready to take advantage.

The starting pitchers were Ron Darling for the Mets and a kid for the Cubs who had just been recalled from the minors after being sent down two weeks earlier due to a poor 6-10 start for the big club.  You may have heard of him.  He was a scrawny 21-year-old kid named Greg Maddux.

The Mets jumped out of the box quickly, scoring three runs in the first inning to take an early lead.  The lead had extended to 7-0 by the time the Cubs came up to bat in the bottom of the fourth inning.  However, Ron Darling struggled in the fourth, giving up a grand slam to catcher Jody Davis.  That was followed up by a home run from the next batter, a rookie who was pinch-hitting for Cubs reliever (and former Met) Ed Lynch.  That rookie was Rafael Palmeiro, who hit the tenth of his 569 career home runs to cut the Mets lead to 7-5.

Fortunately for Darling, manager Davey Johnson did not remove him from the game despite the poor inning.  He was allowed to put out the fire he started and pitch the minimum five innings required to qualify for the victory.  Because of that, Darling was able to stick around to reap the benefits of the additional fireworks displayed by his teammates as they continued to ride the jet stream out of Wrigley Field.

The Mets immediately responded to the Cubs’ five-run fourth by scoring three runs in the fifth inning and seven additional runs in the sixth.  They now had a commanding 17-5 lead, but the Cubbie carnage continued.  Not satisfied with a lead of a dozen runs, they scored three additional runs in both the seventh and eighth innings.  Jesse Orosco relieved Darling in the seventh and gave up four runs in his inning of work, but by then, the Mets had already put the game away.  A run by Chicago in the ninth inning off Jeff Innis produced the final tally in the Mets’ 23-10 shellacking of the Cubs.

The offense was powered by Lenny Dykstra and Darryl Strawberry.  Eights were wild for the two Met outfielders, as they combined for eight hits, eight runs scored and eight runs batted in.  Strawberry in particular smoked the Cubs’ pitchers, as all four of his hits went for extra bases (two doubles, a triple and a home run).

Dykstra and Strawberry - two smiling California kids who put lots of frowns on Cubs fans' faces on August 16, 1987.

In doing so, Strawberry became just the third Met to produce four extra-base hits in one game, joining Joe Christopher, who accomplished the feat in 1964, and Tim Teufel, who turned the trick just six weeks prior to Strawberry.  Strawberry added a stolen base in the second inning, making him the first and only Met to collect four extra-base hits and a stolen base in the same game.

Strawberry also became just the third Met to score five runs in a game, after Lenny Randle in 1978 and Lee Mazzilli in 1979.  In addition, the Straw Man drove in five runs, making him the first Mets player to have a five-run, five-RBI game in franchise history.  The only other Met to accomplish that rare feat since August 16, 1987 is Edgardo Alfonzo, who produced six runs and five RBI against the Houston Astros on August 30, 1999.

Dykstra also made Mets history in the game, becoming the first Met to collect seven at-bats in a nine-inning game.  The only Met to match Dykstra since then is Luis Hernandez, who went 3-for-7 in an 18-5 thrashing of the Cubs in 2010, which, just like Dykstra's record-setting effort 23 years earlier, took place on a lazy Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

Strawberry and Dykstra victimized several Cubs pitchers that day, including starting pitcher Greg Maddux.  Maddux collected almost 10% of his 355 career wins against the Mets.  His 35 victories (against 19 losses) are the most by any pitcher against New York.  However, one of his worst pitching performances against the Mets (or any other club) took place on that Sunday afternoon in the North Side of Chicago.

Throughout his major league career, which resulted in a much-deserved call to the Baseball Hall of Fame this year, Maddux was always known as a control pitcher, as he walked fewer than 1,000 batters in over 5,000 innings.  But on August 16, 1987 against the Mets, Maddux pitched 3⅔ innings and was charged with seven earned runs allowed.  He gave up six hits and a very un-Maddux-like five bases on balls.  Let's dissect Maddux's effort to see just how much of an anomaly this game was for him.

Greg Maddux would have preferred starting at Shea Stadium on August 16, 1987.

Greg Maddux made 740 starts in his big league career.  He issued five bases on balls or more in just 20 of those starts.  But in 14 of those 20 starts, he lasted at least six innings, giving him more time to issue those free passes.  Maddux wouldn't have another game in which he lasted fewer than four innings and allowed five or more walks until 2004, a year in which he produced his first ERA above 4.00 since - you guessed it - 1987.

Maddux also allowed seven earned runs in the game, which was the first time he had ever allowed that many runs in one of his starts.  Maddux would go on to allow seven or more earned runs in a start a total of 27 times in his career, including three more times against the Mets, but he never walked more than three batters in any of his other seven-run efforts.  The game on August 16, 1987 was the only time in his 23-year career that Maddux allowed seven or more runs and walked more than three batters.  And that was from a future Hall of Famer who beat the Mets more than any other pitcher in the 53-year history of the club.

Going into their series finale against the Cubs on August 16, 1987, the Mets were in a hitting slump and got out of it in a major way at Wrigley Field.  They scored more runs in that one game than they did in their previous eight contests.  By doing so, the Mets established a new franchise record with their 23-run outburst in Chicago and were able to use that game as a stepping stone that carried them all the way until the last week of the season, when they were eliminated from playoff contention by the Cardinals.  And it all happened 27 years ago today.
 

The Best On The Worst: Lee Mazzilli

When the Mets made their debut in 1962, they did so by employing a manager and several players who had achieved various levels of success on the New York baseball stage.  But Casey Stengel, Roger Craig, Gil Hodges and Don Zimmer did not replicate that success with the Mets.  Attempts to bring native New Yorkers into the fold also failed to generate fan-demonium at the Polo Grounds and Shea Stadium, as Brooklyn-born backstop Joe Pignatano failed to catch on with the Mets and Bronx-bred Ed Kranepool played well, but not nearly at the level expected from a player who broke Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg's home run records at James Monroe High School.

Other than Kranepool, whose team records were set more through longevity than actual successful seasons, the Mets did not have a true blue (and orange) New York success story with any of their players.  The athletes who contributed to the team's rapid rise in the late '60s and early '70s were mostly out-of-towners, with few native New Yorkers in the mix.  If the Mets drafted a native son, he was traded away before becoming a star (see Singleton, Ken).  Likewise, if the team traded for a player born in the Big Apple, it was usually after he had played his best baseball (see Torre, Joe).

After over a decade of existence, the team finally drafted a native New Yorker, developed him, and turned him into a fan favorite at Shea Stadium.  Unfortunately, once he became a star, there weren't that many fans coming to see the team play at the ballpark.

Lee Mazzilli was a hometown boy through and through at a time when fans were through with the Mets.

Lee Louis Mazzilli was a typical New York kid growing up in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn.  His parents were children of Italian immigrants and his father worked in the family business.  As a young man, Mazzilli was a two-sport athlete.  But his second sport wasn't a team sport.  In fact, as much as he loved baseball, Mazzilli was probably better at speed skating.

