So, the 1962 Mets are the worst team of all time! Marv Throneberry couldn't catch a ball at first, or bat, Ellio Chacon kept running into Richie Ashburn, and Roger Craig just lost, lost, lost. Finally, Harry Chiti was the first baseball player to be traded for himself.
Anything I missed? Yeah, but why keep bringing it up?
Truth is, I've always had a special feeling for this team. And let's not forget about what they did seven years later, right?
Before I start, what team lead the National league in walks in 1962?
Yeah, that's right, the Mets. In all of MLB that year, only the ChiSox (620), Twins (649) and Tigers (651) drew more walks than the Mets (616).
Funny how it works, eh?
Let's start with my fav, Marv Throneberry.
Really now, is there any point in looking up his stats for 1962. I mean he's god-awful, right?
The funny thing is, he didn't even start the '62 campaign in the National League.
Actually, he over in the AL, where he started his career back in 1955 with the Yankees.
So he joined the Mets after being god-awful for the Orioles in 1962.
Here's his stat line: 9AB, 1R, 0H, 0HR, 0RBI, 6K, 4BB
A perfect start for a future 1962 Met!
So he joined New York on May 9th of that season for a player to be named later, who turned out to be Hobie Landrith.
Landrith, by the way, shares a few things with Marv: he was out of the bigs after 1963, he batted, lifetime .23x, he played for the Mets and O's, of course.
So he got into his first game 2 days later with his first hit on the season, a walk, and even a run scored.
And he raised his average from .000 to .083
But it took him 24 games and 62 at bats to hit his first homerun, and even then his average was only .258!
From June 17th to June 23rd, he played 8 games, drove in 10 runs, hit another dinger and batted .250. The Mets by the way, were 3-5 in those eight games. They're moving on up!
But what I'll be remember about Marv in this most difficult of seasons, was a July 7th doubleheader against St Louis.
The first game entered the bottom of the ninth, with the Mets down 4-3 and looking at their 58th loss in 80 games.
Curt Simmons entered the that inning and gave up a leadoff single to Joe Christopher. Ernie Borglio came in an surrendered a single to Gil Hodges. It was time for Elio Chacon to bat.
No, actually, it was for a pinch hitter. Our man.
And Marv won the game with a dramatic 2 run pinch hit homerun.
Marv was not done as the night cap came around. The Mets entered this game 23-57 instead of 22-58!
The Mets trailed 2-1 going into the bottom of the 7th against Ray Washburn.
But leading off, Throneberry tied the game with solo blast.
Alas, Stan Musial won the game in the top of the eight with a homerun of his own.
A month later, in an ugly 9-4 loss against the Phillies, Throneberry went deep twice, as did Frank Thomas, but it was not enough as no one was on base for any of the 4 blasts!
Throneberry added another homerun the next game against Cincy and even another on the August 4th doubleheader (first game) for 4 homeruns in 4 games.
He also nailed the Reds later on that month for 2 homeruns in 2 games, Aug 10, 11.
Another dramatic pinch hit homerun came on August 21st against Pittsburgh. First game of a doubleheader.
With the Mets losing and heading towards a 30-96 record, Marv came up as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the ninth.
Funny to see Harvey Haddix (does this guy have any luck?) enter the ninth with a 4-1 lead.
But Richie Ashburn did a little pinch hitting of his own, as he batted for one of the two Bob Millers (Ah, what better way to say, "It wasn't me, it was someone else!) on the team and singled.
After a Christopher walk, Elroy Face came in for the save. No problem, right?
Certainly it looked that way as Charlie Neal fanned. The Felix Mantilla, who broke up the perfect game against Haddix three years earlier (by reaching on an error in the bottom of the 13th) singled to score a run.
Frank Thomas flied out.
One out to go.
The batter was Jim Hickman.
But, no, it was Marv Throneberry.
4-2, 2 outs, here we go.
Homerun, game over, 5-4 Mets!
How about a homerun off the great Don Drysdale. Yes, August 24th in a 6-3 Met win.
