First, just stop. It is nobody’s fault the Mets are not going to the World Series. All the people your Mets instincts tell you to blame are the ones you should thank.

Disclaimer: This is what I wrote in my first draft after the Mets laid two eggs in a row at home against the Dodgers in the NLCS. But since they forced a Game 6 and showed some resolve, the response from the fan base seems like one of appreciation. Sure, the 10-5 season-ending loss in the Championship Series doomed me—and other fans of a certain age—to a World Series from hell, like the one we had to endure in a grammar school full of Yankees fans as the Dodgers and Yankees met in October in 1977, 1978, and 1981. So nobody is confused, I’ll be rooting for the Dodgers, of course. In my long line of least-favorite teams, the Dodgers are right there with the Phillies and Braves. But when you are hounded by Yankees fans as a kid during those aforementioned years, you know you never could root for that team under any circumstances. Now back to our report card…

Final Grade A- (find a way to beat the Dodgers and you get an A; beat the Yankees in the World Series and it’s A++++. The 2024 Mets got the best of the Braves, Brewers, and Phreakin’ Phils this fall! The Dodgers, right now, are better than the Mets. Shohei Ohtani’s play now-pay later contract is the main reason the Dodgers don’t have a higher payroll than the Mets. Ohtani is the best hitter in the National League and might be for some time. And if you pitch around him, you have to face former MVP and still elite player (at numerous positions) Mookie Betts. And then Freddie Freeman (when he can walk). Starting pitching might be L.A.’s weak spot, but over all those high-pressure games the Mets played from Good Monday in Atlanta to Black Sunday in October, Mets pitching started to fray. This was a great October. Rookie manager Carlos Mendoza outmanaged Pat Murphy in Milwaukee as well as Philadelphia’s Rob Thomson.

David Stearns did not get that big money free agent and it went pretty well. The hard work he did this year paid off. He decided to bring up Mark Vientos and cut bait on Bret Baty, who still may resurface. The organization’s minor leagues are brimming with top prospects they’ll need to find places for. After this season, I have confidence that Stearns and Mendoza will find ways to work these players in or spin them off to get the pieces that the team needs. Hard-throwing young pitchers are something a team can always use. Back in the 1980s, Frank Cashen made the Mets into a power by bringing along young studs and trading the overhyped duds for the veterans the team needed. Gary Carter comes to mind, as does Bob Ojeda, Tim Teufel, Ray Knight, Howard Johnson, and even his original masterstroke: Keith Hernandez, the first imported piece of the puzzle. Sid Fernandez and David Cone were somewhat young when the Mets acquired them, but Cashen’s staff fleeced both the Dodgers and Royals, respectively.

I know you are excited to get the final grades, but here are some ground rules. For the first half, batters had to have 50 at bats and pitchers 15 innings pitched; so we’ll make it 80 at bats and 25 innings for the full year—and postseason numbers will certainly count. Players who qualified in the first half or were acquired/promoted in the second half only need to meet the minimums for one half.  (This is the first time I have done both Midterm and Final Grades in a season since 2019, so we have to reset.) My convoluted rules prevent handing out grades to the likes of Brooks Raley, who was supposed to be the go-to lefty before he hit the IL in April and won’t return until ’25 (the last of a three-year deal). Also worth mentioning is Joey Lucchese, who went 4-0 in 2023, started once in the first six months of 2024, was DFAed, signed back with the team, and pitched a pretty solid game 162, which New York didn’t care about after beating Atlanta in the greatest doubleheader split in Mets history on September 30. Now we list the other pitchers who did not make the cut: Alex Young, Eric Orze, Tyler Jay, Josh Walker, Yohan Ramirez, Grant Hartwig, Cole Sulser, Ty Adock, Julio Teheran, Michael Tonkin, Matt Festa, and 2023 ace turned 2024 postseason opener, Kodei Senga.

Hitters who didn’t make the cut: Eddy Alvarez, Ben Gamel, Zack Short, Joe Hudson, Pablo Reyes, Joey Wendle, and Luisangel Acuna, Ronald’s little brother, who fell a few at bats short of qualifying. He hit .308 with three home runs and solid defense at short during Francisco Lindor’s late-season back issue.

Now here’s the gang that made the 2024 team so memorable.

Second-Half 2024 Report Card

                           1H 2H Final 

Francisco Lindor B+ A+: A He should be the next captain. Continually leads by example. The hero of 2024 at Citi.

Julio Iglesias A B+: A There would have been much less singing and winning without castoff turned standout. OMG!

Mark Vientos B+ B+: B+ After showing little in the past, he lit up Citi and kept improving all way through NLCS.

Sean Manaea B+ B+: B+ First half-second half, home-away were exactly same. Changed motion midseason and thrived.

