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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

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

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

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

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

Welcome back to Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing, our weekly rummage through the Mets’ attic, where we dust off the bubble-gum...

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...

Back in 1969, if you were a Mets fan (and if you weren’t, you probably rooted for the Cubs and still haven’t forgiven Ron Santo for...