Thirty years ago

[Guest Edgy DC]

Mets fire Joe Frazier.
Mets appoint Joe Torre.

[Willets Point]

Thus Frazier went into training for a rematch against Ali.

[Guest sharpie]

Frazier also had time to go see that new Star Wars movie.

[metirish]

Got the quick hook did Frazier....

[Guest Kid Carsey]

And as was often the case with the bumbling Mets, they got Torre before
he went to genius school.

Wasn't Torre a player/coach before being hired as manager or am I mixing
memories up?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Torre went from player to player/manager without stepping in as coach. He played (mostly off the bench) for two months or so, but retired as a player before the end of the year.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

All the poison in the org had completely overwhelmed Frazier. He wasn't big enough to stand between Grant & the Seaver/Kingman malcontent axis. I don't think he wanted to. He was kind of like Art Howe getting run over by the Wilpons on one side and the Piazza/Zambrano controversies on the other.

Hiring a veteran teammate of those unhappy players was an attempt to calm the waters and stifle discontent, I think. But they axed their asses anyway and left Torre with almost nobody to manage for the rest of the way.

[Benjamin Grimm]

"Joe" is still the only name to be had by more than one Mets manager.

[stevejrogers]

Edgy DC wrote: Torre went from player to player/manager without stepping in as coach. He played (mostly off the bench) for two months or so, but retired as a player before the end of the year.

The official transaction was a waiver to give him his unconditional release on June 18th. Heh, I wonder what would have happened if someone thought they'd could use an over-the-hill corner infielder for some PH/DH duty and tried to contact him since technically he wasn't "retired"

[Guest Edgy DC]

Johnny Dickshot wrote: All the poison in the org had completely overwhelmed Frazier. He wasn't big enough to stand between Grant & the Seaver/Kingman malcontent axis. I don't think he wanted to. He was kind of like Art Howe getting run over by the Wilpons on one side and the Piazza/Zambrano controversies on the other. Hiring a veteran teammate of those unhappy players was an attempt to calm the waters and stifle discontent, I think. But they axed their asses anyway and left Torre with almost nobody to manage for the rest of the way.

Good view. The sad difference being that this was Frazier's first and last shot.

I guess he, Johnson, and Valentin are the three Met managers promoted from AAA. The other two worked out.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Know what makes me sad about Frazier? He was so doomed from the start that he was the only manager --- excepting interims Parker, McMillan, and Howard --- who didn't take the manager's perogative to wear a number outside of the coach's purgatory of the fifties. He was like an interim in spirit if not in name.

Randolph 12
Howe 18
Valentine 2
Green 46
Torborg 10
Cubbage 4
Harrelson 3
Johnson 5
Howard 55
Bamberger 31
Torre 9
Frazier 55
McMillan 51
Berra 8
Hodges 14
Parker 54
Westrum 9
Stengel 37