centerfield maz

Kurt Thomas Abbott was born on June 2, 1969 in Zanesville, Ohio.  The five foot eleven right hand hitter, played second, short stop & the out field. Abbott attended high school in St. Petersburg Florida getting drafted by the Oakland A’s in the 15th round in 1989. He spent four years in the A’s minor league system before having his best season in 1993 batting .319 at AAA Tacoma. MLB Career: He got a brief 20 game call up. In that time, he hit 3 HRs with 9 RBIs batting .246. Marlins Career: Abbott was traded to the Florida Marlins where he would be the team’s main short stop in 1994, with career highs in hits (107) HRs (17) & RBIs (60). He batted .255 but struck out 94 times (4th in the league) and made 15 errors (5th in the league).  The next year he only hit 8 HRs & struck out 110 times making 19 errors (3rd most in the league). By 1996 Abbott was suffering from vision problems & striking out way too often. Also in Florida, there was a young Edgar Renteria

Kelvin Keith Chapman was born June 2, 1956 in Willits, California. The five foot eleven, second baseman was signed out of Santa Rosa Jr. College as an amateur free agent by the New York Mets in 1975.  After showing a good glove & batting .306 at A ball Wausau in 1977, he quickly moved up in the Mets organization. Chapman was invited & had a great Spring Training in 1979.  MLB Career: He was promoted right past AAA ball stealing the Opening Day Mets second base job from Doug Flynn. In those days the Mets & manager Joe Torre tried anything to get a win. Flynn was an outstanding fielder but a light hitter.  Unfortunately,   the Kelvin Chapman experiment at second base lasted only 35 games & 80 at bats; as he hit only.150. Doug Flynn got his job back and went on to earn a gold glove. Chapman spent the next four years in AAA mostly with the Tidewater Tides as the teams main second baseman. In 1984 he started out hitting well & manager Davey Johnson calle

Friday night June 1st, 2012: At first it seemed like any other New York night. Terry Collins' New York Mets were playing well & surprising everyone with a 29-23 record, just one game out of first place. 27,069 fans came to Citi Field to see the Mets go up against the reigning World Champion, St Louis Cardinals (27-25). The Mets sent Johan Santana to the mound, 2-2 with a 2.75 ERA. Santana had missed all of 2011 due to injury, he had an impressive Opening Day win, pitching five scoreless innings then struggled. In his last start he threw a complete game four hit shutout at Citi Field, beating the San Diego Padres. On this night he was even better, he went out & made Mets history. After a quiet 1st inning, Johan started out the 2nd getting Allen Craig to fly out. He then walked two batters but struck out Matt Adams & Tyler Green to end the inning.  In the 3rd he got an easy ground ball out, a weak pop up & soft liner to short, as the Cards went down 1-2-3. Sa

Rickey Allen Baldwin was born June 1, 1953, in Fresno, California, the hometown of Mets Hall of Famer Tom Seaver.  In his own words he was" raised in the church" to a religious family. In Modesto High School he played basketball & baseball.  The tall six foot three, side armed right-handed throwing Baldwin, was drafted by the New York Mets in ninth round of the 1971 draft. In 1972 he was second on the Mets A ball Visalia staff, to Cecil Reynolds going 12-8 leading the team with 90 strike outs. Baldwin won nine games at AA Memphis (1973) & AA Victoria (1974) while posting winning records in each of the next two seasons. In his time there the Mets began using him more as a reliever. In Spring Training 1975, the Mets had an opening in the bullpen after trading away Tug McGraw. Baldwin impressed the team and made it North with a lot of promise for his future. The team even gave him McGraw’s old uniform number 45.  Quotes: Baldwin marveled at being in the big leagu

Friday May 30th, 1986: Tonight, Davey Johnson's first place Mets (31-11) hosted Roger Craig's fourth place San Francisco Giants (24-23).  A crowd of 38,243 came out to see Bruce Berenyi (2-0) take on Mike Lacoss (5-1). Berenyi would start the year at 2-0 for the Mets. He would fall to 2-2 & be sent back down to AAA in early July. He appeared in 14 games making seven starts for New York. Trivia: Mike LaCoss would start the year at 9-3 then lose ten of his last eleven games to finish at 10-13. In the bottom of the 1st, the Mets Lenny Dykstra led off with a single, then Wally Backman walked. Keith Hernandez followed with an RBI single. After Gary Carter struck out, Darryl Strawberry walked. Although George Foster grounded out, Backman scored the Mets second run. Ray Knight followed with a single to centerfield to make it 3-0. In the 2nd, the Giants got a run, Chili Davis walked & Luis Quinones singled. A jose Uribe base hit scored Davis for the Giants first run. In the Gi

Sunday May 31st 1964: Today Casey Stengle's Mets (14-31) hosted the second place San Francisco Giants (25-17) who were just one game out of first place.  It had been seven years since the Giants had left New York & the Polo Grounds for the west coast of San Francisco. Every time they returned to New York to play the Mets, the Giants  had always attracted big crowds, as their old fans came out to root them on. This Sundays double header drew 57,037 fans.  It was a day to go down in the history books, as this was to be the longest double header in baseball history. The double header lasted a total of nine hours fifty two minutes.  A Long 24 Hours For Ed Kranepool:  Kranepool was an original 1962 Met, the team's first bonus baby, home grown out of the Soundview section of the Bronx.  He had debuted for three games with the 1962 Mets at age 17 & played 86 games for them in 1963. He began 1964 with the Mets big league team but was sent down to AAA on May 12th. On May 30