Who’s your all-time favorite Met? Now he doesn’t have to be a star like Seaver or Wright or Keith. It can be anyone and for any number of reasons. Maybe he waved to you from the field. Maybe you liked his baseball card. Maybe he was the underdog in your eyes.
Tell me who and why. Should be fun.
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Doc in his prime.
I remember watching the Mets as they got better in the 80’s. I think one year I saw all of Doc’s games. It was a pleasure to watch him frustrate the other team.
He either used the fastball up so they chased, or he could throw it in to scare em or away.
Then came the curve which really pissed them off.
Hall of famer for sure…
Oh well, not to be.
Dave
Rico Brogna in HIS prime aka ‘95.
I was like 11 or 12 and really just getting to become a baseball fan in my own wright, as opposed to my father’s yes-man. Brogna went OFF that year and he was just the sweetest thing on that amazingly UNsweet team.
Boy, did he come up with some big doubles.
PS. My old man’s is hands-down Donn Clendenon. Don’t ask.
#17, Keith Hernandez. I never got tired of seeing him foul off 12 pitches before knocking an opposite field double into right center field. And I never got tired of seeing him make that diving grab into foul territory to turn a double into a 3-1 putout.
Piazza. I started following the team in the early/mid-nineties and after being forced to cheer for guys like Butch Huskey and Bernard Gilkey, Piazza was a revelation. When the Mets signed him to an extension I was thrilled and immediately bought a black name/number t-shirt that I still wear on occasion. He became not only the superstar the team desparately needed but he also became the face of a new era for Mets fans.
Mike Piazza…
I was born in ‘84 so was way to young to witness the ‘86 team. I really became a die-hard fan capable of naming the whole Mets team at the age of 8 and hence my favorite Met AT THAT TIME was Bobby Bo. Needless to say I have since grown up and will forever be a fan of Mike Piazza. He was integral in transforming my Mets from losers in the early and mid 90s to a championship level club by the turn of the century.
That Mike Piazza comment was from me, obviously not Mike Piazza…Sorry…
Kevin McReynolds was my favorite growing up, I was young though and really don’t have the same memories as today. So for today I have to say Jose Reyes. Hopefully we get a pitcher I can also follow with a long Mets career, Humber and Pelfry would suffice!
I would have to go with Keith Hernandez, despite leanings towards picking Piazza. I was in second grade when the Mets won in 86, and he was the leader of the team. He fired guys up on the bench, and that was lots of fun to watch as a kid.
Where is the Rico Brogna love???
Tom Seaver, no question. He was at his peak when I was discovering baseball in the early ‘70s; as far as I was concerned, he was baseball.
My second-favorite (and surprisingly close to first) would be Mookie Wilson.
Tommie Agee. As a kid, watching him turn and go after a ball in center was the first time I became cognizant of speed in the field.
Howard Johnson. Power and speed, played the left side of the infield and carried the team in the lean years after ‘88 when I was just learning what it really meant to be a baseball fan.
Count me as another ‘84 child who is embarassed to have Bobby Bo as his former favorite Met.
But my favorite of all time is Fonzie. He didn’t look like a prototypical baseball player, but he was one of the best clutch hitters we ever had. He was also a class act, having never once complained about being bounced around the infield his whole career. Came up as a SS and moved to second to make room for Ordonez. Then he moved to third to make room for Carlos Baerga. Then he moved back to second when Robin Ventura came along.
And all he ever did in the meantime was provide Gold Glove-caliber defense wherever he played, as well as putting up All-Star numbers at the plate. Not flashy by any means, but as steady and classy as they come. Although I agreed with the move when they let him sign with Frisco since it was obvious that he was on the decline, it still pained me to see him go. Shame that he couldn’t make it back for one last hurrah this past season. I would have loved to see him come off the bench to deliver a big hit in October.
Easy one Tom Seaver, I went to every opening day he ever pitched and when they traded him I stayed away for two years.
