centerfield maz

Jim Marshall was one of the seven last surviving players of the 45 men who played on the 1962 original Mets team.  Rufus James Marshall was born May 25th, 1931, in Danville, Illinois. The family moved west & he grew up in Long Beach California. The six foot, one left-handed hitter attended Long Beach State University. Pacific Coast League: Marshall was originally signed by the Chicago White Sox, spending seven seasons in the Pacific Coast League mostly with the Oakland Oaks. In December 1957 he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles along with Larry Doby, Jack Harshman & Russ Heman for Tito Francona, Billy Goodman & Ray Moore. In 1958 Marshall, became the Orioles starting first baseman as a rookie hitting 5 HRs with 19 RBIs in 85 games before getting put on waivers then getting picked up by the Chicago Cubs. He spent two years with the Cubs splitting time at first base with Dale Long, having career highs in 1959 with 11 HRs 40 RBIs & a .252 average. In November 1959, ...

Friday September 7, 1973:   Yogi Berra's Mets (67-73) were rolling along to a hot start in September, coming into tonight's game winning eight out of their last eleven games. All of a sudden, a team that was in last place in late August found themselves just four games back of first place. Gene Mauch's Montreal Expos (68-71) were just ahead of the Mets in that wild NL East race. On a chilly evening at Montreal's Park Jarry, 24,167 fans came out to see the Expos host the Mets in a Twi-night double header. Trivia: Twi-night Double Headers were the norm in those days, meaning the first game would start in the late afternoon & the second game after a break in the nighttime hours. In the first game, the Mets lefty Jon Matlack went up against (former Met) Steve Renko. It turned out to be a real pitching dual classic. In the top of the 1st, Wayne Garrett led off the game with his 12th HR of the year.  Garrett now had two HRs & four RBIs in his last ...

Thursday September 7th, 1989: Davey Johnson's Mets were in third place (74-65) but just 3.5 games behind the first place Chicago Cubs.  Tonight, they hosted their NL East Rivals; Whitey Herzog's St. Louis Cardinals (76-63) who were 1.5 games behind Chicago & two games ahead of the Mets.  23,354 came to Shea Stadium to see Frank Viola (10-16) go up against Ted Power (6-6). It was an overall big night for Mets bats, 13 runs on 15 hits in a 13-1 win, but it was a personal huge night for Greg Jefferies. Jefferies tied a club record with four extra base hits on this night, four hits with two HRs, five RBIs & two runs scored. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Jefferies batting leadoff, doubled to start his big night. The Mets left him stranded as Juan Samuel grounded out, then Ted Power struck out Howard Johnson & Darryl Strawberry. In the home 3rd,  Kevin Elster led off reaching on Terry Pendleton's error at third base. With one out Greg  Jeffries hit a t...

Davey Johnson began managing in 1979 with an Independent team in Florida. The next season he joined the New York Mets minor league organization, as manager of AA Jackson. In 1983 he became manager of the AAA Tidewater Tides & led the Tides to their second straight league championship. There he managed & observed many young players he would later manage in the major leagues with the Mets. Davey had moved up quickly through the organization, with some of his peers feeling he was passing more experienced managerial candidates. Looking back, this was not to be the case. Sabermetrics: Johnson had earned a mathematics degree at Trinity University. Back ack in the early 1980's, was one of the first baseball people to use computer data as information for baseball. Davey pioneered what was to become computer-based sabermetrics which is now a big part of MLB while his time managing the Mets. Davey was a strong advocate of on base percentages, the art of batter-pitcher match ups...

David Allen Johnson was born January 30, 1943, in Orlando, Florida. The six foot one, right hand hitting infielder went to high school in San Antonio Texas. He later attended John Hopkins University & then one year at Texas A & M.  In 1962 he was signed by the Baltimore Orioles as amateur free agent. Johnson hit over .300 at AA Elmira getting promoted to AAA Rochester later that year.   MLB Debut: In the Orioles 1965 season opener, he played two innings Season Opener Davey played in two innings getting his first career at bat in the loss to the White Son. He appeared in just twenty games with the Orioles getting sent back down to AAA Rochester, where he once again batted over .300. In 1966 the Orioles traded their second baseman Jerry Adair, to make room for the Davey Johnson era, as he would be the O’s regular second baseman for the next seven seasons. Davey would win three straight Gold Gloves, get elected to four All Star teams, play in four World Seri...