Quite a month for Marv 9 homeruns, 19 RBIs in 30 games. But he batted just .219.
In September he faded, hitting .250, but hitting just 2 homeruns.
But they were hit in back to back games (September 15th and 16th).
And they were hit against Cincinnati.
Throneberry ended up playing just 116 games, but he hit 16 homeruns. Only three of them were hit with his team ahead. Seven of them came against The Reds. Seven of them also came with the score tied or the Mets trailing by a run or two. Two of them came with the score tied 0-0.
But he knocked in just 49 runs and batted just .238
And there was the time on June 17th when he hit a triple but was called out for failing to touch second base. Casey Stengel, the lovable manager came out to argue, only to be told Marv had missed first base, too!
Or how about not being given a birthday cake on Stengel's birthday, because everyone was affraid he'd drop it.
Having Marv Throneberry play on your team, said Jimmy Breslin, is like having Willie Sutton work for your bank.
But what about Thomas, who lead the team with a more than respectable 34 homeruns? Or Ashburn, who batted .306 in his last season?
Thomas homered twice on August 1st of that years VS the Philies, then added two more the next day for four against Philly. Amazingly, he hit two more on the 3rd against Cincinatti's Joey Jay for 6 homeruns in 3 games, setting a record.
Thomas also did something else incredible against Philadelphia that year. In an 8-0 Met win on April 29th, the first game of a doubleheader, Thomas was hit by a pitch with the Phillies up 1-0 in the bottom of the 4th. Thomas had hit a homerun earlier that gave the Mets all the offence they would need.
But in that inning, by the time Thomas batted again, the Mets had pushed across 7 more runs.
Then Thomas was hit again.
Once again, Thomas had set an NL record, this time for most times hit by a pitcher (actually, two different Philly pitchers, Art Mchaffey and Frank Sullivan) in one inning.
On August 15th, in the second game of a doubleheader, the Mets trailed 6-1 in the bottom of the 6th inning against the Phillies.
But a triple by Chris Cannizzaro scored Mantilla, and Choo-Choo Coleman batted for pitcher Craig Anderson.
So Coleman goes downtown, cutting the lead to 2, 6-4. The Phillies would add a run in the 8th, then it was Coleman's turn to be pinch hit for in the bottom of the frame.
The batter was Jim Hickman. 2 on, 1 out.
And Hickman goes yard to tie the game!
But this is the 1962 Mets, so they ended up losing the game anyway.
Still, two pinch hit homeruns in the same game, by the same team? Wow.
The Mets of 1962 would hit 11 pinch hit homeruns in total, 2 each by Throneberry, Coleman and Ed Bouchee.
Gus Bell, right fielder, joined the team for the start of the season and got the first ever Met hit, off the Phillies Larry Jackson on April 11th, in the bottom of the second. Mantilla would draw the first ever walk.
He did something amazing in that opening game.
In the bottom of the 3rd, with runners on the corners, Philadelphia's Stan Musial doubled to right, scoring Julian Javier.
Bill White, on first, also was thinking home. But Bell's throw to Charlie Neal was on the mark, and Neal fired home to get White.
Ken Boyer grounded out (out # 2), Minnie Minoso singled to right to score Musial from second. But when the fleet footed Minnie headed towards second, Bell fired to first basemen Gil Hodges, and Minoso was eventually caught in a rundown and putout.
Two outfield assist in one inning by Bell, to set a National League record.
Bell wasn't done yet, either. In the bottom of the 6th, the Cardinals were up 10-4 with two out.
The Cardinals had plated 4 runs that inning, and a Musial single to right kept the ball going.
But Musial had thoughts of second, and Bell made the throw again, this time to shortstop Mantilla, and Stan The Man was out at second. The Mets would lose the game 11-4.
Quite a start one way or another, eh?
Pitching wise, you did have Craig, who lost 24, but also won 10 and got 3 saves. There was Al Jackson, who despite going just 8-20, pitched 3 shutouts.
But reliever Ken MacKenzie went 5-4 with a save, finished 16 games.
