This week we finish up the baseball section of our “Surprise Hall of Famers” series, in which we outline some of the game’s legends who you may not remember playing for a certain team. While the first two franchises we listed – the Yankees and Red Sox – both have over a century of history, the Mets are relative middle-aged adults to Major League Baseball.
While you undoubtedly remember Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza’s heroics, do you remember these Cooperstown inductees playing in Queens?
Richie Ashburn: Best known for his 12 years with the Phillies, Ashburn was coming of two average, if unspectacular, seasons with the Cubs in 1960-61, where he hit a combined .279 as a regular starter. He then joined the expansion Mets for 1962, becoming the team’s first All-Star. He hit .306 that season, though the woeful first-year club lost 120 games, and he retired that offseason.
Yogi Berra: You know he was on the coaching staff from 1965-75, including the final four of those years as the manager. But did you know baseball’s most quotable man also played for the Mets? After 18 legendary seasons with the Yankees he was named manager in the Bronx in 1964, leading the pinstripes to Game 7 of the World Series. It didn’t protect his job, however, and he was fired at season’s end, only to be scooped up by the Mets.
He finished his playing career with four appearances early in the season, going 2-for-9 at the plate before retiring for good.
Rickey Henderson: As we mentioned last week, Henderson got around over the final decade of his career. That includes a season-and-a-half with the Mets, where he signed as a free agent in 1999. That first year he was excellent, winning NL Comeback Player of the Year at age 40 after hitting .315 with 37 stolen bases, though there was controversy in the 1999 postseason involving a card game with Bobby Bonilla.
He struggled early in 2000, hitting just .219 through 31 games before getting released in May.
Willie Mays: This one you probably know about, as Mays famously finished out his career with New York. After 21 seasons with the Giants, the Say Hey Kid returned to New York City in 1972, when he was traded to the Mets for Charlie Williams and $50,000. Though he was a shell of his former self at age 41, he was an instant fan favorite. In two years and 135 games he hit just .238 with 14 home runs before retiring, becoming the oldest player to appear in a World Series game in 1973.
Though his No. 24 isn’t retired by the team, only three players have worn it since: Kelvin Torve for 20 games in 1990, Henderson in 1999-00 and currently Robinson Cano.
Eddie Murray: Unlike most people on these lists, Murray didn’t end his career with the Mets, though he wasn’t exactly a sprightly youth. After making his final All-Star Game in 1991 with the Dodgers he went back to the east coast in ’92, signing a two-year deal with New York. In that span he hit .274 with 43 home runs, driving in exactly 100 runs in ’93. He then moved back to a contender in 1994, going to Cleveland before finishing his career with stints in Baltimore, Anaheim and Los Angeles.
Duke Snider: When the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958, Snider was a year removed from seven straight All-Star seasons. The West Coast wasn’t nearly as kind as the Duke hit 30, moving to a part-time role by the time 1962 rolled around. That winter his 16-year relationship with the organization ended, as he was sold to the Mets for the ’63 season.
At age 36 he became a regular starter once again, hitting his 400th home run and 2,000th hit in Queens, and he even earned his final All-Star Game appearance. He wanted to be on a contender, though, and after the 1963 season he was sold to the Giants.
Warren Spahn: One of the best left-handers of all-time, Spahn spent the first 20 years of his MLB career with the Braves, first in Boston, then Milwaukee. After an All-Star season at age 42 in 1963 – in which he went 23-7 with a 2.60 earned run average – the wheels fell off in ’64, as he went 6-13 with his ERA skyrocketing to a career-worst 5.29.
His contract was sold to the Mets that offseason, where he doubled as the team’s pitching coach. His 1965 season wasn’t much better, as he went 4-12 at age 44 with the team before being placed on waivers that July. He was picked up by the Giants for the remainder of the year before retiring.
