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KinersKorner.com is your one-stop multimedia source for all things Mets


Time Traveler Tuesdays: Mets 3rd Basemen of the 2000s: The Legend of 'Captain America' David Wright
We write about the positions by decade every week, but it's super rare to run into a decade where it was all about one person. The 2000s 3rd basemen for the Mets will be all about David Wright. He's a legend for Mets fans, and he ranks at the top of almost every statistical category for the team in the 2000s. "Captain America" was a hero to an entire generation of fans, so he deserves all the kind words. The 2000s started with Robin Ventura at 3rd base for 2000 and 2001. Vent

Manny Fantis
Feb 173 min read


Flipped, Traded, Loved: Happy 75th to Topps and the Cards That Raised Us
If you’re anything like me and my wife insists there is no one like me (I’m still not sure if she meant that as a compliment), you can remember exactly when and where you bought your very first pack of baseball cards. Just reading this probably has your sense of smell kicking into gear right now. (Is that… that smell?) That unmistakable aroma of cardboard, ink, and gum, or what passed for gum in the 1960s, especially when you peeled back that last card in the pack, hoping for

Mark Rosenman
Feb 119 min read


R.I.P. Mickey Lolich: The Beer-Drinker’s Idol, the Workhorse Lefty, and the One-Year Met Who Wouldn’t Ice His Arm
There are Hall of Famers, and then there are baseball lifers—guys who looked like they could’ve been sitting two stools down from you at the bar, but instead went out every fifth day and took the ball like it owed them money. Mickey Lolich was that guy. Lolich, who passed away on February 4, 2026 at the age of 85, described himself as “the beer-drinker’s idol,” and nobody ever accused him of false advertising. With his sturdy frame, soft belly (which he insisted was “all musc

Mark Rosenman
Feb 44 min read


Kollector’s Korner Met-o-ra-bil-ia Hall of Fame Inductee #13 : Steve Gruber, The Man Who Won’t Let a Single Met Be Forgotten
If the Kollector’s Korner Hall of Fame handed out scouting reports, this month’s inductee would come with something like this: position, relentless; tools, patience, research, memory, and phone numbers nobody else has; weakness, none detected; ceiling, every Met who ever appeared in a game. This month’s inductee is not just a collector. He is a tracker, a historian, a networking department, and occasionally a private investigator who just happens to wear Mets blue. Meet Steve

Mark Rosenman
Feb 16 min read


Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing #55 : Kathy Kersch, Baseball, and the First Mets Scandal
Welcome back to Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing, our weekly rummage through the Mets’ attic, where we brush the dust off the bubble-gum cards, flip through curling yearbooks, and rediscover the names that once made you stop mid-knish and say, “Hold on… he was a Met, right?” Last week’s lesson took a slight detour from the usual roll call of orange-and-blue alumni. Instead of Mets who were, we studied Mets who almost were, a half-dozen draft picks whose names were o

Mark Rosenman
Jan 186 min read


Thursday Trade Tracker: Kansas City Royals. MLB's Best Prospect, Two Cy Young Winners, and the Top Centerfielder of a Decade
This time of year we are all used to hearing about Kansas City when it comes to football. The Mets and the Kansas City Royals have had lopsided trades that have had severe impacts on both teams. Get ready to hear about almost-was and never-was and could have beens. No, I'm not talking about the Mets getting Ambiorix Burgos or giving up Jeff Keppinger (think a light version of the Squirrel, Jeff McNeil). July 30, 2004. Mets trade OF Jose Bautista for 1B Justin Huber. Did you f

Mitch Green
Jan 86 min read


Time Traveler Tuesdays: Mets First Base in the 2000s—Power, Pop, and Plenty of Big Names
With John Olerud leaving Queens for Seattle after the 1999 season, the Mets had to get creative in filling their first base position. Todd Zeile, whose natural position was originally catcher but who had played nearly 2,000 Major League games at third base, was chosen to man first base for the Mets in 2000. Zeile knew he had a lot of work ahead to master the footwork and nuances of first base. So he reached out to one of the best to ever do it—a Mets legend. "I worked with Ke

