G-Fafif

Davey Johnson's Mets didn't win the World Series until this guy arrived. And it all went downhill when he sustained his first major injury while playing for the worst team money could buy. The game, reported below, would be his last as a Met. The Mets activated August-injured Willie Randolph so he could play one final game on Closing Day 1992. They extended Mags no such courtesy, as noted in Worst Team: [H]is tenure with the club would clearly come to an end by September. That's when Magadan reported that his wrist had healed, but he was sitting at home alone in Tampa because the Mets never bothered to call. In fact, when a reporter informed Al Harazin of Magadan's recovery, the GM, eating lunch in the dining room at Wrigley, looked up from his plate and said simply, "Is that right?" Magadan knew then that there'd be no returning to the Mets in 1993. He doubted they'd even offer him a contract or pursue him as a free agent. And he was right: When Magadan signed a two-year deal in December with the Florida Marlins worth $1.4 million, he walked away from the Mets without ever having received a phone call. It was an inglorious end to a career that never was. As Magadan put it, "I never did have the success with the Mets I imagined I would. I always thought I'd have a longer, better career in New York than that." I was certain he'd come back and get a big hit off the Met bench by 2000, but he never did.

Johnny Logan, shortstop on the world champion Milwaukee Braves of 1957, at 86. He drew an affectionate writeup in David Lamb's Stolen Season: He sat among a group of stoic scouts, who said not a word, and yelled encouragement to the Brewers. I asked him if he was going on the Braves' reunion cruise to the Caribbean in the fall. "I talked to Pafko and a couple of the guys about it," he said. "You know what happens? Mathews, Aaron, Spahn, they go for free. And the rest of us got to pay. What an insult. You think I'm going? Hell, no. It was true. Logan had not been among the titans on the Braves and his value on the baseball-card circuit -- the measure of a retired player's worth in today's marketplace -- was only five hundred dollars per appearance [...] But Logan had played so beautifully. He had the heart of a lion and for a while there was no finer shortstop in the National League. He was the Brave you wanted at the plate with the game on the line, the infielder you prayed Snider or Kluszewski would hit the ball to in the last of the ninth. Logan was more guarded than the other former Braves I had met and he didn't seem much interested in revisiting the past. Whenever I probed, asking about his life after baseball, wondering if he saw the same ghosts in County Stadium that I did, he would go back to concentrating on his radar gun. "I got memories, he said, "but they're not really what you'd call memories, if you follow what I'm saying."

Turner 2.5 Murphy 1.5 Lagares 0.5 Byrd 0.5 Feliciano 0.5 Aardsma 0.5 Germen 0.5 Rice 0.5 Satin 0.5 Flores 0.5

Mets 3-3 in first games of the second terms (or first full term) of presidencies already joined in progress, though all -- unlike Ford's first game -- were indeed Opening Days. 4/12/1965 (Johnson) Dodgers 6 Mets 1 @ Shea 4/6/1973 (Nixon) Mets 3 Phillies 0 @ Shea 4/9/1985 (Reagan) Mets 5 Cardinals 4 (10) @ Shea 4/1/1997 (Clinton) Padres 12 Mets 5 @ The Murph 4/4/2005 (Bush II) Reds 7 Mets 6 @ Great American 4/1/2013 (Obama Mets 11 Padres 2 @ Citi Nixon's final season as president saw the Mets lose their first Opening Day game (4/6/1974: Phillies 5 Mets 4 @ Vet) since his first year in office. No wonder the push for impeachment ramped up.

Does blurting after an error, "Garrrgh! FIELD!" count?

dinosaur jesus wrote: If it's presidents of Mexico, there's Carlos Diaz, VIctor Diaz, Wilmer Flores, Gil Flores, Ricky Gutierrez, Frankie Rodriguez, Rich Rodriguez, Raul Valdes, and Duke "The Silver Fox" Snider.

ROCKY ROBS ROBBY!

I'm in the early '90s in my Happiest Recap research and writing right now and have been reminded just how badly 1991 went down, both literally and conceptually. 53-38 on July 21, 77-84 at season's end. It wasn't received as "oh, bad year after a string of good ones, buck up, let's go get 'em." It was all-out panic, thus the firing/spending/trading binge pre-'92 and the fallout (even worse fallout, that is) of '93. The overall 2001 fizzle after 1997-2000 (the uplifting sudden late-season surge into contention notwithstanding) was greeted in eerily similar fashion. When '02 replicated '92, I wasn't surprised. Difference in '03 as opposed to '93 was the impatient doubling down on more big names, whereas Tony Fernandez was the only significant addition after '92 (and, it seemed at the time, a wise one) and there was a sense that no way could the Bonilla-Murray-Saberhagen Mets be that bad again. Ha.

Frayed Knot wrote: And the roster currently features Zachary Harrison Wheeler Between him and Isaac Benjamin Davis, this roster is prepared to build a bridge to the 19th century.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Could my ass. WILL Could your ass will what? OH, I get it...

Hmmmm. Mets with presidential names: Johnson, Wilson, Carter, Jackson, Washington, Nixon, Taylor... am I missing anyone? I forgot about him, even though it was 39 years ago today that the national consensus dictated "trot, Nixon."

