Saturday Seasons: 1979- The Payson Era Ends

The decade of the Seventies ended in the same manner that the decade of the Sixties ended. With champagne flowing in the locker room after the last out of the season was recorded. But that's where all comparisons ended. The celebrants in the 1969 locker room went by the names of Seaver, Koosman, McGraw, Harrelson , Grote, Hodges, etc. and the cause of the celebration was the unlikeliest of scenarios: the Mets as the kings of the baseball world, winning the world series in only their eighth season of their existence.

How different was the 1979 celebration: a modest, six-game winning streak that prevented the Mets from losing 100 games.

While the players may have been celebrating, Mets fans were mourning the destruction of their lovable team with many amazing memories. Not all of them good, starting with M. Donald Grant's goal of keeping baseball affordable in New York City by not pursuing talented free agents and ridding himself of the stars the Mets already had. That, of course, turned Grant's affordable product into a product nobody wanted. And even though Grant was gone, there was little else to celebrate, and less than a million fans went through the turnstiles (788,905, a franchise record low) at Shea Stadium a huge decline from the average 2,000,000 Shea had routinely drawn.

The dismantling of the team was completed during the 1978 winter meetings, when the Mets dealt Jerry Koosman to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for Greg Field and Jesse Orosco. It was a deal that the Mets had not necessarily wanted to make, but their hand was forced, when Koosman gave the Mets an ultimatum to either trade him or he would retire. No longer was he interested in pitching his heart out, but be credited with a loss, when his offense provided no run support him for him.

The Mets prepared themselves for the probable departure of the Kooz by trading for the Brooklyn-born Lafayette high school graduate Pete Falcone. Over the offseason, the Mets also made a play on acquiring the marquis free agent on the market, Pete Rose. While Rose wanted to have nothing to do with this floundering franchise, his ultimate signing with the Philadelphia Phillies, made Richie Hebner expendable, and by sending Nino Espinosa, a serviceable starter, to the Phillies, the Mets were able to bolster their offense by acquiring Hebner to play third base.

On paper, the team that headed north to start the season had what seemed to be a decent offense. But they were no match for the power lineups of the Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates and Montreal Expos.

Once again, the Mets would be solid up the middle, both defensively and offensively, with John Stearns behind the plate, the National League leading double play combination of Tim Foli and Doug Flynn returning and the ever improving Lee Mazzilli in centerfield. With Hebner, Willie Montanez, Steve Henderson and Joel Youngblood at the corners there would a substantial increase in power. To even further bolster the offence, Foli would be traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Frank Taveras.

The pitching? That was another story. Whereas in the recent past, the Mets' starting rotation of Seaver, Koosman andMatlack, were the envy of every other major league team, the 1979 edition featured Craig Swan, Pat Zachry and Pete Falcone as the big three. The rest of the rotation was rounded by Neil Allen and Mike Scott. Allen would eventually make his mark with the Mets as a closer, and Scott as a Mets nemesis in the mid-eighties (after he learned to throw the spitball), but in 1979, neither was ready for the big show.

While once again, the Mets were winners on opening day, an exciting 10-7 victory in windswept Wrigley Field, the season went off track very quickly and by mid-May the team was firmly entrenched in the National League cellar, never to emerge.

Exciting moments were limited to June 12th, when the Mets scored 10 runs in the sixth inning of a game against the Cincinnati Reds, and on August 14th, when they scored 18 runs in a game against the Atlanta Braves. In a season with nothing much to cheer, the best the Mets could do to attract fans was to have the chief operating officer's daughter ride the team's mascot, Mettle the Mule, on the warning track before games and invite the San Diego Chicken to Shea so he could do his thing.

The former San Diego Chicken, Ted Giannoulas, left, takes some of his valuable time to instruct New York Mets Pitcher Dock Ellis on how to pitch during game action, Saturday, July 7, 1979, New York. The Chicken's coaching technique is suspect since Ellis took the loss to the San Diego Padres 11-3

In this most depressing of a season, the MVP of the season was clearly Lee Mazzilli, who batted.303, with 15 home runs, 79 RBI's and 34 stolen bases. Mazzilli, named as the team's lone all star, made his mark in the All-Star game when he hit a game tying home run off Jim Kern and eventually was walked with the bases loaded to bring home with what proved to be the winning run. The ever improving John Stearns was the only other bright spot.

The biggest disappointment in a season of disappointments, had to have been the play of both Montanez and Hebner. Montanez, who led the 1978 team with 17 home runs, by mid-August had only 5, while batting a measly .234. He was dealt to the Texas Rangers for Mike Jorgensen (stint two) and Ed Lynch. While faring a bit better, Hebner, who was unhappy all season, hit only 10 home runs with a batting average of .268. He was dealt to the Detroit Tigers shortly after the season ended. In return the Mets received Jerry Morales and Phil Mankowski, neither of whom made a minimal contribution to the team.

Ed Kranepool, the lone survivor of the 1969 Mets making a play in a game against the Cinncinati Reds

The only good news to emerge was the news that the Payson family could no longer sustain the running of the franchise and would sell it at the conclusion of the season. While rumor had it, that Ed Kranepool who retired at the conclusion of the season, would be part of a group that would purchase the team, it was a group headed by Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon that would ultimately purchase the franchise for a then record $21,000,000.

Mettle the mule heading out to right field at Sea Stadium in 1979.