Manny Fantis
Jan 64 min read


Thursday Trade Tracker: San Diego Padres. A Closer, an MVP, and an Invisible Man
The wind is howling, the snow is accumulating, the temperatures are dropping, and my mind wanders towards the beauty of San Diego. The Mets and Padres have had their share of impactful trades with beloved (and not so beloved players). December 20, 1973. Mets trade RHP Jim McAndrew for RHP Steve Simpson. Trading a solid, if unspectacular, pitcher for someone who never pitched a game for the Mets may not be impactful, but McAndrew threw for six seasons on the Mets, two of tho

Mitch Green
Jan 15 min read


Franchise Fridays: All-Time Mets Greats Fall 7-4 to All-Time Giants Greats at Polo Grounds
Week 4 of Franchise Fridays at Citi Field kicked off with a battle between two branches of the National League family tree: the All-Time Mets and the All-Time Giants. After getting swept by their Dodgers cousins, the Mets hoped to finally get off the schnied against New York’s other historic NL powerhouse. And in this Strat-O-Matic showdown, Hall of Famer Tom Seaver took the mound for the Mets against Christy Mathewson for the Giants at the virtual Polo Grounds—a duel that pr

Mark Rosenman
Dec 12, 20253 min read


Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing #49 : Jane Jarvis: The Jazz Genius Who Gave Shea Stadium Its Soundtrack
Welcome back to Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing, our weekly rummage through the Mets’ attic, where we brush the dust off the bubble-gum cards, rummage through the old yearbooks, and rediscover the players who made you pause mid–potato knish and mutter, “Hold on… he was a Met, right?” Last week, we dove into the rarest of Mets species, the two-sport unicorn himself, DJ Dozier, NFL running back, major-leaguer, and a man who collected job titles the way the rest of us

Mark Rosenman
Dec 7, 20256 min read


Grading the Mets’ Most Impactful December Trades: A Winter Meetings Walk Through History
These days, Mets fans can get their fix of trade rumors easily. There is nothing that quite gives fans the hope of getting through the winter like a good rumor. Back in the day, before sports talk radio and the internet, I remember a two-inch blurb in the Daily News that perked me up! It simply said, "Mets Closing in on Trade For Foster" George Foster? Dominant MVP, 50 home run dynamo from the Reds? I must have read those few sentences 15 times. Well, the Foster the Mets did

Mitch Green
Dec 6, 20256 min read


Saturday Seasons: 1999 Piazza’s Power, Ventura’s “Grand Slam Single,” and the Season That Revived New York Baseball
Following a second consecutive 88-74 record without a playoff berth, the Mets hierarchy felt some drastic changes needed to be made if they were to get back to October baseball for the first time in 11 years. Carlos Baerga and Todd Hundley departed via free agency and Mel Rojas was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a second stint of Bobby Bonilla. The Mets used free agency to add gold glove winning third baseman Robin Ventura, future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson and for

Howie Karpin
Dec 6, 202510 min read


Kollector’s Korner Met-o-ra-bil-ia Hall of Fame Inductee #11 : 52 Ballparks, 50 States, and One Lifelong Met: The Odyssey of Gordon Freed
If you’ve followed the first ten installments of our Kollectors Hall of Fame series, you already know this is where we celebrate the diehards — the fans whose devotion to the orange and blue doesn’t stop at the final out. These are the people who live Mets baseball, preserve its history, and build their lives around the memories the team has given them. This month, we induct a collector whose dedication to the Amazins predates Shea Stadium, predates Seaver, and goes all the w

