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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
3 hours ago5 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
3 days ago2 min read


Three Leagues, One Legend: Remembering The Life and Mets Days of George Altman
Baseball lost one of its great travelers this week. And I don’t mean the “Edwin Jackson played for fourteen different teams” kind of traveler. I mean the “he basically was the poster child for TSA PreCheck for three different baseball worlds” variety traveler. George Altman — Negro Leaguer, Major Leaguer, Japanese baseball star, two-time All-Star, and possessor of enough passport stamps to make Rick Steves ask for travel advise, passed away at 92. Bob Kendrick of the Negro L

Mark Rosenman
4 days ago5 min read


Behind the Dice: Jim Zafian the Inspiration For Franchise Fridays
If you’ve ever fallen down the Strat-O-Matic rabbit hole—and if you’re reading this, the odds are dangerously high—you understand that the game is less a hobby and more a lifelong affliction. Those dice don’t just “roll”; they call to you. And for some of us, like the faithful members of the Long Island Strat Club (where the first rule of Strat Club is you constantly talk about Strat Club), Strat isn’t just baseball. It’s religion. With charts. So imagine the kind of mind it

Mark Rosenman
Nov 204 min read


A Cy Young Arm, A Gentleman’s Heart, Honoring the Legacy of Randy Jones
Randy Jones never threw a pitch that frightened a radar gun, but he built a career that could humble even the most electrified arms of his era. He grew up in southern California, a left-hander whose fastball wasn’t exactly the sort of thing scouts sprinted to see twice. What he did have—and what would eventually make him one of the great artisans of 1970s pitching—was a stubborn belief that there were other ways to get hitters out. When he talked about it, even decades later,

Mark Rosenman
Nov 194 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 165 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 93 min read


Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing #44 : Gone Too Soon: The Mets’ Lost Superstar, Brian Cole
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 Chuck Hiller and Harvey Haddix , two men who helped shape a young franchise with fundamentals, grit, and good humor. This week, we shift gears to someone who never made it to Shea but whose name still makes longtime

Mark Rosenman
Nov 24 min read


Saturday Seasons : 1994 If the Glove Don’t Fit, You’re Probably Playing Shortstop for the ’94 Mets
If the 1994 Mets were a metaphor, they’d be a white Ford Bronco lumbering down the Long Island Expressway with the hazards on. Everyone in New York knew it wasn’t going to end well — but we couldn’t stop watching. While O.J. Simpson’s real-life slow-speed chase captivated the country that summer, the Mets were running their own version in Queens: a low-drama, low-speed pursuit of competence that ended in surrender long before the season did. You could almost hear the crowd at

Mark Rosenman
Nov 14 min read


Kollector’s Korner Met-o-ra-bil-ia Hall of Fame Inductee #10 : The Engineer of Amazin’: How David Svach Built One of the Most Meticulous Mets Collections Ever
If you’ve followed the first nine 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 precision and passion are matched only by his loyalty. Meet David Svach, an Enginee

Mark Rosenman
Nov 15 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 225 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 194 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 186 min read


Farewell to the Iron Pony: Remembering Sandy Alomar Sr., the Father of a Baseball Family
Baseball lost one of its quiet constants yesterday. Sandy Alomar Sr. the slick-fielding infielder, devoted baseball lifer, proud father, and one-time Mets coach passed away Monday in his native Puerto Rico at the age of 81. To most fans, the Alomar name brings to mind his two remarkable sons , Roberto, the Hall of Famer, and Sandy Jr., the six-time All-Star but before either of them was turning double plays or catching big league fastballs, there was the original: a 5-foot-9

Mark Rosenman
Oct 134 min read


WTF (“What the Frick”)? Ralph Kiner, the Broadcasters Left Behind, and How We Can Fix the Frick Award
Ralph Kiner once said, “All of Rick Aguilera’s saves have come in relief appearances.” And just like that, he taught us everything we...

Mark Rosenman
Oct 139 min read


Ralph Kiner’s Vinyl Lesson: When Baseball Wisdom Spun at 78 RPM
There was a time—long before YouTube tutorials, batting cage swing analyzers, or launch angle debates—when baseball instruction came not...

Mark Rosenman
Oct 63 min read


Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing #39 : The Mets’ Lost Voices: Steve Albert and Lorn Brown
Welcome back to Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing, our weekly rummage through the Mets’ attic, where we dust off the bubble-gum...

Mark Rosenman
Sep 285 min read


Saturday Seasons 1989 Mets : Good, Not Great, and the Last Flicker of ’80s Dominance
If you’re a Mets fan of a certain age (translation: you still have VHS tapes labeled “Family BBQ” that are actually Game 6 of the ’86...

Mark Rosenman
Sep 274 min read


Friday the 13th, George Foster, and the Night Kiner’s Korner Saved Bill Ladson's Life
Every so often in the press box, between the stale pretzels and the postgame scorebook math that makes you question whether you really...

Mark Rosenman
Sep 264 min read


Mets 8-5 Win Over Cubs Stalls Cincinnati's Hunt for Red October
Mets 8 Cubs 5 (Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL) Mets record: 82-77 Mets streak: Won 1 L10 : 5-5 WP - Nolan McLean 5-1 LP - Shota Imanaga...

Mark Rosenman
Sep 256 min read
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