Where Are They Now?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Inspired by Greg's masterful update of the 1999 Mets (or 2000? I forget), I thought --- apart from the updates of the Brogna thread, we could get a file going with a one-two sentence update of where Mets are now. Sound crazy? Yeah, it frankly does, but we've got time, and we've got personnel.

So pick up this where the previous guy left off. (It'd be fun to do it chronologically, but I don't want to wrangle over the exact order, wo I'm starting alphabeticall in 1962). Try and be brief but definitive. And don't go nuts and try to take over. Collaboration is the idea.

Craig Anderson: Retired coach and administrator at Lehigh University, last seen touring the country in an RV with his wife.

Richie Ashburn: Died 9/9/1997 (70) in New York City of a heart attack the morning after calling a Phillies-Mets game.

Gus Bell: Died 5/7/1995 (66) in Montgomery, OH of a heart attack. He was the patriarch of a three-generation baseball dynasty, and lives on in the Annual Gus Bell Memorial Golf Tournament, benefiting theDown Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati.

Ed Bouchee: Retired manger of Adelco in (the disastrously mispronounced) Des Plaines, IL where he had worked since leaving baseball in 1963. Last known to be residing in Gilbert, AZ.

Chris Cannizzaro: Director of Baseball Operations for the University of San Diego, which sounds like it makes him Tony Gwynn's boss, but (on edit) Gwynn's at San Diego State


Elio Chacon
Harry Chiti
Joe Christopher
Galen Cisco
Choo Choo Coleman

Cliff Cook
Roger Craig
Ray Daviault
John DeMerit
Sammy Drake

Larry Foss
Joe Ginsberg
Rick Herrscher
Jim Hickman
Dave Hillman

Gil Hodges
Jay Hook
Willard Hunter
Al Jackson
Sherman Jones

Rod Kanehl
Ed Kranepool
Clem Labine
Hobie Landrith
Ken MacKenzie

Felix Mantilla
Jim Marshall
Bob Miller
Bob Miller
Vinegar Bend Mizell

Herb Moford
Bob Moorhead
Charlie Neal
Joe Pignatano
Bobby Gene Smith

Sammy Taylor
Frank Thomas
Marv Throneberry
Gene Woodling
Don Zimmer

[HahnSolo]

Gwynn's at San Diego State, diff. university than ole Canzoneri.

I could try and tackle some of the others tomorrow.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I always thought this song (my friend's band did it) shoulda been a hit. Maybe it needs a "middle 8" or something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baVo4x_DvY0

Elio Chacon
Died in his native Venezuela in 1992 at age 55. I have no idea what he did after baseball.

Harry Chiti
Like Elio Chacon, remembered for dubious achievement with the 62 Mets. Died in 2002 at age 69. I have no idea what he did after baseball.

Joe Christopher
Operated a baseball school in native Virgin Islands before returning to the United States, to Baltimore, where he was a freelance artist and painter.

Galen Cisco
Resides in Celina, Ohio. His grandson, Mike Cisco, was drafted in the 2008 amateur draft. His sons, Jeff Cisco and Galen Cisco, Jr. also played in the minors.

Mike Cisco, RHP, is ranked as the Phillies' 20th best prospect by some blog and he's currently assigned to AA Reading.

Choo Choo Coleman
Like Chiti and Chacon. Sax player for Bruce Springsteen. No, I have no idea. Where do I find this?

[G-Fafif]

Inspired by Greg's masterful update of the 1999 Mets (or 2000? I forget)

It was 2000, and it was Steve, with help from the 2010 yearbook.

[Benjamin Grimm]

How flattered are you to be confused with Steve Rogers?

[G-Fafif]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: How flattered are you to be confused with Steve Rogers?

Clearly I'm moving up in the world.

[G-Fafif]

I do believe I brought this up after reading it, but I highly recommend in light of this discussion, The Amazin' Mets, 1962-1969 by Bill Ryczek, covering with welcome depth the composition of the post-Original, pre-Miracle Mets (though those teams are included as well). Included are studies of the remarkable intellectual strength of the '62 pitching staff, the resurrection of Duke Snider, what it was really like to play for Casey Stengel, the forgotten youth movements, the improvement and inevitable fallback of the Wes Westrum Mets, visits with the likes of Don Bosch, Bill Denehy and Joe Christopher and the Yogi Berra/Warren Spahn interludes. A lot of stories I'd never read before, well beyond the myths we know.

Ryczek also wrote the definitive portrait of the early Jets, Crash of the Titans, recently updated.

[seawolf17]

I'll second the call on the Ryczek book. Really, really enjoyable.

[G-Fafif]

Cliff Cook
Doing fine in Texas, according to daughter Sharon on UMDB (2008). Worked in a sporting goods store in Arlington in the early '90s. Not a baseball coach in Ohio, though there's a Cliff Cook who's done that.

Roger Craig
The man who taught Mike Scott's pitches to dance and later manager of the '89 pennant-winning Giants. Last managed in 1992. Turned 80 in February.

Ray Daviault
Coached junior league ball in Montreal (UMDB). A FAFIF post regarding literal Rays and Phils who were Mets during the 2008 World Series elicited a note from a big fan of Mr. Daviault. I met the guy (the fan, not Ray) at a reading this winter. Ray did grace a 2005 meeting of SABR's Quebec chapter where he shared "his catalogue of stories" from the '62 Mets. "He has only the fondest memories of that one season in the major leagues when the Mets brought new meaning to words like mediocrity. Well he remembers his own record (1-6; 6.22 ERA), the batters who had his number, and his one big league hit.

John DeMerit
Perfect member of a team that gathered 120 demerits. Retired from the Port Washington, Wisc. Parks and Recreation Department (per Janet Paskin, Tales From the 1962 New York Mets, published 2004). Told Ryczek he didn't think the Original Mets would be THAT bad, except "the people who were old got older." He also remembered many of the players didn't care for the host of the Mets' pre- and postgame radio show, an overbearing fellow named Howard Cosell.

Sammy Drake
Passed away January 27, 2010. Taught Sunday school at his brother Solly's (ex-MLBer) church in Los Angeles. Was one of five Mets to have played in the Negro League (singular by the time they came along)

[Theoldmole]

Ordered the Bill Ryczek book.

[ashie62]

Clem Labine died in 2007 one week after exploratory brain surgery. He had been employed by the Finkelstein Sporting Goods company

Vinegar Bend Mizell had a heart attack in 1998 which contributed to his death in 1999. Vinegar had been working in the Dept. of Agriculture in the Reagan Administration.

[Met Hunter]

Incidentally, Craig Anderson sold the RV after traveling the US for three years with his wife, and bought a retirement home in Dunnellon, FL, where he lives today. Occasionally helps out the pitchers at the local HS.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Way to go.