Short Time Mets Outfielder: Ben Johnson (2007)
Benjamin Joseph Johnson was born on June 18, 1981 in Memphis, Tennessee. Johnson was recruited to play football at Mississippi State but opted for baseball instead, signing with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1999. He got traded over to the Padres organization, and was an All Star in their minor leagues. He hit twenty plus HRs & drove in eighty plus RBIs two straight years including hitting a career best .312 in 2005 at AAA Portland. He got rewarded with a call up in the summer then again in September. To begin the month he hit HRs in back to back games. He finished the season batting .213 with 3 HRs 8 doubles & 13 RBIs. In 2006 he saw action in 58 games for the Padres NL Western Champions, hitting .250 with 4 HRs & 12 RBIs but he did not make the post season roster. That November the Mets made a bad decision giving up on pitcher Heath Bell. They traded Bell & Royce Ring to the Padres in exchange for Johnson. The trade didn’t work out for the Mets, as Johns...