Mark Rosenman
Dec 1, 20255 min read


Franchise Friday : At Old Ebbets, Dodgers Find One More Rally to Best Mets in Gooden–Drysdale Duel
The Dodgers landed the first haymakers. In the bottom of the third, the Brooklyn–Hollywood hybrid unleashed a historical mashup that only a strat-o-matic simulation could produce. Corey Seager, who never sniffed a trolley car, blasted a two-run homer. Then Duke Snider, who practically owned the trolley line, added a two-run shot of his own. Just like that, the Mets trailed 4–0, and Doc Gooden—who had racked up strikeouts like it was 1985—saw his ERA on the afternoon jump fast

Mark Rosenman
Nov 28, 20252 min read


Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing #46 : Kevin Baez: Mets Shortstop, Ducks Manager, Long Island Baseball Icon
Welcome back to Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing, our weekly rummage through the Mets’ attic, where we dust off the bubble-gum cards and game-used jerseys of the guys who made you squint and go, “Wait… didn’t he play for us?” Last week, we looked back at Brent Gaff — the Indiana right-hander who quietly became a dependable arm in the early ’80s Mets bullpen and now builds some of the finest fishing rods this side of the Midwest. This week, we stay closer to home — a

Mark Rosenman
Nov 16, 20255 min read


Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing #45 : Brent Gaff "Give Him the Ball and Let Him Go"
Welcome back to Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing, our weekly rummage through the Mets’ attic, where we dust off the bubble-gum cards and game-used jerseys of the guys who made you squint and go, “Wait… didn’t he play for us?” Last week, we looked back at Brian Cole, the five-tool comet who blazed through the Mets’ system before tragedy cut his story short. This week, we go back to the early ’80s before Doc, before Darryl, before the Home Run Apple even knew how to

Mark Rosenman
Nov 9, 20253 min read


When Rusty Staub Faced the Nation: A Mets Voice Amid the 1981 Baseball Strike
On July 5, 1981 , as Major League Baseball sat still in silence, the diamond’s disputes found their way to the Sunday morning airwaves. On Face the Nation, one of television’s most respected public affairs programs, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and New York Mets first baseman Rusty Staub joined CBS News to publicly discuss the game’s crippling labor strike — a rare and fascinating crossover between America’s pastime and America’s political discourse. For fans ac

Mark Rosenman
Oct 22, 20255 min read


The Fifth Beatle, the Comic, and the Captain: Keith Hernandez and a Very 1986 Talk Show
Yesterday marked Keith Hernandez’s 72nd birthday ,and if that doesn’t make you feel old, consider this: when Keith sat down on David Brenner’s Nightlife on December 1, 1986, over 38 years ago it had only been 35 days since the Mets won the World Series. Just over a month removed from Mookie’s grounder rolling through Buckner’s legs, and New York was still floating somewhere between disbelief and euphoria. And there was Keith, the mustachioed captain of the newly crowned worl

Mark Rosenman
Oct 21, 20254 min read


Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing #42 : The Hardest Working Arm You Forgot: Ron Herbel’s 1970 Mets Cameo
Welcome back to Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing, our weekly rummage through the Mets’ attic, where the dust smells like pine tar and nostalgia, and where we occasionally find something we forgot we ever owned. Last week, we wandered off the basepaths entirely and into the barnyard, revisiting Homer the Beagle and Mettle the Mule , the two mascots who barked, brayed, and did their best to distract us from box scores that sometimes made you want to cover your eyes. T

Mark Rosenman
Oct 19, 20254 min read


Saturday Seasons: The Worst Team Money Could Buy: The Crying Game at Shea – The 1992 Mets
If you were a Mets fan in 1992, you probably remember two things: You had to blow into your Super Nintendo cartridge to make Super Mario Cart work, and you had to do the same thing to your TV remote just to get through a Mets game. This was supposed to be a bounce back year for the Mets’ as we added A Few Good Men . But instead we got The Crying Game .When the big reveal came, we couldn’t handle the truth and much like The Crying Game, we were left blinking in disbelief, a

Mark Rosenman
Oct 18, 20256 min read
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