Mazzilli won several speed skating tournaments as a teenager, but knew he had a brighter future as a baseball player.  The Mets noticed Mazzilli's baseball skills as well, drafting him with the 14th overall pick in the 1973 June amateur draft, just a few selections behind future Hall of Famers Robin Yount and Dave Winfield.

Growing up, Mazzilli idolized center fielder Willie Mays.  Like Mays, Mazzilli played stickball on the streets of New York.  Mazzilli would also corral fly balls using the same basket catch made famous by the former Giant.  Now Mazzilli was going to play for his hometown team, the New York Mets, the same team that employed the soon-to-be retired 42-year-old Mays.  Mazzilli never got to play with his boyhood idol on the field at Shea Stadium, but when he finally reached the big leagues in 1976, everyone had their eyes on him, just like they used to watch Mays.  But not everyone was looking at Maz for his baseball talent.

Before playing in his first game with the Mets, Mazzilli was a five-tool talent in the minors.  With blazing speed that he honed on the ice skating rink, Mazzilli turned fly balls in the power alleys into routine outs.  He also averaged over 40 steals per season from 1974 to 1976, while reaching double digits in home runs in each of those three campaigns.  The Mets finally called him up on September 7, 1976, but Mazzilli did not hit for a high batting average in the final month of the season, managing a .195 mark in 24 games.  However, Mazzilli did display a keen eye at the plate, drawing 14 walks in 93 plate appearances to give him a respectable .323 on-base percentage.  He also stole five bases and hit two homers, including a three-run blast for his first major league hit a day after making his big league debut.  Mazzilli's other homer was even bigger, as he crushed a walk-off two-run shot off Pirates closer Kent Tekulve on September 20, a blast that effectively ended the Bucs' reign atop the NL East.  (Pittsburgh won five division titles in six seasons from 1970 to 1975.)

Despite an up-and-down month at the plate in September, Mazzilli's future looked bright in New York.  And who could blame him for being optimistic?  He was 21 years old and in the major leagues playing for a Mets team that had just finished the 1976 season with 86 wins, the second-highest win total in franchise history.  Mazzilli appeared to have everything going for him except for one thing - his "franchise" teammate.

Tom Seaver was never one to keep his feelings to himself, especially when it came to his feelings on the state of the Mets.  When team chairman M. Donald Grant refused to join other teams by participating in the new concept of free agent signings, Seaver was livid.  "The Franchise" was in favor of the Mets signing outfielder Gary Matthews to a free agent deal after the former Rookie of the Year posted career highs in several offensive categories in 1976.

Photo by Harry Harris/AP

Matthews was not a center fielder by trade, but he would have provided much-needed stability in the Mets' outfield - an outfield that featured nine different players who started at least ten games for the team in 1976 and no player starting more than 111 games.  Center field alone saw five players start at least 14 games at the position, including Mazzilli.  But after Grant would not budge on his free agent stance, Seaver was quite upset, saying "how can you not even try" to sign Matthews.  With each passing day, Seaver was one step closer to becoming a former Met.  Finally, on June 15, 1977, the team's greatest player was traded to Cincinnati.  By then, Lee Mazzilli was on his way to becoming the team's new best player.  But that wasn't good enough to keep the rest of the team from returning to its pre-Seaver depths.

By 1977, the Yankees had replaced the Mets as the city's top draw.  The Bronx Bombers had just won their first pennant in a dozen years and then signed free agent Reggie Jackson during the off-season, bringing the slugger to New York a decade after the Mets passed on Jackson to draft Steve Chilcott as the top overall pick.  The Mets, who had always ranked in the league's top five in attendance since moving to Shea Stadium in 1964, saw their ticket sales drop dramatically in 1977.  From 1977 to 1983, the Mets finished in the league's bottom four in attendance six times, reaching rock bottom in 1979, when the team averaged fewer than 10,000 fans in attendance per game.  But the fans who did come out to Shea Stadium came out for one reason - to watch Lee Mazzilli.  As the saying goes, men wanted to be like him and women wanted to be with him.  And no one got more attention on those awful Mets teams than Mazzilli.

Mazzilli's looks were all he had going for him during the first month and a half of the 1977 season.  Under manager Joe Frazier, Mazzilli played horribly, batting .217 with no homers and only six RBI in his first 45 games.  But when Joe Torre - a fellow Italian-American from Brooklyn - took over as a player/manager in late May, Mazzilli's career took off.  Maz batted .263 from that point on, collecting 18 doubles, two triples, six homers, 40 RBI and 15 stolen bases.  Mazzilli improved upon those numbers in 1978, batting .273 with 28 doubles, five triples, 16 homers, 61 RBI and 20 steals for the Mets.  But he saved his best for 1979, when he became a first-time All-Star.

In 1979, the Mets reached the depths of their post-Seaver depression.  The team lost 99 games, their highest total since Seaver's rookie season in 1967.  Craig Swan was the only pitcher to win more than six games and the team struggled at the plate, finishing in the league's bottom three in most offensive categories.  But 1979 was also the year Lee Mazzilli fulfilled his five-tool destiny with the Mets.  Mazzilli finished the year with a .303 batting average, 15 homers, a career-high 79 RBI, 34 stolen bases and 12 outfield assists.  He also finished in the league's top ten in hits (181; 9th in the NL), doubles (34; 9th) and walks (93; 6th).  Mazzilli reached base 274 times in 1979, setting a Mets club record that wasn't surpassed for nearly two decades (John Olerud set the new team mark in 1998).  The only players in the National League who reached base more times than Mazzilli in 1979 were Pete Rose and Keith Hernandez, who was the league's co-MVP that year.

As great as his 1979 season was, the highlight of Mazzilli's breakout year occurred in the Midsummer Classic.  Although he sat on the bench for the first seven innings, Mazzilli hit a game-tying pinch-hit home run off Jim Kern in the eighth inning.  Ironically, Mazzilli was batting for Gary Matthews - the same player Tom Seaver wanted just a few years earlier in order to give the Mets an offensive force in the outfield.  One inning later, Mazzilli won the game by drawing a two-out, bases-loaded walk off Yankees pitcher Ron Guidry.

The only thing tighter than the 1979 All-Star Game was Lee Mazzilli's pants. (AP Photo)

In 1980, the Mets' public relations team assured the fans that "the magic was back" at Shea Stadium.  But although the Mets flirted with the .500 mark in the month of July, the only things back at Shea were Lee Mazzilli, his sex appeal and another 95-loss season.  Mazzilli nearly duplicated his All-Star season in 1980, batting .280 with 31 doubles, 16 homers, 76 RBI, 82 walks and a career-high 41 stolen bases.

