RIP Andy Hassler 1951-2019

[stevejrogers]

https://www.legacy.com/amp/obituaries/azcentral/194894214https://www.legacy.com/amp/obituaries/azcentral/194894214

[G-Fafif]

Co-star of the 1979 trade deadline. The Mets picked up Dock Ellis from Texas, Andy Hassler from Boston. It didn't change much, despite a guy working a Nassau Beach snack bar counter in Lido who saw my Superstripe Mets cap and excitedly told me that thanks to these two moves, the Mets are gonna be good in five years. Well, he was sort of right.



Hassler started 8 games as a Met and saved 4. Only two Mets pitchers have been that kind of starter and closer in the same season since then: Anthony Young in 1992 and Hisanori Takahashi in 2010.

[Edgy MD]

Wow, sorry to hear that.



Hassler was a decent lefty swingman for a team that pitched effectively but fielded a terrible offense in what had to have been the darkest year of the Grant's Tomb era.



He pitched for five years after that, finishing his career pitching at the start of the 1985 season for Whitey Herzog's Cardinals, presumably getting some post-season money. He appeared in the first two games of the season against the Mets, both of which the Mets won. He was the St. Louis pitcher before Neil Allen, who would ultimately lose the game on Gary Carter's extra inning homer.



If you were there, you won't have any trouble remembering how cold it was.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I was there.



I remember how cold it was.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Hassler had also recently come off a beaning that hospitalized Mike Jorgensen when he joined the Mets.



baseball-reference lists Hassler as having worn uni #50 in '79 (in addition to the number I remember #44). Anyone?

[Edgy MD]

I think he was 44 until handing it off to Jeff Reardon the next year.



I don't remember 50, but I think he debuted during a road trip (Houston?), and that often led to some goofy temporary numbers back in the seventies.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Yes it would almost have to be the first appearance in Houston but no mention in the Snooze archives of any number.



I did see where in addition to knocking out Jorgensen, Hassler foul-bunted in St. Louis, breaking Ted Simmons' wrist. He was a wrecking crew

[Edgy MD]

Nineteen-seventy-nine was such a downmarket year for the Mets, by mid-season, some local papers were getting their road trip stories from wire reports or local stringers. Its probably going to be pretty hard to find photo evidence of Hassler's debut.