By 1990 he was an All Star first baseman at AA London, Ontario. He led the Eastern League in HRs (31) & was tied in RBIs (77). Although he didn’t match those same numbers again, he was brought up to the Tigers in September 1993. He appeared in just nine games going 5-26.
Three days before the 1994 season began he was traded to the New York Mets for Alan Zinter. He was a fine defensive player that turned some heads when he joined the Mets on the field.

In July he became just the third Met rookie in history to have a five hit game. It came on July 25th in a five hit night, playing the Cardinals in St. Louis. On the next night he had a four RBI day in a tight game against the Cardinals in the same series. In the top of the 11th inning he hit a two run HR breaking the 8-8 tie for what turned out to be the game winning runs.
In mid August the baseball strike killed the season, in only 38 games Brogna showed a lot of promise, batting .354 with 46 hits in 131 at bats. He had seven HRs with 11 doubles a .380 on base % & 20 RBIs.
In the third game his solo HR leading off the bottom of the 7th inning led to the Mets comeback win over the Cardinals. On May 6th he hit his third HR driving in two runs, giving him a total of seven RBIs through his first eight games.
He became popular with the Shea Faithful, as they would chant “Rico, Rico” when he came to bat. On June 15th in a game against the Florida Marlins, he helped tie the game with a bottom of the 9th inning base hit capping off a Mets three run rally. They went on to win the game in extra innings.
On June 30th he hit a two run HR off the Reds Chuck McElroy to break a 5-5 tie in the home seventh inning, in another game the Mets go on to win. From July 13th to the 25th he drove in twelve runs including two separate four game RBI streaks.
He remained consistent in August gathering up two different seven game hit streaks keeping his average above .290. He had a productive September driving in 21 runs, while hitting six HRs & scoring twenty runs.

On September 14th he helped Dave Mlicki to a 4-2 win with a two run fifth inning HR in the 5th inning breaking the 2-2 tie. As the Phillies rolled into town for a Mets home stand, Brogna greeted them with a two run HR on September 16th helping the Mets to a 10-8 win. The next day he had a career day. hitting a pair of HRs while gathering up three hits & driving in five runs leading New York to a 8-2 win.
At first base he led all N.L. first basemen in fielding with a .998%, and was fifth in the NL in putouts with 1112. His biggest draw back on the year was striking out 111 times, fifth most in the league.
In 1996 a back injury ended his season on June 19th playing in just 55 games for the year. He hit.255 with ten doubles, seven HRs a .318 on base % & 30 RBIs.

In May he had his best month including a May 11th game against the Chicago Cubs at home where he hit two HRs leading the team to a 7-6 win. On a West Coast road trip he hit a HR driving in three runs at San Francisco & then came back two days later to hit another HR while driving in four runs in a 7-1 Mets win in Los Angeles.
In the winter, the organization gave up on him & traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies. In exchange they received Ricardo Jordan who went 1-2 in 1997 and Toby Borland who never even saw Shea Stadium’s clubhouse.
In Philadelphia Brogna proved the Mets wrong; he went on to have three 20 plus HR seasons. He also drove in over 100 runs twice & had two thirty plus doubles seasons. In 1998 he led the N.L. with ten sac flies & then in 1999 had career highs in runs scored (90) as well as hits (172). In those years he did strike out over 115 times each year as well.
The Mets went out and got John Olerud to replace him at first base, and he although he worked out well, it didn’t make up for the bad decision to trading Brogna. His bat would have been a big help to the 1999 Mets wild card team.
Brogna would suffer from arthritis again & eventually it would finish his career by age 31. He went on to have quick stops with the Boston Red Sox (43 games in 2000) & the Atlanta Braves (72 games in 2001). That year he hit .248 with 3 HRs & 21 RBIs before retiring at the end of the season.
He ended his nine season career batting .269 with 795 hits 106 HRs 176 doubles 458 RBIs & a .320 on base %, playing in 848 games.

In 2013 he was hired as special assistant to Jerry DiPoto in the Anaheim Angels organization. The next year he was named the Angels player-information coach for the Angels.
That same year he was diagnosed with testicular cancer & immediately underwent surgery, that was sucessful. He returned to the Angels in 2016.
In 2017 he moved to the Phillies organization where he coached for the AA Reading Fighting Phils for two years.
After that he earned a masters degree & went into a career in cyber security.
Family: Brogna married Melissa Shuhart, whom he had met in high school, in 1992. They have two children, Alexa Grace and Hunter.
No comments:
Post a Comment