So how great was Mazzilli's three-year stretch from 1978 to 1980?  Well, Mazzilli had 93 doubles, 47 homers, 95 stolen bases and reached base 739 times in those three seasons.  According to baseball-reference.com, Mazzilli was the only player in baseball to accumulate all those offensive numbers during that time period.  But despite reaching levels that no other major league player was reaching, Mazzilli's tenure as a Met would soon come to an end.

In 1981, baseball took a two-month sabbatical because of the players' strike.  Mazzilli also took a break at the plate that season, as his average dipped to .228 and he hit just 14 doubles and six homers in 95 games.  Although Maz was only 26, new general manager Frank Cashen had a plan to rebuild the team through shrewd trades, and one of those trades would involve the Mets cutting ties with their top box office draw.

On April 1, 1982, the Mets sent Mazzilli to the Texas Rangers for two pitching prospects.  Obviously, the trade didn't sit well with Mazzilli's adoring fans.  (It also didn't go over well with Rangers farm director Joe Klein, whose sole reaction to the deal was saying "this meeting is over; we're going to the bar".)  But Mets fans soon got over Mazzilli's basket catches, blazing speed and Brooklyn charm, especially when Ron Darling started to become one of the team's all-time great pitchers and Walt Terrell was flipped for Howard Johnson in a subsequent trade.

Mazzilli, on the other hand, had a tough time accepting the trade, but insisted he would remain a New Yorker, even though he would play his home games in Texas.  Mazzilli went on to say,

"I still don't really know where I am.  Mentally I'm not here yet.  Physically, I'm O.K., but emotionally and psychologically, there's a lot going through my mind.  One thing I'll tell you though - I'm going to stay the same way and there's no way I'm wearing a cowboy hat or boots." 




Mazzilli's six-year career with the Mets was over (or so everyone thought).  From 1976 to 1981, the center fielder was one of the best position players to ever put on a Mets uniform.  At the time of the trade, Mazzilli was among the team leaders in runs scored (349; 5th all-time), hits (714; 6th), doubles (133; 4th), triples (21; 6th), home runs (61; 8th), RBI (303; 7th) and walks (376; 4th).  He also left the team as its all-time leader in stolen bases.  Mazzilli's 139 thefts were two dozen more than what Bud Harrelson achieved in 13 seasons with the team.

For all of Lee Mazzilli's success with the Mets, he never got to play for a team that finished above fifth place in the division after his 24-game tryout in 1976.  He also never had a season of more than 323 at-bats after the trade to Texas, as Maz batted just .248 and averaged five homers and ten steals per season from 1982 to 1985 as a member of the Rangers, Yankees and Pirates.  His 1985 season in Pittsburgh was particularly difficult, as he started only 15 games for a Pirates team that lost 104 times.  In July of '86, Mazzilli reached a personal nadir, as the 31-year-old was released by the Bucs.  Mazzilli was now an unemployed 11-year veteran who had never played for a team that won more than 86 games.  But things were about to change for Maz, in a most unexpected way.

Less than two weeks after he was released by the Pirates, Frank Cashen decided to take a chance on the man he had traded away four years earlier, signing Lee Mazzilli to be a pinch hitter and corner outfielder.  The move irked George Foster, who considered the signing to be racially motivated against him, even though Foster had already lost playing time to fellow African-Americans Mookie Wilson and Kevin Mitchell.  Foster was released four days later.

Mazzilli was a key contributor off the bench as the Mets steamrolled their way to a division title.  He reached base in 30 of his 72 plate appearances (.417 OBP) and started games at first base, left field and right field, giving much-needed rest to Keith Hernandez, Mookie Wilson and Darryl Strawberry.  After more than a decade in the big leagues, Mazzilli was finally going to participate in the postseason, and he made the most of his opportunity.

For most of the NLCS and World Series, Mazzilli was quiet, collecting one hit in seven at-bats prior to Game 6 of the Fall Classic.  But Mazzilli got over his 1986 postseason doldrums just when the Mets needed him the most.  With the Red Sox just six outs away from a World Series title, Mazzilli stepped up to the plate as a pinch-hitter to lead off the eighth inning of Game 6.  On a 1-2 pitch from Calvin Schiraldi, Maz stroked a single to right field to get the Mets' rally started.  Four batters later, Mazzilli scored the tying run on Gary Carter's sacrifice fly.  The Mets would go on to win the game in dramatic fashion in the tenth inning.  Two nights later, in the seventh and deciding game, Mazzilli and the Mets found themselves down by three runs going to the bottom of the sixth.  Sid Fernandez had been dominant in relief of starter Ron Darling, but now El Sid's spot was up in the batting order with one out and no one on base.  Faced with a tough decision, manager Davey Johnson took Fernandez out of the game for pinch-hitter Lee Mazzilli.  It was a decision that ended up changing the outcome of the game and the series.

Mazzilli delivered a single off southpaw Bruce Hurst, less than 48 hours after Hurst had come within a strike of being named the World Series MVP.  Mazzilli's hit opened the flood gates for the Mets, as the team scored three runs in the inning to tie the game.  The Mets scored three additional runs in the seventh inning and tacked on two more in the eighth to claim the World Series crown.  After 11 seasons in the big leagues - more than half of them coming with the Mets and the majority of them coming with losing teams - Mazzilli had finally tasted the sweetness of victory.

Mazzilli played two-and-a-half more seasons with the Mets, reaching the postseason again in 1988 one year after posting one of the best seasons for a bench player in franchise history.  In 1987, Mazzilli had just 124 at-bats, but was able to record 12 extra-base hits and 24 RBI in very limited action.  He also batted .306 and had a .399 on-base percentage.  The 1988 season was not nearly as good for Mazzilli, as he slumped to .147 in 116 at-bats.  Finally, after batting .183 in 60 at-bats for the Mets in 1989, he was waived by the team, finishing up the year with Toronto.  Mazzilli earned his third postseason trip in four seasons as a member of the Blue Jays, then retired as a player at the end of the season.

After some time away from baseball, Mazzilli returned to the game to become a coach with the Yankees and later managed the Baltimore Orioles in 2004 and 2005.  He also worked as an in-studio analyst at SNY and continues to have an eye on the Mets, especially now that his son, L.J., is a minor leaguer in the Mets' system.

When Lee Mazzilli made his major league debut for the Mets in 1976, he became one of the few native New Yorkers to play for the team.  To this day, only 37 players who were born in the five boroughs have suited up for the Mets.  Ed Kranepool is the most notable of those players, and as the longest-tenured Met in team history, Kranepool is obviously the leader in most offensive categories for native New Yorkers.  But Lee Mazzilli is second to Kranepool in practically every category.  And he was a Met for far less time than Kranepool.

A quarter century after playing his final game as a Met, Mazzilli is still among the team's all-time leaders (regardless of his place of birth) in numerous offensive categories.  You can find his name in the team's top twenty in runs scored, hits, doubles, triples, RBI and OBP.  And he still ranks in the top ten in walks (10th) and stolen bases (6th).  In New York, Mazzilli was a matinee idol at a time when no Mets fan had a player to idolize or ogle.  He was the best player on many bad Mets teams, then he became a bit player on some of the best Mets teams.

