It seems like the Mets are one of everybody’s talking points lately. Juan Lagares won the Gold Glove in center field. Jacob deGrom won the Rookie Of The Year Award, the same day the signing of Michael Cuddyer – the opening shot of this year’s free agent skirmishes – was announced. There hasn’t been much actual activity since then, but the Mets have been in the conversation. They were proclaimed to be at least “in the playoff mix,” according to the MLB Network several times over. They have been the subject of trade rumors in circles beyond their own blogosphere and even garnered a lengthy, if factually inaccurate mention in Sunday night’s episode of The Newsroom. Yes, the Mets are on a lot of people’s lips, it seems.
To go along with all this ubiquitous Metsiana, the ballot for this year’s Hall of Fame voting has a distinctly orange and blue tint to it. There are six men who played in Queens at some point on the 34-man menu. Mike Piazza makes his third appearance, of course. Widely regarded as the best-hitting catcher of all time, he came ever so close to cracking the club last year and stands a better-than-even chance of getting there this time. As for the first-timers, the ex-Met most likely to gain entry would be Pedro Martinez. The signing of Martinez after the 2004 season was a watershed moment for the Omar Minaya regime and for the franchise itself. Adding this pitcher, albeit just starting his decline phase at the time, signaled that the Mets meant business – much the same as the signing of George Foster a generation before. As most fans said after his first year, “worth every penny.” Without Pedro Martinez, we Met fans don’t get to enjoy six-plus seasons of Carlos Beltran. We also don’t get to enjoy the talents of another candidate for induction this year, the powerful Carlos Delgado. Delgado was the masher that put the Mets over the top in the mid-‘00s and evoked memories of Darryl Strawberry with his tape-measure clouts. Cliff Floyd – already here by the time Martinez and Delgado arrived – also provided some pop and makes his debut on the ballot. As for the last two, their stays in New York were brief, but sometimes memorable. Gary Sheffield helped open Citi Field in 2009 and was wearing Met togs when he cracked his 500th career home run – quite an accomplishment, considering he hit it over Citi’s original left field fence. As for Jeff Kent, well, his Mets tenure can best be described as “non-descript.” In fact, his most memorable moment in a Mets’ game probably came as a member of the Dodgers, Game 1 of the 2006 NLDS, when he was the first of two men tagged out at the plate by Paul LoDuca…on the same play.
With the Winter Meetings only two weeks away, let’s hope this is not all anybody will be talking about.
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Piazza will go in as a Met!