Remember 1969: Long Mets careers

 

Remember's Ramblings – Volume 2, Article 3

Jamuary 14, 2025

 

Career Mets?  

How many people work for just one organization in their life?

 

The other day I was reading through another Pete Alonso article over on the Mets360 site written by one Charlie Hangley.   There was a line in there that caught my eye – to quote Charlie:  “The fanboy in me says let’s bring Pete home, with the idea of him smashing most existing offensive club records and possibly becoming the fourth ballplayer in history to spend his entire career as a Met – the other three being David Wright, Ed Kranepool and Ron Hodges.”

While I also embrace the idea that Pete should stick around and smash most Mets hitting records in a few years (it will take him about a half-season to become the Mets all-time Home Run leader), it was the concept of only three other players in the Mets 63 years that have spent their entire career years with the Mets that piqued my interest.    

I immediately thought of Kevin Morgan who might take exception to that statement.     Back to the archives I went and found that in fact, those were the only three position players that had complete careers of 6 or more years that were spent entirely with one organization. 

Overall, 145 of the 1252 players that have ever played for the Mets did not play (or have not yet played) for another major league team. 

Of all players that have played with no other major league team, Francisco Alvarez and Mark Vientos rank #10 and #11 in games played among the position players.   The four mentioned above (Kranepool (1), Wright (2), Alonso (4), and Hodges (6) are all ahead of them and it is in fact none other than Brandon Nimmo who has played the 3^rd most games for the Mets and no one else.   Jeff McNeil ranks 5.   

Rounding out the top 9 are Bruce Boisclair, Rod Kanehl, and Ron Gardenhire.  Nimmo is about 6 full years behind Wright for 2^nd place and probably has the best chance of the active players of staying on this list. 

While this list is just the position players, you might ask “What about pitchers”?    There are actually two pitchers in the overall top 10 list – Pedro Feliciano was in 484 games across 9 years and Jeff Innis pitched in 288 games in 7 years. 

Drew Smith has pitched in 6 different years, compiling 191 games, just ahead of Bob Apodaca’s 184, both tucked in between Alvarez at 211 and Viento at 1974.  Smith is still active and Apodaca doesn’t make the cut of ‘career > 5 years’.   

I must admit that I had never given much thought to career Mets and was a little surprised when I read Charlie’s statement for the first time.   After pulling the list to see all of the players who played nowhere else, some names struck me as 'what could have been' - Seaver, Strawberry, Doc, Buddy, etc.    

One specific guy that I thought about was Cleon Jones.  I knew he played a long time with the Mets, but did not remember either where he came from or where he went after the Mets.   It turns out he was signed as an amateur free agent by the Mets and broke in with them in 1963.   

He played over 1200 games under the NY cap through 1975 when he was released mid-year.    He signed as a free agent with the Chicago White Sox in April 1976 and played just 12 games with them before being released in May, ending his career with 1201 games with the Mets and 12 with the Sox.    Almost!

Remember’s Rambling:  On a very related note

You have to wonder if Pete took any notice of the news last week that the Mets are going to retire David Wright’s #5 and honor him with the rest of the retired numbers.     Another few good years could get his #20 the same treatment.   

I don’t know that the Mets as a business would ever let him finish his career here – they certainly don’t want to commit more than 3 years to him now, but if he remains productive, will they extend him contracts as he approaches his mid to late 30s to try to attain some of those records and a potential Hall of Fame place as a career Met?    I have my doubts. 

If I am Pete, getting that number retired is a secondary reason to come back.   If there is any Mets offer on the table to hit behind JuanSoto, as well as OBP machine Brandon Nimmo and perennial all-star Francisco Lindor, why would I think twice $$??  

Perhaps I am just an old I/T guy that worked for 40 years in corporate America (for just one company!) making enough to feed my family, have a nice house and save a little for retirement, but I still struggle with the difference between $88M and $95M.      It seems that 88 should buy a nice mansion (or 2) wherever you want to be and have a couple of nice cars in the driveway(s).    

At some point it has to be about more than just the money - OMG, just sign the damn thing, play your butt off for the next three years and make it hard for them to jettison you off later.   There is no better opportunity to get to the World Series!     

                     Remember’s Reminiscing:   January 14 Birthdays

Ross Jones (65), Mike Pelfrey (41), Adam Kolarek (36), and Aaron Altherr (34) are all celebrating birthdays today.

The late Dave Marshall would have been 82 today.           

I'm out - stay safe and well - have a good week - pitchers and catchers in a month!