Lee Mazzilli put up outstanding numbers for several years with the Mets with little recognition from baseball lovers outside of the Big Apple.  But the Brooklyn kid finally got all the recognition he wanted when he won a World Series ring for the team he grew up with.  When he was a teenager, Mazzilli could have chosen to become a speed skater instead of a baseball player.  Instead, he sped his way into the hearts of Mets fans.  And that's the best anyone could have wished for.

Lee Mazzilli idolized Willie Mays.  Mets fans did the same with Lee Mazzilli.

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
   
 

R.A. Dickey Could Set Two Records He'd Rather Not Have

On Thursday, R.A. Dickey pitched a complete game against the Miami Marlins to notch his 15th victory of the season.  Dickey is now 12 games above .500 (15-3) for a team that's five games under .500 (54-59, entering Saturday night's game).  How rare is it for a Mets pitcher to be that many games over the break-even point while pitching for a team with a losing record?  Also, how unheard of would it be for Dickey to finish with that great of a percentage of his team's wins?  To answer both questions, it would be rare and it would be unheard of.

Ten pitchers in Mets history have finished a season with at least 10 more wins than losses, accomplishing the feat a total of 14 times.  Those pitchers are:

• Tom Seaver (1969): 25-7
• Tom Seaver (1971): 20-10
• Tom Seaver (1975): 22-9
• Jerry Koosman (1976): 21-10
• Dwight Gooden (1985): 24-4
• Ron Darling (1985): 16-6
• Bob Ojeda (1986): 18-5
• Dwight Gooden (1986): 17-6
• Sid Fernandez (1986): 16-6
• Terry Leach (1987): 11-1
• David Cone (1988): 20-3
• Dwight Gooden (1990): 19-7
• Bret Saberhagen (1994): 14-4
• Al Leiter (1998): 17-6

No Mets pitcher has finished at least 10 games over .500 in the 21st century, a feat that R.A. Dickey can accomplish this season.  But let's look at one other thing regarding the pitchers listed above.

In 1969, when Tom Seaver became the first Met to win 10 more games than he lost in a single season, the Mets won 100 games and their first World Series championship.  The 1971 Mets also finished above .500, when Seaver repeated his 10-games-over-.500 feat, as did the 1975 Mets, the 1976 Mets, and so on.  It wasn't until Bret Saberhagen went 14-4 in the strike-shortened 1994 season that a Mets pitcher won 10 more games than he lost for a team that finished with a losing record.

In 1994, the Mets were 55-58 when the strike put the kibosh on the Major League Baseball season, giving Saberhagen the dubious distinction of being the only pitcher in Mets history to finish a season, albeit abbreviated, that many games above .500 while the team finished below that mark.  R.A. Dickey could soon be joining Saberhagen if his teammates don't start winning when he's not on the mound.

Yes, R.A.  That really is Bret Saberhagen's name above you.

Now let's look at Mets pitchers who won a high percentage of his team's games.  Once again, there aren't many pitchers on this list, as only five hurlers have completed a season for the Mets in which he earned at least 25% of his team's victories.  Those five pitchers have accomplished this rare feat a total of eight times.  Here is a list of the seasons in which these pitchers joined this exclusive club:

• 1962 Mets (40-120): Roger Craig goes 10-24 (25.0% of the team's victories)
• 1963 Mets (51-111): Al Jackson goes 13-17 (25.5% of the team's victories)
• 1967 Mets (61-101): Tom Seaver goes 16-13 (26.2% of the team's victories)
• 1968 Mets (73-89): Jerry Koosman goes 19-12 (26.0% of the team's victories)
• 1969 Mets (100-62): Tom Seaver goes 25-7 (25.0% of the team's victories)
• 1972 Mets (83-73): Tom Seaver goes 21-12 (25.3% of the team's victories)
• 1975 Mets (82-80): Tom Seaver goes 22-9 (26.8% of the team's victories)
• 1994 Mets (55-58): Bret Saberhagen goes 14-4 (25.5% of the team's victories)

Of the five Mets pitchers who completed a season in which he earned at least 25% of his team's victories, only Bret Saberhagen did it in the last 37 seasons, doing so during the strike-shortened 1994 campaign.

R.A. Dickey currently has a 15-3 record for a team that's 54-59, accounting for 27.8% of the team's wins this year.  Should Dickey maintain this pace, he would surpass "The Franchise" himself, Tom Seaver, to become the Mets pitcher with the greatest percentage of his team's victories in a single season.

Tom Seaver and R.A. Dickey, two masters of their craft.

The 2012 season has been full of ups and downs for the Mets.  But one aspect of their season has been way up.  R.A. Dickey has given the team one of the best seasons for a pitcher in their 50-year history.  But unfortunately, the rest of the team has had a difficult time of replicating Dickey's dominance.  In doing so, they might help Dickey accomplish two things that Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden and Jerry Koosman never did.

If the Mets finish with a losing record and Dickey remains more than 10 games over .500, he would become the first pitcher in team history to finish that many games above .500 on a team that couldn't make it over that hump.  Similarly, no Mets pitcher can claim to have won more than 26.8% of his team's victories in a single season.  That could all change this year.

R.A. Dickey hasn't stopped making history since 2012 began.  Now he can make some more.  But oddly enough, had his teammates played better, this particular type of history-making achievement might never have been possible.  As much as Dickey would appreciate becoming the first Mets pitcher to achieve the feats detailed above, he would surely trade both of those records for more victories by the team on days he didn't pitch.  We all would.

This Just Happened!

In case you missed it, we got our tweet selected by SNY as tonight's Tweet of the Game.  A tip of the blue Mets cap to both @MetsKevin11 and @metszilla for the screen grab:

For the record, Gary Cohen got confused by our Twitter handle, stuttering for a second before finally getting it right.  Keith Hernandez liked it and Ron Darling was probably eating something while it was on the air.

Thanks again to @MetsKevin11 and @metszilla for staying up late enough to catch it on SNY.  (You can follow Kevin on Twitter and see more of his outstanding meme work for The Daily Stache by clicking here.  And our good friends at Metszilla can be followed on Twitter here.)

Mets Have A Fearsome Threesome In Their Rotation

Jonathon Niese pitched eight innings of one-run ball in Tuesday's 11-1 victory over the Phillies, improving his record to 7-3 on the season and lowering his ERA to 3.35.  Since allowing four home runs in Toronto on May 18, Niese has been outstanding, going 5-1 with a 2.17 ERA and 1.09 WHIP.

With all the talk surrounding R.A. Dickey's historic start and Johan Santana's unlikely comeback from his season-squelching injury, Niese's great year has been largely overlooked.  But his name belongs right up there with Dickey and Santana.

