Mike Vail: Former Met Who Tied a Rookie Hitting Streak Record (1975 - 1977)

Michael Lewis Vail was born November 10, 1951, in San Francisco, California. The six feet, right-handed hitting outfielder was first drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1970 but did not sign.

A year later, he did sign a deal, this time with the St. Louis Cardinals. Over the next four years, Vail bounced from single A to double A minor league baseball.

Trivia: In these early days, Vail's baseball roommate was future wrestler "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

After the Mets 1973 Pennant season, the team disappointed their fans finishing in fifth place in 1974. The biggest problems were an off year by Tom Seaver & more even mor so a lack of offense & power. 

During the 1974 off season, the Mets traded utility infielder Teddy Martinez to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for outfielder Mike Vail & infielder Jack Heideman.

IL Player of the Year: At AAA Tidewater, Vail won the 1975 International League Player of the Year Award, hitting .342 with 23 doubles, 9 HRs & 79 RBIs. 

In 1975, the Mets brought in Joe Torre & Dave Kingman to help their hitting. The Mets & their fans were excited that season, but once again the team failed to provide offense. They needed a bat badly & called up Mike Vail in August 1975.

MLB Debut: On August 18th, Vail debuted with the Mets, pinch hitting & collecting his first hit, a pinch-hit single off the Astros J.R. Richard in his first career at bat. 

On August 22nd, Mike Vail singled off the Giants Charlie Williams at Candlestick Park. It was the start of his rookie record hitting streak. Vail would collect another single in the 8th inning of the 6-4 Mets win.

Four Hit Game: On August 25th, Vail collected four hits, with two singles & a pair of doubles in a 4-0 win at San Diego. In the top of the 5th. he drove in his first run with a single off Brent Strom. 

The next night, Vail collected three hits in a 7-2 Mets win in San Diego as well. 

On August 27th, Vail had two more hits, extending the hit streak to five games. He had nine hits in the three-game sweep at San Diego. By the end of the night, he was batting .480. On this night Tom Seaver pitched a six-hit shutout for his 19th victory of the season.

The Mets moved on to Los Angeles, they won the first two games to complete a five-game win streak. They would split the series with Vail collecting a hit in each game to extend his hit streak to eight straight games.

On September 1st at Shea Stadium, Vail hit his first career HR, coming off the Pirates John Candelaria. The Mets won the game behind Tom Seaver's 20th victory & fifth shutout of the year. On September 2nd, Vail extended his streak to ten games as he collected his first career triple.

Over the next five games, he would drive in a run in each game while extending his hit streak to 15 games & hold a .379 batting average. On September 5th, Vails hit streak extended to 13 games, as he hit a two run HR off the Cardinals Eric Rasmussen, as well as an RBI single for a season best three RBI game. 

As the Mets went up to Montreal for a three-game series, Vail started out with a solo HR off Woodie Fryman. He then collected hits in the next two games as well to get to 17 games in the hit streak. The Mets were swept in Montreal & on a six-game losing skid. 

On September 10th, the Mets went to Pittsburgh; after dropping the first game, Jerry Koosman stopped the losing streak with a six-hit shutout. In the 6th inning, Vail hit an RBI single off Kent Tekulve extending his streak to 19 games.

The Mets moved on to St. Louis where Vail collected hits in all three games. On September 14th he led off the 4th inning with a single off John Denny to reach twenty games in the hit streak.

By now Vail was getting national attention with his hitting streak. He had hit safely in 22 straight games & was just one game away from tying the rookie hitting streak record, held by the Phillies Richie Ashburn in 1948. In 1962 Ashburn was an original Met & the team's first All Star & first player to hit .300.

On September 15th, the Mets hosted the last place Montreal Expos (65-84) as Jerry Koosman (12-13) went against Steve Rogers (10-11) in front of a small crowd of 7,259 at Shea Stadium.
 
In the 1st inning, Vail came up to nice ovation & grounded out. In the 4th inning, he hit a screaming liner that was snagged by Expo third baseman, Larry Parrish. 

Vail thought to himself, if he hit it that hard & it was an out, his chances of tying a record were slim.

But in the 6th inning, with the Mets down 2-0, Vail came up with Del Unser on second base. Vail took Steve Rogers' pitch up the middle for a base hit. He extended his hit streak to 23 games, tying the Rookie Record. Unser also score from second base.

Cooperstown: The game ball Vail hit was sent to Cooperstown to be displayed at the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Quotes- Mike Vail:  "I never thought something like this would happen. It's unreal. I hope to get in there someday myself. I was lucky I did it in my first year," he said, but then laughed realizing what he had said.

To top off his record setting night, he singled again in the 8th inning bringing in Gene Clines with the games winning run. Quite a night for the youngster. 

Trivia: Vail's 23 game hit streak was also the longest MLB streak of the year. The Boston Red Sox Denny Doyle had a 22-game hit streak earlier in the year.

Mets Drama: During the Mike Vail streak, the Mets were having problems in the clubhouse that soon became national attention. Earlier in the year, Met veteran, Cleon Jones who had been involved in an alleged sex scandal, as now upset at his lack of playing time. In August he refused to come into a game as a substitution. This led to a public feud with Mets manager Yogi Berra. The organization stood behind Berra & released Jones.

For Berra, as the team fell out of the race, he was being held accountable. He would be fired soon after Jones' release. Coach Roy McMillan took over as interim manager. 

Although, the Mets were still above .500 they had fallen to fourth place, nine games back. At the same time Mets owner Joan Payson was in poor health & would pass away when the season ended. 

