They Never Made it to May

[G-Fafif]

We worry incessantly over who will make the team coming out of March, as if that's the roster we'll have for the rest of the year and the rest of our lives. Player personnel matters, however, often prove immediately transient.

Which begged the following question (for me, anyway): which Mets played last their last Met games in April? The concept is a bit of a downer for the player in question, I would think...unless they went to a better team right away (which has been known to happen).

I checked, and found there are 39 to date, including 16 who were holdovers from the previous year or returnees from previous seasons and 23 whose entire Met career boiled down to their April experience.

You can read all about them here. You can see who they are below (dates signify final Met appearance):

Mets With Previous Met Experience Who Played Their Last Met Game in April
Larry Burright 04/18/1964
Choo Choo Coleman 04/23/1966
Ralph Terry 04/22/1967
Ray Sadecki 04/23/1977
Tim Foli 04/18/1979
Mike Howard 04/05/1983
Ed Lynch 04/12/1986
Lou Thornton 04/24/1990
Andy Tomberlin 04/09/1997
Kevin Elster 04/12/1992
Bruce Chen 04/04/2002
Pete Walker 04/20/2002
Grant Roberts 04/18/2004
Victor Diaz 04/30/2006
Brady Clark 04/22/2008
Marlon Anderson 04/10/2009
Mike Jacobs 04/17/2010

Mets Whose Met Careers Took Place in a Single April
Joe Ginsberg 04/15/1962
Clem Labine 04/24/1962
Bobby Gene Smith 04/24/1962
Herb Moford 04/29/1962
Bart Shirley 04/29/1967
Rich Chiles 04/24/1973
Mac Scarce 04/11/1975
Luis Alvarado 04/13/1977
Ken Henderson 04/12/1978
Rick Sweet 04/29/1982
Mike Bishop 04/24/1983
Jonathan Hurst 04/21/1994
Dennis Springer 04/26/2000
Brian Rose 04/20/2001
Brett Hinchliffe 04/26/2001
McKay Christensen 04/07/2002
Felix Heredia 04/18/2005
Mike Matthews 04/24/2005
Chan Ho Park 04/30/2007
Gustavo Molina 04/30/2008
Darren O'Day 04/16/2009
Casey Fossum 04/26/2009

Edited to reflect Gary Matthews, Jr. making it to May 2010 and Mike Jacobs not doing so.

[metirish]

Gary Matthews I guess has a shot at doing this twice.

good work Greg.

[G-Fafif]

metirish wrote: Gary Matthews I guess has a shot at doing this twice.

Indeed, GMJ has a shot at moving off this list and moving onto the Recidivist Met list. Or he could be traded before April 5. He's getting very trivial on us.

[metirish]

G-Fafif wrote: metirish wrote: Gary Matthews I guess has a shot at doing this twice. Indeed, GMJ has a shot at moving off this list and moving onto the Recidivist Met list. Or he could be traded before April 5. He's getting very trivial on us.

Trivia might well be his best contribution to the Mets.

[Benjamin Grimm]

You know Greg, in the future I can save you a lot of time if you run this stuff by me in advance. I could have generated the April-endings list for you in a matter of minutes. Of course, that's minutes of effort on my part, not in elapsed time from when you make the request to when I get a chance to tickle my database.

Also, I suspect that you may enjoy doing the digging yourself, which I fully understand.

Anyway, my point is that you can feel free to send special requests my way. I may not always be able to help in a timely manner, but I'm willing to do what I can.

[Benjamin Grimm]

metirish wrote: Trivia might well be his best contribution to the Mets.

Maybe. But who knows? Maybe there's a Todd Pratt-style home run in his future.

[G-Fafif]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: You know Greg, in the future I can save you a lot of time if you run this stuff by me in advance. I could have generated the April-endings list for you in a matter of minutes. Of course, that's minutes of effort on my part, not in elapsed time from when you make the request to when I get a chance to tickle my database. Also, I suspect that you may enjoy doing the digging yourself, which I fully understand. Anyway, my point is that you can feel free to send special requests my way. I may not always be able to help in a timely manner, but I'm willing to do what I can.

Actually, BG, you helped me more than you know (or hindered me terribly in my development as a human being who might have other things to think about) when you shared your spreadsheet on births, first games and last games here a few years ago. I saved it and have continued to update it. I appreciate the offer, however, and will keep it in mind for future Met categorization.

[metirish]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: metirish wrote: Trivia might well be his best contribution to the Mets. Maybe. But who knows? Maybe there's a Todd Pratt-style home run in his future.

That would be great , in a similar situation wold be even better.

[G-Fafif]

And by Todd Pratt-style home run, I assume you don't mean jogging to first and watching the ball instead of running hard all the way in case there was a bounce off the wall or something.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I mean the walkoff kind that ends a post-season series.

[G-Fafif]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I mean the walkoff kind that ends a post-season series.

Oh yeah. That would be fine.

[ashie62]

I always liked Ken Henderson's 1967 Topps Baseball Card.

There will be several new candidates for the list on opening day.

Jeez, this could almost become a dead pool

[G-Fafif]

Jacobs added to this list. Matthews since taken off. GMJ's last Mets game was June 2, 2010, pretty good (so to speak) considering his first term ended on April 3, 2009 and lasted two games.