Combined, the Mets' fearsome threesome is 25-8 with a 2.72 ERA and 1.06 WHIP.  They also have 297 strikeouts while issuing only 90 walks.

The Mets have had numerous instances where they've had a dominant front end of the rotation.  Take a look at these special trios in Mets history:

• 1969: Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Gary Gentry (55-28, 2.61 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 542 Ks)
• 1976: Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack (52-31, 2.74 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 588 Ks)
• 1986: Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling, Bob Ojeda (50-17, 2.75 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 532 Ks)
• 1988: Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling, David Cone (55-21, 2.90 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 549 Ks)
• 1990: Dwight Gooden, Frank Viola, David Cone (53-29, 3.23 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 638 Ks)

Now compare that to what Dickey, Santana and Niese have accomplished over the team's first 81 games.  If they continue this pace over their final 81 games, these are what their final numbers would look like:

• 2012: R.A. Dickey, Johan Santana, Jonathon Niese (50-16, 2.72 ERA, 1.06 ERA, 594 Ks)

This year's pitching trio matches up very well with the five threesomes listed above.  For the record, all five Mets teams listed above won at least 86 games in the years they boasted their stellar top three in the rotation and three of the five advanced to the playoffs.

Will the 2012 Mets follow those playoff-bound teams from the past?  We won't know until the final 81 games are played.  But if Dickey, Santana and Niese continue to pitch they way they did in the season's first half, the rest of the National League better watch out.  Because if the Mets continue this ride into October, where most teams go with three-man rotations, they could be very hard to beat.

 

Decisions, Decisions: Jon Rauch Has Plenty of Them

On Saturday night, Jon Rauch allowed a go-ahead home run to pinch-hitter Eric Chavez.  Since the Mets failed to tie the game after Chavez's opposite-field shot, Rauch was saddled with the loss, his seventh of the not-yet-half-completed season.  He is on pace to lose 15 games, a staggering number for a starting pitcher, let alone a reliever.

Although it is not uncommon for a reliever to rack up wins and losses, Rauch is on track to do some things that have never happened in Mets history, and it has everything to do with decisions, decisions, and more decisions.

Jon Rauch currently has seven losses on the season.  If Rauch were to reach double digits in losses, he would become the first Met since Greg McMichael in 1997 to do so.  McMichael went 7-10 for the '97 Mets, with all 73 of his appearances coming in relief.

Rauch does not just lose games.  He has also been on the winning end on three occasions.  His ten decisions put him on track to finish the campaign with over 20 combined wins and losses.  Only three Mets relievers have ever racked up a minimum of 20 decisions.  Skip Lockwood became the first Met to do so in 1978 when he went 7-13 in 57 relief appearances.  In 1983, Jesse Orosco joined Lockwood by going 13-7 in 62 relief appearances.  Finally, in 1986, Roger McDowell set the franchise record for wins (14) and decisions (23) for a relief pitcher when he went 14-9 in 75 appearances.

With his seven defeats, Jon Rauch is currently the team leader in losses.  Only twice in the Mets' 50-year history has a relief pitcher led the team in losses.  As detailed in the previous paragraph, Roger McDowell lost nine games for the Mets in 1986.  That was enough to lead the eventual World Series champions in losses that year, as starting pitcher Rick Aguilera was second on the team with seven defeats.  One year later, Jesse Orosco duplicated McDowell's feat.  In 1987, Orosco went 3-9 for a team that had none of its starters lose more than eight games (Ron Darling and Sid Fernandez both finished the season with identical 12-8 records).  Not since Orosco a quarter century ago has a reliever led the team in losses.  Jon Rauch has two more losses than starting pitcher Dillon Gee (5-5).  No other Met has more than three losses in 2012.

Jon Rauch is already in the Mets' record books for tallest player in team history.  But at his current pace, he might etch his name in those books in a few other categories.  Should he lose 14 games in relief, he would surpass Skip Lockwood's total from 1978 by one.  He could also become the fourth Met reliever to be credited with 20 decisions in a single season and the third Met to lead the team in losses out of the bullpen.

Fortunately for Rauch, all three relievers he would join or erase from the record books (Lockwood, McDowell, Orosco) were beloved Mets - players who were good enough to be nominated for best left-handed and right-handed relief pitchers on the recent all-time Mets team.  But surely Rauch would trade in those potential spots in the team's record books for more consistent pitching.  After a brilliant start to the season (no runs allowed in his first 11 appearances), Rauch has allowed the opponent to score in ten of his last 22 appearances, earning the loss in all but three of those ten games.

Jon Rauch is a very good pitcher.  But he can be better.  If he continues to pile up decisions, especially in the 'L' column, then Terry Collins might have to make a few decisions of his own when it comes to bringing in Rauch to pitch in a tight game or calling upon another member of the Mets bullpen.

A Homegrown Pitcher Who Hasn't Really Grown

Mike Pelfrey turns 28 today.  He's about to enter his prime for a pitcher in the major leagues.  But does that mean he's about to blossom the way we thought he was doing during the first few months of the 2010 season?

Since making his debut for the Mets in 2006, Pelfrey has won 50 games in six seasons.  Those 50 victories put him in 15th place on the Mets' all-time leaderboard, just one win behind former Met Bobby Ojeda.  Going by that, it would appear that Big Pelf is one of the best pitchers the Mets have ever had and certainly one of the best who came up through the team's minor league system.

But one look at the career numbers of these all-time Mets greats shows that Pelfrey might be in the same classroom as they are, but he's not learning the same lessons.

Of the 15 pitchers to win 50 or more games for the Mets, Pelfrey is the seventh player originally drafted by the Mets, joining the likes of Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack, Bobby Jones and Craig Swan.  Two other members of the 50-win club were originally drafted by other teams, but won their first 50 games in the majors as members of the New York Mets.

Ron Darling was drafted by the Texas Rangers in 1981 but made his major league debut in 1983 for the Mets.  Long-time teammate Sid Fernandez actually pitched in two games for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1983, but finished with an 0-1 record in Dodger blue.  He was credited with his first victory in the major leagues as a member of the Mets in 1984.

Let's take a look at the nine players who won their first 50 games in the big leagues as members of the New York Mets to see if we notice something interesting about the most recent 50-game winner.  We'll consider the player's age and number of appearances (including starts) it took for that player to reach the 50-win plateau.

