Pennant-race baseball is a perverse, enervating affair.
You can spend four innings on top of the world, grinning inside while your announcers blow sunshine straight up the verrett of an overperforming young pitcher, who then promptly folds like Superman on laundry day and turns a 1-0 lead into a 4-1 deficit that evolves into a punchless 6-2 defeat.
But at the same time, your nemesis in DC catches no blessings from the visiting Pope and loses 4-1, reducing the magic number to 6.
So yeah, your typical lose/win night…
As a brief respite from this Cyclone ride, Card of the Week is here to offer another episode of Mystery Met.
Stare deeply into the placid brown eyes of this long-ago Metropolitan, allow yourself a little moment of Zen, and try to be the first to identify him. The winner will receive some goodies from the archives.
Bill Hepler
This is not Bill “Hamburger” Hepler, Tim…
Steve Renko.
Jim Bethke
Nice job, lanzarishi!
I’m going to go out on a limb and claim that Jim Bethke is the only pitcher in baseball history with a perfect 1.000 winning percentage who won all of his games before turning 19.
Bethke logged 40 innings for the 1965 team as an 18-year-old, and picked up two wins along the way. He was back in A/AA in 1966, and never made it back above AA with the Mets or the Royals. He called it quits in 1971 at the age of 24.
Bethke occupies the Cindy Brady slot on the 1965 Topps Mets rookies card that includes Dan Napoleon, Ron Swoboda, and Tug McGraw.
Please send your contact info to [email protected] so I can get your prize in the mail– let me know your favorite player(s) as well…
Dear Doug,
I would like to thank you for your generosity and kindness in sending me the baseball cards. I was completely baffled as to who had sent these and thought that an old Ebay transaction came to the wrong address!. Then it hit me, AH! the blog mystery card!!! It wads so much fun. I believe I had answered another a while back that I could have sworn was Les Rohr. I didn’t however, follow up so I surely missed it. Again, thanks so much and best regards. I love this website and have been a Mets fan since their inception.
PS Jim Bethke was highly praised when he came up but did nothing in those early years for those comical teams!!
My pleasure! Happy to hear that the cards made it to you safely.