Every Sunday, Christopher C. Wuensch will retell Mets' and baseball history using the thousands of baseball cards and other memorabilia that he's tasked with organizing in his basement.
New York Mets fans will tell you that Mookie Wilson would have beaten Bill Buckner to the bag, regardless of the greatest error in baseball history. And that the glove Jesse Orosco flung upon closing out the 1986 World Series has still not returned to Earth.
They’ll tell you how manager Davey Johnson — the former Baltimore Orioles second baseman who made the final out to seal the 1969 World Series for New York — would go on to end the Mets’ ensuing 17-year title drought .
Mets’ history is as amazin’ as it is mind numbing; as miraculous as it is maddening.
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1986 Roger Craig No. 111[/caption]This summer marks the 50th and 30th anniversaries of two of Major League Baseball’s most dubious streaks — both of them inherently pure Mets-ian.
It was 50 years ago this August when Roger Craig (1986 Topps No. 111) snapped his 18-game losing streak with a 7-3 win over the Chicago Cubs at the Polo Grounds. The Mets pitcher who aptly wore the No. 13 fell one loss shy of equaling Jack Nabors’ mark of futility. Nabors went 1-20 for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1912, including a run of 19-consective decisions in the loss column.
Craig had a long career in the Bigs, just not a very good one on the mound. He made the trip with the Dodgers when they moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, only to return to New York as a member of the original 1962 Mets. He led the National League is losses (24 and 22 losses) in 1962 and 1963, the year of his 18-game losing streak.
He finished the final three seasons of his 12-year-career with the Cardinals, Reds and Phillies. After going 10-14 over those three years, he hung up his spikes. Final career record: 74-89.
Thirty years later a pitcher named Anthony Young made Craig look like an All-Star. His name is Anthony Young and his name is synonymous with losing streaks. How the Mets righty was able to last six years in the Major, despite never winning more than four games in a season, is head scratching.
Between May 6, 1992 and July 24, 1993, Young lost a Major League history-worst 27 straight decisions. He lost 14 of them as a starter and blew an addition 13 in relief. He did convert 12 straight saves, spelling an injured closer John Franco, during the same period, but the losses are all anyone will ever remember.
During the span in 1992, Young was able to earn two saves against the San Francisco Giants, who were managed by…you guessed it…Roger Craig.
Craig was about as average a coach as he was a manager. But the San Diego Padres (two years) and Giants (1985-1992) valued his baseball acumen enough to keep him employed.
The silver lining for Craig is that he was at the helm of the Giants, when San Francisco broke their own franchise streak of 27 years without a World Series appearance.
If you’re a Craig fan, then you already know the outcome of that World Series for the Giants.
Craig finished his managerial career a mediocre 152-171. Among the games he managed, however, one stands out. It happened July 23, 1991. Craig was managing from his spot on the bench. Young was sitting in the bullpen — a place he’d sit all night. And I sat in the upper deck behind home plate watching the Bay Area fog pour over the roof and into the Candlestick Park.
The end result? A win for Roger Craig.
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Giants 4 Mets 2[/caption]Christopher C. Wuensch is the Pac-12 Assignment Editor for Football.com. He's also a baseball history junkie. Follow him on Twitter: @MissedCutOff
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