centerfield maz

Steven Curtis Henderson was born on November 18, 1952 in Houston, Texas. He attended Prairie View A &M in Texas, getting drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the fifth round of the 1974 draft as a promising outfielder.  He batted .312 with 17 HRs & 61 RBIs at AA ball Trois Rivieres in 1976. The next year he was batting .326 after 60 games at AA Indianapolis, but wasn’t much room on the Big Red Machine in the mid seventies for a young player in the minors. On June 17th 1977, Henderson became famous for being the key player in the Tom Seaver trade on what Mets fans call “The Midnight Massacre”. Henderson along with Pat Zachary, Doug Flynn, & Dan Norman went to the New York Mets for Hall of Famer Tom Seaver.  There was a lot of hype and big expectations put on the young Henderson by the organization trying to make the Seaver trade look somewhat justified. Henderson & not many other players could ever have lived up to those expectations. In his first career game on

Randall Harold Niemann was born November 15, 1955 in Scotia, California. The big six foot four, two hundred pound lefty, was drafted three different times, but did not sign until 1975. He was the second round pick of the AL New York club. In 1977 he was sent to the Houston Astros for Cliff Johnson & Dave Bergman. In 1978 at AA Columbus he posted a 2.05 ERA with a 9-5 record for the Astros minor league team. He began 1979 at AAA Charleston but was called up in May debuting against the San Diego Padres on May 20th. He pitched seven innings allowing just two runs, but earned no decision. In his next start he threw a complete game victory against the Cincinnati Reds allowing just one run. Overall he appeared in 26 games, tossing three complete games, in only seven starts going 3-2 with a 3.76 ERA. He became a middle reliever, spending two seasons in Houston before going to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1982. After just eight games in 1983 he had a 9.22 ERA and was sent down to

Thursday October 12th, 2006- NLCS Game #1- Shea Stadium, New York:    The 2006 New York Mets (97-65) were in first place for most regular season, winning the Eastern Divisional title rather easily. Manager Willie Randolph brought the Mets to their first post season in six years, with one of the most potent Mets offenses since the 1980's. The Mets opponents were Tony LaRussa's; St. Louis' Cardinals (83-78).  A sold out Shea Stadium, with a crowd of 56,311 hosted the first Game of the 2006 NLCS as Tom Glavine (15-7 / 3.82 / 131 Ks) went up against Jeff Weaver (8-14 / 5.76 ERA / 107 Ks). This would be one of Glavines best performances while pitching for the Mets, in the post season spot light. Willie Randolph & the Mets sure needed a big pitching performance, with Pedro Martinez & Orlando Hernandez both on the DL. Starting Lineups St. Louis Cardinals New York Mets 1 David Eckstein SS 1 Jose Reyes SS 2 Preston Wilson LF 2 Paul Lo Duca C 3 Albert Puj

1986 Post World Series Drama: In the first real big sign of trouble in Gooden's young life was when he missed the team victory parade. It wasn't until years later he revealed he was getting high the night before on a cocaine binge & was unable to recuperate for the morning parade. The Mets announced that their star pitcher had overslept, but no one believed it. Years later he revealed, the Night after winning World Series Doc was in a housing project in Roslyn Long Island getting high with friends & strangers. He partied all night passed out & missed the parade. He started drinking then smoking pot.  He began using coke in 1985 at his cousins house trying to score pot. His cousin left him & there were two girls in the apartment in lignite playing together in the bed room. They invited him in, he tried the coke & the girls & was hooked. More Drama: Gooden was soon arrested on December 13th, 1986 in Tampa, Florida after fighting with police. Rum