1990. 1989. 1988. 1987. 1986. 1984. 1973. 1972. 1971. 1969. Ten seasons out of 51 (or 52, depending on how you take split-season 1981) in which the Mets finished with both a higher standing and a better record than the MFYs. This could be the eleventh.

We could have used President Ford on those 1974 Mets! Or Tuscon Toros outfielder Dan Ford, at the very least.

Last time the Mets finished higher in NL East than MFYs finished in AL East was 2008. Last time the Mets finished with a better record than the MFYs was 2000 (big help). Last time the Mets finished higher in their division than MFYs did in their and had a better record? 1990.

Thirty-nine years ago today, Richard Nixon officially left office, having delivered his resignation speech the night before. Where did he go? To meet the Mets! While Tricky Dick would spend many of his post-presidency hours at Shea Stadium, he took with him some bad Metsian vibes when he made like the Senators and departed Washington. In his last evening at the White House, the Mets got beat by the Buccos, 4-3, at Three Rivers when Al Oliver took Jon Matlack deep in the bottom of the ninth. Exit Nixon, enter Jerry Ford, whose presidency ended our long Metropolitan nightmare in the sense that the Mets returned to Shea to begin a homestand in very successful fashion, topping the Reds (whom Nixon loved to bait in the early '50s), 4-1. Three runs scored on a Don Hahn home run, the other on a Bob Apodaca double. Between them, Dack and Tug McGraw combined on a four-hitter. And so a new presidential tradition took hold in which the first Mets game of a new presidency has, to date, always been a successful one. 8/9/1974 (Ford) Mets 4 Reds 1 @ Shea 4/7/1977 (Carter) Mets 5 Cubs 3 @ Wrigley 4/9/1981 (Reagan) Mets 2 Cubs 0 @ Wrigley 4/3/1989 (Bush I) Mets 8 Cardinals 4 @ Shea 4/5/1993 (Clinton] Mets 3 Rockies 0 @ Shea 4/3/2001 (Bush II) Mets 6 Braves 4 (10) @ Turner 4/6/2009 (Obama) Mets 2 Reds 1 @ Great American Prior to Ford's "accidental" presidency, the Mets stumbled in the first games they played in all three previous administrations in which they existed. 4/11/1962 (Kennedy) Cardinals 11 Mets 4 @ Sportsmans Park 4/13/1964 (Johnson) Phillies 5 Mets 3 @ Connie Mack 4/8/1969 (Nixon) Expos 11 Mets 10 @ Shea OTOH, Nixon's first year was the only one among the 10 Mets' presidents to end extraordinarily well.

The third-place Mets' elevation proceeds, one hopes, approximately 1,100 feet above sea level, as Jeremy Hefner attempts to whack him some Snakes.

Good article from a consistently good writer. I second Irish's sentiment on @Scratchbomb. 1993's legacy of SNAFU still haunts the Mets externally and internally, leaving a mark that, however faint to the naked eye, won't completely fade until they win another World Series. It was the losing without the lovability, the bargain-basement results wrought at full retail markup. It was a transcendent LOLMets explosion that set a precedent wherein it would become second-nature to expect that if something could go wrong with the Mets, it would go wrong with the Mets. The pair of successful eras that eventually transpired after 1993 were never quite enough to erase the stigma of an organization that suffered at its core from hubris and incompetence. And it certainly didn't help that the Mets were still digging out from 1993's emotional and competitive wreckage when the MFYs decided to construct yet another dynasty right next door.

Gee 5.0 Hawkins 1.5 Ardsma 1.0 Recker 1.0 Byrd 1.0 Murphy 0.5

Rockie-tumblers: Eric Young, Jr. � LF Juan Lagares � CF Daniel Murphy � 2B Marlon Byrd � RF Ike Davis � 1B Wilmer Flores � 3B Anthony Recker � C Omar Quintanilla � SS Dillon Gee � RHP

Third-place Mets go for the sweep, 12:10 PM.

Harvey 5.5 Flores 2.5 Buck 0.5 Davis 0.5 Quintanila 0.5 Byrd 0.5

Nine guys who know what day it is: Fowler CF Blackmon LF Tulowitzki SS Cuddyer RF Helton 1B Rosario C Arenado 3B LeMahieu 2B Chacin P

It is the law in New York State that you turn your headlights on if you're driving in the rain. I know that because in January 1991, when Bill Mazer was doing the last months of his WFAN show, he came on to explain he learned the hard way -- ticketed (but not to see Shawn Hare) that morning. To this day, when I'm driving in the rain, I turn on those headlights and think, "Don't need a Bill Mazer situation here." That's broadcaster staying power.

I called Bill Mazer's Mets postgame show on WHN late in the 1972 season to ask why Buzz Capra wasn't with the team anymore. He was sent down to the farm to get more seasoning, I was told. I thanked him. Bill told his audience he wished all his calls could be that easy.

Centerfield wrote: No disrespect intended for FAFIF, but that is the best baseball writing of the season. Lyle has better handwriting.