centerfield maz

April 9th, 1976: In 1976, all of America  was feeling patriotic & wrapped up in the excitement of the Country's bicentennial.  In baseball the National League was celebrating its Centennial season dating back to its early games in 1876. 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 pitching star pitcher, Don Sutton. The Mets organization & Seaver had begun seeing things differently. When 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 hitting rock bottom was still two years away, these were the beginnings. But at this stage of the game, when the word leake...

Thomas Michael Glavine was born on March 25th, 1966 in Concord, Massachusetts. The six foot left handed pitcher was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 2nd round of the 1884 draft. He was the winningest pitcher of the 1990's, winning twenty games or more five times. He won two Cy Young Awards, led the NL in wins five times, led the NL in starts six times & complete games & shut outs one time each.  Glavine was selected to eight All Star teams, won a World Series & five pennants with the Braves. Glavine was also a Player Union Representative since 1991 replacing the Braves Dale Murphy in that position. Glavine was an excellent control pitcher, with the ability to fool hitters by changing speeds & location of his pitches often during an at bat. He was also a good hitting pitcher with a career .186 batting average, one HR 25 doubles, two triples, 93 runs scored & 90 RBIs.  Disagreement With Atlanta: He began to fall off in the second par...

Tuesday April 8th, 1986:  In 1985 the Mets won 98 games finishing three games behind the St. Louis Cardinals, getting eliminated on the final days of the season. After the disappointment of not making the playoffs the Mets & their fans went into 1986 looking to win it all. With all the Mets talent, the feeling was nothing else but a championship would be acceptable. In the off season, the Mets had traded for starting pitcher Bobby Ojeda & infielder Tim Teufel. Ojeda would go on to lead the talented staff in victories going 185 with a 2.57 ERA.  Tim Teufel would platoon with Wally Backman at second base. He would bat .247 with 4 HRs & 1 RBIs in 93 games. Early in Spring Training, Mookie Wilson was struck in the right eye by a ball thrown by Rafael Santana during a rundown drill. Mookie  would miss the start of the season, opening the door of opportunity for Lenny Dykstra who would prove to be a big part of the Mets outfield. Lenny would ba...