Francisco Alvarez A- B-: B+ Not yet 23 and with much to learn, I anoint him Mets’ best homegrown catcher ever.

Jose Butto B+ B+: B+ Solid starter became multi-innings man when Dedniel Nunez got hurt. Don’t skimp on days off!

Pete Alonso B- B+: B In 2019, I said he’d be the next Mets captain. Time passes, but his power and passion are real.

Edwin Diaz C+ B+: B Gave him an F in 2019, 5 years later Sugar is a warrior with a hand in almost every crucial Mets win.

Jose Quintana C+ B+: B Overtook Severino as top pitcher down stretch. His 0.72 ERA in Sept. helped Mets make their run.

Luis Severino B B-: B Ex-Yankee was durable and threw the only complete game shutout by a Met. (Tied for MLB lead!)

David Peterson B- A-: B He’s legit. Got crucial win in Milwaukee on final Sunday; 4 days later clinching save in same place.

Brandon Nimmo B C: B- The best .224 hitter in the game! Injured but continually got on base. Huge HRs vs. Atlanta & Philly.

Tyrone Taylor C- B: C+ Hit almost 50 points higher in the second half and started every day in CF. Thrives in big situations.

Starling Marte C C: C Missed a lot of time with injuries, but came through late in games and in postseason.

Tylor Megill D+ B-: C Bounced back and forth to minors. Mets won each of his last 6 starts, ending in Atlanta.

Luis Torrens B D: C Arrival coincided with turnaround until Alvarez returned from hand injury. Hit 100 points lower in 2H.

Jeff McNeil  D B: C Despite brutal first half, he soared until he broke his wrist; showed that Squirrel gumption in NLCS.

J.D. Martinez B D: C A key leader and producer in first half; he hit .199 in second half but had a few Oct. hits (until he didn’t).

Reed Garrett C+ C-: C Garrett’s either on or off. Injured from overuse, he came back to get outs (or not) in the pinch.

Harrison Bader C D-: D+ Dropped off a cliff in the second half and morphed into a defensive replacement.

Adam Ottavino D- C-: D+ Was better in the second half. Pitched in some big games down stretch. At 38, near the end.

D.J. Stewart D- D: D Just 22 plate appearances in second half but was a little better. He can walk but does not hit enough.

Only Appeared in One Half as Met

Dedniel Nunez B+ Pitched great until injured in July. Hope he can anchor middle innings. Needed him in Oct.

Jesse Winker C+ Hard to believe he wasn’t a Met all season. Endured terrible slump in Sept; back with a vengeance in Oct.

Ryne Stanek C+ A 6.06 ERA after coming from Seattle, but had some great Oct. outings: 2.1 IP for W in Game 5 of NLCS.

Sean Reid-Foley C+ He somehow had a 1.66 ERA, despite a somewhat underwhelming first half. Injured and out in June.

Phil Maton C: People love to hate on some Maton. One of team’s top relievers (2.51 ERA), overused and useless in Oct.

Danny Young C For once, here’s a guy who did nothing for Braves and fanned 48 in 37.2 IP as a Met.

Drew Smith C This reliever has endured some tough luck. It might be awhile before you see him again. Godspeed, son.

Christian Scott C- Kid had good stuff and a great first start. Like Smith, surgery will keep him out of Flushing until 2026.

Paul Blackburn C- Starter arrived from Oakland and came on like a house of fire, but he got hurt and didn’t even log 25 IP.

Brett Baty D Once liked him over Vientos due to BB’s glove. Their fielding percentage in ’24 was similar. And Mark can hit!

Jake Diekman D- A lefty with 3 saves, who fanned Judge in a huge spot, and still no one took him after he was released.

Adrian Houser D- Expensive mopup guy Mets had to cut after July trading deadline to make way for useful relievers.

Huascar Brozoban D- Came highly recommended from Miami. At best he’s a work in progress; could bounce back in ’25.

Tomas Nido D- To complainers about Alvarez: Remember when Nido caught every day? Get on your knees & be thankful.

Omar Narvaez F When Nido wasn’t catching in May, this guy was. His ’24 totals: .151/.191/.185. And he can’t catch.

Jorge Lopez F OK numbers (3.18 ERA, 2 saves), but Mets excelled once they cut guy who ragged them. Feed him to Grimace.

Manager/President

Carlos Mendoza C+ A+: B+ Started off 0-5, a 9-19 May, injuries galore, integrated new players constantly, and beat the Braves to get in the postseason. And then there’s what he did in the postseason…

David Stearns C A: B A lot of people think they are smarter than the front office folks. This could have been an 89-loss team, he crafted them into an 89-win team, keeping us enthralled into late Oct. for the first time since 2015.