There was Bob Miller and Bob Miller. No that's not a missprint. They both batted right handed and were each 6'1 and roomates on the road!
Galen Cisco, who pitched just 4 times after coming over in a trade with the Red Sox was on the hill on September 21, 1962.
Against the Cubs in the top of the fourth, George Altman pinch hit for Moe Thachker.
Cisco struck him out.
The next batter, was another pinch hitter, Bob Will (hitting for pitcher Don Cardwell).
Cisco struck him out.
In the top of the 6th, Don Landrum batted for pitcher Glen Hobbie.
Cisco struck him out.
In the 8th, Cuno Barragen hit for Dick Bertell.
Cisco threw a wild pitch, allowing Alex Grammas, who was on first, to got to second.
Cisco then struck out Barragen.
4 pinch hitters struck out in one game by a pitcher. Again, another National League record was sent.
By the way, Billy Ott then pinch hit for pitcher Don Elston.
Cisco didn't strike him out, but fielded him comebacker and threw hit out at first.
Cisco went on to win the game 4-1 as Cisco finished with a fine 4 hit, 5 walk, 8 K performance. And the Mets won the game 4-1.
That dropped the Cubs to 56-99.
And improved the Mets to 38-115.
The Mets went 2-5 in their next 7 games.
The Cubs themselves beat the Mets on September 30th to hand them their 120 loss.
Joe Pignatano batted in the bottom of the 8th inning of that game with Sammy Drake and Richie Ashburn on with nobody out.
Pignatano lined to second for out #1. Ken Hubbs, who caught the ball, fired to Ernie Banks at first to nail Ashburn, who had left the bag. Banks fired to Andre Rogers, the shortstop covering second, to get Drake, who had also left too soon.
Triple play.
Pignatano's last at-bat of his career.
I just had to finish with a negative, eh? The real story of the '62 Mets!
References
Neft, David S., Richard M. Cohen, and Michael L. Neft. The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball, 1992. 12th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. Print.
Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 01 Dec. 2012.
Thorn, John, and Pete Palmer. Total Baseball. Vers. 1994. Portland, OR: Creative Multimedia Corp., 1994. Computer software. CD-ROM.
Anything I missed? Yeah, but why keep bringing it up?
Truth is, I've always had a special feeling for this team. And let's not forget about what they did seven years later, right?
Before I start, what team lead the National league in walks in 1962?
Yeah, that's right, the Mets. In all of MLB that year, only the ChiSox (620), Twins (649) and Tigers (651) drew more walks than the Mets (616).
Funny how it works, eh?
Let's start with my fav, Marv Throneberry.
Really now, is there any point in looking up his stats for 1962. I mean he's god-awful, right?
The funny thing is, he didn't even start the '62 campaign in the National League.
Actually, he over in the AL, where he started his career back in 1955 with the Yankees.
So he joined the Mets after being god-awful for the Orioles in 1962.
Here's his stat line: 9AB, 1R, 0H, 0HR, 0RBI, 6K, 4BB
A perfect start for a future 1962 Met!
So he joined New York on May 9th of that season for a player to be named later, who turned out to be Hobie Landrith.
Landrith, by the way, shares a few things with Marv: he was out of the bigs after 1963, he batted, lifetime .23x, he played for the Mets and O's, of course.
So he got into his first game 2 days later with his first hit on the season, a walk, and even a run scored.
And he raised his average from .000 to .083
But it took him 24 games and 62 at bats to hit his first homerun, and even then his average was only .258!
From June 17th to June 23rd, he played 8 games, drove in 10 runs, hit another dinger and batted .250. The Mets by the way, were 3-5 in those eight games. They're moving on up!
But what I'll be remember about Marv in this most difficult of seasons, was a July 7th doubleheader against St Louis.
The first game entered the bottom of the ninth, with the Mets down 4-3 and looking at their 58th loss in 80 games.
Curt Simmons entered the that inning and gave up a leadoff single to Joe Christopher. Ernie Borglio came in an surrendered a single to Gil Hodges. It was time for Elio Chacon to bat.
