Tom Brennan: Mets’ 1980s God Squad; Morabito to Queens Soon? baty or VIENTOS.

Pastor Darryl and a certain amateur writer you may know - two powerful lefties LOL

Maybe someday, Pastor Darryl will ask me to sing when he preaches. Ya gotta believe!

We have all, as long-time Mets fans, heard about the wild partying ways of the super talented mid-1980s Mets.

But there were at least two Godly men on that wild and worldly team.

Mookie Wilson was one.

Wilson earned a bachelor's degree in 1996 from Mercy College in New York, a Catholicism-based institution. A resident of Lakewood Township, New Jersey, he and his wife started an educational center for girls, "Mookie's Roses", in 1986.

In 2001, Wilson and his family released a gospel CD entitled Don't Worry, the Lord will Carry You Through.^[

Wilson then became an ordained Baptist minister in 2014.

As I recall, while the Mets were in the locker room pre-game, Wilson sat there reading the Bible.

In a 2023 article, Clemente Lisi wrote this:

“Even after ’86, it would be four years before we (he and Bill Buckner) ever talked,” Wilson recalled, saying the encounter happened during the 1989 season when Buckner was playing for the Kansas City Royals and he’d been traded to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Wilson said he spotted Buckner at the ballpark at then-Royals Stadium but tried to avoid him. Since Buckner had been the subject of death threats because of that bobbled play, Wilson said he feared the first baseman would take it out on him.

“He stood over me with the bat and he said, ‘Hey Mookie.’ I said, ‘Yes?’ He said, ‘You want to hit me some ground balls?’ That’s how we became the best of friends.”

Wilson said Buckner, who died in 2019 at age 69, was a practicing Catholic. Wilson, a Baptist and an ordained minister since 2014, said faith and love for Jesus ultimately brought them together. They become unlikely friends, often doing speaking engagements together and appearing at baseball card shows to sign autographs.

“He would call me late at night sometimes and ask me for Bible verses,” Wilson recalled during a recent appearance at New York’s Sheen Center as part of “Faith: The Competitive Edge” speaker series. “He was a man with a big faith.”

If not for that now-famous play, the two would never have become friends.

“I do think things happen for a reason,” he said. “I would never have met Bill Buckner.”

Secondly, Gary Carter was often described derisively as Camera Carter.  

But he is described in Wikipedia as “an active philanthropist, and championed causes that fought leukemia and illiteracy.  His Gary Carter Foundation (of which Carter was the president) has supported 8 Title I schools in Palm Beach County whose students live in poverty. Typically, these schools have 90% or more students eligible for free or reduced lunches. The Foundation seeks to "better the physical, mental and spiritual well being of children." To accomplish this, they advocate "school literacy by encouraging use of the Reading Counts Program, a program that exists in the Palm Beach County School District.

“At Carter's memorial service, on February 24, 2012, Expo teammate Tommy Hutton made note of Carter's deep faith. The three loves in Carter's life, Hutton said, were his family, baseball, and God.

Finally, one 1980s partying bad boy became a full-on, touching lives Christian minister later in life.  Superstar Darryl Strawberry.

His life was a roller coaster ride of coming out of an impoverished LA neighborhood with an abusive father. He was one of the chief partiers in the 1980s and 1990s.  Out of control, eventually.

He became a highly committed Christian over the last decade and a half, however, after hitting bottom, in debt, addicted, and wrecking relationships. 

He now preaches the gospel at churches and men’s meetings and prisons throughout the country.  Some of his direct preaching can be found on Instagram. Estranged from his father for decades, he forgave his father for abuse and in turn asked his father before he died for forgiveness. His father at that point became a Christian.

His testimony at a recent Faith Day at Citifield  (as written by Tom Campisi) was as follows:

“Sixteen years ago, my wife Tracy was pulling me out of dope houses,” Strawberry recalled. “She said, ‘God has a plan for you.’”

And now that plan includes doing the work of an evangelist and helping others come clean from addictions.

“I had an opportunity to play on fields like this for so many years, little did I know that God would change my life forever and I would become a minister of the gospel, loving people and travelling across the country doing this great work,” said Strawberry.

“I wasn’t always like this.  My life was broken, my life was empty."

'I was rich, I was famous, but I had nothing but a bunch of stuff. It wasn’t until I came to my knees and surrendered my life to Christ, for real—gave my heart to Jesus—that He changed me forever. Jesus healed me and restored me to righteousness and holiness. He will do the same for you.”

“I’ve met many people, I’ve met rich, I’ve met poor, but I’ve never met a man as great as Jesus. This man is holy, righteous, and he meets you right where you are.”

No doubt, Mookie’s clubhouse routine of reading the Bible stuck in Darryl’s mind, and had to have influenced his later radical transformation.