And now… taking in the win for the ages in Atlanta, it’s my duty to announce that we have a new No. 1 for the Greatest Mets Regular Season Win. This list originally appeared in the 2012 book Best Mets. There is no new version of the book and there was no reason to update this list until now, so I also included another game you might recognize from the year the book came out. So here is the update. You can tell the new ones because the others have been trimmed for your protection. Mets fans can sometimes jump the gun, so I am reiterating this is for regular season games only…

1. September 30, 2024

Mets 8, Braves 7

A hurricane, two rainouts, and a three-game losing streak resulted in the Mets and Braves having the same record after 160 games on the Monday after the season ended. Both teams desperately wanted to win that first game and play the second game knowing they’ve locked up a Wild Card spot. Given the Mets’ history of late-season torture in Atlanta, every Mets fan had something lodged in their brain that read: “The Braves will sweep and we’ll be left with nothing.” The Mets did nothing to quell this fear for the first seven innings of the first game as they trailed, 3-0. But Tyrone Taylor climaxed an 11-pitch at bat with a double to chase rookie Mets killer Spencer Schwellenbach. Jose Iglesias tied the game, Mark Vientos gave the Mets the lead, and Brandon Nimmo homered to make it 6-3. The Braves scored four runs in the botttom of the inning and were two outs from winning when Francisco Lindor—who’d missed much of the past two weeks with back issues—launched a home run to give the Mets the lead. Edwin Diaz, rocked an inning earlier, made like Jesse Orosco in October 1986 and pushed the Mets over the finish line. The Mets lost the second game. Who cares? Well, the Diamondbacks for one, who were left home despite having the same record as the Mets and Braves.

2. October 3, 1999

Mets 2, Pirates 1

Before 2024, can you name one other time the Mets actually won on the final day of the year when they needed to. (Give up? 1973, a year represented later on this list.) All seemed lost just two days before, but the Mets made up two games the final weekend and booked a one-day, one-way trip trip to Cincinnati.

3. October 4, 1999

Mets 5, Reds 0

Game 163 is considered a regular season game, and the Mets have had few bigger. Edgardo Alfonzo snaring a liner on Leiter’s 135th pitch ended the game and put the Mets in the postseason for the first time since 1988.

4. September 21, 2001

Mets 3, Braves 2

This game belongs in its own category, but it would be improper to omit the most emotional game in Mets history. In the first outdoor sporting event in New York following the September 11 tragedy, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Mike Piazza hit the game-winning home run in what truly was more than a game.

5. September 20, 1973

Mets 4, Pirates 3

The Mets ended August in last place and began October celebrating the division title. Winning on the last day got them in, Willie Mays Night made ‘em cry, but ’73 wouldn’t have happened without “The Ball on the Wall” play.

6. July 9, 1969

Mets 4, Cubs 0

Of Tom Seaver’s 25 wins in ’69, none was as dominating as his “Imperfect Game.” This game was better than the no-hitters eventually got… 40-plus years later.

7. September 15, 1969

Mets 4, Cardinals 3

The night belonged to Ron Swoboda, whose two homers ruined Steve Carlton’s night at Busch Stadium. Lefty became the first pitcher in history with 19 strikeouts in a nine-inning game—and the first to fan 19 and lose. The victory also increased the Miracle Mets’ lead to 4 ½ games.

8. September 24, 1969

Mets 6, Cardinals 0

Rarely has wanton destruction of public property felt so right. After striking out 19 Mets his last time facing them, Steve Carlton didn’t make it out of the first inning. Gary Gentry went the distance and the Mets clinched the first NL East title in history.

9. April 22, 1970

Mets 2, Padres 1

Tom Seaver tied Steve Carlton’s record of 19 strikeouts the hard way—by setting a new mark with 10 consecutive strikeouts—to end the game, no less. Seaver had been given his 1969 Cy Young earlier in the day—it would not be his last.

10. June 1, 2012

Mets 8, Cardinals 0

The No-han occurred weeks after Best Mets was published, so this is also new to the list. Never mind that replay challenge system (not instituted until 2014) would have overturned the ball hit down the line by ex-Met Carlos Beltran, this goes does as a no-hitter because the foul call stood. Johan Santana stayed on the mound for 134 pitches and finished the job against the defending world champions. He finally tossed the first no-hitter in Mets history despite many other pitchers—both great and obscure—who came close but could not climb Mount No No. Props to Long Island’s Mike Baxter, who threw his shoulder—and his career—into the left field wall to keep the no-hitter intact. Santana, who had missed all of 2011 with shoulder surgery, never pitched again in the majors due to injury after 2012.

Dear Melodramatic Mets Fan with social media issues,

It was quite a week! Even though the week isn’t over, it feels like it has lasted a month. A good month!