After the record setting streak, Vail continued to hit safely in nine of his last twelve games to close out the season hitting safely in 31 of 35 games. 

Overall, in 38 games he batted .302 with three HRs 8 doubles 17 runs scored & 17 RBIs. He posted a .339 on base % & .759 OPS.

Vail's hitting streak had the Mets hoping for great things to come. They thought he could be the right fielder of the Mets future. So much so they traded away their biggest RBI man, Rusty Staub to Detroit. With Vail, slugger Dave Kingman & veteran Joe Torre now added in the lineup, the Mets were thinking they had enough offense.

Off Season Injury: In the off season, Vail dislocated his foot carelessly playing basketball at his home. He would miss half the 1976 season.

As for Torre & Kingman: Joe Torre hit .306 playing in 114 games. At age 35 it was his last good season. Although Dave Kingman hit a club record 37 HRs, he only batted .238. Meanwhile Rusty Staub, would go on to drive in over 96 runs three straight seasons in Detroit, with a career high 121 in 1978.

Bicentennial Year:  Vail returned to the Mets in mid-June, slowly getting back into the lineup. 

From June 17th to June 19th, he hit safely in two of three pinch hit appearances. But thru his first 15 games he was only batting .222.

On July 20th, his 1st inning sac fly gave the Mets a 2-0 lead over the Big Red Machine. Jerry Koosman held down the Reds for a 2-1 win over Gary Nolan.

From August 1st to August 13th, he batted .308 with six RBIs & getting steady playing time. 

Offensive Hero & Bench Clearing Brawl: On August 11th, he drove in both runs of a 2-1 Jon Matlack win against the San Diego Padres at Shea with a 1st inning two run double off Tom Griffin. 

As he came in standing at second base, Padre's infielder Tito Fuentes put a hard tag on him. Vail shoved him, Fuentes struck at Vail with the ball & he swung a punch back. Joe Torre who was on third ran over to break things up with Umpire Paul Pryor. Benches cleared but order was soon restored. 

Vail's offensive production was short lived. In September he missed action with more injuries playing in just seven games.

For the 1976 season his averaged plummeted 85 points from the previous year, hitting just .217 with no HRs five doubles & nine RBIs in 143 at bats. His on base % (.243) & OPS (.509) were also among the lowest on the team.

1977: In 1977 Vail played outfield in 85 games, alongside Lee Mazzilli, Steve Henderson, Bruce Boisclair & veteran Ed Kranepool. Vail would also be used as a pinch hitter as well. 

In early May, things began to go well for Vail. From May 8th to July 15th, he would bat .339 hitting 5 HRs with 22 RBIs getting his season average up to .329. At the time of the Midnight Massacre, the night Tom Seaver & Dave Kingman were traded away, Vail was hitting .360.

Four Hit Games: On June 4th, Vail had the first four hit game of his career, with a double & three singles in a 2-0 win over the Phillies at Shea. On July 15th in the second game of a double header, he had his second four hit game. In the midst of a nine-game hit streak, he collected three singles & his sixth HR of the year in a 6-1 win over the Pirates at Shea.

On June 30th in Montreal, his top of the 9th inning ground out, scored the winning run off Montreal's Steve Rogers to beat the Expos. In July he drove in 14 runs & had four multi- RBI games.

In the first half of the season he batted .317 but in the second half he struggled batting just .183. In August he hit just .159 & in 15 games in September had just five hits in 26 at bats (.192).

 On the season, Vail hit .262 with 8 HRs 12 doubles 29 runs scored & 35 RBIs in 108 games. He posted a .310 on base % & .708 OPS for the last place Mets. Vail was a much better hitter at Shea Stadium batting .289 as opposed to .225 on the road.

In right field he played 82 games & his .976 fielding % was fifth best in the league.

Spring Training 1978, the Mets gave up on Vail & sold his contract to the to the Cleveland Indians.

Mets Career Stats: In parts of three seasons he played in 199 Mets games, batting .262 with 153 hits 25 doubles 11 HRs & 61 RBIs with a .302 on base % & .673 OPS.

Post Mets Career: Vail appeared in just 14 games with the Indians, then was sent to the Chicago Cubs. There he batted .333 in 74 games with the Cubs, becoming a successful pinch hitter. 

Pinch hit Grand Slam: On June 30, 1979, in a game against his old Mets teammates, Vail belted a pinch-hit grand slam off reliever Dale Murray. The HR brought the Cubs within a run, but the Mets won the game 9-8. 

In 1979 Vail was reunited with his former Mets teammate, Dave Kingman who led the NL with 48 HRs for the fifth place Cubs. Vail played in 87 games, batting .325 (179 at bats) with 7 HRs & 35 RBIs.

In 1980 he continued to hit well playing at Wrigley Field, batting .298 in 114 games as the club's main right fielder. 

It was his last year as a starting player.

Over the next four seasons, he was with the Cincinnati Reds (1981-1982) Montreal Expos (1983)
San Francisco Giants (1983) & Los Angeles Dodgers (1984). 

Trivia: With Montreal, he hit two HRs, both coming off future Hall of Famer Steve Carlton. 

On July 6th, 1984, he had a walk off single off the Cardinals Jeff Lahti for his only hit as a Dodger in 16 at bats.

Career Stats: Overall, in a ten-year career, Vail hit .279 with 447 hits 34 HRs 71 doubles 11 triples 146 runs scored & 219 RBIs. He struck out 317 times with 81 walks posting a .313 on base % &.713 OPS. 

He played in 665 career games. In the outfield he played 399 games with 35 assists posting a .968 fielding %.

Retirement: Vail played in the short lived Senior Professional League with the Orlando Juice.