Reese Kaplan -- Some Lesser Known Players With Big Mets Moments

When becoming a Mets fan growing up there were certain players I would always look forward to watching when they participated in the game.  Notice that these memories were not of the superstars like Tom Seaver or Carlos Beltran or David Wright.  They were players whose moments in the sun were brief, odd and sometimes made you wonder what might have been had injuries, personal demons or other issues curtailed their future success.

For example, I’ll never forget the time I saw John Milner drive a ball over the right field wall to give the Mets a come-from-behind lead.  I remember jumping up in the air, clapping my hands and crumpling to the floor because for some reason I got a bad leg cramp upon leaping.  Milner had a career mostly with the Mets as a regular, then with the Pirates and Expos as a fill-in player.  He played from age 21 to 27 in New York, then through age 32 elsewhere.

I can also remember watching Jeff Innis come into ballgames out of the bullpen and throwing with this weird sidearm motion that left a lot of hitters looking foolish.  During his seven years pitching exclusively for the Mets he didn’t rack up much of a record, going a mere 10-20.  However, his ERA for his entire career was a very impressive 3.05.  In his rookie and sophomore years he put up a very impressive 7.00 ratio of strikeouts to walks, but that was very strange for a guy who traditionally was not a strikeout kind of guy.  His control was kind of across the board throughout the rest of his career, but he gave up less than a single hit per inning pitched.  

Then there were other pitchers whose performances made you dance or retch, depending on the night.  The man fans love to hate, Doug Sisk, fell into that category.  During his first three years he went 6-8 with a 2.05 ERA.  His problem was always control.  For those three years he averaged 5.5 walks per 9 IP while only fanning 3.3 batters.  Then came the awful season of 1985 when his ERA skyrocketed to 5.05 and his WHIP was a just plain awful 1.726.  It was that single season that put Sisk on most fans’ hate meter.  Would it surprise you to learn that in the World Series year of 1986 he pitched to a 3.06 ERA with a 4-2 record?   Even with that horrendous 1985 season, his record for his Mets career was a winning 17-6 with a 3.10 ERA.  Unfortunately during that period he walked more than he struck out.  

Another one who was on that fan roller coaster was embittered outfielder Carl Everett.  He showed some good power and some fans hoped he would evolve into a steady regular, but his personality was out there (to say the least).  He always had a hair trigger temper and few could fly into a rage with the same intensity as Everett.  After watching him for parts of three seasons the Mets, he was unceremoniously traded for no name reliever John Hudek of the Astros after a Shea Stadium employee reported bruises on the body of Everett’s 6 year old daughter.  Although the claim was that his wife was the source of the abuse, the fact he did nothing to stop it didn’t sit well with anyone. 

After his brief stay in Texas he was dispatched to the Red Sox for a pair of unheralded minor leaguers where he turned in his best ever season.  He was an All Star in 2000, hitting .300 with 34 HRs and 108 RBIs while stealing 11 bases and playing a capable center field.  He made a return to the big July game in 2003 which was split between the Rangers and White Sox when he again posted some gaudy numbers.  Unfortunately the controversies that followed him were conspicuous.  He received a suspension for head butting an umpire in a game against the Mets in 2000.  He vocally chastised writers and fellow ballplayers for being homosexual.  He claimed there was no such thing as dinosaurs and insisted that the moon landings were not real.  Then there was the incident in which he pulled a gun on his wife.  He was one of a kind, for sure.  

Many lesser ball players had a hot week or month or even a full season before fading into oblivion.  There’s no telling when a player gets to the top of his game whether he’ll thrive in the limelight or wind up getting arrested for off-the-field activities.