This isn’t the first rodeo. 

In his first season in Flushing, Juan Soto’s start to his 2025 season hasn’t been idyllic. To say the 26 year old superstar outfielder has been struggling would be underselling it. Soto is hitting a meager .224 this season through the month of May with an OPS almost 200 points lower than his career average at .745 at the time of writing. 

Fan reaction to Soto’s struggles has been mixed to say the least. Depending where on social media you look, you’ll see reactions begging fans to be patient to posts begging the Mets to either bench Soto, or demote him to the minor leagues. After signing a 15 year, $765M deal back in December, the richest contract in both MLB history and all of sports, it’s not unreasonable to say Soto has been a disappointment. But this is far from the first time a big time player has struggled in their transition to Queens. Nor will it likely be the last. Read More...

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On January 9th of this year, the class of 2013 was announced to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, and for the first time since 1996, no player was elected. Some of the players on the list include, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Jack Morris, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Curt Schilling, and former Met Mike Piazza. Back in 2008, after Piazza announced his retirement, our very own Mike Peters wrote an article stating that Piazza should be put in to the Hall. However Piazza fell well short of the 75% needed to gain entry with 57.8% of the vote, 93 votes short.

It appears that the main reason why Piazza was not elected is the suspicion of his steroid use. Unlike Bonds, McGuire, Sosa, and Clemens, there has been no concrete evidence ever linking Piazza to performance enhancing drugs. Piazza was not named by Jose Canseco, nor was his name listed in the Mitchell Report. The closest link between Piazza and steroids was the rumor of back acne. Piazza's numbers alone should have warranted election to the Hall of Fame, with 396 homeruns as a catcher out of 427, 1335 career RBI's, a .306 career batting average, .377 on base percentage, and .545 slugging percentage. Piazza beats out Johnny Bench, who is considered by many to be the greatest catcher ever, in every category but RBI's, in two seasons less than Bench. However, many writers simply have stated that they wish to see what Piazza's book (which comes out in February) has to say about his potential usage of steroids.


If there is no new revelations about Piazza and potential steroids in between now and next year's vote, then there should be no argument that Piazza should be voted in as a Hall of Famer. Thus leaving the only argument whether or not he goes in as a Dodger, or as a Met.

UPDATE:
For the second year in a row Piazza was not elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving 62.2% of the vote. Read More...

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With the 2000's gone, I'd like to talk quickly about the games of the decade that stand out in my mind.

Game of the Decade

Without question, I'm giving the overall best game of the decade to October 16th, 2000. It was Game 5 of the 2000 NLCS, Series MVP Mike Hampton pitches a complete game three hit shutout, Todd Zeile's three run double in the 4th put the Mets up 6-0. Rick Ankiel throws two more wild pitches in the 7th (after throwing 5 pitches to the backstop in the first inning of game two) effectively ending his pitching career. The Mets dominated the whole game winning 7-0 and taking home the NL Pennant for the first time since 1986. I was there. From the fourth inning on, big Shea was electric as everyone anxiously awaited the pennant. There was nothing like it.

Best Regular Season Game

The best regular season game of the decade goes to June 30, 2000 (The 10 run inning). Three games back of the Braves for the division, the Mets were trailing the Braves 8-1 in the bottom of the 8th inning on fireworks night at Shea, on any other night many of the fans would have gone home. Mets tie the game on a series of hits and four straight walks, Mike Piazza comes up to the plate with the go ahead run on base, and you just knew it, Piazza caps the inning with a three run homer to go ahead 11-8, Mets win and pull to within two games of the Braves. I was there for that one too...

The best game in a losing effort

As much as this game might be the worst game of the decade, that we still have yet to recover from, on October 19, 2006, the Mets played in one of the most exciting games in all of baseball for the entire decade. Of course the Mets lost Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS on Yadier Molina's two run homer off of Aaron Heilman and Carlos Beltran's subsequent bat on the shoulder, but Mets fans will remember this game for one defensive play by Endy Chavez, at the time dubbed the "play of the franchise" by Gary Cohen, and a surprise gem from Oliver Perez. Oh right I was at that game too... I'm still waiting for Beltran to swing.

