Matt Franco: 2000 N.L. Champion Mets Pinch Hitter / Utility Player (1996-2000)

Matthew Neil Franco
was born August 19, 1969, in Santa Monica, California. Matt grew up on West Lake, California & was a star baseball player at West Lake High.

Franco was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the seventh round of the 1987 draft. He spent eight years in the minor leagues, taking six years just to get to the AAA level. 

The six foot two left hand hitting Franco, came up briefly with the Chicago Cubs in September 1995 hitting .294 (5-17).

Franco was traded to the New York Mets at the start of the 1996 season for Chris Dewitt. He hit .321 at AAA Norfolk with 8 HRs & 81 RBIs, getting him a September call up.

Mets Career: He made his Mets debut on September 8th in Atlanta, playing third base going 0-4.
He played at third base & was used as a pinch hitter that month batting only .194 (6-31). 

He would see action in over 100 games in five straight years while in a Mets uniform, becoming a favorite weapon of Bobby Valentine. Franco would excel in the role of pinch hitter for the Mets through the Bobby Valentine era.

1998: On Opening Day of 1998, he got two at bats in the 14th inning 1-0 Mets win getting one hit against the Phillies. On May 3rd as the Mets went ahead of the Rockies 3-1 with two 9th inning runs, Franco then came up & doubled off Dave Veres, driving in two more runs leading to a 5-2 Mets win.

After gathering two pinch hit RBI doubles in the next two months, he had a game winner on July 23rd. Franco came to bat in the 9th inning of a 5-5 tie in Milwaukee's County Stadium as a pinch hitter. He singled off Chad Fox to put the Mets ahead of the Brewers 6-5, in what was the game winning run. 

A little more than a week later, on August 1st he hit a pinch-hit HR in the bottom of the 9th inning off the L.A. Dodgers’ Jeff Shaw to tie the game; that the Mets would win later in the inning.

Two weeks later he tied a game in Arizona, with a 7th inning pinch hit single off Bobby Chouinard, in another game the Mets would go on to win. In September he was 3-12 as a pinch hitter. He finished the year batting .276 with 5 HRs 5 doubles 21 RBIs & .330 on base %.

1999 Wild Card Season: Franco helped the Mets get to a wild card berth, by setting an MLB record with 20 pinch hit walks in a single season. On April 17th he got an outfield start & drove in two of the three Met runs with a 3rd inning double off the Montreal Expos Carl Pavano.


On May 25th he hit an 8th inning pinch hit HR against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 8-3 Mets victory. A week later on June 2nd in a home game against the Cincinnati Reds, he drove in two runs on a 7th inning pinch hit single bringing the Mets within one run. Unfortunately, Armando Benitez would blow the game in the end losing 8-7.

Later in the month he hit a two run HR in Cincinnati while starting a game in the outfield. 

Walk Off Hit in the Subway Series: One of Franco’s biggest Met moments came on Saturday July 10th, 1999, in the interleague Subway Series game at Shea Stadium. He came to bat in the bottom of the 9th inning with the Mets down 8-7. 

The bases were loaded with Rickey Henderson, Edgardo Alfonso & Mike Piazza on, with two outs. Franco was facing Mariano Rivera, two strikes he drilled a base hit to right field, scoring the tying & winning runs for the walk off 9-8 victory.



In August he had more heroics; first in a game against the St Louis Cardinals he walked in the bottom of the 9th inning then scored the winning run-on Edgardo Alfonzo’s walk off game winning base hit.


Two days later he kept the Mets on pace, a half a game out of first place, with a walk off pinch-hit single at Shea Stadium in a game against the Houston Astros. Franco would finish the year with 15 pinch hits, batting well over .300 in that role.

 In the Mets wild card winning year, Franco hit .235 with 4 HRs 5 doubles 21 RBIs 28 walks & a .366 on base % in 132 at bats in 122 games played. 

The versatile Franco even pitched in two games, making his first appearance on the mound since the minor leagues. He posted an ERA of over thirteen but did strikeout two batters in 1.1 inning pitched.

1999 Post Season: In the 1999 NLDS against the Arizona Diamondbacks he went 0-1 as a pinch hitter.

1999 NLCS: In the NLCS against the Atlanta Braves Franco appeared in five games. He got two official at bats (1-2). 

In Game #6 at Turner Field, Franco hit a pinch hit double leading off the 7th inning, against John Smoltz. He would score on Rickey Henderson's double in the next at bat. 

