With 25 home runs, Pete Alonso is an All-Star for the third time [1] as a Met. Despite first-half performances suggesting they could have planned to join Pete on the flight from San Diego to Seattle this Sunday, Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo remain players who’ve never been All-Stars as Mets. It is the latter cohort that we’re focusing on this week on National League Town [2].
Out of affection for all the Mets we’ve loved before, Jeff Hysen and I, over at the podcast that’s all about Mets History, Mets Fandom and Mets Life, constructed an All-Star ballot strictly of Mets who never made an All-Star team as Mets. We set out to retroactively elect Mets who were overlooked or snubbed in their time by the Midsummer Classic powers that be. At their Met best, they may have been having very good seasons, but found themselves excluded for various reasons.
• A traffic jam at a given position.
• The Mets meeting what amounted to their quota.
• Fans elsewhere taking the “popularity contest” aspect of voting a little too literally.
• Managers who chose to cater to their own players rather than ours.
• The international anti-Met conspiracy.
It seemed time to give all these Mets who missed the All-Star Game as Mets a second chance. That’s what this ballot is about. We offer a dozen slots with five choices apiece, along with some write-in possibilities, and we remember some Mets who don’t otherwise come up in conversation this time of year. We didn’t consider current Mets, in the hopes that some year soon, when the Mets are playing better as a unit, the Lindors and Nimmos finally get their number called, and we didn’t try to sneak Mets who already made it onto an All-Star team as Mets on some more. Those 61 Mets already have the designation All-Star next to their names. Met All-Star Ed Kranepool. Met All-Star Pat Zachry. Met All-Star Michael Conforto. If you made it once, you’ve made it for life. If you made it as an Expo or a Brave or whatever, good for you, but we’re concerned that you didn’t make it as a Met, no matter that you might have been celebrated on the cover of the 1973 Official Yearbook for having made it in another guise.
[3]If you haven’t made it as a Met, have you really made it?
This exercise is also informed by having been twelve years old once and remaining twelve years old somewhere inside. Mets who could have been All-Stars but weren’t when you were twelve represent an injustice that stays with you when you’re twelve years old times five.
Here’s the ballot. Listen to the episode [4] for particulars and cast your own vote in your heart and/or head.
FIRST BASE
__DONN CLENDENON, 1970
__IKE DAVIS, 2010
__CARLOS DELGADO, 2006
__JOHN MILNER, 1974
__JOHN OLERUD, 1998
SECOND BASE
__WALLY BACKMAN 1986
__DOUG FLYNN, 1980
__GREGG JEFFERIES, 1990
__JEFF KENT, 1994
__FELIX MILLAN, 1975
THIRD BASE
__HUBIE BROOKS, 1984
__WAYNE GARRETT, 1973
__RAY KNIGHT, 1986
__LENNY RANDLE, 1977
__ROBIN VENTURA, 1999
SHORTSTOP
__ASDRUBAL CABRERA, 2016
__KEVIN ELSTER, 1989
__REY ORDOÑEZ, 1999
__RAFAEL SANTANA, 1987
__FRANK TAVERAS, 1979
CATCHER
__JOHN BUCK, 2013
__TRAVIS d’ARNAUD, 2017
__JESSE GONDER, 1964
__WILSON RAMOS, 2019
__MACKEY SASSER, 1990
LEFT FIELD
__GEORGE FOSTER, 1984
__CLIFF FLOYD, 2005
__BERNARD GILKEY, 1996
__KEVIN McREYNOLDS, 1988
__FRANK THOMAS, 1962
CENTER FIELD
__TOMMIE AGEE, 1970
__LENNY DYKSTRA, 1986
__JUAN LAGARES, 2014
__DEL UNSER, 1975
__MOOKIE WILSON, 1982
RIGHT FIELD
__JAY BRUCE, 2017
__JOE CHRISTOPHER, 1964
__CURTIS GRANDERSON, 2015
__RUSTY STAUB, 1975
__RON SWOBODA, 1968
ONE EXTRA GUY*
__BENNY AGBAYANI, 1999
__ENDY CHAVEZ, 2006
__CARL EVERETT, 1997
__WILMER FLORES, 2016
__ART SHAMSKY, 1970
*Player who’s somewhere between a utilityman and an everyday starter
STARTING PITCHER
__MARK BOMBACK, 1980
__GARY GENTRY, 1971
__TERRY LEACH, 1987
__BOBBY OJEDA, 1986
__CRAIG SWAN, 1978
SETUP RELIEVER
__LARRY BEARNARTH, 1964
__DENNIS COOK, 1998
__PEDRO FELICIANO, 2010
__DOUG SISK, 1984
__TURK WENDELL, 1999
CLOSER
__NEIL ALLEN, 1980
__BOB APODACA, 1975
__BRADEN LOOPER, 2004
__ROGER McDOWELL, 1986
__RANDY MYERS, 1988
There you have your National League Town Retroactive All-Star Ballot — happy listening [4], happy voting and happy Fourth!