Trade Tracker Thursday: Pittsburgh Pirates. Crazy Horse, Ollie P, and Mackey the Hacker

The Mets and Pirates have a long trade history. They were in the NL East Division together for a very long time. The Pirates' connotation was as The Lumber Company, The Fam-A-Lee, The Killer B's of Bonds and Bonilla, The Magic of Clemente, and Ralph.

The namesake of our blog, Ralph Kiner, is in the Hall of Fame as a slugger for the Pirates starting in 1946. For those who only knew Ralph as the jovial announcer, he set records that will never be broken.

I'm not talking about home run records, either! Due to the fact that Bing Crosby owned the Pirates, Ralph got to meet Hollywood starlets from the glamor days. Ralph, our man, dated the TRUE A LIST. Most notably, he dated Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh, and Esther Williams! He was also romantically linked to Ava Gardner, Jane Russell, and MARILYN! I'm sure it was good to be Keith Hernandez in the 80's, but it was REALLY good to be Ralph Kiner!

Kiner led the NL in home runs his first eight years in the big leagues. That won't happen again. A bad back limited him to only 10 years total, which is why he had to wait 15 years to be inducted in Cooperstown. At his retirement, he was second in baseball history in homers per at-bat to the Babe. (Side note - Ruth is buried across the street from my home. Really. Billy Martin is 15 yards behind him. Look it up.)

December 6, 1966. Mets get RHP Don Cardwell and CF Don Bosch for OF Gary Kolb and P Dennis Ribant.

Any thoughts on Don Cardwell start on September 12, 1969. The Mets were charging towards an eventual Championship and they were to play a double header vs these Pirates. Cardwell and Jerry Koosman each pitched complete game 1-0 shutouts! Adding to the ridiculous improbability of this ever happening again, each pitcher drove in the only run. Cardwell started 21 games with the Mets in 1969, winning 8 times. He only pitched one inning in the entire 1969 post-season.

Ribant went 11-9 for a 95 loss Mets team in 1966.

TEACHER SAYS A. A starting pitcher on a Championship team for nothing.

January 19, 2021. Mets get LHP Joey Lucchesi. Pirates get RHP David Bednar. Padres get RHP Joe Musgrove. (Assorted minor leaguers also involved).

Three team trade and two teams walk away with gold. The Mets get coal. Lucchesi only pitched in 22 games spread out over four years as a Met. Didn't it seem he pitched a lot more? Bednar had two All-Star years with Pittsburgh, with a high of 39 saves in 2023. He is now doing an admirable job as the Yankees' closer. (But he blew a big one, right Tyrone?).

Musgrove became a star in San Diego. He threw the first no-hitter in franchise history. He had three double digit victory seasons before being injured halfway through 2024. He has not pitched since then. Mets fans remember him closing out a postseason series in 2022 with 7 innings of one-hit baseball. But maybe they remember his polished, luminescent ear catching the light in a gentle, glimmering pearl. The silken ridge gleaming in the CitiField eve. Ok, he cheated with a foreign substance rubbed on his ear!!

TEACHER SAYS F. What if the Mets had a choice among those three and took Joey?

July 31, 2006. Mets get RHP Roberto Hernandez and LHP Oliver Perez for OF Xavier Nady.

The cab ride from hell, Part 2. Tom Glavine was injured in a cab, losing his two front teeth. (Terry Collins was also injured in a cab in Atlanta in 2016 with no major injuries). But Duaner Sanchez, a key bullpen piece, was injured in July 2006, dislocating and separating his right throwing shoulder. Sanchez was 5-1 with a 2.60 ERA at the time and the Mets needed another 8th inning man. Roberto Hernandez, with 326 career saves, had a fine year with the Mets in 2005. He had a 2.58 ERA in 67 games. He became a free agent and signed with Pittsburgh. Since he was a known quantity, the Mets traded for him. He threw to a 3.48 ERA in 22 games in 2006 for the Mets.

Perez went 1-3 in 7 starts with the team on a ghastly 6.38 ERA, later starting twice in the 2006 post season. In Game 7 vs St. Louis, Perez pitched 6 innings, only giving up one run in a game they would eventually lose because Aaron Heilman gave up a ninth inning homer! (I'm not blaming Hall of Famer Carlos Beltran. You can disagree in the comments). Perez threw the ball that Endy Chavez caught in a miracle play.

Perez re-signed a 3 year deal with the Mets after he went 15-10 in 2007. But those last two years! We think Senga, Manaea, and Petersen can't be used? In 2009-2010, Ollie P pitched about 112 innings and he walked 100 batters, giving up 85 earned runs! Listen to this...Ollie reworked himself as a lefty specialist and stuck around for another ELEVEN YEARS! That's right, after Perez was totally done with the Mets, he pitched in another 497 Major League games.