Honorable Mention

The first game in NY after 9/11 with the Piazza home run
The Benny Agbayani homer in the 2000 NLDS
The 2006 clincher
Maine near no hitter before the 07 collapse (which included a brawl)
Santana's gem before the 08 collapse
10/22/2006: The Mets trailed 7-1 and Delgado hit a grand slam for his 400th home run, and trailing 7-6 in the 9th, Beltran wins it with a two run walk-off

Those are just some of the games that stick out in my mind... thoughts? Read More...

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Bhahahahahahahaha

Ok now that that's out of my system, for the second time, the Dominican team (made up of all stars like Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, Edison Volquez, Robinson Cano, Miguel Tejada etc.) lost to the team from the Netherlands (who's best players are Sidney Ponson and Rick VandenHurk, and all but three have no major league experience).

The good news of course, is that Jose Reyes and Fernando Tatis are now out of harms way and wont be over exerting himself for a pointless tournament.

The other upset is Team Italy defeating Team Canada.

I was actually kind of surprised to see the talent the Canadian team had assembled this year. Justin Morneau, Russel Martin, Jason Bay, Joey Votto, Matt Stairs, Corie Koskie, and Pete Orr are all Canadian? who knew?

But Team Canada lacked pitching talent, and lost to Italy's powerhouse of Nick Punto and Frank Catalanotto. Lets be real, the best player Italy has in that dugout is hitting coach Mike Piazza.

You know, as funny as it is to see these star studded teams lose to teams with just a few major leaguers, I think it highlights an important problem with the World Baseball Classic. The fact of the matter is, the teams with less major league players should win most of the time.

Seriously, to these single A, Japanese league and Latin league players the World baseball classic is like their World Series, it is their opportunity to show the world what they can do, and why a major league club should take a shot on them. So naturally these guys are preparing themselves from months in advance, they are giving 110% for every game. Of course they are going to beat these major leaguers who A) don't really care about the tournament, B) Use the tournament as warm up for the regular season, and C) Aren't playing 50% let alone 100%.

There's really nothing they can do to fix this problem, no major league player is ever going to put the WBC before the regular MLB season. And if they only used amateur players or minor leaguers, it wouldn't garner enough interest from the fans to even warrant having the tournament in the first place.

Of course, the Commissioner wont admit this publicly, but Major League Baseball secretly wants these teams from the Netherlands, Italy, China, Australia, Panama, and South Africa to upset the powerhouse teams. That helps to promote the sport world wide. If team USA, Japan or the Dominican won it every year, it doesn't do much to promote the sport to other countries in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. Read More...

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One of the greatest players in Mets history officially announced his retirement today. Mike Piazza, the face of the franchise from 1998 to 2005 and the player who led the Mets to the World Series in 2000 has called it a career.

Piazza is a sure-fire first ballot hall of famer, the only question that lingers is will he go into the Hall of Fame as a Met or as a Dodger.

As a biased Mets fan there really is no question in my mind that he should go in as a met. Piazza himself has said that he would prefer to go in as a Met, and although the Hall no longer allows the players to decide what cap they wear, I find it almost ridiculous that anyone would even suggest he wear a dodgers hat.

First and foremost, he played longer in New York, that alone is usually the deciding factor for the hall. Piazza played 7 full seasons in New York from 1999-2005, and played most of 1998 with the Mets as well. He only played 5 full seasons in Los Angeles.

Second, his statistics show clearly that he had a better career in New York than Los Angeles.

Team	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BA
Los Angeles	726	2707	443	896	177	563	.331
New York	972	3478	532	1028	220	655	.296

Third, He led the Mets to the NLCS in 1999 and to the World Series in 2000. He didn't play all that well in the two first round playoff sweeps the dodgers experienced in 1995 and 1996.

Fourth, Piazza was the unquestionably the leader of the Mets for 8 Seasons.

Fifth, he is probably the second best player in Mets history, whereas he's more like the 10th best player in Dodger's history.

Sixth, the Mets got robbed with the other great hitting catcher in their franchise's history when the hall decided to give Gary Carter an Expos hat because he had played more seasons in Montreal.

While all of these are good reasons for Piazza to go into the hall as a Met, the reason is far deeper than statistics or time played, or playoff achievements. Mike Piazza should go into the Hall of Fame as a Met because most people when they think of Mike Piazza, they think of him with the Mets, and when they think of the Mets of the late 90s early 2000s they think of Mike Piazza.

