As the Mets get set to induct their latest class into the team’s Hall of Fame, Joe Benigno says it’s long past due for two franchise greats to have their jersey numbers retired.
Joe says Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden’s numbers need to be hung up with the other greatest players in franchise history.
“It is time for the Mets to put Doc and Darryl’s numbers at the top of Citi Field,” Joe said. “Before you retire anybody else’s numbers, it is time for No. 16 and No. 18 to go up there.
“Enough of the moral high ground…I blame the Mets a lot for what happened with Doc and Darryl. They should have been supervising these kids a lot more than they were, but that’s another story.”
Both players were two of the game’s brightest young stars when the Mets won their last championship in 1986, but personal problems contributed to both of their Mets careers fading much quicker than most anticipated. Still, Joe says at their peak, there was nobody better, and they were the faces of the greatest era of Mets baseball, and they deserve to be honored.
“I want to see those numbers where they belong, because you cannot tell the history of the Mets without those two guys,” Joe said. “They were probably the biggest names that the Mets had in the best run of baseball that the Mets ever had.
“I understand they went to the two World Series, they won in ’69 and lost in ’73, but to me, the best run of baseball in the history of the franchise with 1984 to 1990.”
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