The Mets were down 7-4 but came back to score three more runs to tie the game. John Olerud singled home Henderson & Mike Piazza hit a two run HR. The game went to the 11th inning, where Kenny Rogers walked in the winning run as the Mets were eliminated.

2000 Mets Pennant Season: Franco continued his pinch-hitting success driving in runs five times as a pinch hitter. 

Walk Off Single: On April 24th, Matt came to bat as a pinch hitter in the 9th inning, of a scoreless game at Shea Stadium against the Los Angeles Dodgers. With two men on he singled to left field off pitcher, Terry Adams, thrilling the Mets fans with a game winning walk off hit. 

He struggled early on not hitting over .100 until May 3rd. In May he went 3-10 as a pinch hitter & collected eight hits by June 3rd to raise his average over a hundred points to .213.

In the classic June 8th game where the Mets came back to beat the Atlanta Braves after being down 8-0, Franco came in as a pinch hitter in the 7th inning driving in the Mets first run of the comeback. They would score ten runs in the 8th inning.

In the first game of a July 27th doubleheader, he played a full game at third base & gave the Mets the go-ahead winning run over the Expos, with an 8th inning single off Montreal’s Steve Kline. 

In August after suffering an injury, he was sent down to AAA Norfolk returning for the pennant stretch in September. 

On September 6th, he got to play a full game, playing at third & first base. Franco hit a 1st inning three run HR off the Reds Rob Bell, at Cinergy Field. On September 11th, he got another start & hit a HR off Milwaukee's Paul Rigdon at Shea Stadium.

On September 28th, he played at third base driving in a run in an 8-2 Mets win over the Braves.

Overall, he saw action 101 games batting .239 with two HRs four doubles 21 walks a .340 on base % & 14 RBIs.

2000 Post Season- NLCS: In the NLCS Game #2, he came to bat as a pinch hitter in the 8th inning of the 2-2 tie. He grounded out then & in the 9th inning as well. The Mets won the game on Jay Payton's RBI base hit in the 9th. He went hitless in the 2000 post season going 0-4 as a pinch hitter. He got another at bat in the Game #3 loss at Shea, striking out looking at a Dave Veres 9th inning fastball. 

2000 World Series: Matt saw action in one game, striking out for the final out in Game #4 at
Shea Stadium.


Post Mets Career: After being granted free agency in December 2000 he went to play in Japan for the 2001 season.

Braves Career: In November 2001 he signed with Atlanta Braves for the 2002 season. There he hit .317 in 81 games. He finished up his career in Atlanta in 2003 after playing in 112 games hitting .246 with 3 HRs & 15 RBIs.

Career Stats: In his eight-year MLB career, Franco batted .267 lifetime with 261 hits 22 HRs 43 doubles 4 triples 117 RBIs & a .395 on base %, with 977 careers at bats in 661 games.

Matt played 140 career games at first base, 95 at third base, 43 in the outfield, 12 as a DH, four games at second & two games pitching.

Family: Franco is the nephew of actor Kurt Russell. His mother Jill Franco is Kurt's sister. Matt's father is film producer Larry J. Franco.

His grandfather is actor Bing Russell. Bing lived in St. Petersburg Florida where his father an a floatplane service. It was close to the AL New York's team Spring Training site & Bing became the teams unofficial mascot. 

He was later discovered by Bing Crosby who began his acting career, hence his new name of Bing. Bing would become a character actor with 179 credits to his name, including the pilot of the Monkees TV show, The Andy Griffith Show, The Munsters, The Twilight Zone, I Dream of Jeannie, Bonanza & Mannix to name a dew. One of his last roles was in his son's Kurt movie Tango & Cash with Sylvester Stallone.

Bing was also a minor league baseball player & team owner of the A ball Portland Mavericks.

Retirement: In 2004 Franco went back to Japan playing for manager Bobby Valentine, on the Chiba Lotte Marines. In 2005 he led the team with 21 HRs & 78 RBIs while batting .300 for the second place Marines. 

On that club his teammate was former Met outfielder, Benny Agbayani. Franco played there for three seasons through 2006.

Mitchell Report: In 2007 his name was mentioned for steroid use in the Mitchell Report.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Mets History: (1977) The Felix Millan / Ed Ott Brawl In Pittsburgh

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

Fictional Mets Infielder Chico Escuela ( of SNL) Visits Mets Spring Training (1979)

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

The History of Yogi Berra & Yoo-Hoo