No, actually, it was for a pinch hitter. Our man.
And Marv won the game with a dramatic 2 run pinch hit homerun.
Marv was not done as the night cap came around. The Mets entered this game 23-57 instead of 22-58!
The Mets trailed 2-1 going into the bottom of the 7th against Ray Washburn.
But leading off, Throneberry tied the game with solo blast.
Alas, Stan Musial won the game in the top of the eight with a homerun of his own.
A month later, in an ugly 9-4 loss against the Phillies, Throneberry went deep twice, as did Frank Thomas, but it was not enough as no one was on base for any of the 4 blasts!
Throneberry added another homerun the next game against Cincy and even another on the August 4th doubleheader (first game) for 4 homeruns in 4 games.
He also nailed the Reds later on that month for 2 homeruns in 2 games, Aug 10, 11.
Another dramatic pinch hit homerun came on August 21st against Pittsburgh. First game of a doubleheader.
With the Mets losing and heading towards a 30-96 record, Marv came up as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the ninth.
Funny to see Harvey Haddix (does this guy have any luck?) enter the ninth with a 4-1 lead.
But Richie Ashburn did a little pinch hitting of his own, as he batted for one of the two Bob Millers (Ah, what better way to say, "It wasn't me, it was someone else!) on the team and singled.
After a Christopher walk, Elroy Face came in for the save. No problem, right?
Certainly it looked that way as Charlie Neal fanned. The Felix Mantilla, who broke up the perfect game against Haddix three years earlier (by reaching on an error in the bottom of the 13th) singled to score a run.
Frank Thomas flied out.
One out to go.
The batter was Jim Hickman.
But, no, it was Marv Throneberry.
4-2, 2 outs, here we go.
Homerun, game over, 5-4 Mets!
How about a homerun off the great Don Drysdale. Yes, August 24th in a 6-3 Met win.
Quite a month for Marv 9 homeruns, 19 RBIs in 30 games. But he batted just .219.
In September he faded, hitting .250, but hitting just 2 homeruns.
But they were hit in back to back games (September 15th and 16th).
And they were hit against Cincinnati.
Throneberry ended up playing just 116 games, but he hit 16 homeruns. Only three of them were hit with his team ahead. Seven of them came against The Reds. Seven of them also came with the score tied or the Mets trailing by a run or two. Two of them came with the score tied 0-0.
But he knocked in just 49 runs and batted just .238
And there was the time on June 17th when he hit a triple but was called out for failing to touch second base. Casey Stengel, the lovable manager came out to argue, only to be told Marv had missed first base, too!
Or how about not being given a birthday cake on Stengel's birthday, because everyone was affraid he'd drop it.
Having Marv Throneberry play on your team, said Jimmy Breslin, is like having Willie Sutton work for your bank.
But what about Thomas, who lead the team with a more than respectable 34 homeruns? Or Ashburn, who batted .306 in his last season?
Thomas homered twice on August 1st of that years VS the Philies, then added two more the next day for four against Philly. Amazingly, he hit two more on the 3rd against Cincinatti's Joey Jay for 6 homeruns in 3 games, setting a record.
Thomas also did something else incredible against Philadelphia that year. In an 8-0 Met win on April 29th, the first game of a doubleheader, Thomas was hit by a pitch with the Phillies up 1-0 in the bottom of the 4th. Thomas had hit a homerun earlier that gave the Mets all the offence they would need.
But in that inning, by the time Thomas batted again, the Mets had pushed across 7 more runs.
Then Thomas was hit again.
Once again, Thomas had set an NL record, this time for most times hit by a pitcher (actually, two different Philly pitchers, Art Mchaffey and Frank Sullivan) in one inning.
On August 15th, in the second game of a doubleheader, the Mets trailed 6-1 in the bottom of the 6th inning against the Phillies.
But a triple by Chris Cannizzaro scored Mantilla, and Choo-Choo Coleman batted for pitcher Craig Anderson.
