The New York Mets celebrate their 50th anniversary this year.
Their face of the franchise over their first 50 years in existence is their mascot, Mr Met. This is said not to be cutting to the Mets, more so to illustrate Mets shortcomings of offensive players through their years. Until last year, they'd never had a batting championship and Jose Reyes even managed to remove a little of the shine off of that.
They are one of five current franchises never to have had a Most Valuable Player award. The longest lasting franchise never to have had a MVP. The others being the Rays, Diamondbacks, Marlins, and Nationals.
Their All-Time hits leader is Ed Kranepool. A player whose lifetime average was .261
The Mets have become a depot for hitters. A place where hitters spend part of their careers, hardly ever, all. It is the sole reason Kranepool is there all-time hits leader. Kranepool amassed over 1,800 games with the Mets. No other hitter has come within 500 games of that figure.
Two players in Mets history have achieved a .300 average while with the club. John Olerud and David Wright. Most likely, Wright loses that distinction this year.
For all of the misses the Mets have had on the hitting side, some of baseball's greats have been found on the mound.
Tom Seaver leads the way here. He is the only Mets player in the Hall of Fame who did the bulk of his work for the Mets. Seaver has most of the Mets records for pitchers. He won 198 games and had a 2.57 ERA for the Metropolitans.
Other pitching greats include Doc Gooden, Jerry Koosman, Ron Darling, Al Leiter, Sid Fernandez, David Cone, and Jon Matlack.
The Mets won two World Series. Each, a surprise to most fans, even their own. The 1969 Mets and the 1986 Mets were both led by their pitching charges.
In '69, the 'Miracle Mets beat the mighty Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. The Orioles were loaded. They had Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, and Boog Powell in the middle of their lineup. They had Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, and Mike Cuellar starting and winning 63 games that year.
Mets pitching dominated the series though, and another David trounced another Goliath.
The '86 Mets are remembered more for a player on another team than the players on their own team. Bill Buckner has had the highlight of his boot at first base aired more times on tv than any baseball error in history. It opened the flood gates for the Mets to win their second Championship.
The Red Sox and some national press would blame the loss on the 'Curse of the Bambino'. Although Ruth mentioned that the Red Sox would be sorry for trading him, the 'Curse of the Bambino' phrase was not born till after this Series.
The Mets could have their first Hall of Fame player as early as next year donning a Mets cap in Mike Piazza.
The Mets franchise though, is littered with 'what could have been's.
Dave Magadan and Gregg Jefferies were star players in the making, that never really made it. Daryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden were stars that blew out their own candle. They've had flashes of brilliance from Howard Johnson, Cleon Jones, Tommie Agee, and Ron Swoboda.
Yes, the Mets celebrate their 50th anniversary this year. For their fans, it has been a roller coaster ride. The current Mets are a mess. They lost their best player without compensation last year in Jose Reyes. Their best hitter this year, David Wright, may not end the year with the club, leaving them with two brittle, overpaid veterans leading the club in Johan Santana and Jason Bay.
The Mets are similar to the Dodgers of last year. Money problems at the top abound and a change of Management is needed in the way of new ownership.
In 1962, the Mets opened their franchise by losing 120 of their 162 games.
In many ways, the current team resembles the Mets teams of the early 60's. If trading Wright, they have no leader, or even a direction. The biggest off season news hasn't involved their players. It is the moving in of some fences at Citi Field.
Mets fans always have hope though. In the 60's they had the worse teams in history, only to end the decade with a Championship. They'll be hoping for history to repeat itself in the 2010's.
A couple of notes in getting some of this information together...
Ed Kranepool was 17 years old when he debuted with the Mets in 1962.
Although the Mets players have never won a Most Valuable player award, they are not the franchise with the longest drought.
The Cleveland Indians have not had a player win an MVP since Al Rosen won the award in 1953.