• Tom Seaver: 24 yrs, 9 mos, 9 days.  Won 50th game in 100th appearance (99 starts)
• Dwight Gooden: 21 yrs, 7 mos, 13 days.  Won 50th game in 82nd appearance (82 starts)
• Jerry Koosman: 28 yrs, 4 mos, 16 days.  Won 50th game in 112th appearance (105 starts)
• Ron Darling: 26 yrs, 11 mos, 9 days.  Won 50th game in 131st appearance (130 starts)
• Sid Fernandez: 25 yrs, 10 mos, 2 days.  Won 50th game in 124th appearance (122 starts)
• Jon Matlack: 25 yrs, 4 mos, 24 days.  Won 50th game in 122nd appearance (119 starts)
• Bobby Jones: 27 yrs, 6 mos, 28 days.  Won 50th game in 121st appearance (121 starts)
• Craig Swan: 31 yrs, 6 mos, 13 days.  Won 50th game in 174th appearance (149 starts)
• Mike Pelfrey: 27 yrs, 7 mos, 10 days.  Won 50th game in 144th appearance (140 starts)

Only Jerry Koosman and Craig Swan were older than Pelfrey at the time of their 50th victories.  And only Swan had made more starts and total appearances than Pelfrey when he recorded his 50th win.  However, Koosman did not become a regular in the Mets' rotation until he was 25 and Swan pitched the majority of his career with some of the worst Mets teams since the days of their infancy.

By the time he was 25, Pelfrey had already made 49 starts in the major leagues.  Also, as bad as the Mets have been over the past three seasons, they still managed to win at least 70 games every year.  Meanwhile, in his 12 years in Flushing, Craig Swan pitched for eight different Mets teams that finished at least 20 games below .500.  That includes the strike-shortened 1981 season, when the Mets finished with a 41-62 record.

Mike Pelfrey was expected to become a mainstay in the Mets' rotation when the team promoted him to the major leagues in 2006.  That part has become true, as Pelfrey has become one of the 15 winningest pitchers in franchise history.  But if not for Craig Swan, Pelfrey would have taken longer than any Met to reach that win total, and even so, it only took Swan nine more starts on some pretty bad teams to win No. 50.

The Mets have produced many homegrown pitchers who have had tremendous success in the major leagues.  Unfortunately, Mike Pelfrey has yet to become one of them.  It'll take a lot more growth for this homegrown pitcher to move to join Seaver, Gooden and Koosman at the head of the Mets' pitching class.

Mets Teammates Who Played Together The Longest

Within the next two weeks, longtime Yankees catcher Jorge Posada will announce his retirement from baseball.  The 40-year-old Posada will hang up his catchers' gear after 15 full seasons (17 overall) in Yankee pinstripes.  With Posada's retirement, that will leave Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera as the only Yankee teammates to be together since the days of Buck Showalter.  Jeter and Rivera made their major league debuts six days apart during the 1995 season and will be entering their 18th season as Yankee teammates in 2012.

Only one pair of teammates played together longer than Jeter and Rivera.  From 1977 to 1995, Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell were double play partners in Detroit.  Their 19 seasons as teammates surpassed the previous record of 18 years set by George Brett and Frank White when they played together in Kansas City from 1973 to 1990.

It's rare for an athlete to play for a single team over his entire career, especially if his career is lengthy.  It's even rarer for teammates to stay together for an extended period of time.  Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell played an unprecedented 19 seasons together.  No individual player, let alone a set of teammates, has ever been a Met for that long, as Ed Kranepool's 18 seasons with New York has remained the franchise record for over three decades.

This brings up an interesting question.  If no individual Met has played more than 18 seasons with the team, which pair of Mets were teammates the longest?  Surely, one of the dynamic duo had to be Kranepool, right?  We've gone through mounds of paperwork (and by paperwork, I mean baseball-reference.com) and came up with the teammates who played together the longest in orange and blue.  These pairs of Metropolitans played all or parts of twelve (or more) seasons together.  Here they are:

• Ed Kranepool and Cleon Jones (12 seasons; 1963, 1965-75)
• Bud Harrelson and Jerry Grote (12 seasons; 1966-77)
• Ed Kranepool and Jerry Grote (12 seasons; 1966-77)
• Ed Kranepool and Jerry Koosman (12 seasons; 1967-78)
• Ron Hodges and Craig Swan (12 seasons; 1973-84)
• Ed Kranepool and Bud Harrelson (13 seasons; 1965-77)

Ed Kranepool was everyone's teammate so long ago that color film hadn't been invented yet.

That was kind of boring, wasn't it?  Other than the Hodges/Swan combo that most Mets fans might have overlooked, the other pairs of teammates all played in the same era of Mets baseball.

The more interesting question might be which teammates played the longest since the '80s began?  That list is probably one you wouldn't be able to recite off the top of your head.  In fact, we uncovered only one pair of teammates that played at least ten seasons together since the Reagan administration and another nine that played a minimum of eight seasons with each other.  Time to go through those mounds of paperwork again...

• Darryl Strawberry and Ron Darling (8 seasons; 1983-90)
• Sid Fernandez and Ron Darling (8 seasons; 1984-91)
• Dwight Gooden and Ron Darling (8 seasons; 1984-91)
• John Franco and Bobby Jones (8 seasons; 1993-2000)
  
• Jose Reyes and David Wright (8 seasons; 2004-11)
• Mookie Wilson and Wally Backman (9 seasons; 1980-88)
  
• Sid Fernandez and Howard Johnson (9 seasons; 1985-93)
• Dwight Gooden and Howard Johnson (9 seasons; 1985-93)
• John Franco and Todd Hundley (9 seasons; 1990-98)
• Dwight Gooden and Sid Fernandez (10 seasons; 1984-93)

(Editor's note:  John Franco missed the 2002 season with an injury.  That eliminates a pairing of Franco and Edgardo Alfonzo as eight-year teammates, as Fonzie was with the Mets from 1995 to 2002, thereby only making him Franco's teammate for seven years.  Ya gotta believe... in semantics!) 

We know Sid Fernandez wore No. 50.  But he wore No. 10 in this photo to commemorate the number of seasons he was Dwight Gooden's teammate with the Mets.  We wouldn't lie to you about that.

With Jose Reyes now waiting for the latest fire sale in Miami, David Wright and Mike Pelfrey have become the current longest running duo on 126th and Roosevelt, having played all or parts of six seasons together.  Since neither player is guaranteed to return after the 2012 season, it may be a while before the Mets have a pair of teammates play at least eight seasons together, let alone the number of seasons that players like Ed Kranepool, Jerry Grote, Bud Harrelson and others from the early days of the franchise played together.

The business of baseball has changed quite a bit since the Mets were the little team that could.  Keeping a team intact for an extended period of time has become more difficult than spelling Mientkiewicz after downing a few Coronas.

Where have you gone, Eddie Kranepool?  The Mets don't have the same look to me...

Gary, Keith & Ron To Be Replaced (For Two Innings)

The beloved team of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling will be replaced in the SNY booth tonight. Before you start calling for Fred Wilpon's head (save it for the day he fails to open his wallet to re-sign Jose Reyes), let me specify that the SNY crew will only be replaced for two innings. And who will be in the booth for those two innings?

None other than Bob Costas and Al Michaels.

