RIP Johnny Lewis (1939-2018)

[G-Fafif]

Gary Cohen announced yesterday (as did the Cardinal broadcast) that Johnny Lewis died Sunday at age 78. Johnny carved a piece of Mets lore for himself by homering off Jim Maloney in the eleventh inning on June 14, 1965, breaking up a no-hitter. Maloney would complete the game with 18 strikeouts. Lewis completed it with the game-winning RBI as the Mets improbably prevailed, 1-0. Johnny went deep 15 times for the 1965 Mets and socked five more in '66. 1967 would be his last year with the club and in the majors.

[Edgy MD]

Probably the top player on the 1965 Mets. And maybe the hardest-to-guess top player for any Mets team.

[batmagadanleadoff]

[fimg=444:33e213ax]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2A73AP-hGEo/TzhZ72YZ52I/AAAAAAAAD3M/PfjBNk7BnfM/s320/1967%2BJohnny%2BLewis%2B%2528r%2529.jpg[/fimg:33e213ax]

[G-Fafif]

Worth noting that on the day Lewis died, the Mets won by a score of 1-0 for the first time in more than two years. Their previous 1-0 victory was won on the road in extra innings on the strength of a home run (Kelly Johnson's), only the third time in Mets history they had accomplished such a feat. The time before that came in 1985, the Darryl Strawberry home run off the clock game in St. Louis. And the time before that? The Johnny Lewis-Jim Maloney game.

[G-Fafif]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: [fimg=444]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2A73AP-hGEo/TzhZ72YZ52I/AAAAAAAAD3M/PfjBNk7BnfM/s320/1967%2BJohnny%2BLewis%2B%2528r%2529.jpg[/fimg]

The likeness of Lewis in the upper right belies the listed weight...which is fairly close to that 1966 New York batting average.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Edgy MD wrote: Probably the top player on the 1965 Mets. And maybe the hardest-to-guess top player for any Mets team.

You could look it up! Barely, the '65 Rankings thread has issues...

Frayed Knot wrote: It started with the original JA/Iubital list which had some questions about it but either never any resolution to them or else it was lost over time. Among objections were the lack of pitchers up top as well as Frank Lary being left off entirely. 30 J. Lewis 29 R. Swoboda 28 J. Hickman 27 E. Kranepool 26 C. Smith 25 R. McMillan 24 J. Christopher 23 J. Fisher 22 A. Jackson 21 C. Hiller

[batmagadanleadoff]

Keith Hernandez had some very nice words for Lewis during yesterday's broadcast. Lewis worked in the Cards system as an instructor when Keith was coming up, and was extremely kind to Keith, according to Keith.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Guest

[batmagadanleadoff]

Lewis also suffered a terrible tragedy as a young player with the Cards when he lost his wife in a car accident.

[Guest d'Kong76]

I quoted the wrong post, but Johnny is still No. 1...

Frayed Knot wrote: I didn't expect this one to get a whole lot of attention, but it was re-opened to discussion when some discrepancies jumped up about the original order due to lost data. Based on the info we did save, the list looks like: 30 - Lewis 29 - Swoboda 28 - Smith 27 - Fisher 26 - Kranepool 25 - Hickman 24 - McMillan 23 - Christopher 22 - Jackson 21 - McGraw

[MFS62]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Lewis also suffered a terrible tragedy as a young player with the Cards when he lost his wife in a car accident.

Yes. I remember that announcers were always mentioning that Johnny was a widower, as though they were the first to tell us.

RIP, Johnny.

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