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Though the Mets have
won five pennants and two World Championships, they
are not heavily represented in baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New
York. Only three players,
Tom Seaver,
Mike Piazza,and, to a lesser extent,
Gary Carter,
established their credentials for the game's highest honor while playing a
significant portion of their careers with the Mets. Seven other
Hall-of-Famers,
who had their glory years with other clubs, spent a portion of their
careers as players with the Mets. (See below.) Other Cooperstown immortals
who served in a Met uniform, though not as a player, are manager Casey
Stengel, and coaches Rogers Hornsby and Bob Gibson.
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METS PLAYERS IN THE NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME
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1972
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
YOGI BERRA
Yogi Berra played 18 seasons with the Yankees, and four games
with the Mets, but those four games in 1965 qualify him for a spot on this
list of Mets players in the Hall of Fame. During his Yankee career, Berra
hit 358 home runs, won three MVP awards, and played in 75 World Series
games. He retired as a player and became the Yankees' manager for the 1964
season, in which he led his team to the American League pennant, only to
be fired after a World Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Mets
coaxed him out of retirement for the 1965 season, but Berra's comeback was
limited, as mentioned above, to a mere four games.
He spent eleven years in a Mets uniform, however, first as a coach, and
then, after the 1972 death of
Gil Hodges, as the team's fifth manager.
Yogi became the first manager to win pennants in each league when the Mets
found their way to the 1973 World Series. Yogi's ties with the Mets
organization ended when he was fired as manager during the 1975 season. He
has gone on since then to become one of baseball's most colorful figures,
known perhaps more for his many memorable quotes (many of which he never
actually uttered) than for his distinguished career on the field and in
the dugout.
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1973
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
WARREN SPAHN
Warren Spahn joined the Mets in 1965 after 20 seasons with the
Boston and Milwaukee Braves.
During that time he established himself as one of the greatest left-handed
pitchers in the history of the game.
He had thirteen 20-win seasons, and pitched in three World Series,
including the Milwaukee Braves' World Championship
season of 1957. When he put on a Mets uniform for the first time, however,
he was nearly 44 years old. He posted an unimpressive
4-12 record in 19 starts with the Mets before finishing 1965, and his
career, with the San Francisco Giants.
Spahn's 363 career victories represent the fifth highest win total of all
time, behind only immortals Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Grover Cleveland
Alexander, and Christy Mathewson. Spahn also has the somewhat less
impressive distinction of being the first Met player ever to draw a breath
on the planet Earth. His April 23, 1921 birth preceded his nearest
competitor,
Gene Woodling
by over a year.
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1979
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
WILLIE MAYS
During over two decades with the New York and San Francisco Giants,
Willie Mays was, arguably, the greatest player of his time.
When he retired in 1973, he ranked
third on the all-time home run list with 660, behind only Babe Ruth and
Henry Aaron.
He collected 3,283 base hits, drove in 1,903 runs, and had a career
batting average of .302. He was a Rookie of the Year in 1951, and won
two Most Valuable Player awards.
In 1954 he led the Giants to their
final World Championship in New York, and, during the World Series that
year, he made a spectacular catch and throw on a long centerfield drive by
Cleveland's Vic Wertz that's still talked about to this day. Mays was a
five-tool player who dominated at virtually every phase of the game. Mays
continued to excel after the Giants moved to California in 1958. He
received one of baseball's most exclusive honors when he was named the
Player of the Decade for the 1960's.
When Willie reached the age of 41, with his skills in considerable
decline, the San Francisco Giants sent Mays back to the city where he
started his career, trading him to the Mets on May 11, 1972. Although he
hit a game-winning home run in his Mets debut, beating the Giants 5-4,
Willie Mays had few moments of glory with the Mets. He finished out the
1972 season and returned in 1973 for the Mets' "You Gotta Believe" season,
which allowed him to close his remarkable career with a World Series
appearance against the Oakland Athletics. After his retirement, Mays
remained with the Mets as a coach until 1979, when Commissioner Bowie Kuhn
banned him (and Mickey Mantle) from any involvement with baseball because
of a business affiliation with an Atlantic City casino. When the ban was
eventually lifted, Mays returned to the employ of the Giants, and has had
no further involvement with the Mets.
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1980
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
DUKE SNIDER
Duke Snider
was one of the more beloved members of the great Brooklyn Dodgers teams
of the 1950's. New York fans endlessly debated the merits of the city's
three great
center fielders of the time,
Willie Mays,
Mickey Mantle, and Snider, immortalized in song as "Willie, Mickey and the
Duke."
The Dodgers won six pennants during Snider's eleven seasons with the team
in Brooklyn, and
one more during his five years in Los Angeles.
