Are you ready for some history? Not real history, but a numerical marker of passing historical interest? Are you ready for the slight chance of a run or two being scored by the home team tonight?
Then you’re ready for Michael Conforto, suddenly (after weeks of wailing and wondering) recalled by your offensively bereft New York Mets in time for tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, as one-knee wonder Michael Cuddyer at last yields his seat on the 25-man roster, despite it apparently being bequeathed him into perpetuity by Joan Payson herself. Assuming Conforto makes Terry Collins’s hard-to-crack starting lineup, and assuming rains or plagues don’t wash away five official innings, then young Mr. Conforto will go into the books as the One Thousandth Met of All Time.
There, that only took 53½ years.
What started with Richie Ashburn, leadoff batter in Game No. 1 on April 11, 1962, projects to continue tonight. Once Casey Stengel’s lineup got through its first go-round, everything was pretty random from there. Consider our Franchise Four: Tom Seaver was No. 130; Keith Hernandez, No. 348; Mike Piazza, No. 594; and David Wright, No. 736. The last Numerical Milestone Met was Scott Hairston, at No. 900. Hairston, despite likely being the best hitter on the pre-Conforto 2015 Mets, wasn’t Mount Metsmore material. The numbers just fell where the numbers fell.
Hopefully, the base hits will fall for Met No. 1,000 in short order and the runs will pile up or at least trickle in, which is something they’ve done with alarming irregularity to date this year. Good luck, kid. You’re gonna need it, and we’re gonna need you.
When we officially have our One Thousandth Met, we will reveal our choice for the No. 1,000 Met of All Time…not chronologically, but consequentially. Who is the Least Significant Met Ever? Tune in later and find out here.
In the meantime, tune in here to hear me call for Conforto’s promotion and go on about some other Mets stuff with the folks from the Rising Apple Report the other night.
Wow! And it’s appropriate that the Roman numeral for one thousand is M. As in Met Michael Conforto. Welcome aboard!
Lets hope Conforto gets comfortable in the NL quickly! Welcome!
My vote for least significant Met: Ryan McGuire or Shane Halter (though I’m certain you’ve found someone MUCH less significant).
In one sense, the competition was very rough. In another, it was an easy choice.
Though it doesn’t show up in any box score, I once wrote a (frustration-driven) poem that included the line, “It’s a shame Shane Halter can’t halt this dreck.” That alone disqualifies Shane Halter from insignificance.
Ryan McGuire is a very good candidate for Least Significant Met Ever, but my fallback is always McKay Christensen. When I look up his stats, I’m inevitably surprised to see that he actually appeared in 4 games.
…and yet, if he were a member of the 2015 Royals, their fans would have voted him to start in the All-Star Game.
Veterans 3B Juan Uribe and utility man Kelly Johnson from the Braves for pitchers John Gant and Robert Whalen.
That was exactly the kind of trade for MLB average players, without giving up too much, that reasonable Mets fans have been clamoring for to compete in this season’s pennant race. Plus Cuddyer to the DL and Conforto called up and in the line-up.
Among other things, I think the trade puts Duda on notice that he needs to start hitting or else he’ll be benched. Murphy can play 1B with Uribe at 3B.
Credit where credit is due: We asked and Alderson delivered with Mets still within reach at 3 games out of NL East and WC.
Plus, d’Arnaud maybe a week away. Matz and Blevins hopefully cleared next week. (Not counting on Wright coming back yet.)
I guess it is the best we could hope for…oh what happened to the days when we traded for Hernandez and Carter?
My candidate is Joe Hietpas. He caught one inning and never batted in his Met career.
On the pitching side, how about Jack Egbert, whose Met career consisted of 2/3 of an inning in 1 game. He did get the 2 guys out, though.
Joe Hietpas is a pretty good call, but his drop of coffee with the team is so singular that it’s memorable, and thus seems a bit significant.
I can’t stress this enough: If it’s somebody you’ve thought of, he’s already too consequential. I’ll delve in more deeply in the post to come, but to be The All-Time Met of Least Consequence, it has to be somebody who you literally never think of. It’s not the same thing as being trivial or here and gone or kind of obscure with one of those offbeat names.
Our long national Met-mare is over!
Uribe and Johnson need to start, and Duda and Tejada need to be benched. Can’t stand Duda anymore —– that’s it!
Do the right thing, TC, do the right thing.
At least this trade brings a couple of credible major-league hitters without touching the core young starting pitching or depleting the farm system of anyone that any of us have ever heard of.
The Mets finally kick Mayberry and Muno to the curb and Collins now has options who can actually contribute– a little– from the bench or in the starting lineup.
Now if Alderson can swing a deal for Justin Upton without giving up anyone of note…
sturock, they will not be acquiring Upton…where would they play him? Also, I expect Campbell or Capt Kirk will be going down rather than Mayberry. Eric, Duda deserves a bit more patience. I wouldn’t mind seeing him get a few more days off, but his defense has been superb, he has been hitting with zero protection in the lineup, and has demonstrated the ability to go on prolonged power streaks in the past. He could be due for one shortly.
Greg – no offbeat names? You’re not going to consider Lance Broadway? I always thought that sounded like a stage name for a singer/actor/dancer who never got closer to Broadway than Vermillion, South Dakota.
Only a cad wouldn’t consider Lance Broadway. But for this exercise, consideration was all it was.