Legendary broadcasters Costas and Michaels will be covering the Mets-Giants game for the MLB Network. Then during the fourth and fifth innings, they will switch with Gary Cohen and Ron Darling (Keith doesn't do games from his hometown) and will provide SNY viewers with the play-by-play and analysis. They will then move over to the San Francisco TV booth and call the game for their local channel in the sixth and seventh innings.

It will be the first time Al Michaels broadcasts a major league baseball game since 1995, as well as the his first pairing with Bob Costas in the booth.

However, some movie enthusiasts might disagree with that last statement. After all, the two did team up in the broadcast booth for several scenes in the movie "BASEketball" (see clip below), where they got, how shall we say this, a little too excited to be working together.



Don't forget to tune in tonight at 10:15PM (8:15PM Mountain Time, in case you live somewhere near South Park, Colorado), as the Mets play the first of three games against the defending World Champion San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park.

With Gary Cohen and Ron Darling passing the SNY baton to Bob Costas and Al Michaels for two innings, you never know what could happen. But you do know that you're going to be fully entertained and informed by two of the greatest sports broadcasters of our generation. That's reason enough to get excited. Right, Mr. Costas?

M.U.M.'s The Word (Most Underrated Mets): Sid Fernandez

When you think of the best trades in Mets history, a few of them immediately come to mind. Who can forget the 1983 trade that brought Keith Hernandez to the Mets for Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey? How about the deal that netted Gary Carter from Montreal prior to the 1985 season for Hubie Brooks and a bevy of not-ready-for-prime-time prospects? More recently, there was the 1998 deal in which the Mets traded three minor leaguers (including Mookie Wilson's stepson) for Mike Piazza.

However, one trade that doesn't always make the list of "best trades ever" was a deal pulled off by Frank Cashen in December of 1983. The trade between the NL West champion Dodgers and the NL East cellar dweller Mets hardly registered a blip on the baseball radar when it occurred, but when all was said and done, the exchange of utility man Bob Bailor and pitcher Carlos Diaz for infielder Ross Jones and Charles Sidney Fernandez became one of the biggest steals in franchise history.

Whether in color or in black and white, Sid Fernandez was one of the best pitchers in franchise history.

The 1983 Mets finished the season in last place with a 68-94 record. Although the team didn't do well in the standings, it did plant the seeds for improvement in 1984. With the promotion of rookie sensation Darryl Strawberry in May and the trade for first baseman Keith Hernandez in June, two key pieces of the offense were in place. Now it was time to upgrade the pitching staff.

The starting rotation at the end of the 1983 season featured Tom Seaver, Mike Torrez, Ed Lynch and two young pitchers who had been acquired from the Texas Rangers for fan-favorite Lee Mazzilli. Those two pitchers were Walt Terrell and Ron Darling.

Terrell was a hard luck pitcher for the Mets, starting 56 games in his three years with the team, but only winning 19 of them despite a 3.53 ERA. Darling, on the other hand, became a mainstay in the Mets' rotation for the remainder of the 1980s.

The Mets still needed starting pitchers once the 1984 season began. They fully expected Tom Seaver to be part of their 1984 rotation, but he was left unprotected in the free-agent compensation draft and was claimed by the Chicago White Sox. Also, Mike Torrez was reaching the end of his career. After making his major league debut during the same season that Seaver broke in (1967), Torrez lost a career-high 17 games in 1983. But he was still a Met in 1984, hanging on by a thread to his spot in the starting rotation.

The Mets filled one of their rotation spots with rookie phenom Dwight Gooden. They decided to go with another promising prospect, Tim Leary, to fill the role of fifth starter. That experiment ended in early May, after Leary faced 19 Reds batters and allowed 11 of them to reach base (six hits, five walks). A month later, Mike Torrez was released by the Mets, after going 1-5 with a 5.02 ERA in eight starts. That opened up a spot in the rotation, a spot that was filled by Sid Fernandez.

Sid Fernandez had been one of the Dodgers' top minor league prospects. In three minor league seasons from 1981-1983, El Sid went 32-11 and was virtually unhittable. In 60 starts, he struck out 560 batters in 401.2 innings, while allowing only 268 hits. After he was traded to the Mets prior to the 1984 season, he continued to confound batters at Tidewater, allowing only 69 hits in 105.2 innings over 17 starts. Soon after Torrez's release, the Mets called up Sid Fernandez and he was immediately inserted into the starting rotation, making his Mets debut on July 16, 1984.

Fernandez had an Amazin' start to his Mets career, winning his first three starts. He had a good, but not great, half season for the Mets in 1984, finishing the year with a 6-6 record and a 3.50 ERA. He also only struck out 62 batters and allowed 74 hits over 90 innings with the Mets. The dominant Sid Fernandez from the minor leagues had been reduced to a mediocre major league pitcher. That would not last very long.

Although Sid Fernandez finished the 1985 season with a 9-9 record, don't let his .500 winning percentage fool you. He was one of the most dominant pitchers in the major leagues that year. In 26 starts, spanning 170.1 innings, Sid struck out 180 batters. However, what was more incredible was the 108 hits he allowed.

Sid Fernandez gave up five hits or less in 21 of his 26 starts. Only once in those 26 starts did he give up more than four runs in a game, and when he did so against the Reds on July 22, he struck out 13 batters in the same game.

Unfortunately, the Mets wasted many of Sid's great performances in 1985, scoring three runs or less in half of his starts. Despite his lack of run support, Sid's mark of 5.7 hits per nine innings was the best in the major leagues in 1985. In fact, at the time, it was the sixth lowest mark in major league history, not much higher than Nolan Ryan's 5.3 H/9IP when he set the major league record in his first season with the Angels in 1972.

Sid Fernandez was here to stay in the big leagues. However, the Mets had fallen short in their quest to reach the postseason in 1984 and 1985. Fernandez needed to step up in a big way in 1986 if the Mets were finally going to play October baseball. He responded with his best season yet.

According to Davey Johnson, the Mets were not only going to win the division in 1986; they were going to dominate. One player who was particularly dominant in 1986 was Sid Fernandez. Prior to the All-Star Break, Sid was having a Cy Young Award-caliber season. In 16 starts leading up to the Midsummer Classic, Fernandez rolled to a 12-2 record and a 2.67 ERA. In 118 innings, he struck out 103 batters and gave up only 74 hits. Opposing batters hit only .180 against him. For his efforts, Sid was picked for the first time to represent the National League in the All-Star Game.

If Sid Fernandez wore #50 in honor of his home state of Hawaii, was he wearing #10 in this picture to honor his time at Tidewater? (Virginia was the 10th state to join the union.)

Sid Fernandez finished the 1986 season with a career-high 16 wins (against six losses) and 200 strikeouts. It was on to the NLCS against the Houston Astros, where Sid drew the unenviable task of facing the man with the right scuff, Mike Scott, in Game 4. Scott won his second game of the series against the Mets in Game 4, but Fernandez pitched very well for the Mets, allowing three runs on three hits in six innings of work. The Mets eventually won the NLCS in six games and moved on to the World Series against the Boston Red Sox. It was there that Sid Fernandez had perhaps the most important pitching performance of his career.

