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.
75 Comments
YA GOTTA BELIEVE it has to be Tug McGraw!
LENNY DYKSTRA. He hit a HR at the first Mets game I ever went to on July 13, 1986 (Rusty Staub Day).
Much as I loved Tom Seaver, I love Piazza more. Think of the ridiculous number of clutch home runs. He singlehandedly brought the Mets back to respectability, and brought me finally all the way back after the strike.
My man Dave Kingman is a close third. When I was a kid, if Seaver wasn’t pitching, Dave was the reason you watched the games.
I have 2 favorite third basemen. Robin Ventura ruled when he was with mets for 2000-2002. He played an awesome third base and hit at least,the first 2 years. Last year he played with injuries but never made excuses. All around good guy on and off the field. David Wright is my current favorite. Plays hard, hits for average and is not fazed by playing in NY, like Ventura.
Just for the name you have to love Duffy Dyer
Definitely Gary Carter. I was seven when the Mets won in ‘86 and I loved that guy. He hit a GW homer in his first game as a Met after coming over from the Expos, and started the Game 6 rally with a 2-out single. I had a circa mid-80’s Carter poster in my room as a kid, which I still have somewhere. And this past Christman, I got a Carter replica 86 jersey from Mitchell & Ness. Sweet!
I’ll have to go old school and say that Cleon Jones was my favorite Met, Great all around player. Also liked Ron Swoboda – just for giving it all he had. Had a soft spot for Benny Agbayani just for his chariama.
Keith Hernandez because, well, he’s Keith Hernandez.
Wow…...favorite, not best.
Best is Seaver. No question
Favorites….....depends on the era:
Buddy Harrelson and Jerry Koosman
Mookie and Doc
Piazza and Franco
Jose and Beltran
From my childhood: Tommie Agee
From the big 80s: Keith Hernandez
Recent years: David Wright and Mike Piazza
Ed Kranepool
Keith Hernandez definitely. The most intelligent player-
and best team leader I ever saw—starting in 1977 when I started cheering on the Mets.Mookie embodied the Mets for so long. He is easily my all-time favorite.
Teddy Martinez (#17) hit the first triple I ever saw and I thought that was about the most exciting thing.
Felix Millan always got me excited when he came to the plate. As a kid I emulated his choking up on the bat for better control. And I remember Benny Ayala’s home run. Later on, of course, Mookie Wilson, Hubie Brooks, Keith Hernandez, Edgardo Alfonzo, Jose Reyes.
My favorite was Lenny Dykstra. He always gave 110%. I love that in an athlete. He played the game to win every time he stepped out onto the field. That’s the way I would play if I was blessed with the talent to play a pro sport.
Jerry Grote. When I was eight our next door neighbor Mrs. Balsamo gave us her boss’s tickets from Chimblo Bros. contractors, about fifteen rows behind the Mets dugout. Grote was down there signing autographs tirelessly, and he took care of this timid boy from the suburbs. I was over the moon.
He was a perfect hero for me: tough, mediocre, consistent. And I found out later a real pain in the writers’ necks. The back of one of his baseball cards quoted Lou Brock calling him “the toughest catcher in baseball to steal against.”
He hit .252 in that magical summer of ‘69, and ended up his career with that same .252 average. (You could look it up.) That’s my Grote; just a cut above 1 for 4.
So many greats… Doc, Mex, Seaver, Kooz, Wright, Reyes, (where’s the love for McDowell & Orosco & El Sid?) Wally, Nails, Ventura, Piazza, Agee, Cleon, Straw…
But there’s only one…
Steady Eddie Kranepool. The name alone is a bonus.
Keith! With Ventura, Mookie, Seaver, Cleon, and Piazza close behind.
Keith supplanted Seaver, because, to me, Keith represents the light at the end of that very dark period kicked off by the Seaver trade. I was in sixth grade when they traded Seaver, and I remember trying to hide the fact I really wanted to cry all the day at school.
And I loved to watch Ventura play third his first two years with us. In my view, he was easily the best Mets 3B until Wright came along. Sorry Hojo.
Rusty Staub, Bub Harrelson, Tommy Agee, Tom Seaver, Ed Kranepool, Craig Swan, or maybe Art Shamsky…But my favorite two would be Gary Carter or Keith Hernedez. Sorry can’t decide between the two.
As you can see by my name I vote Keith Hernandez. If the Mets had not gotten him in ‘83 do you realy think they would been the team they were in’86? I don’t. He was a great leader. And how many times has he been referred to as “coach on the field”? Honorable Mention: Of course Seaver, Hojo, Rusty and Tug.
hey John,
look at the can of worms you opened. If this is what you were looking for , great job!
LOL
Benny Agbaiani (or however you spell it). Every time I went to a Mets game he got a crucial hit.
Was, is, always will be David Cone. He had attitude, guts and blew guys away. It killed me when he was traded in ‘92. I saw him pitch in person 6 times, and he won 5 of them, including his return in ‘03.
I agress it does depend on the era, Seaver was the best ever..
but i loved to watch, King Kong Kingman, Willy Montenez, and how about Buddy Harrelson going after Pete Rose in the ‘73 series…and ALL of the ‘86 World Champs!!!!!!!!!! “Thanks again Bill Buckner” !!!!!!