Edgardo Alfonzo…. and Jose Reyes is catching up to him quickly.
MACKEY SASSER!!!! loved his stance.
Tug McGraw….he made me become a Mets fan.
It’s hard not to list Tom Seaver. It was great to see him pitch, and to even watch him take over Kiner’s Korner and do the interviewing.
Second choice: Mookie Wilson. And, as a dark horse: Felix Millan. Loved the way he choked up on the bat.
Keith Hernandez. The cerebral player. His intensity and passion helped increase my love for the game. And he made out with Elaine Benes.
Mookie’s up there. I used to go to games and we’d all chant Moooooooooooooo-kie until it drowned out the incoming LGA traffic. Sometimes people would think people were boooooooooo-ing. Then you knew they were lost Yankee fans.
But my real favorite is Dr. K. That 16 with “GOODEN” curved over the top of it meant confidence. Just like on that mid-town wall painting. Plus he could hit – at one point he had 4 career homers and I’d seen 2 of them live.
Tom Seaver, there is no other.
I have two. One pitcher and one position player.
Pitcher – Ron Darling. This guy always seemed to “step up” and pitcha great game when they needed it. One game that comes to mind is a regular season game against the Cardinals in 1985. It was the first game of a three game series that the Mets needed to sweep just to tie the division in late September. Darling started the game against John Tudor (Met killer). The Mets won that game 1-0 on Darryl Strawberry’s 11th inning HR, but Darlings performance that night was nothing short of spectacular.
Position Player – Darryl Strawberry. He is the one and only player that, whenever he was at bat, I would stop what I was doing just to watch what he would do. At his peak (‘85 – ‘88) I believe he was the best all around player in MLB.
Without a doubt, Howard Johnson and Kevin Elster… I absolutely idolized the left side of the mets infield during the early 90’s… That being said i think our current left side will eventually unseed HoJo and Elster from my top spots..
Ron Hunt, gutsy. Never afraid to be hit by a pitch. 100 percent effort every game.
jose reyes…so athletic just loving watching him play
I was also pretty into Pat Mahomes in those two playoff years of 99 and Y2K. Dude could hit and just seemed pretty cool. Granted, he was no Turk Wendell on the mound nor Rico Brogna with the stick, but that wasn’t his fault.
My favorite Met of all time is Lenny Dykstra. Nobody played as hard as he did.
It’s Keith Hernadez –
I even have a copy of a book he wrote about the 1985 season (when I saw a lot of games) called “If At First”
Runner ups: – Ron Darling who I saw pitch at Yale and Tom Seaver whose wife played in some of the same golf tournaments I did.
For some reason I always really loved Wally Backman. Other favorites are/have been Jose Reyes, Lance Johnson, Hernandez, Alfonzo, Orosco, McDowell. Generally not that into rooting for the sluggers, but I always appreciated Piazza and Floyd. David Wright is very hard not to like. Actually, the current team is very easy to root for across the board.
Edgardo Alfonzo. One of the first signs that the Mets were headed in the right direction again in ‘97. Great hitter and always seemed to come through in big spots. He was the guy I wanted at the plate more than anyone else from ‘97-’00. Great fielder as well. He was the Mets best homegrown player between Strawberry and Reyes and Wright.
My personal favorite Fonzie moment was in ‘98, during Piazza’s first series back in LA. Mets were down 3-2 in the 2nd game of the series, with two outs and nobody on in the 9th. The Dodgers had some kind of towel promotion that day and the fans were all going crazy waving them. Tony Phillips drew a two-out walk and Fonzie came up to hit a two-run homer than gave the Mets the win.
This is a tough question, but I’ve narrowed it down to two- Todd Hundley and Bernard Gilkey. Hundley is overshadowed by Piazza,but remember he held the single season home run record for catchers for six years, until the juiced up Javy Lopez broke it, but that doesnt count in my eyes.
