Meet my Mets

In honor of the Mets giving David Wright an 8 year, 138 million extension, my favorite ten Mets of all time.

10. Carlos Beltran:

As a young player in Kansas City, Beltran did everything well.  What I found most impressive was that he never got caught stealing.  There was a while where he was the most successful base stealer, percentagewise,  in the history of the game.  The Mets got Beltran the old fashion way, offering him a trunk load of money.  While it is a little less fun to have your team just buy players on the open market, it was nice to see the Mets finally getting the superstar.

Like many people on this list, Beltran had an up and down tenure with the Mets.  He was great his first couple years, but struck out to end the Mets season in 2006 with a world series berth on the line. Wainwright's curveball floating past him will forever be seared in my mind.  Sadly, his knee went out after that, and the Mets and their medical staff were too incompetent to handle it.  He did get some redemption to his final season, bouncing back to have a vintage season minus some speed.  The Mets were able to turn him into a young fireballer, Zack Wheeler, at the trade deadline, who hopefully will make his own appearance here some day. 

9. R.A Dickey

Unlike Wright, Dickey won't be a Met for 8 years and possibly not even for 8 days.  Still if you throw the world's coolest pitch and name your bats after fantasy novels, you deserve a spot on the list.

Dickey's career has always been interesting.  He was drafted by the Rangers who cut his bonus by 90% after realizing he didn't actually have a ligament in his arm.  Being a convention pitcher didn't quite work out, so he learned to throw the knuckle ball.  It took him nearly a decade of bouncing around from team to team, but he finally mastered it with the Mets.  Dickey winning the cy young this year is about as cool as baseball gets.

8. Turk Wendall.

I don't like players who take the game too seriously, but I love the ones who take their lack of seriousness  seriously.  Wendall hopped over baselines to get to the mound to avoid bad luck.  He wore the number 99 and signed a contract for $9,999,999.99, and would have played the final year for 99 cents if the player union would have allowed it.   He is also is the only person on the list that I've Met and have an autograph from.  He showed me how to throw a curveball.

7. David Cone

I was four the last time the Mets won the world series, and can't say I remember it.  My first memory is of the '88 team when  losing to a heavily underdog Dodgers squad*.  I'm not sure why David Cone became my first favorite Met.  It may have been his dominance as he went 20-3 that year.  Perhaps, I just associated his name with ice cream.  The mind of a 6 year old works in mysterious ways.  

*This should have been a warning sign.

6. Johan Santana

Omar Minaya was a terrible gm, but his persistence occasionally paid off.  He traded for Santana, a pitcher who gone from a freely available rule 5 draft pick to the best pitcher in the game, without giving up anything of value.  Santana was a good for a while, but blew out his shoulder and missed over a year rehabbing.  He came back last year though  and did something the Mets failed to do in their first 8,000 tries.

Along with the "miracle Mets", and "ya gotta believe", having never thrown a no-hitter has always been a part of Mets lore.  Sure they had plenty of great pitchers, but they all through no-hitters after leaving the team.  I wanted to see the streak end, but it needed to be style.  Watching on the mlb network as Santana*, having  battled back from a career threatening injury, no hit the cardinals, was a more than worthy epitaph.  It was also reminder that even if my passion occasionally wanes when the Mets struggle, it will always come back in time.     

*Along with his manager, Terry Collins, have a nervous breakdown about running up his pitch count  

5. Mike Piazza

I was walking home from the park when a kid told me the news.  It couldn't be true, could it?  Another kid confirmed it, but I didn't fully believe.  I ran home and turned on the WFAN, the way I got my news in those pre-internet days.  Mike Piazza had been dealt to the Mets.  They picked up one of my favorite players, a star in his prime.  A 62nd draft pick who had become the best hitting catcher in the history of the game.  The Mets were a contender now.  I don't think I've ever been more excited about a transaction.

Piazza was never quite as good as when he was a Dodger, but there were plenty of great moments.  The Mets got back to the world series. He hit a key home-run in the best game I've been to in person, a back and forth win against the Yankees when interleague play still had its novelty.  He had a 3 run shot to cap a huge rally against the Braves, and hit the first home-run in NY after 9/11.   All in all it was 105 million well spent.

4. Bobby Jones

There was a while where the Mets were not a very good at baseball.  Okay fine, a horrific train wreck of suckitude.  Besides being terrible, the team was old, expensive and unlikable.  Bobby Jones gave me someone to root for.  Someone who always won more than he lost, no matter how bad his teammates were.   Other than his rookie season, he never lost more games than he won for the Mets.  When he finally pitched in the playoffs in 2000, well past his sell by date, he threw a magnificent one hit shutout.

 

Now as it turns out if you look Jones up on baseball reference, he was never actually that good.  He was helped by a great pitching park, run support, and good luck.  He had a short and unimpressive peak.   But why would you trust baseball reference over my memory of his glory days?        

3. Jose Reyes

There is nothing complicated about liking Reyes; he is just fun to watch.  He  flies around the bases and the field, and always seems like he is having a blast.  It was a shame he went to the Marlins, but one can't really blame him given the Mets lack of effort to retain him.  I was hoping that there could be a reunion after the Marlins had their next fire sale, but sadly that implosion happened even faster this time around.  Still, I can look forward to running circles around the Yankees 19 times a year for the foreseeable future.   

2. Jeff Kent

I always was a bit of a contrarian growing up, which made Kent was my type of player.  Kent never quite fit in;  he said what was on his mind and did things his way.  He was a good player, but took a lot of blame for a team with a myriad of issues.  I was an overnight trip with camp Apollo when the deal sending him to Cleveland finally happened.   Kent went on to have a borderline hall of fame career, while the players the Mets got quickly imploded.   I was pleased that the Mets ended up getting that one dead wrong.        

1. David Wright

If you are building the perfect franchise player, Wright would be a good model.  He has been a Mets fan all his life, growing up near their triple A team.  He is likeable, humble, charitable, and a model citizen.  He is a five tool player, able to hit, field, run, and throw.   He wants to remain a Met for life, and proved it by signing an extension through 2020 last week.

 

The last six years have been terrible for Mets fans.  The next eight may not be much better, but at least they will have Wright.