You have to give to get if you're the Mets, so the Mets gave up Xavier Nady. Nady hit 14 homers with 40 RBI in the first 75 games of 2006 and helped the Mets solidify that they were a team that was serious about winning. Nady got more than his share of clutch hits. He hit .300 for the rest of the season as a Buc. Then had two more good years for them going 20/72 and 25/97. He later jumped around to the Yankees, Cubs, Diamondbacks, Nationals, Giants, and Padres.

TEACHER SAYS B-. Perez was useful for two seasons and Hernandez was, too. I think the Mets really could have used Nady's bat.

December 9, 2015. Mets get 2B Neil Walker for LHP Jon Niese.

Walker was a Silver Slugger winner in 2014 for Pittsburgh and was a solid bat in the middle infield for 6 Pirate years. Walker hit 23 bombs for the Mets before getting hurt after 113 games. Interesting fact: Neil's father, Luke Walker, pitched for Detroit and Pittsburgh in the 60's and 70's, getting a ring with the 1971 Pirates. Walker threw the first pitch in the first night game in World Series history in Game 4. On New Year's Eve in 1972, he was helping his close friend Roberto Clemente load the plane with supplies for Clemente's humanitarian trip to Nicaragua. Walker wanted to join his friend, but Clemente told him to stay behind. It saved Walker's life as the plane famously went down with no survivors. Neil, born in 1985, would have never been born.

Jon Niese finished 12th all time in Mets wins and innings pitched, 10th in strikeouts, and 11th in games started! Were you surprised that he was so high in the team record book?

Niese was the second to last left-handed pitcher (other than Jose Quintana) to start for the Mets on Opening Day, making the 2013 start. Niese won that game 11-2 vs San Diego. Maybe you remember the grand slam by Collin Cowgill?

TEACHER SAYS B. Walker hit some homers for the Mets and Niese had little left.

March 26, 1988. Mets get C Mackey Sasser for 1B Randy Milligan.

Mackey The Hacker could hack! The sweet-swinging left handed hitter hit .285, .291, and .307 in his first three Mets seasons. He finished with a .283 average over his 5 Mets seasons. The most times he ever struck out in a season as a Met was NINETEEN times! That's a doubleheader for Vientos and Baty!

However, long time fans know what happened to him. He could no longer throw the ball back to the pitcher - "double clutching" - before finally tossing a lollipop. It started after a serious collision at home plate. In one of his books, Ron Darling spoke about the frustration the team had with Mackey. Players were stealing at will and pitchers were losing concentration. Mackey later became a long time college coach. The affable Sasser accepts Facebook friendships and was kind enough to wish me a happy birthday last week!

Randy Milligan hit 70 career homers, mostly as an Oriole. He has spent decades in the Baltimore organization as a scout.

TEACHER SAYS A. Mackey could hit!

April 19, 1979. Mets get SS Frank Taveras for SS Tim Foli and minor leaguer Greg Field.

If Field's name is familiar, he was traded to the Mets with Jesse Orosco for Jerry Koosman.

Foli, nicknamed the "Crazy Horse" for his temper, was a 2-time Met. He was the # 1 pick in the nation by the Mets in 1968. He played parts of two season before being traded to Montreal in the first Rusty Staub trade. He returned to the Mets for the 1978 after being purchased from San Francisco. He hit .257 and seemed like a solid pickup, but after 3 games in 1979, he was traded again.

Is the next sentence starting to form a pattern? After leaving the Mets, he found his game again and became a star. Foli hit .291 with 65 RBI for the World Champion Pirates. It seemed like every game Omar Moreno would single and steal second. Foli would bunt him over, and Dave Parker would drive him in. Every game! No? Foli hit .333 in both the 1979 NLCS and World Series.

Taveras had the speed the Mets long craved, often trying with failures like Leon Brown and Pepe Mangual. After leading the league with 70 in 1977, Taveras set the Mets stolen base record with 42 in 1979. Lenny Randle had the previous record with 33 in 1977. Taveras played every day for three years, hitting a combined.263. I can remember he was really good at throwing on the run, but, alas, the fans behind first were soon running from the throw.

TEACHER SAYS B. Foli needed a strong system with solid leaders like Parker and Willie Stargell to thrive. Taveras was a fast, exciting player on the bases who had absolutely no power. But I told you I was biased for those late 70's Mets!

More names in Mets/Pirates lore: Vinegar Bend Mizell, Duffy Dyer, Gene Clines, Dock Ellis, Junior Ortiz, Ty Wigginton, Ike Davis, Vic Black, John Buck, Marlon Byrd, and Daniel Vogelbach.