Bernard Gilkey. Alot of mets fans dislike him or think he was mediocre at best. But in 1996, he had one of the best offensive seasons in mets history to that date, hitting .317/30/117 while stealing 20 bases and scoring 110 runs. And, more importantly, had a cameo in one of the best secret agent alien thriller movies of all time, Men In Black- Amazin.
It would be either Gary Carter, Tug McGraw or Tom Seaver for me.
Gary Carter. He was my favorite on that great ‘86 team and for the couple years after that. I was very young and just liked Carter’s style of play and sort-of nice guy arrogance. More recently, I would have to say Piazza. He really turned the franchise around and had some great years in NY. I hope he goes to Cooperstown as a Met. For current Mets, definitely like Delgado. He is one of the most underrated players around and is a true leader by example. Gotta include Wright and Reyes too as they are the faces of the franchise. Wright needs to step it up from his shaky 2nd half and playoff performance.
Wally Backman. I will never forget the drag bunt single he beat out to start off the rally in Game 3 of the ‘86 playoffs. As a child I always loved his approach to the game and pure hustle.
Easily Strawberry. He is who drew me to the Mets. When I was a kid growing up in Alaska we had three cable channels that broadcast baseball, WGN, TBS and WOR. The first game I recall watching was in 1985 and Straw was the batter. I was hooked ever since. I loved watching him mash those tape-measure homeruns and was actually in real physical pain when he struck out. When he left the Mets for LA I was crushed. I realized that it was all about the $$, and as a young fan, turned off. His departure also hearlded a dark decade for Mets fans.
I loved watching Cone pitch, and had high hopes for Bobby Bo and Mo Vaughn, but didn’t pick another favorite Met till Mike came aboard.
I’ve always been a sucker for home-grown talent, Piazza aside. As much as I like Wright, Reyes is my favorite current Met. He’s just too exciting to ingore. I’ve really enjoyed watching his maturation process over the last three years, and can’t wait to see what’s next. With the way he’s developed I think he’ll be the best player in the game in two or three years.
Mookie. I really started following baseball in 1980 and was a Met’s fan. Mookie was the only reason to watch the Mets back then until the mid-80’s. Others on my list would be Doc, Hernandez, Wright, and Reyes. Reyes is quickly becoming the number 2 guy.
As a lifetime (Mets life not mine)I’ve had many favorite players from Rod Kanehl,Ron Hunt,Tom Seaver, Al Jackson,and now Jose Reyes. My all time favorite is Mookie. The Mookster ALWAYS gave 100% and who can forget those mad dashes home from second base on a ground out. He was the most exciting Met before Jose Reyes.
Born in 1982, some of my earliest and coherent memories of a Mets star was HoJo. Despite the painful seasons, he gave you something to watch. As I grew older and learned the importance of the game, Mike Piazza became my hero. I like to say he is to me what Mantle, Mays and the rest of those HOFers were to our father’s generation.
Being only 17 years old, I have watched about 10 years of the Mets. My favorite Met of all-time, not including Jose Reyes and David Wright, is Edgardo Alfonzo. He was as clutch a ball player as there was during his prime, and I got sick the day he signed his 4 year 26 million dollar contract with the Giants. He was a steady-eddy kind of baseball player, always putting up great numbers while playing great defense at all his positions on the infield. I always, for some reason, loved Al Leiter, but Alfonzo was just a tremendously special baseball player to me.
Its easy for me its #8 and #31 Gary Carter and Mike Piazza. They were both the face of the team and both took the Mets to a WS.
Lenny Nails Dykstra.
We don’t even make it to the 86 World Series if it wasn’t for Lenny’s clutch walkoff hr at Shea and triple against Knepper in Game 6.
He always left it all out on the field. Sorry Mookie
but he should have played everyday. That was a mistake by Davey and Cashen. When he was traded to the Phillies I came very close to switching teams.
He proved how valuable he was in Philly by carrying them to the WS in 93.
He could have been an all time Met great if he was given the chance to play.
Mookie Wilson.
