NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — “Books on Deck” is using the time during a delayed start to the baseball season to showcase many of the great baseball books that are being released in the spring and summer of 2020.
Next up is Brian Wright from Metsmerized with his book, “The New York Mets All-Time All-Stars." This is Brian’s second Mets-related book as he also authored “Mets in 10s: Best and Worst of an Amazin’ History."
“The New York Mets All-Time All-Stars” creates an All-Star team out of Mets players from each position with some obvious inclusions like Tom Seaver being on the cover and the ace of the starting rotation to some heated debates, including whether Michael Conforto or Kevin McReynolds should have taken up the last spot in the outfield.
“This was the toughest decision I had to make in the entire selection of the roster,” Wright said. “I wrote the first draft with McReynolds on the team, and then I watched Michael Conforto’s most recent season and considered what Conforto would be going forward. That all swayed me to put Conforto as the backup left fielder.”
Of course, Cleon Jones was listed as the team’s starting left fielder as the man who caught the final out of the 1969 World Series after hitting a career-high .340 in that miracle season.
Another member of the 1969 Mets that squeaked his way on to the Mets all-time All-Star team according to Wright was Jerry Grote, who was added as a third catcher behind Hall of Famers, Gary Carter and Mike Piazza.
“I wanted to make sure to put Grote on the team,” Wright said. “The Mets have had a lot of success in the catching department with Carter and Piazza, but I wanted to include Grote for what he did to mold a young pitching staff into what they became in that ’69 season.”
Some other potentially debatable items include Ron Darling as the fifth starter over Sid Fernandez and David Cone, joining a staff that of the indisputable top four in franchise history, Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden and Jacob deGrom.
As for the team’s current biggest starts aside from deGrom, Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil were not mentioned as Mets All-Stars because their time with the club has been so short, but perhaps an updated version will have to come into existence in a few years as the Mets remain hopeful for Alonso and McNeil to lead the next wave of all-time greats in franchise history.