Tom Brennan - CAN ROBBY CANO BE TOMMIE AGEE, V. 2?

wikipedia

I remember as a young teenager when the Mets, in the off season prior to 1968, got Tommie Agee from the Chicago White Sox.  

TOMMIE AGEE!  Man...was I excited!

Tommie had won the AL Rookie of the Year award in 1966 and then had an off soph jinx year in 1967.

But on a team like the Mets, where if you played a word association game and someone mentioned "Mets", you'd immediately respond "Last Place," getting a young, talented guy like Agee was a breath of fresh air.  

He had power.  

He had speed.  

He had youth.

Of course, in true Mets' bad luck fashion, he got beaned by a blazing fastball from the otherwise great Bob Gibson (hiss! boo!) in the opening tilt in spring training 1968, and Agee's season promptly went completely to hell in a hand basket:

132 games, just .217/.255/.307.  JUST..17...ribbies.  

Awful.  

The beaning screwed him up so very badly.  

I ached for him as I watched him struggle.  

So did many others.

When he died in 2001, the New York Post's Maury Allen wrote this about Agee in 1968:

"After Gibson hit him in spring training, Agee could never get started that year. 

"He went 0-for-10 in a 24-inning, 1-0 game against Houston and soon was in an 0-for-34 slump equaling the 1962 record of futility set by Don Zimmer.

"He finally got a single and the crowd of 50,000 applauded him for three minutes. 

“I stood there and I almost cried for him,” Tom Seaver remembered."

Me too, Tom...me, too.

But a closer look showed Agee's season was, as is often the case, a tale of 2 half seasons.

In the first half, he went a gosh-awful .174/.217/.251 - and that was after starting the season 5 for 16.  

The next 5 hits after those first 5 took 76 more torturous at bats.  

He just kept bailing away from pitches in the batters' box, and pitchers knew to keep working him low outside - and he was hitting a lot of air as a result.  

On April 14, his 5 for 16 start had him at .313.  After his 5 for 76 skid, he was hitting just .109 on May 14.  What a plunge!

As he fought his way out of it, though, his 2nd half showed some real signs of life. 

In fact, going into August hitting just .168, he hit a decent .240/.269/.370 in August, and a delightfully robust .370/.393/.463 in 19 September games.  

It took him all the way until September 18 to reach .200, but he got there finally.  Fighters don't give up.

The real Tommie Agee was back.  

I for one was super-excited about what he might do in 1969.  And he delivered.

How about .271/.342/.464 in 149 games with 26 homers, a remarkable total then for a lead off hitter.  And some great World Series heroics.

Going from an injured state to a healthy state can make all the difference.

wikipedia

So how does this Tommie Agee saga relate to Robinson Cano?

Robby totally tore up spring training, hitting in the mid .400s.  Everyone was feeling positive.

But hand injuries messed up his early Mets' months, much as Agee's inaugural months were sabotaged by injury.

Cano was just .240/.287/.360 in the first half of 2019.

In the second half, when his hands were healthier, he hit a far better .284/.339/.541.

I don't know if Cano will follow the Agee 1968-69 pattern - a bad first season capped by a solid second half, followed by a great 2nd season...

But I don't see why not.

After all, if Cano's second half of 2019 was .284/.339/.541, isn't it possible that his WHOLE season in 2020 could be .284/.339/.541 as well?

Lots of folks trashed Robby - and still do - I look at him, though, and I see one thing for 2020: 

A 1969 Tommie Agee.

How about you?