Snider slugged 40 or more home runs in each of his last five seasons in Brooklyn.
His production immediately tailed off with the switch from the cozy Ebbets
Field to the spacious Los Angeles Coliseum.
As with Mays,
Yogi Berra, and
Warren Spahn, Duke Snider's best days were behind him when he
finally put on a Mets
uniform. Snider, however, was a little bit younger than the above
mentioned players, as he
was a tender 36 years of age when the Mets acquired him for the 1963
season. In his only
season with the Mets, Snider played in 129 games and hit .243 with
14 home runs, including the 400th of his career.
He would finish his career in 1964 with the San Francisco Giants.
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1992
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
TOM SEAVER
And then, of course, there's
Tom Seaver.
Seaver was the first Met to go into the Hall of Fame
as a Met, with a Mets cap on his plaque and an
impressive list of accomplishments in a Mets uniform on his
resume: four seasons with 20 or more wins, nine consecutive
seasons with 200 or more strikeouts, three Cy Young awards,
a Rookie of the Year award, and three ERA titles,
including a 1.76 in 1971. He won 198 games as a Met, out of a
total of 311 in his career. But Seaver's impact on the Mets
transcends a mere listing of his impressive accomplishments.
Seaver, along with manager
Gil Hodges,
was primarily responsible for changing the attitude
and personality of the team, as well as its position in the standings.
When Seaver arrived as a 22-year-old rookie in 1967,
the Mets had never enjoyed a winning season, and in fact
had rarely managed to escape the National League
cellar. They had had a reputation as lovable losers,
but that was starting to wear thin. During the
1969 season, when the Mets reached the .500 mark for the first time in
their history, Seaver refused to see that as anything noteworthy. His focus was on
loftier goals. The Miracle Mets World Championship of 1969
simply would not have happened without Tom Seaver on the ballclub.
After 1969, and through the much of the 1970's, Tom Seaver was the player around
whom the Mets revolved. He was called "The Franchise," a nickname which irked Mets
management but was nonetheless accurate. Tom Seaver
put the Mets on the baseball map,
and he should have spent his entire career pitching at Shea Stadium.
It wasn't meant to be, however. Following the death of owner Joan Payson
in 1975, her heirs went into penny-pinching mode,
under the direction of the despised M. Donald Grant.
Grant openly feuded with Seaver and, ultimately, ran him
out of town, trading him to the Cincinnati Reds
on June 15, 1977 for four moderately talented young players.
With Seaver gone, the Mets immediately lapsed into the
most dismal stretch of their history. Seaver returned for one season
in 1983, and then was lost to the Chicago White Sox when the Mets
left him unprotected in the free agent compensation draft.
After pitching for the Red Sox in 1986, Seaver attempted a 1987 comeback with the
Mets, but called it off when he felt he was no longer capable of pitching
up to his standards. When he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1992, he
had the highest percentage of votes in history, breaking a record set by
Ty Cobb.
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1995
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
RICHIE ASHBURN
Richie Ashburn followed a similar path
as most of his fellow Mets in the Hall of Fame. After
a successful and productive career elsewhere, he came
to New York in his twilight, and didn't stay long.
Ashburn spent the first eleven years of his career as
a slick-fielding center fielder with the Philadelphia
Phillies. He was one of the famous "Whiz Kids" when
the Phils won the 1950 National League Championship.
He was a lifetime .308 hitter who amassed 2,574 hits in
a 14-year career in which he won two N.L. batting titles.
After leaving the Phillies, he spent two years with the
Chicago Cubs before joining the Mets for their inaugural
season in 1962.
Ashburn performed well for the Mets, hitting .306 with 60
runs scored in 135 games. He was named the team's MVP,
which was a somewhat dubious honor, considering that the
Mets lost a record 120 games in 1962. By the end of the
season, Richie had decided that he had had enough, and
retired rather than return for another year with the Mets.
His year playing for Casey Stengel provided Ashburn with
a number of colorful anecdotes, which served him well
during his many years as a beloved Phillies broadcaster.
Ashburn died in a New York hotel in 1997, shortly after
broadcasting a Mets-Phillies game at Shea Stadium.
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1999
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
NOLAN RYAN
Nolan Ryan was the second Hall-of-Famer produced by the
Mets farm system. Unlike
Tom Seaver, though, Ryan had the vast majority of his
success after leaving the Mets.
Ryan was a baby-faced 19-year-old when he made his major league
debut with the Mets in 1966. He stayed with the Mets through 1971,
pitching both as a starter and as a reliever. By 1971 he was a
member of the starting rotation, and he won 10 games. Nolan Ryan,
at the age of 24, was a hard thrower who was prone to wildness.