So why do I continually see on social media—sometimes minutes before the incredible rally, big hit, or key pitch—that some fan has decried “Typical loser Mets,” or “Why would you bring in [such and such reliever] right now?” or “Glad this is Pete Alonso’s last at bat as a Met.” So much for “Ya Gotta Believe!” I understand being pessimistic about the Mets. My entire life revolves around this philosophy. If I hadn’t been in a room full of Mets fans I probably would have been watching a Get Smart re-run during the bottom of the 10th inning in Game 6 in 1986 (either series).

But I don’t understand the need to say these things aloud and to make these proclamations before anything actually happens. Do you think if Pete Alonso struck out or banged into a double play, the world will recall: “Joe Blow sagely predicted this”? Sorry, they won’t. They’d barely remember if Stephen A. Smith said it much less you. And he’d at least be doing it for ratings. What is your motivation?

The moral here? Give it a rest. Wait for the pitch, the swing, the catch. The Mets are playing with house money. Sure, they could lose. But remember when they were 11 games under in May. That team is dead. This one is pretty damned fun. Stop typing long enough to enjoy it. As the ad says, “Taste the rainbow!”

Thanks,

Met

I was a big fan of Ed Kranepool’s. He was a classy Met on the bad teams I knew growing up. He was a great pinch hitter, racking up a .486 average by going 17 for 35 in 1974, which was a disappointing year overall for a team that had been to the World Series the previous year. (He hit .286 in two NLCS but had just one hit in two World Series—that hit was a home run in Game 3 in ’69.)

Ed wasn’t about the stats, but he played so long he ended up being about the stats. When Cleon Jones played his final game as a Met in 1975, he held many of the all-time Mets offensive marks. By the time Krane left the game in 1979—wearing the home uniform in all 18 seasons as a Met and still just 34—he owned just about every record and held most of them until David Wright came along. Steady Eddie’s 1,853 games are still 268 more than Wright. Those pinch hitting appearances really add up.

Krane debuted as a 17-year-old in 1962, a local kid who grew up a Yankees fan but he signed for big money from the Mets. He used future teammate Tommie Agee as a yardstick; Agee had gotten $60,000 to sign with Cleveland and so Eddie, who’d just graduated from James Monroe High School in the Bronx, told the Mets he thought $80,000 was fair. The Mets, who were already losing plenty, didn’t want to lose the local kid to the White Sox, so they signed him. Ed had never really wanted to leave New York—and he never did.

Because the Mets were so bad, much was expected of him. One thing that comes through in his entertaining bio, The Last Miracle (with Gary Kaschak), is that he didn’t love his managers. Yet he was very fond of Casey Stengel, who could be tough on kids. Ed was never shy about wanting to play more, and he batted .300, .323, and .292 from 1974-76. When the Mets went into the tank in 1977, the team decided to give the younger players a chance. It might have been a good plan—if the younger players had been good.

Ed hit 118 home runs in his career, but the one he hit to win game two of the 1978 season sent me into a frenzy of delight and fury. I was thrilled by the game-winning shot against Montreal, but furious that my dad made us go home from the game early with the Mets down several runs because our hands were turning white on the frigid April afternoon. Steady Eddie’s walkoff blast made me resolve for years to never leave a game early—until I had kids and I understood Dad’s concerns a little better.

Ed never knew his father, who was killed in Europe during World War II when his mother was pregnant with him. In his book he noted that because of this he was exempt from military service, which many of his Mets teammates dealt with during the 1960s and 1970s. Ed had to deal with growing up without a father.

He always had an edge when he gave interviews. Ed didn’t dole out pat answers; he said what he felt. He was the one Met I talked to about the 1973 postseason pitching rotation who threw Yogi Berra under the bus. Someone had to say it. Krane survived Yogi at Shea, along with Casey, Wes Westrum, Gil Hodges, and Joe Frazier, plus interim managers Salty Parker and Roy McMillan. He did not survive Joe Torre, a veteran infielder whom he’d platooned with at first base and considered a friend until he took over as manager. Krane actually put together a group to buy the Mets months after his last at bat with the team—hit 1,418 was a pinch-double as the moribund ’79 squad barely avoided 100 losses. Owning the team didn’t work out for Kranepool—he already owned the record book—but having been a Met for so long he knew about long odds.

The odds were even longer when he needed a kidney transplant in his 70s. He got the organ transplant amid great huzzahs from the Mets community. He sold memorabilia to help pay for medical care. I went to his home on Long Island, thanks to his agent Marty Gover, who’d bought some of my books for some promotion. In turn, I bought some photos from the Kranepool collection that he allowed me to use in a book on Shea Stadium. I bought a picture from Krane but never thought to ask to get a picture with him.