If Mike Piazza ends up going into the Hall of Fame wearing a Dodgers cap, it will be an atrocity for Mets fans, whereas if he goes in as a Met, it wont be that big of a deal for Dodger fans because they should expect that.
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We all need something to laugh about since we've been pulling our hair out and losing sleep for much of the past week. I must apologize for being a day late, having a job and going to grad. school doesn't leave a lot of down time. But I did come across this early today that I would like to share. Baseball is full of far too many awards now. It's almost like those senior awards in high school where they made up 15,000 awards to make sure no one felt left. Well stack another funny one to the pile. Courtesy of SI, the Mets lone representative is El Duque, unless you count the glam shot of Mike Piazza from the Shea Stadium seats.

On a serious note, the Mets have to keep fighting tonight in Miami. Hat's off to Pelfrey for getting the job done last night. Let's go Mets!

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Following Tom Glavine's 300th win, a few reporters felt it was necessary to mention they believed he would have rather won it in a Braves uniform. We all know Tom Glavine bleeds Braves blood. He has served the Mets well during his tenure in New York and allowed us to take part in a bit of his historic achievement, yet his heart is in Atlanta.

With that, the question was raised who would you call a true Met. Derek Jeter is a true Yankee. Tony Gwynn was a true Padre. John Smoltz is probably the true Brave of our day. So who is a true Met to you? Beyond that, what constitutes that title? Is it someone who began their career with the Mets? Someone who spent a majority of their career with the Mets? Someone who led the Mets to a World Championship?

Tom Seaver, Gary Carter, and Mike Piazza are good candidates for true Mets. Could David Wright and Jose Reyes become the true Mets of today, or are they already? What makes someone a true Met to you? Throw some names out there and why you think they are a true Met. Read More...

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Honoring The Past…Do The Mets Do It Enough

I know I have brought this up in the Facebook group before, but I would like to address it here. There are times when I think the Mets definitely short change the players that represent their history. Now the Mets have had some great teams in their day, from 1969, to 1973, to 1986, to 1988, to 2000, to 2006, but at times I do not believe that the upper management rewards some of the great individual players for their accomplishments. Only one New York Met position player has had their number retired by the team (#41 Tom Seaver). This is unacceptable and an insult to some of the great Mets that have played for the Shea faithful. So here, I will start up the debate of what Mets deserve to have their numbers retired.

#7 – Ed Kranepool: Kranepool was the original Mr. Met, along with Seaver. Kranepool was a lifelong Met, from the team’s inception in 1962, to his retirement in 1979. Kranepool was there for the 120 losses in 1962, the Miracle Mets of 1969, the Amazin’ Mets of 1973, and for the Midnight Massacre of 1977. He was the steady face that Mets fans could rely on to see at first base at the start of every season for 18 seasons. Kranepool is far and away the most realistic definition of a lifelong Met, and he deserves to be remembered immortally by all Mets fans.

#8 – Gary Carter: Carter was one of the great leaders of the Mets in the 1980’s. He was one of the catalysts of the great 1986 team, and for all intensive purposes is the one of only two Mets inducted into the Hall Of Fame as a Met (though on his plaque he wears an Expos cap, we all know he should have went in as a Met). Carter, along with Carlton Fisk, and Lance Parrish was the premier catcher of his day, and is one of the premier offensive catchers of all time. His arrival, along with that of Keith Hernandez signaled an end to the days of misery in Queens. His two out, two strike single in Game Six of the 1986 World Series started the furious rally that won the game and eventually the series for the Mets. Carter will always be a favorite of Mets fans, and his #8 deserves to be eternally etched in hallows of New York Mets history.

#16 – Doc Gooden: Well there is no doubt that Gooden was the ace of those great Mets staffs in the 1980’s. He was the most dominant pitcher in the National League from 1984-86, if not all of baseball. Of course what kills Gooden’s chances of having his number retired was his numerous off the field drug problems. The sad thing about Gooden is that his drug problems also most likely cost him a chance at being enshrined in Cooperstown. If Gooden had stayed out of trouble, his #16 most likely would be hanging up in left field.