Now, occasionally, I have mentioned to you readers I sing at church-related events. I ain’t just a writer here. This 70 year old belted out a few of his songs at a church celebration recently. I’m on here starting at the 28:45 mark for about 10 minutes. The sound was a little sketchy on the music, but here you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKTDJ593amo

KEEP READING, PLEASE.

MORABITO TO QUEENS?

Well, he’s just in Brooklyn, but why not shift him a borough to Queens?

Why? 

He had probably a best-in-all-the-minors .510 OBP in 34 games (thru Saturday)? 

And 23 steals, too?  

Holy cannoli, Batman!

He is my new # 1 Mets offensive prospect.

Yes, above Jett, Drew, and LAA.

After all, let's face facts:

Jett and Drew’s OFA (On Field Average) is abysmal in 2024. In their two teams' 80 games so far, they've been in just 18. Cal Ripken is not impressed.

I don’t rank highly theoretical players on top ….just the ones who play.

LA Acuna is picking it up a bit in AAA, but right now he is at best Syracuse’s 5th best offensive player. 

.231/.277/.329 looks like a Ruben Tejada stat line to me.

When the Mets’ July sell-off happens, will LAA be ready to be promoted?

Morabito will be.  At least, that's my opinion.  And I'm sticking with it.

A similar player to Quick Nick is Rhylan Thomas, was hitting .323 in AA and deservedly just got promoted to AAA. That to me means there may be an open AA outfield spot? For Nick Morabito? Why wait? (No, it went for now to Omar De Los Santos, the freaky-great base stealer who sadly struggles mightily with strikeouts.)

Me? Nick to Queens?  

I think he will be Nick the Quick. Once he’s there, he’ll stick.

KEEP READING, PLEASE.

“THE” TRADE - A LOOK BACK

Going into Monday’s action, “the” trade:

To Cleveland: 

Amed Rosario - hitting .302, now with the Rays, 20 RBIs in 39 games.

Andres Gimenez - hitting .277, 27 RBIs in 44 games.

To the Mets:

Cookie Carrasco, 2-4, 5.16. High ERA due to 2 bad starts.

Francisco Lindor, $34 million for 2024:.197, 22 RBIs, 46 games.

Cleveland also got Josh Wolf (not pitching well in minors).

And got Isaiah Greene, drafted by the Mets in Round 3 in 2020 out of HS, so he is still just 22.  He has had lots of injuries and whatnot. Only 883 PAs since 2021.  

He finally made his 2024 season debut on Saturday in High A for Cleveland, though, and went 3 for 4. Double triple single - and a walk, too. 

Clearly, everything that’s happened before for Greene is irrelevant and he is on the verge, based on that one game, of superstardom. Perhaps I exaggerate.

KEEP READING, PLEASE. I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST.

baty … or VIENTOS? May I Choose?

So, here I am, on a fine Monday evening, waiting in the car for my wonderful bride, and my brother Steve texts me that he is out celebrating his first anniversary, but he adds that all the Braves do is HIT.

I reply that “All the Mets do is QUIT”.  Megill was good today, 5 innings, 3 runs, 2 earned, fanned 7. When you HIT and don’t QUIT, that is a good outing. I refuse to nitpick pitchers, when the hitters are crap. 

Nido homered, up to .241, but Lindor, .194. Time to hit, Frankie.

I then note that brett baty, he of small letters and smaller production, who is trying very hard to still hit his stride in his 3rd season, and coming up small, like the letters - he fanned his first two times up, and now comes up with the bags juiced and 2 outs. A hitter’s delight.

He, however, takes a big, fat, juicy strike one, admiring it as it goes by, and then pitch 2 is a swinging strike, and pitch 3 is a swinging strike.  Three pitches, why prolong the agony? The Mets (and baty of the small letters and smaller production) leave the bags juiced. Which they are fond of doing, it certainly seems. That inning died at 3-1, which was the finally wimpy score from a wimpy team.

Sitting on the bench during all of this is my guy, MARK VIENTOS, who had 2 hits and an RBI yesterday and is hitting .333. I wonder why my guy MARK VIENTOS is not playing and the small letter, small production guy is.

Then I look at the small production guy’s last 15 games, which I have time to do, since my wife still isn’t back yet. 

Turns out baty is 8 for 47 with 5 walks and 22 strikeouts in those 15 games. Which makes me wonder: 

Do the Mets want to actually, at some point in this decade, fight like desperate, cornered animals to win, like Pastor Darryl’s mid-80s teams did, or keep playing guys like the one with with small letters and smaller production who might someday learn to hit his weight in a month not named April? 

It is just so easy to lose 2 of every 3 games, isn’t it? Like breathing.

Message to Mets: 

Play the power guy with ALL CAPS.

And not the guy with small letters and smaller production. 

Who someday, some season, we fervently hope everything will click for. 

Let those things click for the small letter guy with the smaller production where he belongs…in Syracuse.