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The Mets' shortstops of the 1960s won't go down in history as the strongest players to play the position for the team. That probably would come decades later. However, some solid players filled the role, back when the position was considered more of a fielding spot than a hitter's. The inaugural opening day shortstop in 1962 for the Mets was Felix Mantilla. He was a solid hitter, so he stayed in the lineup, playing most of his games at 3rd base that year. Elio Chacon took the

Bill Mazeroski, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Hall of Fame second baseman and one of baseball’s most enduring figures, passed away Friday at age 89—just eight days after the passing of his 1960 World Series teammate Roy Face. While most fans will forever associate Mazeroski with his miraculous walk-off home run in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series against the Yankees, his career was defined by far more than that singular, electrifying swing. A ten-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Gl

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

The Mets began 2008 with Willie Randolph on the hot seat, but by midseason, Jerry Manuel would be warming the manager’s chair. And no matter who was at the helm, the ending would be the same as 2007: a September collapse (although not of 2007’s magnitude) leading to a win-or-go-home final game that ended with the resurgent Florida Marlins breaking Mets’ fan’s hearts.                General manager Omar Minaya had once again put together a veteran team in win-now mode. While,

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

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

The Mets took a step forward in 2005 but General Manager Omar Minaya knew he needed to make changes if they expected to take the next step for the 2006 season. Minaya overhauled the roster for a second consecutive time and put together a team that went on to win the NL East but came up short of a World Series appearance in heart breaking fashion. The Mets were moving on from 37-year old and future Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza, who became a free agent so Minaya engineered

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

Week 7 of Franchise Fridays brought us back home really home to Shea Stadium, where the All-Time Mets Greats opened a marquee matchup against the All-Time Braves Greats. The opponent was chosen by fan vote, the setting chosen by nostalgia, and the pitching matchup chosen by the baseball gods themselves. And thanks to Strat-O-Matic and Franchise Greats sets, we don’t just imagine these dream matchups—we get to play them out, roll by roll, and actually stare at a real, honest-t

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, we told the story of Randy “Moose” Milligan, a man whose Mets career could fit comfortably on a cocktail napkin but whose fingerprints somehow wound up al

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

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

Back in 1986, the Mets were so big, so loud, so unapologetically Mets that even 20/20—the same show that once spent an hour investigating whether your salad bar was trying to kill you—decided to devote a full segment to them. And why not? On Thursday night, August 21st, 1986, ABC rolled out the red carpet for the Amazin’s, even as the competition (Trapper John, M.D. on one channel and Hill Street Blues on another) politely stepped aside and let the Mets suck all the oxygen ou

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

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

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

For the first-ever Franchise Friday Strat-O-Matic showdown, baseball fans got to witness a matchup that never happened in real life: Tom Seaver vs. Sandy Koufax. Koufax retired after the 1966 season, Seaver debuted in 1967, yet here they were, as if time itself had hit “rewind and fast forward at the same time.” Seaver was magnificent, striking out 13 Dodgers over nine innings, walking just one and allowing two runs. Koufax, as if proving the baseball gods had a sense of humo

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

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

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