So Coleman goes downtown, cutting the lead to 2, 6-4. The Phillies would add a run in the 8th, then it was Coleman's turn to be pinch hit for in the bottom of the frame.
The batter was Jim Hickman. 2 on, 1 out.
And Hickman goes yard to tie the game!
But this is the 1962 Mets, so they ended up losing the game anyway.
Still, two pinch hit homeruns in the same game, by the same team? Wow.
The Mets of 1962 would hit 11 pinch hit homeruns in total, 2 each by Throneberry, Coleman and Ed Bouchee.
Gus Bell, right fielder, joined the team for the start of the season and got the first ever Met hit, off the Phillies Larry Jackson on April 11th, in the bottom of the second. Mantilla would draw the first ever walk.
He did something amazing in that opening game.
In the bottom of the 3rd, with runners on the corners, Philadelphia's Stan Musial doubled to right, scoring Julian Javier.
Bill White, on first, also was thinking home. But Bell's throw to Charlie Neal was on the mark, and Neal fired home to get White.
Ken Boyer grounded out (out # 2), Minnie Minoso singled to right to score Musial from second. But when the fleet footed Minnie headed towards second, Bell fired to first basemen Gil Hodges, and Minoso was eventually caught in a rundown and putout.
Two outfield assist in one inning by Bell, to set a National League record.
Bell wasn't done yet, either. In the bottom of the 6th, the Cardinals were up 10-4 with two out.
The Cardinals had plated 4 runs that inning, and a Musial single to right kept the ball going.
But Musial had thoughts of second, and Bell made the throw again, this time to shortstop Mantilla, and Stan The Man was out at second. The Mets would lose the game 11-4.
Quite a start one way or another, eh?
Pitching wise, you did have Craig, who lost 24, but also won 10 and got 3 saves. There was Al Jackson, who despite going just 8-20, pitched 3 shutouts.
But reliever Ken MacKenzie went 5-4 with a save, finished 16 games.
There was Bob Miller and Bob Miller. No that's not a missprint. They both batted right handed and were each 6'1 and roomates on the road!
Galen Cisco, who pitched just 4 times after coming over in a trade with the Red Sox was on the hill on September 21, 1962.
Against the Cubs in the top of the fourth, George Altman pinch hit for Moe Thachker.
Cisco struck him out.
The next batter, was another pinch hitter, Bob Will (hitting for pitcher Don Cardwell).
Cisco struck him out.
In the top of the 6th, Don Landrum batted for pitcher Glen Hobbie.
Cisco struck him out.
In the 8th, Cuno Barragen hit for Dick Bertell.
Cisco threw a wild pitch, allowing Alex Grammas, who was on first, to got to second.
Cisco then struck out Barragen.
4 pinch hitters struck out in one game by a pitcher. Again, another National League record was sent.
By the way, Billy Ott then pinch hit for pitcher Don Elston.
Cisco didn't strike him out, but fielded him comebacker and threw hit out at first.
Cisco went on to win the game 4-1 as Cisco finished with a fine 4 hit, 5 walk, 8 K performance. And the Mets won the game 4-1.
That dropped the Cubs to 56-99.
And improved the Mets to 38-115.
The Mets went 2-5 in their next 7 games.
The Cubs themselves beat the Mets on September 30th to hand them their 120 loss.
Joe Pignatano batted in the bottom of the 8th inning of that game with Sammy Drake and Richie Ashburn on with nobody out.
Pignatano lined to second for out #1. Ken Hubbs, who caught the ball, fired to Ernie Banks at first to nail Ashburn, who had left the bag. Banks fired to Andre Rogers, the shortstop covering second, to get Drake, who had also left too soon.
Triple play.
Pignatano's last at-bat of his career.
I just had to finish with a negative, eh? The real story of the '62 Mets!
References
Neft, David S., Richard M. Cohen, and Michael L. Neft. The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball, 1992. 12th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. Print.
Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 01 Dec. 2012.
Thorn, John, and Pete Palmer. Total Baseball. Vers. 1994. Portland, OR: Creative Multimedia Corp., 1994. Computer software. CD-ROM.
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