Today In Mets History: 1977- The Felix Millan / Ed Ott Brawl

August 12, 1977: The Mets get swept in a double header at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh tonight in 1977. Times were bad for the Mets and tonight marked the end of another players career from the 1973 NL Champion team.

After Jerry Koosman took a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in the 1st game, the Mets were battling in the night cap, and tied at 3-3 in the sixth inning. Manager Joe Torre made a double switch bringng in Felix Millan to play second, as Doug Flynn moved over to short, and Bob Apodaca to pitch. With an error and a double the Pirates took the lead. Next Apodaca intentionally walked catcher Edd Ott to set up a double play with the famous Mario Mendoza coming to bat. (The term the Mendoza line was named after him. The line refers to a player hitting under .200). Mendoza grounded to short stop Doug Flynn, he flipped to Millan at second but the 200 lb. Ott slid hard into Millan breaking up the play. Millan came up shouting at Ott, hitting him in the face with the ball still in his hand. Ott a former college football player & wrestler, took Millan and slammed him to the ground, breaking his collar bone & injuring his shoulder. Millan was taken off the field on a stretcher, and Ott was ejected. Interestingly Bobby Valentine came out to replace Millan, & former Met Duffy Dyer replaced Ott and drove in the game winning run later in the game.

Millan was done for the season and his MLB career was over as well. He played in Japan the next season and won a batting title the year after that, winning the Best Nine Award.