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The 1990s saw the end of an era for a beloved Mets third baseman, and the beginning of an era that still hasn't ended. That era is still shelling out just over $1 million a year until 2035, so we still got a ways to go. The decade ended with a legendary bat, who came through NYC and provided one of the best walk offs in team history. The Early 90s started the way the 80s ended, with the speed and the pop from the fan-favorite, Howard Johnson. In '90 he hit 23 HR and drove in

Welcome back to Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing, our weekly rummage through the Mets’ attic, where we brush off the dust, squint at old photos, and rediscover the people, places, and moments that once made Mets baseball feel new, hopeful, and occasionally sunburned. Last week, we were in St. Petersburg, Florida, the Mets’ original spring home. Before Shea. Before Port St. Lucie. Before winning seasons were anything more than a rumor. Back when baseballs occasionall

Terrance Gore was never the guy whose baseball card you bought for the home runs or batting titles. He was the guy managers quietly looked for when October tightened and ninety feet suddenly felt like a mile. And now, far too soon, he’s gone. News broke this weekend that Gore passed away Friday evening at the age of 34. Tributes quickly followed from across baseball — from organizations he suited up for and teammates who knew him — but the words that mattered most came from t

In the early 1980s, Shea Stadium was a place of echoes — echoes of past glory, echoes of empty seats, echoes of a fan base waiting for something to believe in again. The New York Mets were rebuilding not just a roster, but an identity. Nowhere was that transformation more clearly reflected than at third base. Over the course of the decade, the Mets’ hot corner evolved from a position of stopgaps and hard-nosed placeholders into one of the most productive and symbolic spots on

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

Welcome back to Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing, our weekly stroll through Mets history, where we dust off the forgotten, squint at the overlooked, and remind ourselves that Mets lore is about far more than box scores and batting averages. The last couple of lessons wandered slightly off the basepaths. First, we tipped our cap to Kathy Kersch, Miss Rheingold 1962, the smiling face of the Mets’ first major sponsor and the most photogenic rookie of their inaugural se

Some transactions exist purely to help a Triple-A roster survive the dog days. Others exist to give a manager a spring training body who can play short, second, third, and probably sell peanuts if needed. And then there are the rare ones that exist almost entirely to poke the baseball gods in the ribs and say, remember 1969? The Mets’ minor-league agreement with Grae Kessinger, complete with a non-roster invitation to spring training, fits squarely into that last category. On

The 1969 Miracle Mets hangover seemed to come in and out through the next decade for the franchise, trying to hold onto relevance, identity, and winning baseball in the 1970s. It was indeed a decade marked by transition, grit, and improvisation. No position reflected that reality more clearly than third base — the hot corner — where a rotating cast of players mirrored the Mets’ shifting fortunes throughout the decade. At the center of it all was Wayne Garrett, the most endu

Wilbur Wood never looked like a pitcher destined to be remembered. That may be the most fitting place to begin. He did not arrive early, he did not overwhelm hitters with power, and he did not follow a straight path to greatness. Yet when Wood passed away at 84, baseball said goodbye to one of its most unlikely and extraordinary careers, built on reinvention, endurance, and a pitch that defied convention. Before Mets fans marveled at R A Dickey bending time and logic with a

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

This column focuses on impactful trades in Mets history. Well, the first three World Series appearances of the Mets were fortified by three different consequential trades with the Montreal Expos! The Mets most likely do not see 1969 (Donn Clendenon), 1973 (Rusty Staub), and 1986 (Gary Carter) without these dynamic trades. Do not worry, Washington Nationals fans, its not that I'm ignoring the Nats, its just that the most significant trades were made when they were Les Expos.

Dave Giusti, a name Mets fans may not immediately place on the all time villains list but one that somehow always feels familiar, passed away on January 11, 2026, at the age of 86 If you grew up watching the Mets in the late 1960s and 1970s, Giusti was not a headline name like Gibson or Carlton. He may have not scared you like they did. What he did do, reliably, persistently, and often, was show up. And very often, that meant showing up against the Mets. Giusti appeared in 6

The 2010s were yet another decade of transition for the New York Mets, and few positions reflected that churn more clearly than first base. From early promise and unmet expectations to a thunderous finish that redefined the franchise’s power identity, the Mets’ first basemen told a story of trial, error, and, ultimately, transformation. The decade opened with Ike Davis, a former first-round pick and the heir apparent to the position. Davis burst onto the scene in 2010, showin

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 the curling pages of old yearbooks, and rediscover the players who once made you pause mid–potato knish and mutter, “Hold on… he was a Met, right?” Last week, class focused on Joe Frazier , not the heavyweight champion, but the Mets manager whose brief tenure somehow produced a better winning percentage than Ter

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

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 the curling pages of old yearbooks, and rediscover the players who once made you pause mid potato knish and mutter, “Hold on… he was a Met, right?” We closed out 2025 by revisiting one of the strangest detours in Mets history, when Tom Seaver, Ron Swoboda, Ralph Kiner and Yogi Berra paid a visit to Sing Sing pri

If you’ve followed 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 does not 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’s inductee is a little different, not just because of how he collects, but because he is someone I have known for more than 40 years. Over that

Every few years, baseball social media gathers like villagers with torches and pitchforks to anoint The Worst Free Agent Signing of All Time. This winter, the mob has pointed west, squinting into the Anaheim haze, yelling one name in unison: Anthony Rendon. And look — fair. Very fair. The conversation flared back to life because the Angels just quietly reworked the final year of Rendon’s seven-year, $245 million deal, a move that functioned less like roster planning and more

The 90s at 1st base for the Mets started as the 80s ended. The contact-hitting, maybe a little boring, Dave Magadan was named the team's full-time player at the position. There were no other real competitors on the team for the position. Magadan had a backup, journeyman Mike Marshall, who played 42 games at 1st base that year. But it was Magadan's job, and he played tremendously in 1990. Magadan batted .328 with 6 HR and 72 RBI, and a .878 OPS. Not too shabby for a player no

The 2002 Mets were yet another example of the maxim that winning the offseason does not translate into winning the pennant.                Determined to avoid a repeat of the 2001 debacle, when the Mets limped to a 77-84 fifth place finish, general manager Steve Phillips worked feverishly to overhaul the roster, jettisoning some longtime Mets and bringing in some well-known replacements. And most media members and baseball insiders commented at the time that Phillips absolute