I did see him on the field at Citi Field before a game 10 years ago. I was promoting Swinging ’73 and he’d given me that great interview. I had a copy of it and—unlike many times when you get a “send it my agent” or something—Ed took the book in his hand and looked it over. The time on the field non-uniformed personnel was drawing nigh and I figured we were done, but we weren’t. He held up the book and called out, “Hey, thanks!” That’s what it’s taken me so many words here to say to him. Krane, you will be missed.

Overall Class Grade: B-

Now the explanation… If you just walked in to this movie, 2024: Averting Disaster, you might say, “The Mets are three games over .500. What’d I miss?”

Well, you had the 0-5 start, with a rally in the ninth inning avoiding a winless opening homestand. And then the last homestand the Mets won five games in a row before the inevitable defeat. In between there were gloves thrown in the stands, errors galore, bounced helmets, leads blown, 10 games under in May, a resurgent June, a trip to merry old England, a Sunday Night Baseball ejection of Edwin Diaz, a 10-game suspension for your closer having medicated goo all over his hand, a sweep of the Yankees, a hit single, eight straight series wins or splits, and a lot of good will at Citi Field. Just like Steve Cohen and David Stearns drew it up.

Overall, the first half—that’s baseball math, since a 49-46 mark is actually 59 percent of the season—had more ups and downs than a Marvel movie. Fortunately, this has been more entertaining and less predictable than those movies while playing to the same audience since comic book lit is about as close as we get to culture in modern American society. For anyone offended by the previous sentence, please address all correspondence to: The Ghost of Stan Lee, 69-86 Spiderman Avenue, Forest Hills, NY 24414—that’s not an actual address or a Jamaica zip code; it’s what you get when you combine the retired numbers of Willie, Tom, and Gil.

Oh, and we lost Willie Mays, which made his retired number on the top of the building feel sort of reassuring while the blistering sun bore down on me Saturday on my bucket hatless head (I got there a mere 20 minutes before game time; maybe they should have more on hand—they look cheap enough to make). It was my first game since the passing of one of the greatest to ever play. We’ll miss you, Willie. Though I just missed seeing him play, watching number 24 on the field as a coach when I was a kid was the closest the late 1970s Mets got to the big time.

The Mets retired two numbers this year. Why they retired Doc’s number in chilly April is beyond me. Maybe they knew how bad May would be. Darryl had in June; the Mets at least won for Dwight on his day. While I am pontificating, I am not sure Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, or anyone who didn’t go into Cooperstown as a Met should have his number retired. I felt this way before I fell into the old man classification, too. I also liked the Mets Hall of Fame as a place to stop, instead of shop. I also enjoyed the large baseball cards that long announced the day’s lineup in the rotunda as opposed to yet more video boards announcing the batting order. I want to—as it was at Shea—run my eye down the uniform numbers and position abbreviations and know exactly who is playing at a glance. But if we are going by the numbers, I was at zero going into Saturday’s 7-3 win over Colorado. After going to a bunch of games during the dog days of May (9-19 never felt more like 40-120; more baseball math). I am now 1-5. If the Mets can come back from an 0-5 start, then so can I!

Carlos Mendoza may be a rookie manager, but he does go through pitchers like he is paid a bonus for steps taken toward the mound. They talk about up-down for relievers (pitching in multiple innings), but the real up-down with the Mets this year is getting called up to New York, pitching once or twice, and then getting sent down to Syracuse. Fifty people—that’s 5-0—have already donned a Mets uniforms this year; 31 of them are pitchers. There have been 26 Mets who played their first game for the team this year—that’s an FNG every three games or so. Last year there were 34 such Mets all season. And in 1967, which for years was the measuring stick for players shuffling in and out of Flushing, there were 35.

But if you want meaningless numbers, that’s what grades are for.

The minimums for first half grades are 50 at bats or 15 innings pitched. There were some  pitchers who did not qualify for a grade but had interesting stories. It begins with lefty Danny Young, who has pitched 16 times to lead all players without grades; he is one out short of qualifying for this list—and he had many chances to get that one out. Brooks Raley was supposed to be the go-to lefty, but he’s been gone since April and won’t return until ’25 (the last of a three-year deal). Eric Orze deserves mention for pitching once, posting an infinity ERA, and taking a loss. Michael Tonkin pitched five times over two tours with the team and had three decisions (1-2). Tyler Jay persevered to finally make the majors at 30 after being a high draft pick almost a decade ago, but the story may end there with a 7.71 ERA. I liked Joey Lucchesi and his 4-0 mark in 2023, but he pitched once in New York this year and has since been DFAed. The Mets acquired much needed bullpen help from Tampa Bay in July: the soon to be overworked Phil Maton.