#17 – Keith Hernandez: Hernandez along with Carter is the biggest sham. Hernandez is THE greatest defensive first basemen in the history of the game. He won six Gold Glove Awards as a member of the Mets (along with five more as a St. Louis Cardinal), along with one Silver Slugger Award (he won one another one of these in St. Louis also). Hernandez was also the captain of the great Mets teams in the 1980’s, and along with Carter got the team turned around in the right direction. Hernandez is also a beloved commentator for the Mets today. While he had his off the field issues as well, they were nowhere near as serious as Gooden’s or Darryl Strawberry’s. Hernandez deserves the honor of his number being retired just as much as Carter does.

#18 – Darryl Strawberry: Strawberry was a monster in the 1980’s. After being recruited out of South Central Los Angeles, Strawberry hit the scene in 1983, winning the National League Rookie Of The Year Award. Strawberry had power that no Mets player had been able to duplicate in previous years. Straw was the first true power hitter that the Mets ever had on their team. To this day he still holds team records in home runs, and runs batted in. Like Gooden though, Straw was a product of his times, and he too fell into drug problems, that eventually ruined what would have been a Hall Of Fame career. Unlike Gooden though, Strawberry has done a much better job at fighting off his demons later in his career, and he has started to work with the Mets once again during Spring Training. His previous reputation though will forever tarnish any chances of his jersey being retired.

#31 – Mike Piazza: Piazza is still playing, so if his number retirement does come, it is a ways off. But, how could you deny what Piazza meant to this team in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Piazza’s arrival on the scene in 1998 effectively signaled the end of the dark years in the 1990’s. While in a Mets uniform, Piazza basically solidified his acclaim as the best offensive catcher to ever play the game. And of course, who could forget his memorable game winning home run against the Braves in the 2001 season right after the September 11 attacks. That moment is still, in this guy’s opinion, one of the greatest moments in the history of sports. After his release after the 2005 season, Piazza signed on to catch for the San Diego Padres. Upon his first return to Shea Stadium he got numerous standing ovations, solidifying the fact that he had been the team’s most popular player since Seaver. Piazza’s number should be retired immediately after his retirement, and anything less would be a damn shame.

#36 – Jerry Koosman: Koosman is the forgotten soldier of the Mets late 1960’s early 1970’s teams. Koosman still remains one of four Mets pitchers to win 20 games in a season (though he did lose 20 games the next season). The simple fact that hurts Koosman though is that his numbers just aren’t good enough, and the fact that he wasn’t a lifelong Met (unlike Kranepool) really hurts him.

#45 – Tug McGraw: McGraw was the inspirational leader of the 1969 and especially the 1973 Mets. His famous catchphrase “Ya Gotta Believe” still lives in Mets lure today. He was the first premier closer for the Mets, and one of the first “closers” to ever play the game. The fact that hurts McGraw though is that Phillies fans also fondly remember him, and it is well known that McGraw enjoyed his tenure in Philadelphia more than he enjoyed his tenure in New York. This fact is what alone keeps him off the wall for me.

#45 – John Franco: And finally, the man himself, one John Franco. Like Kranepool, Franco was a New York City boy that embraced the fact that he got to play at home. Franco, upon is retirement was and still is the Mets all time leader in saves, and upon his retirement he was second on the all time saves list (he has since dropped to fourth on the list). Franco also wore #31 before the arrival of Mike Piazza, but graciously gave his number to Piazza. It would be great to see the two of these guys (guys who embodied the heart and soul of what a New York Met is) get inducted in the same ceremony in the near future. Of course the fact that Pedro Martinez is wearing #45 right now might be delaying the retirement process.

Well there you have it, a brief history on the Mets, in their swagger days. These are players that I think the present day Mets could look up to for some inspiration. The 2007 Mets seem to be so uninspired at times, and seeing the swagger and never say die attitude of these players (especially the guys from the 1980’s) could really help them get on the right track. Swagger can be used as intimidation, it can used to boost your confidence in yourself as a player, and it can be used to build much needed character. By honoring some of these old Mets, it could give today’s Mets a clue about what it takes to win, and to win aggressively, with no holds barred. That’s a trait I think these Mets miss at times, and it’s a trait that these guys all had.

And remember Mets fans: Don’t Stop Believin’

JD

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