Remembering Mets Opening Days (1976) The Bicentennial Year Starts with a Tom Seaver Victory
Seaver Almost Traded? At the end of Spring Training that year, the Mets & Los Angeles Dodgers had worked out a potential deal that would have sent Mets All Star pitcher Tom Seaver to Los Angeles in exchange for their star pitcher, Don Sutton.
Seaver & the Mets organization were starting to see things differently. After Mets principal owner Mrs. Joan Payson, passed away, things began to fall apart in the organization. There was no leadership, M. Donald Grant was handling things; he didn't want to spend any money & he didn't want to give in to the changes happening in MLB.
Although the organization hitting rock bottom was still two years away, these were the beginnings. At this stage of the game, when the word leaked out about Seaver being traded, there was public outrage in New York. The deal was immediately squashed & the Mets soon agreed to give Seaver a three-year deal worth $225,000 annually, making him baseball's highest paid pitcher.By 1976 some other changes were already happening, the popular Rusty Staub was gone. The previous year he was the first Mets player to drive in 100 runs. In the winter he was traded to Detroit for 35-year-old, overweight Mickey Lolich. This was one of the worst trades the Mets ever made.
Popular manager Yogi Berra had been fired at the end of 1975 & the team's new manager was Joe Frazier who had been a long-time manager in the Mets minor leagues. In 1975 Frazier had led the AAA Tidewater Tides to the International League Championship.
A Friday afternoon Opening Day crowd of just 17,013 fans came to Shea Stadium, to see these Mets host Karl Kuehl's, Montreal Expos. Bill Shea, the man the Stadium was named after presented the new manager with a good luck flower horseshoe shaped wreath.
In the 1st inning, Tom Seaver started the year out by striking out Pepe Mangual & Larry Bitner both looking. Former Met, Mike Jorgensen then doubled to left field. Seaver threw a wild pitch then struck out Larry Parrish to end the inning.
In the top of the 9th inning, Lockwood struck out Tim Foli, got Jose Morales to fly out & ended the game striking out Pepe Mangual looking to earn his first save.
In 1976, the Mets would finish in third place going 86-76. Sadly for us young fans, it would be their last winning season for the next seven years.
The Mets new third baseman was Roy Staiger, who was to play in a platoon with veteran Wayne Garrett. Joe Frazier believed in Staiger from managing him in AAA, but he would never develop into a regular player.
In 1976 the Expos would fall into last place losing 107 games, In August Kuehl would get fired with Charlie Fox replacing him.
On this Opening Day Tom Seaver the previous year's Cy Young Award winner took the mound against the Expos Steve Rogers. Rogers a good pitcher on a bad team would lead the NL with 17 losses that season.
In the bottom of the 1st, Steve Rogers was a bit wild, hitting Felix Millan with a pitch & walking Ed Kranepool but the Mets couldn't score.
In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Del Unser led off with a triple in his Mets debut. Jerry Grote then singled scoring Unser giving the Mets the early 1-0 lead.
In the top of the 3rd, Pepe Mangual doubled. Mike Jorgensen collected his second hit in as many at bats with a base hit to right field, bringing in Mangual to tie the game up 1-1.
In the home 4th inning, Del Unser reached on a throwing error by third baseman, Larry Parrish. Unser then stole second base. Jerry Grote drew a walk, then with two aboard Bud Harrelson doubled to left field brining in both runners giving the Mets a 3-1 lead.
Seaver rolled along holding the Expos to a run, leaving after seven innings, striking out the last two batters he faced in the 1-2-3 inning. On the afternoon, Seaver allowed five hits & a walk, as he struck out eight on his way to his first win.
In the top of the 3rd, Pepe Mangual doubled. Mike Jorgensen collected his second hit in as many at bats with a base hit to right field, bringing in Mangual to tie the game up 1-1.
Seaver rolled along holding the Expos to a run, leaving after seven innings, striking out the last two batters he faced in the 1-2-3 inning. On the afternoon, Seaver allowed five hits & a walk, as he struck out eight on his way to his first win.
The Mets newest closer, although the actual closer moniker didn't exist yet, was Skip Lockwood. He came on in 8th inning giving up three straight base hits, including an RBI single to Larry Parrish making it a one run game.
But Lockwood struck out Barry Foote, got Gary Carter to fly out & Pete Mackanin to foul out to left field to end the inning.
Trivia: Skip Lockwood saved 19 games that season, second in the NL to the Big Red Machine's Rawly Eastwick (26).
Strike Out Record Setter: For Tom Seaver he would go 14-11 in an off year.
Seaver still led the NL in strike outs (235) for the second straight year, fifth time overall. Seaver set an MLB record with nine straight seasons of 200 or more strike outs.
In 1976 he would come in third in the league in ERA (2.59) innings pitched (271) & shut outs (5).
In 1976, the Mets would finish in third place going 86-76. Sadly for us young fans, it would be their last winning season for the next seven years.