Early in the 2003 baseball season, the starting shortstop for the last place Mets, Rey Sanchez, disappeared during a 13-4 drubbing against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium and emerged with a nice stylish haircut.
The Mets organization was publicly scrutinized. The public’s frustrations with the performance of the club culminated in demands for the team to make a statement, make an example of Sanchez, and get rid of him.
Mike Stanton allegedly leaked the incident to ESPN Radio. The New York Post spread the story by naming Mets closer, Armando Benitez, as the barber but Benitez denied any involvement. Mo Vaughn weighed in and said that nobody would care if the team was winning. First-year manager, Art Howe, released a statement saying, “the situation will be assessed and addressed”. General Manager, Steve Phillips told the media that the issue would be dealt with internally. Fred Wilpon said that the team had to be held accountable for their actions.
Sanchez repeatedly denied the incident and said, “I’m not embarrassed because I didn’t do anything”.
Supposedly, two teammates (Stanton and Mike Piazza) had already confronted Sanchez even before Howe became aware of the incident.
Ray Sanchez was supposed to have been the stabilizing bridge between the Rey Ordonez era and the Jose Reyes era. Instead, controversies unfolded. Prior to “the Haircut Incident”, he had already been involved in a dispute involving rookie pitcher Jae Weong Seo’s bad throw to second base. He had also been nursing minor injuries throughout the young season.
His tenure with the team ended when the club finally dealt him to the Seattle Mariners at the end of July for (never-to-play a major league game for the Mets) Kenny Kelly.
Sanchez’s 2003 totals for the Mets were 56 games played, 183 PAs, 11 runs scored, 12 RBIs, 1 SB, and a .207 BA.
For the record, Mike Stanton never leaked anything to anyone. As a seasoned veteran, he stuck to the “what happens in the clubhouse, stays in the clubhouse” rule, steadfastedly. Michael Kay, the ESPN Radio host who reported it, admitted the day after he broke the story that he and Stanton never spoke to one another (and he apologized to Stanton for involving him in the controversy). The most likely source of the information was Mets pitcher (and Kay’s best friend) Al Leiter. Leiter was notorious for his big mouth and for leaking stuff “anonymously” to the press.
Don’t remembr this at all,I think I blocked out Art Howe’s tenure.
The first words I saw on the page were “Mo Vaughn weighed in” and I damn near cried…