Relievers who neither qualify nor are worth discussing: Josh Walker, Yohan Ramirez, Grant Hartwig, Cole Suiser, Ty Adock, Julio Teheran, and Matt Festa. “Hitters” who didn’t make the cut: Ben Gamel, Zack Short, Joe Hudson, and Joey Wendle, who would have gotten an F with just a few more at bats before he was cut by the Mets in May (and then a week later by Atlanta).

First-Half 2022 Report Card

Julio Iglesias A OMG! Just 84 plate appearances, but he has hit, fielded, and swung his way to Citi’s heart: .384/.417/.582.

Francisco Alvarez A- Another high grade despite low playing time, but this is a different team when he plays.

Dedniel Nunez B+ This season is over if he didn’t come to the rescue and perform almost every time he’s been needed.

Jose Butto B+ Why has he pitched 44 innings in the minors? He must throw every pitch in the majors from now on.

Francisco Lindor B+ A true leader. He comes to play and plays well, even if his seasons start with epic slumps.

Mark Vientos B+ He’s convinced me. Only thing keeping him from a higher grade is his 3B play is sketchy.

Sean Manaea B+ He’s been consistent and he might even crack into the A’s (a former employer : ) if he pitched deeper.

Brandon Nimmo B Nimmo is the lifeblood of lineup. He is good in LF. Lotsa strikeouts (97), but it’s the price of .361 OPB.

Luis Severino B He’s been pretty consistent, but I am mostly happy he’s been healthy (knock wood).

J.D. Martinez B His arrival and influence on the Mets is telling. Professional hitter has helped elongate lineup.

Luis Torrens B His arrival at catcher coincided with the Mets suddenly playing well. Good bat, glove, arm, backup.

Pete Alonso B- I waffle constantly whether to sign him long term. Homegrown Mets sluggers are rare, yet…

David Peterson B- The lefty started the year injured and is now 4-0. He’d be 7-0 if he could make it past the fifth.

Jose Quintana C+ He has been very good or very bad. He takes the ball and provides much needed innings.

Edwin Diaz C+ He has been a better than average closer, but his 10-game suspension put the team in a serious bind.

Reed Garrett C+ Mendoza practically pitched his arm off. Garrett’s a gamer who sometimes costs you the game.

Sean Reid-Foley C+ How does he have a 1.66 ERA? Well, I guess he’d better hurry up and get better.

Harrison Bader C His numbers are startlingly similar to Starling’s. He’s settled in at .273/.312/.420, 13 SB.

Starling Marte C When he’s hurt, right field is a mess. Front office is counting days until his deal ends in ’25.

Dwight Smith C This guy has had some tough luck and is one of the longer serving Mets. Speedy recovery, sir.

Tyrone Taylor C- He swings at anything, but he has some big hits—mostly against righties. Good defense.

Christian Scott C- No luck when for the rookie it comes to wins or relief behind him. Feels like the next Tylor Megill.

Tylor Megill D+ So what does that make Megill? Expendable. With all the relief issues, why not the pen?

Jeff McNeil D A truly disappointing performance for someone once considered a core player.

Brett Baty D See above. I had high hopes but now only see him as part of future where Vientos is at 1B.

Adam Ottavino D- If this team is playing like it did in May, every D- here is an F. Adam is mopup now.

Jake Diekman D- I am reluctant to give an F to a guy with 3 saves, a 2-year deal, and is needed desperately.

Adrian Houser D- A complete failure as a starter. Had some luck as a reliever, but not lately.

D.J. Stewart D- He really showed something last year, but only thing keeping him from an F in ’24 is his ability to walk.

Tomas Nido D- Why were the Mets so bad in May? Because he was the regular catcher. Now a Cubs spy.

Omar Narvaez F Couldn’t hit, throw out runners, or catch. Somehow he got a walkoff hit in a rare May win.

Jorge Lopez F His numbers aren’t bad (3.18 ERA, 2 saves), but the team is 27-13 since cutting this loser.

Manager/President

Carlos Mendoza C+ Some months he has deserved an A and some months an F. He is learning on the job and the team follows him.

David Stearns C Big grade jump if he can turn this into a playoff team while revamping the minor leagues.

It’s been 50-plus years since the 1973 Mets pulled off one Amazin’ comeback in the closing weeks of the season. With 10 players still on the roster from the 1969 Miracle Mets world championship, that ’73 club had a lot of veterans who were still pretty young but had solid postseason experience. Wayne Garrett was only 25, Ken Boswell was 27, Tom Seaver, Tug McGraw, and Ed Kranepool had been in the majors for years and were still just 28. The Mets had a new bunch of young players: 1972 NL Rookie of the Year Jon Matlack and slugging first baseman John Milner were each in their second season; Don Hahn, 24, patrolled center field; catcher Ron Hodges was just a year removed from Appalachian State University; and George “The Stork” Theodore was their everyman turned everyday player due to injuries to Cleon Jones and their oldest player, the late great Willie Mays. The Mets had also added key players through trades that brought Felix Millan as double play partner for Bud Harrelson, lefty George Stone, and Rusty Staub, whose acquisition was the last move overseen by Gil Hodges.

