Entering the last week of March and opening day 2022 right around the corner seems like a good place to wrap up this series. This post will cover 1963 and 1964 and Thursday's finale will cover the first six trades in Mets history for the 1962 season.
November 1963 through October 1964
Notes: Roger Craig finished his Mets to year career with a 15-46 record and a 4.14 ERA. I wonder what kind of a record a 4.14 ERA would have gotten him had he pitched for the '62-'63 Yankees? He finished his career with a 12-14 record after this trade.
(1) New York Mets
traded Roger Craig to the St. Louis Cardinals for George Altman and Bill Wakefield (Nov 04, 1963)
(3) New York Mets traded Jay Hook and Adrian Garrett to the Milwaukee Braves for Roy McMillan (May 8, 1964)
(4) New York Mets traded Frank Thomas to the Philadelphia Phillies for Gary Kroll and Wayne Graham (Aug 07, 1964)
(5) New York Mets traded Frank Lary to the Milwaukee Braves for Dennis Ribant (Aug 08, 1964)
Roy McMillan had a pretty good career, but like a lot of other players the Mets have obtained through the years, they hooked him for the last couple years when he was well into his 30s. He did have a decent year as the starting shortstop in 1965 in his 35 year old season.
Frank Lary had a very fine 11 years with the Tigers with almost 30 career WAR before coming to the Mets at the tail end of his run.
Frank Thomas was one of the better hitters of the early Mets and was the answer to Mets trivia question "Who was the first player the Mets obtained in a trade?"
November 1962
through October 1963
Notes: Bob Miller is one of the most common baseball names. This guy's career spanned 17 years with two service terms with the Mets. They traded him after he finished 1-12 in 1962 (who didn't?) as a 23 year old. He finished up his career 12 years later improving his Mets record to 3-14 going 2-2 in 58 games in 1974.
Mantilla had one of the better Mets seasons in 1962 as the regular second baseman. It makes sense that they'd trade him after a .729 OPS year. In the next three years in Boston, he improved to .843. The guy could hit. Stallard was 16-37 in his two years with the Mets, Green gave them 15 hits total and Moran produced a .195 batting average over 135 games played in 1963 and 64. Not a great trade.
The 1963 list:
(1) New York Mets traded Bob Miller to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Tim Harkness and Larry Burright (Dec 01, 1962)
(2) New York Mets traded Felix Mantilla to the Boston Red Sox for Tracy Stallard, Pumpsie Green and Al Moran (Dec 11, 1962)
(3) New York Mets traded Larry Foss to the Milwaukee Braves for Chico Fernandez (May 08, 1963)
(4) New York Mets traded Charlie Neal and Sammy Taylor to the Cincinnati Reds for Jesse Gonder (Jul 01, 1963)
(5) New York Mets traded Jacke Davis to the St. Louis Cardinals for Duke Carmel (Jul 29, 1963)
(6) New York Mets traded Ken MacKenzie to the St. Louis Cardinals for Ed Bauta (Aug 5, 1963)
Trivia: There actually should be a seventh trade listed in 1963 as I was looking at the page for Jacke Davis just to see how he was obtained by the Mets and it simply indicates 'Sent from the San Francisco Giants to the New York Mets in an unknown transaction sometime in May 1963, actual date unknown'. He never played for the Mets.
6 comments:
Great series. You've run out of seasons.
I think Pumpsie Green started out 7 for 9 as a Met - as a kid, I thought he'd be great.
Jesse Gonder hit .300 one season part-time.
Ribant was a good grab, and I believe the Mets' first .500 + starter.
I enjoyed watching Roy McMillan make plays in the SS hole - but his bat was done by the time he got to the Mets.
Altman could have been good - I read they made him play injured and it messed him up.
Charlie Smith was a solid power bat for the Mets for a while. Liked him.
Stallard had his Maris connection.
As a kid hearing Duke Carmel's name made me think of...candy.
I remember being at Bunnings perfect game against us in June 64 on Father's day and Gonder had the closest thing to a hit with a line drive to Tony Taylor ah the good old days.
Wow.. you guys are good. I was alive during this era, but riding on my tricycle. I have no recollection of anything Mets before 1969. Most of these names are only known to me as baseball cards.
Because I am a general history and trivia nut, I did know the Stallard - Maris connection.
I have one more year to go with this the series - the finale will be posted on Thursday to close 1Q2022.
I know that first trade you allude to...and BOTH played in the Mets opener.
And I don't count the Frank Thomas / Wayne Graham trade as a 4-first name deal because Gary Kroll was involved.
There have actually been a few 'all first name' trades over the years.
Yea, I'll write up that first trade in the Thursday article. Interesting one.
This series has been great! There are so many names that invoke great memories. Thanks for doing all of this research, R69!
Now if you really want to hit the stacks, there are hundreds of minor league trades that don't get listed if no major leaguers are involved.
For example, there was a fellow on the Binghamton Mets roster who was named their MVP in 2004. The next year he showed up on the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (presumably through trade) where he played one year before moving to independent league teams. You may recognize his name because of his more successful son: Ron Acuna.
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