A Mets anniversary worth celebrating

In a beautiful ceremony last night, the Atlanta Braves honored the 40th anniversary of Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth‘s career home run record.

In Mets lore, 2014 holds a few important anniversaries as well, including the 50th anniversary of the opening of Shea Stadium, the 10 year anniversary of David Wright‘s major league debut, and the 20th anniversary of one of the most spectacular pitching seasons ever.

It all started after the 1991 season.  The Mets had just finished 77-84 and it was time for a change.  Eddie Murray, Willie Randolph and Bobby Bonilla were brought in to help bolster the lineup.  The pitching staff was also worked on, mainly in a December trade with the Kansas City Royals, where the Mets would send Gregg Jefferies, Kevin McReynolds and Keith Miller to the heartland and receive utility man and projection system namesake Bill Pecota and starting pitcher Bret Saberhagen in return.

Saberhagen, who was just 27 at the time of the trade, was already established as a dominant 2-time CY Young Award winner for the Royals and was supposed to combine with David Cone, Dwight Gooden and Sid Fernandez to form a formidable rotation for the 1992 Mets.

Of course, it didn’t quite work out that way.  Saberhagen battled an inflamed finger and only started 15 games for “The Worst Team Money Could Buy”, but pitched well when he actually was on the mound.

The next year was a little more rocky for Saberhagen – he pitched well once again, but battled injuries and reporters all season long.  The now infamous stories of firecrackers and squirt guns full of bleach serve as a perfect microcosm of the kind of season it was for the Mets in 1993.  He underwent surgeries on his knee and elbow shortly after the bleach incident which ended his season prematurely.

That offseason, GM Joe McIlvaine shopped Saberhagen, but was unable to find a taker partly because of his attitude issues, partly because of the $15 million still owed to Saberhagen over the next three seasons.  So the Mets began 1994 with Saberhagen as their fifth starter.

In his first start, Saberhagen struck out five and walked none in a complete game victory over the Houston Astros.  His next start was a no decision, where he gave up three runs in seven innings to the Cubs, walking two and striking out five.  That was the most batters he would walk in a game all year.

In 1994, Saberhagen struck out 7.26 batters per nine innings, and walked 0.66.  He won more games (14) than walks he issued (13).  His 11.0 K:BB ratio is an MLB single-season record, and the next closest is Cliff Lee in 2010 at 10.3.

On May 10, he walked Darrin Fletcher of the Montreal Expos in the bottom of the first with two outs.  The next batter Saberhagen walked was Kevin Stocker of the Philadelphia Phillies with two outs in the bottom of the seventh on June 13.  He went 34 days, 48 innings, spanning seven starts without issuing a single base on balls.

His most incredible start of the year came on July 15th, when he pitched one of the all-time great games in Mets history.  Saberhagen’s line for the day: 10.0 innings, 5 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 11 strikeouts, 131 pitches (98 strikes), 93 game score.  Unfortunately, the Mets would waste the outing and eventually lose to the San Diego Padres in 14 innings.

Saberhagen would make just five more starts after that one as baseball would shut down in mid-August as the players went on strike.

When play resumed in 1995, Saberhagen was good, but not ’94 good, and he was traded to the Colorado Rockies at the deadline with David Swanson in exchange for Juan Acevedo and Arnold Gooch (who was later traded with Todd Hundley to the Dodgers for Roger Cedeno and Charles Johnson.  Johnson then went to Baltimore in the Armando Benitez trade).

So as the season goes on and the Mets continue to bring up young arms, let us not forget the historic season put together by Saberhagen 20 years ago this year.