Hodges died suddenly during spring training 1972. At just 48, the beloved Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman and Mets manager had overseen the transformation of the “Loveable Losers” to impossible dream champion in ’69. Gil’s replacement, Hall of Fame Yankee and longtime Mets coach Yogi Berra, wasn’t in the same ballpark as Gil when it came to managing, but few were. Yogi had mojo and luck seemed to follow him. He said, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over” about the ’73 Mets, and damned if it wasn’t true. The Mets benefited from some of the greatest breaks in baseball history to go from last to first between the end of August and the beginning of October 1973. The division was terrible, so the Mets could push their way past everyone to win the NL East and then beat the Big Red Machine to win the pennant with the worst record in history to that date (82-79); a ball destined for the bullpen bounced right into the glove of Cleon Jones and wound up in Ron Hodges’ mitt on a play at the plate known as “The Ball on the Wall”; Bud Harrelson lost the fight to Reds bully Pete Rose in the NLCS, but the Mets won the war; and injured Willie Mays retired to great fanfare but came back to play in the postseason and got game-breaking hits in both the playoffs and the World Series—though his stumbling around in center field in Oakland Coliseum remains a sorrowful image. The Mets’ luck ran out as the A’s won Games 6 and 7 at home, beating Tom Seaver and Jon Matlack. And which day the Mets should have started Seaver remains a hot topic a half century later.

I wrote about this year in my book, Swinging ’73, but of course you’ve all read that. So I know what I am talking about when I say what a thrill to help Jacob Karanrek with his new and improved version of one of my favorite Mets books—From First to Worst: The New York Mets, 1973-1977. I love this book because it goes into detail about what happened afterward as the Mets became what we sadly see so often today in the majors: an organization that just gave the frig up. To people like myself who grew up with that team, though, these guys were my heroes. Like it or not.

The first version of this book came out in 2008. Jacob has been a friend and supporter ever since then, allowing me to use pictures from his vast trove of 1970s Mets images and acting as a sounding board. He dug up even more outstanding photos for this version of the book. It’s surely not the happiest ending in Mets history, but it is a tale well told—again.

Without Gil Hodges the Mets proved to be hollow inside. Even though the team still had as good a pitching staff as just about any team in baseball, they were up and down after that remarkable pennant in 1973. And then it all went down.It did not have to happen, though. That is what makes Kanarek’s faithful reporting of the events from the sources of the day hit home. The Mets were completely unprepared for the free agency era or even the Yankees reclaiming their big kid on the block status after they moved out of Shea (their shared home in 1974-75) and into the refurbished Yankee Stadium.

The Mets had a severe letdown in 1974, but with another reliable starter, some better bullpen parts, and—for God’s sake—more hitting, the Mets could have contended to the final days of 1975. And being battle tested, they might have been able to snag another division title from the Pirates, who won every NL East crown that the Mets didn’t win from the start of divisional play in 1969 to 1975. The ’76 Mets were an entertaining team, though the Phillies ran away with the division. These bicentennial Mets were busy creating highlights that would have to carry over in the memories of Mets fans through the long hard slog that closed out the decade and did not abate until 1984 after a change in ownership and a painstakingly slow but complete rebuild.

As much as I hated growing up with these Mets in charge of making my adolescence and young adulthood good or bad, I loved these guys. They had nothing but they gave it their all. My favorite forgotten Mets come alive in Kanarek’s work: The Stork, Matlack, Mike Phillips, Dave Kingman, Joel Youngblood, Steve Henderson, and the poor, beleaguered Jerry Koosman. Kooz should have been given sainthood for going from 20-game winner to 20-game loser in one season despite losing very little effectiveness, but very many games. In his last two years as a Met Koosman went 11-35 with an ERA of 3.62 in 462 innings. Koosman even provides the foreword to From First to Worst.

Kanarek adds a lot of new material and many new and hard-to-find photos. He put a lot of work into this reboot—which I can’t say about Mets management in the late 1970s. I was thrilled to help as well, fact-checking and helping summarize sections. I loved it and Kanarek’s dedicated effort. To quote Billy Dee Williams in a 1970s epic TV movie tear-jerker known as Brian’s Song—“I’d like all of you to love him, too.” And if you’re too young to remember this movie or this Mets era that went from Miracle to Miserable, when, as Billy Dee again said, “you hit your knees tonight,” say a prayer that you could read about it in a few days instead of living it in a few lifetimes.

