Thursday Trade Tracker: Los Angeles Dodgers. El Sid, and Two Original 1962 Mets.

It's The Dodgers World, as we all know. They get Timmy Trumpet himself, Edwin Diaz. They get Kyle Tucker ($60 million a year for TWO good years. Look it up). Will Teoscar Hernandez, a true 100 RBI cleanup hitter, be batting ninth?

What is going to happen next? Will Mike Piazza's Cooperstown cap now have LA on it? Will our precious Tom Seaver statue be shipped west? Will Mr. and Mrs. Met be adorned in Dodger Blue? Will Dodger Dogs be served at Citifield? Will Dave Kingman now be talking about Tommy LaSorda? Will Paul LoDuca be ruled that he missed both runners in the playoffs? Oh, my goodness, will this blog now be called Vin Scully's Korner?

Shockingly, the history of Mets - Dodgers trades is long, but not very impactful at all. I found a few interesting ones, but only one that I would call truly impactful.

December 8, 1983. Mets get LHP Sid Fernandez and INF Ross Jones for INF Bob Bailor and LHP Carlos Diaz.

Here it is. ONE impactful trade between the teams. Sid Fernandez might be the most underrated Met of all time. Let's look at where Fernandez stands in all-time Mets pitching lists. WAR (6th), Wins (5th), WHIP (4th), Strikeouts (5th), Innings pitched (5th), Games started (4th), Shutouts (8th), and Batters faced (5th).

Impressive, indeed. On most lists, the only pitchers ahead of him are those with their numbers retired (Seaver, Koosman, Gooden) or in their Hall of Fame (Darling, Matlack). Is there any question that Sid Fernandez needs to be in the Mets Hall of Fame yesterday? This year, they are electing deserved candidates Carlos Beltran, Bobby Valentine, and Lee Mazzilli. El Sid needs to be in!

Fernandez was a consistent double digit winner as a Met. But it was in the 1986 World Series that Sid, who lost his starting job because he was the fourth starter, excelled. In 6.2 innings, he have up only one run and struck out 10! With the Red Sox holding a 3-0 lead, the Mets needed shut down relief and they needed it now! Fernandez, in for relief of Ron Darling (who was starting his third game in the Series), came into the game in the 4th inning. Your friendly neighborhhod author, Gump of the Mets, was there, too. In 2.1 innings, Sid was untouchable and electric. He struck out 4 of the 8 batters he faced, only giving up one baserunner on a walk. The crowd was certainly energized and the team responded. Keyed by a rally-starting pinch hit from Mazzilli and a bases loaded single by Keith Hernandez, the Mets were on their way.

Jones, the other player the Mets received in the deal, only went 1-10 as a Met, with that hit being a game winning double (Gump was there). The Mets gave up solid infielder Bob Bailor, an original Blue Jay, hit .310 in 1977, Toronto's first year in existence. He was always one of the hardest to strike out, never striking out more than 33 times in any of his 11 years. In his first full Mets year in 1982, he had 404 plate appearances and struck out only 17 times! That's a three game series for players of today's game. This trade also made MLB history as it marked the first time that a trade involved two native Hawaiians being traded for each other.

TEACHER SAYS A+ Another Frank Cashen gem that helped win a World Series.

November 29, 1966. Mets get OF Tommy Davis for 2B Ron Hunt and OF Jim Hickman.

Hickman was an original Met and played five years with the team. He hit 60 homers over that time, one of the highest totals in that Mets period. He was also remembered for being the first Met to hit for the cycle. You might be interested to see every Met that has done this after Hickman: Tommie Agee, Mike Phillips, Keith Hernandez, Kevin McReynolds, Alex Ochoa, John Olerud, Eric Valent, Jose Reyes, Scott Hairston, and Eduardo Escobar. How did Olerud get a triple??

Another claim to fame for Hickman is that he hit the single in the 1970 All-Star game that resulted in Pete Rose famously barrelling into catcher Ray Fosse.

Ron Hunt Was the first Met to start an All-Star Game in 1964. That game was played at Shea Stadium, the only one to be held there. He was scrappy before that term was continuously used to describe the Backman-Dykstra tandem. Hunt was the all-time leader in getting hit by pitch for a long time before settling into fourth place all-time in the modern game, behind Craig Biggio, Don Baylor, and Jason Kendall. Hunt holds the season record with 50 in 1971 with Montreal. Yes, he did it on purpose. Tommy Davis played one year with the Mets before being shipped to the White Sox in the Agee trade.

TEACHER SAYS B. Davis helped to get World Series hero Agee. Hickman wound up getting 115 RBI with the Cubs in 1970.

December 15, 1961. Mets get INF Charlie Neal and LHP Willard Hunter for INF/OF Lee Walls.

Charlie Neal keeps popping up in history. Maybe he should be called Gump! Neal has said he started as a teenager in the Negro Leagues. In the Dodgers farm system, he played alongside Don Zimmer. The Red Sox tried to get Neal in 1955, which would have made him the first Black player on the Red Sox. Ridiculously, it would take Boston until 1959, a full 12 years after Jackie Robinson, to have their first Black player. Neal started a game for the Dodgers in the 1956 World Series. In 1958, he got the first Dodger hit in Los Angeles Dodger history. He received All-Star recognition in both 1959 and 1960. Neal additionally finished 8th in the MVP race in 1960.

An Original Met, he hit .260 in 508 at-bats with the "Lovable Losers." Known as a speedster, he only stole 2 bases in 1962.

Neal hit third in the first ever Mets game and drove in the first run in Mets history. Gil Hodges hit the first Mets home run ever, but Neal hit the second.

(To clear any confusion, long time college football announcer Charlie Neal is no relation to the Mets infielder).

TEACHER SAYS A. Good player for the early Mets. Lee Walls did very little in parts of three seasons for the Dodgers.

There are many other famous names in Mets-Dodgers trades, but often they were traded at the end of their careers and did not make much of an impact either way. But we do have interesting names! What are your memories of Hank Webb, Rick Auerbach, Pat Zachry, Mark Bradley, Kevin Tapani, Wally Whitehurst, Mike Marshall (the hitter), Alejandro Pena, Greg McMichael, Kaz Iishi, Jason Phillips, and Phil Bickford?

Let's hope the Dodgers decide they do not want Lindor, Soto, McLean, or Alvarez...because whatever they want, they get!