Remembering Mets Opening Days (1981) HRs from Lee Mazzilli & Rusty Staub Lead Mets to Victory
In the off season the Mets had signed veteran Rusty Staub. Rusty had been a popular Mets player in the early 1970s, leading the team offensively to the 1973 Pennant. In that year's World Series, he hit .423 leading all regular playing hitters.
Although Staub was in the Twi-light of his career, he was still an excellent hitter & was about to become one of the game's top pinch hitters.
Also that winter the Mets got back slugger Dave Kingman. Kingman known for his long HRs in the mid to late 1970s Mets teams earning the nicknames "Kong" & "Sky King". Kingman also struck out often & hit for low batting averages.
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| Coaches Rube Walker, Bob Gibson & Manager Joe Torre |
The organization also brought in Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson as pitching coach. Manager Joe Torre had been teammates with Gibson on the Cardinals.
Utility man Bob Bailor came in from Toronto & would be a solid all-around player batting .284. 1981 would see Mookie Wilson & Hubbie Brooks become a full-time player as well. Lee Mazzilli, Doug Fly & Neil Allen were the brightest young stars of the team.
1981 Players Strike: That June the MLB Players went on strike that would last two months. When play resumed it was determined the shortened season would be split in two parts, with the standings leaders from both half's facing off a first playoff round. The Mets finished fifth going 17-34 in the first half & then 24-28 in the second half, finishing fourth.The 1981 Mets season began at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Joe Amalfitano's Cubs hosted as 37,030 came out to the friendly confines on cold spring afternoon. The Mets sent Pat Zachry to the mound, who was 6-10 with a 3.01 ERA in 1980 to face Cubs veteran Rick Reuschel. Reuschel had won double figures in victories nine straight seasons, winning 18 games in 1979. In 1980 he fell to 11-13 leading the NL in hits allowed, as well as starts.
The first three innings went along quietly, as all the scoring in this game would come in the top of the 4th inning, from the two most popular figures on this Mets team. Lee Mazzilli led off the inning with a solo HR making it 1-0. In 95 games that season, Mazzilli would hit six HRs. He had 16 HRs in each of his last three seasons (15 in 1979).
K-Kingman: Next Dave Kingman struck out; Kingman would lead the NL in strike outs with 105 that season. He would lead the league in strikeouts again the following year with 155.
The next batter, Rusty Staub followed with a HR over the right field wall. It was Staub's 280th career HR, he would hit six that season. Staub would also bat .317 in 70 games that year.
In the bottom of the 6th, Zachry walked former Met Steve Henderson, but then got a double play ball from Leon Durham. He then walked Ken Reitz & Scott Thompson singled putting the tying run on base. Tom Hausman came on & picked off Reitz at second base to end the inning.Pat Zachry pitched 5.2 scoreless innings, allowing six hits with four walks & one strike out. Pat Zachry would lead the NL with 14 losses that year going 7-14 posting a 4.14 ERA.
The Mets closer, Neil Allen came on to pitch three scoreless innings to earn his first save of the year. Allen was coming off a 22 save season & would save 18 more games going 7-6 with a 2.97 ERA in the strike shortened season.
Trivia: 1981 would be Lee Mazzilli's last year in his first go-around with the Mets. In 95 games he would bat .228 with six HRs & 34 RBIs. Mazzilli would get traded to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Ron Darling.