That was the bad time. Almost everything else I’ve lived through as a Mets fan has been tolerable by comparison. Read this book, know your Mets history, and recognize when your team actually wants to win. This book will show this world of difference.

Sad to say that great Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson died at 79. In July of 2011 I had my day with Bud. We arranged to meet at the Long Islands Ducks ballpark way out on Long Island. I was late, thanks to traffic, but Bud rearranged his day to give me all the time I needed for our interview. When I got there he was pitching batting practice for the independent league team he partly owned. We spent a couple of hours together to talk about the 1973 pennant winners for Swinging ’73. We spoke a lot about the building of that Mets team, his military service, the crazy pennant race, Yogi Berra, and the fight with Pete Rose in the playoffs. He could not have been nicer, more gracious, or more informative if he tried. At one point we were about to break and then we spent another half hour together just talking in his office. I brought him a copy of my book, New York Mets: The Complete Illustrated History. He walked off the field with the book clutched under his arm.

In recent years Bud had been sick for a while, but he rallied a few years ago for a five-Met 1969 reunion at the Tom Seaver vineyard in California. Art Shamsky and Erik Sherman wrote that great book on the 1969 Mets reunion at the vineyard, After the Miracle, which I’ve read a couple of times. Here is a link to a picture that Erik took from the meeting between the late Bud and Tom, longtime roommates on the road—on that trip to the vineyard with Art Shamsky, Jerry Koosman, and Ron Swoboda. You’ll see the prominently displayed copy of Total Baseball just to the left of Bud’s head. Tom Terrific, my first and biggest baseball hero, and the encyclopedia that I slaved over as managing editor for several editions front and center in his baseball library, as Bob Murphy would say. TB sitting next to his picture of his 300th win makes me smile on a sad day.

Putout 1 to 6, 41 fires to 3. Side retired.

Two new people are leading the Mets since my last post. One is David Stearns, now team president, and the other is his first hire, manager Carlos Mendoza. I’ll say right off the bat, my specialty is dealing with baseball things that have passed, not things that will happen soon. I have a bad track record with first takes.

To wit:

Carlos Baegra: Franchise-changing second baseman stolen from Cleveland!

Roberto Alomar: See above!

Joe Torre: A lousy Mets manager, he’ll surely crash and burn with the Yankees!

Bobby Bonilla: The power bat the Mets need! We’ll never regret this!

1988 Playoffs: The Dodgers are a speed bump! Next stop: 1973 World Series rematch!

Reacquiring Tom Seaver in 1983: They’ll never let Tom leave again!

Richie Hebner: This guy’s a professional hitter! He’ll thrive in New York!

Almost every manager the day before he gets canned: The Mets won’t fire him!

We can keep going back in time and you’ll see how wrong I am at interpreting events through my crystal ball. But let’s stop—the Mets and me.

I listened to the new manager’s press conference on the radio—it is a little jarring that the station that carries Mets games doesn’t have the presser, but those constant traffic reports pay the bills at WCBS—and then I watched the talking head portion on SNY. Mednoza seems like a nice guy. What would be great, though, is a guy who can manage a winner.

Then there’s this:

Other than Bobby Valentine, who managed for one disastrous year in Boston in 2012, no Mets manager has been hired by another organization as a major league skipper since Jeff Torborg. And he was on the one guy I knew would get canned. That was the only action available aboard the moribund SS Torborg less than 200 games into his disastrous New York tenure in 1993. Torborg didn’t deserve to be hired by another club, much less two. Torborg was the stale goody bag that Jeffrey Loria took with him when MLB allowed a trade-in of the beat-up Expos for the dented Marlins model that would suddenly transform into a world champion racer mere months after Torborg was fired in 2003.

Sure, I hope Mendoza is the guy who wins it all with the Mets, but that’s a lot to hope for with this team. I’ll start with him being a good enough manager to be hired by another team someday. Out of the 24 managers in Mets history (counting interims), only seven have been hired by other teams after parting ways with the Mets. All managers are hired to be fired—I’ll exempt the two who had their numbers retired by the Mets: Casey Stengel (#37), who made a terrible team into a crowd favorite before breaking his hip at 75, and Gil Hodges, who tragically died just two seasons after the miraculous 1969 championship. A manager who is good enough to be hired elsewhere means he has done something right or at least he gave the impression that he might do something right—hence the recycling of the Jeff Torborgs, Wes Westrums, and George Bambergers of the world.

What the Mets don’t need is another two-year managing hire—like Buck Showalter, or Luis Rojas, or Mickey Callaway. Add these last three to Terry Collins (seven seasons) and Mendoza makes five managers since 2017. We all deserve better than a continuing game of musical chairs. Winning would sure be a bonus.