Despite his good outing in Game 4 of the NLCS, Sid was relegated to the bullpen for the World Series, as the Mets went to three starters (Ron Darling, Dwight Gooden, Bob Ojeda) against the Red Sox. His first World Series appearance did not go very well, as he faced four batters in Game 2 and gave up one run on three hits. However, the Red Sox already had a comfortable lead at the time, so Sid's performance did not affect the game's outcome.

In Game 5, Dwight Gooden started for the Mets and was hit hard, giving up four runs (three earned) on nine hits and two walks. The Mets were down 4-0 when Gooden was removed from the game for Sid Fernandez. Sid pitched the last four innings for the Mets (the Red Sox did not have to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning), allowing no runs on three hits. He struck out five batters and walked no one. His Game 5 performance did not lead the Mets to victory, as they lost 4-2, but did show that the dominant Sid Fernandez was back on top of his game, and that was most evident in the seventh and deciding game.

After the Mets rallied for three improbable runs in the bottom of the tenth inning of Game 6, it was on to Game 7. Because of a rainout, the game was pushed back from Sunday night to Monday night, allowing the Red Sox to scratch Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd from his start and replace him with Bruce Hurst, who had defeated the Mets in Game 1 and Game 5. The Mets responded with Ron Darling, who had pitched well in his Game 1 loss and his Game 4 victory. Game 7, however, was a different story.

Darling struggled early, giving up three runs on six hits in 3.2 innings. The key blows were back-to-back home runs by Dwight Evans and Rich Gedman to lead off the second inning. Darling hit Dave Henderson with a pitch to lead off the fourth inning. After Spike Owen flied out to right field, Henderson was then sacrificed to second by pitcher Bruce Hurst. That was all for Darling, as Davey Johnson replaced him with Sid Fernandez.

Fernandez walked Wade Boggs, but then retired Marty Barrett on a fly ball to right field to end the inning. The Mets were still down 3-0, but Fernandez was able to stop the bleeding. His next two innings gave the Mets all the confidence they needed to make one final comeback.

With the Mets still struggling at the plate against Bruce Hurst, Fernandez made sure that they would not have to come back from more than a three-run deficit. He pitched a perfect fifth inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced, then repeated the feat in the sixth inning. The Shea Stadium crowd was rejuvenated by Sid's electric performance. The electricity finally reached the Mets' bats in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Fueled by Sid Fernandez's yeoman-like effort, the Mets tied the game with three runs in the sixth inning. They followed that up with three more runs in the seventh inning and two insurance runs in the eighth inning. The offensive outburst led the Mets to an 8-5 victory and their first World Championship since 1969.

Although Sid was not credited with the victory for his performance (that honor went to Roger McDowell, who allowed the Red Sox to close to within a single run in the top of the eighth inning after the Mets had taken a 6-3 lead in the bottom of the seventh), it was his masterful work that set the stage for the Mets' comeback. Without Sid cauterizing the Mets' wounds with his blazing heater, the Red Sox might have been the ones to celebrate on the Shea Stadium field that night instead of the Mets.

Sid Fernandez had pitched the game of his life under the biggest spotlight. He did it just weeks after turning 24. Although Sid had his World Series ring, he still had the majority of his career ahead of him. What he did over the next seven seasons is what made him one of the best pitchers in Mets history.

Fernandez followed up his spectacular 1986 season with a solid year in 1987, winning 12 games against eight losses. After winning nine of his first 12 decisions, he was selected to his second All-Star Game. Then in late July, the injury bug that struck the Mets pitching staff all year found its way to Sid Fernandez. Sid missed nearly a month of action on the DL before returning to the team in late August. He went on to make seven more starts for the Mets in 1987, but was a shadow (albeit a large shadow) of his pre-injured self, compiling a 5.34 ERA after his return from the DL.

After his injury-plagued 1987 season, Sid went on to record one of the best prolonged stretches of excellence since Tom Seaver's first stint with the Mets. From 1988-1993, Sid pitched to the tune of a 2.98 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP. He led the league in winning percentage once (1989, when he finished with a 14-5 record) and was the league leader in fewest hits allowed per nine innings twice (1988, 1990). In fact, during the entire six-year period from 1988-1993, Sid Fernandez pitched 964 innings and allowed only 694 hits. Over those six years, Sid made 151 starts. That averages out to 4.6 hits allowed per start OVER A SIX YEAR PERIOD!

I've heard of guys pitching from the stretch, but this is ridiculous.

One of the reasons why this long stretch of dominance over National League batters has been overlooked was Sid's won-loss record over the period. From 1988-1993, Sid's record was only 55-49. In fact, if you take out his 1989 season, when he went 14-5, Sid actually had a losing record over the other five seasons (41-44).

Despite the mediocre record, Sid still finished his Mets career after the 1993 season with 98 victories, placing him fifth on the all-time list behind Tom Seaver (198 wins), Dwight Gooden (157 wins), Jerry Koosman (140 wins) and Ron Darling (99 wins). His victory total is also second on the all-time list for left-handed pitchers behind Koosman.

If you look at the Mets' career leaderboard, you will find Sid Fernandez's name everywhere. In addition to the wins, Sid finished in the top ten in ERA (10th, 3.14), WHIP (3rd, 1.11), H/9IP (2nd, 6.6), innings pitched (5th, 1584.2), strikeouts (4th, 1,449), games started (4th, 250) and shutouts (8th, 9).

Sid Fernandez was also one of the best Shea Stadium pitchers of all-time. In 124 games at Shea (123 starts), Sid was 58-31 with a 2.52 ERA and a WHIP of 1.00. He also struck out better than a batter per inning (825 Ks in 821.2 IP). In those 124 games at Shea Stadium, opposing batters hit only .182 against him (531 hits in those 821.2 IP). To beat Sid Fernandez at Shea Stadium, teams had to outpitch him because they surely weren't going to beat him with the bat.

When you think of the best Mets pitchers of all-time, the obvious names that stand out are Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden and Jerry Koosman. But given his overall numbers and his extended period of dominance against National League hitters, would it be unreasonable to suggest that Sid Fernandez is the fourth-best pitcher in franchise history? Without question, he is the second-best left-handed starting pitcher in Mets history after Jerry Koosman.

The Mets had Sid Fernandez on their team for ten seasons (1984-1993). His arrival coincided with the revival of the franchise and his departure occurred simultaneously with their return to the bottom of the National League East standings. During his decade at Shea, fans were treated to one of the best pitchers they'd ever see in a Mets uniform. Unfortunately, he was never the ace of the staff and was never treated like one. But he had an ace of a career, a career that is unquestionably one of the most underrated careers in franchise history.