He was the JOSE REYES before the JOSE REYES.
Gary Matthews Jr.
That one ground out, those two games he was suited up, I knew that he’d get a (deserved) 5/50 contract when he became a FA from the (Anaheim) Angels (the only thing I didn’t predict was that they’d be the LAAoA….)
SmArt Vandelay
John,
Great question. Might I suggest re-phrasing for most favorite in a given team era for those of us lucky to have been fans for a while.
Late 60’s: Overall, I would have to say it was Seaver. perhaps becuase my dad took me as a 5 year old to Shea in 1969.
Mid 70’s: In addition to Seaver, I owuld add the hammer, John Milner. He had a sweet left handed ower swing and I saw him smack a home run to beat the Phillies sometime in the mid/late 70’s.
Early/Mid 80’s: Had to be Gooden. As much as anyone else during this time, Gooden was something else to warth pitch.If today;s fans think the crowd goes crazy for Pedro, Gooden missing a no-hitter (I was at that game) against the Cubs as a result of a lame official scorer’s call in not giving Ray Knoght an error. He was amazing and the closest to Seaver.
Late 80’s: Probably Gary Carter. While Keith was a master on the field, Gary was the trade and impact that as fans we know would put us over the top. Honorable mention to Mookie.
Early 90’s: Warning – this era has been erased from memory.
Late 90’s: Piazza. He brought, not in skill set, back to the fans a feeling that all was not lost and we could get a star and he would perform.
Mid 00’s: Reyes. If he continues to develop as I think is possible, he may turn out to be at or near the top of this list.
Benny Ayala.
When Benny homered in his first major-league at-bat, Bob Murphy bellowed over the WOR airwaves, “Benny Ayala, where have you been all our lives?”
To me, this typified what being a Met fan during that era was all about: Desperate for any type of home-grown position player, you were ready to anoint any non-descript minor leaguer who happened to luck out in his first trip to the plate in the bigs. The idea that Benny never lived up to any of that hype only underscores his status as a perfect symbol of the Mets of that era.
As a kid Hubie Brooks. Current is Jose Reyes, and he is quickly moving up the list.
“All Time” as of now has to be big Mike Piazza, being in the stands on 9/21/01 was an unbelievable moment I will remember forever..
I’m surprised Strawberry hasn’t gotten more love. I was only 11 when he came up but I can remember my dad telling me what a great hitter he was. When you are that age you are not really looking at which player has the best baseball fundamentals, works the count or who runs out ground balls hard. The thing you look at are the HR hitters. I changed my number from 9 to 18 in little league because of him. That is just my opinion, also I think the fact that he played for the yankees has some turned off.
Joel Youngblood for the name
Doc Gooden because he was there when we needed him and he was my hero in 86
Most importantly Tom Seaver because it was his 1975 baseball card that A) turned me into a baseball card collector and B)Made me a mets fan.
My grandfather and uncles were all Yankee fans, on the way home from my first time to Shea stadium, I remember my grandfather asking “why the hell they went to queens to watch a baseball game” and my uncle thinking I was a sleep in the back replied “because HE is a Mets fan”. My uncle died two weeks later on his way home from one of his softball games, hit by a drunk driver.
Besides I loved the mets when they were the basement dwellers of the 70’s, and everyone was busy watching the Yankee-Royal/Yankee Dodger world series, I had Tom and the rest of the mets pinned to my wall in my room.
Now living in Texas the very first cheer my 2 and 3 yr old daughters learned was GOOO METS as they watched their older brother play on the little league team I coached appropriately called…................METS!
My all time favorite is Lenny Dykstra & Mike Piazza. Now on the present team Reyes & Wright is where it’s at!!!
Rusty Staub. I still remember with such deep regret how Joe McDonald traded him for Mickey Lolich after the 75 season. McDonald’s quote in baseball digest following the trade: “Mike Vail might hit .350 and Mickey Lolich might win 20 games.” Rusty was a pure hitter and such a great leader and personality.