Your biggest Met blind spot?

[roger_that]

Specifically, who is the Met with the best (Metly or non-Metly) career whose time with the Mets you barely remember?



It might be because you weren't born yet, of course, but it might also be because it occurred when you weren't following the team as closely as in other seasons, or just because the team was really bad and you're glad to draw a blank, or for some other idiosyncratic reason.



For me, it's Eddie Murray. I remember the Mets getting him, and the hype surrounding him, but basically he was gone before I got to see him play. Or maybe I did, and it didn't register on me. He's a HoFer, and he put up some decent Murray-like numbers, but as far as I'm concerned he was never a Met.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Once I started paying attention to the Mets, in 1971, I never really stopped, so I'll have to go with one of the before-my-time guys. Put me down for Ron Swoboda.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I basically missed the whole Darryl Boston Era

[MFS62]

Mine is Bernard Gilkey.

My main memory of him is in the movie Men in Black and I forget that really good RBI year.



Interesting question.



Later

[cal sharpie]

For me it is the time I was living in California, 1972-1983 so the Milner/Matlack/Mazzilli Mets passed me by.

[metirish]

Michael Cuddyer if he wasn't Wright's best friend and all that surround that I wouldn't remember him, had a good career though

[batmagadanleadoff]

cal sharpie wrote: For me it is the time I was living in California, 1972-1983 so the Milner/Matlack/Mazzilli Mets passed me by.

Those weren't the Milner years. Those were the prime Seaver years. Cy Young in '73. Cy Young in '75. Deserved the Cy Young in '76. Deserved to be runner-up Cy Young in '77 (half a Met, though).

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

=roger_that post_id=185874 time=1740410049 user_id=128]
Specifically, who is the Met with the best (Metly or non-Metly) career whose time with the Mets you barely remember?



It might be because you weren't born yet, of course, but it might also be because it occurred when you weren't following the team as closely as in other seasons, or just because the team was really bad and you're glad to draw a blank, or for some other idiosyncratic reason.



For me, it's Eddie Murray. I remember the Mets getting him, and the hype surrounding him, but basically he was gone before I got to see him play. Or maybe I did, and it didn't register on me. He's a HoFer, and he put up some decent Murray-like numbers, but as far as I'm concerned he was never a Met.

[whippoorwill]

Billy Wagner.



Apparently he was quite good but those Mets years went under my radar, despite my dads best efforts.



Wrote down the TV schedule for me each week, etc.



I honestly have no recollection of Billy.

[Edgy MD]

John Mitchell started 19 games for the championship-defending 1987 Mets, as well as one more for the championship-winning 1986 Mets.



He was still hanging around as late as 1989, but I wouldn't know him if he came up to me on an airplane and sat on my lap.

[Benjamin Grimm]

He did that to me once. Spilled my Coke Zero all over my lap. Pissed the hell out of me. I said, "Hey, John Mitchell of the 1987 Mets! Find your own seat!"

[Methead]

I was fortunate enough to be in college from 91 to 96 so I was paying less attention to whatever happened in those years

[Lefty Specialist]

Bret Saberhagen and Mike Marshall for me. The early '90's were tough.



I have a long-standing superstition- if the Mets lose 3 in a row, I will not watch the next game until they win. Missed about half the '93 season.

[Gwreck]

I think I once wrote a CPF song parody about not being able to remember Doc Edwards, bench coach in 1990-1991.

[Centerfield]

=Methead post_id=185920 time=1740433747 user_id=61]
I was fortunate enough to be in college from 91 to 96 so I was paying less attention to whatever happened in those years

[Cowtipper]

I started following the Mets in 1999.



The whole 2017-2020 stretch is a bit of a blur. Amed Rosario was the primary shortstop in 2018 and 2019? He played over 150 games both times?! He had 616 ABs in 2019? Who knew?



It's weird, because I was actually following the team during that era, but I must have just been watching fewer games (though I know I was at least still watching highlights online). But I know I was actually following the team during that run because when I see clips and videos online from that time, it's like, oh yeah, I remember that. For whatever reason, that run just didn't burrow itself in my brain very deeply.



Then, for whatever reason, in 2021 I became fully re-engaged and I actually have an attachment to that, and each subsequent, season. 2023 still feels like it was yesterday.

[Chad ochoseis]

I remember Lee Mazzilli, and I remember he was traded to Texas after not becoming the superstar he was supposed to become, and I remember that turned out to be a pretty good deal.



He was such a big part of those bad late 70s teams, though. It's too bad he never played for us again, particularly during that period from 1986 through 1988 when the Mets were really good.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Mazzilli returned to the Mets during the 1986 season and won a ring that year.

[Chad ochoseis]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Mazzilli returned to the Mets during the 1986 season and won a ring that year.

That was my point...

[Fman99]

I really paid no mind to baseball from the time I left home for college in 1991 until moving up to Watertown and getting my first job in the fall of 96.



So, Jeff Kent and his nearly 2000 (!) plate appearances as a Met? Not one scrap of that in my brain. By the time I started paying attention he was good, and gone

[batmagadanleadoff]

I totally missed the Brian Ostrosser era. What probably happened was that with a Mets lead comfortably in hand, I switched channels to watch a sneak preview of The Girl with Something Extra. And there went Ostrosser.

[Benjamin Grimm]

=Gwreck post_id=185931 time=1740440470 user_id=56]
I think I once wrote a CPF song parody about not being able to remember Doc Edwards, bench coach in 1990-1991.

[MFS62]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: he was small and had a giant walkie-talkie tucked into [CROSSOUT]the back of[/CROSSOUT] his pants.

(Channeling Fmann on his birthday)

Maybe he was just happy to see you.



Later

[RealityChuck]

I stopped following the Mets in the 90s. The local newspaper only had AP stories, and the TV stations favored the MFYs. I got back into it in 1999 with the Internet, but from about 1990-1998, I didn't pay much attention.

[Benjamin Grimm]

You missed some bad-to-mediocre seasons!

[Frayed Knot]

I missed most or all of the Gary Mathews Jr. hours as a Met.

[Edgy MD]

Dude was an Opening Day starter! How do you sit out Opening Day?!

[Centerfield]

Some trends.



*A lot of us lost touch with the Mets when we went away to college, or moved away from NYC. A lot of us didn't have cable during that time. I wonder if kids these days will have gaps like that. Most follow on the internet. And the internet is everywhere.



*We lose touch with the Mets when we're chasing girls. Then we settle down. Get married. Then come back to the Mets.

[Edgy MD]

I was fortunate to go to school within the New York Mets broadcast area. And, I would guess, was pretty fortunate to have survived school while following the Mets.



That said, your theory dovetails with my experience, as the guy who I noted above as somebody I missed was from my college years.

[whippoorwill]

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Edited February 25, 2025 by Guest