He struck out 137 batters in 1971, while walking 116. Since the Mets
had pitching depth, with Seaver,
Jerry Koosman, and
Gary Gentry, the Mets felt Ryan was expendable, and traded
him to the California Angels for veteran All-Star shortstop
Jim Fregosi, who they planned to convert to a third baseman.
The trade may have seemed reasonable when it was made,
but it did not take long for it to become apparent
that the Mets made a terrible mistake, probably the worst
trade in their entire history. Fregosi hit .232, with
5 home runs and 32 runs batted in for the Mets in 1972.
And meanwhile, Nolan Ryan was an immediate sensation with the Angels.
He won 19 games in 1972, and struck out an astounding 329
batters. In 1973, Fregosi was shipped off to the
Texas Rangers, and Ryan won 21 games and struck out 383.
As the years went by, Ryan kept going strong. Over the course
of his career, he would strike out the record total of 5,714
batters. He pitched a record seven no-hitters. He won
324 games. He didn't retire until the age of 46, in 1993,
after a record 27 seasons.
Surprisingly, though, with all the success Ryan had, and all
the longevity, he only pitched in one World Series. And that
was early in his career, when he was with the 1969 Mets.
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2003
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
GARY CARTER
Forever known as "The Kid,"
Gary Carter
played with a level of youthful exuberance that made fans in New York and the world
over fall in love with his infectious level of play. Already
establishing himself as the National League's top catcher while
playing his first 11 Major League seasons with the Expos, Carter
found himself bound for the Big Apple during the winter after the
1984 season, the centerpiece of a trade that sent
Hubie Brooks,
Mike Fitzgerald
Herm Winningham
and Floyd Youmans to Montreal.
His acquisition paid immediate dividends, as he hit a walk-off
homer in the 10th inning off former Met
Neil Allen
to lift the Amazins to a 6-5 win on Opening Day 1985. The following year he
placed third in the MVP vote and led the Mets with 105 RBI. In
the postseason, he delivered a walk-off RBI single in Game 5 of
the NLCS against Houston, then led New York with 9 RBI in the
World Series vs. Boston. It was his 2-out single that ignited the
famous ninth-inning rally in Game 6, a hit that ultimately
propelled the Mets to championship glory.
Carter would play a total of five seasons in Flushing, getting
named an All-Star in four of them. He then played a season each
with the Giants and Dodgers before returning to Montreal for one
final season in 1992. He gained entry into the Hall of Fame on
his sixth time on the ballot, but was far from finished
with baseball. He was named skipper of the Gulf Coast Mets in 2005,
winning the league's Manager of the Year honors that season.
He was promoted to Class A St. Lucie's manager the following year
and guided that team to a Florida State League championship, again
getting named Manager of the Year in the process. He continued
coaching until his tragic passing due to brain cancer in 2012, and
that year the Mets paid tribute to him by wearing a patch with his
number 8 and the word "KID" on it. Though his number isn't officially
retired with the Mets, no player has ever worn it since he was
enshrined in Cooperstown in 2003.
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2003
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
EDDIE MURRAY
One of the best hitters the game has ever seen,
Eddie Murray
is one of only seven all-time -- and the only switch-hitter -- to tally 3,000
hits and 500 home runs. After playing the bulk of his career with the
Orioles and Dodgers, the first baseman joined the Mets in 1992 as the
team attempted to spend its way back to the prominence it enjoyed
during the late 1980s. However, things did not go as planned, and the
Mets would later adopt the moniker of "the worst team money could buy."
Still, "Steady Eddie" continued to put up good numbers during his two
seasons in New York, leading the team in RBI both years while playing
pretty much every day despite being in his upper-30s at the time.
Notably, his second home run as a member of the club on May 3, 1992,
marked the 400th of his career, part of a 7-0 Mets win at Atlanta. He
finished his career playing for the Indians and Angels, as well as for
the Orioles and Dodgers one more time, and became a member of the Hall
of Fame on his first year on the ballot.
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2009
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
RICKEY HENDERSON
Thanks to his incredible longevity and consistency as the premier
lead-off hitter in the game,
Rickey Henderson
arguably holds two records
that will never be broken: most runs scored (2,295) and most stolen
bases (1,406). In fact, the outfielder had already been a mainstay in
the big leagues for two decades before he signed with the Mets for the
1999 season, having captured 10 All-Star selections, two World Series
rings, and an MVP crown over that span. And yet, he still showed plenty
of signs of remaining life at the age of 40 in his first season in blue
and orange, hitting .315 with 12 home runs and 37 stolen bases to win
Comeback Player of the Year honors.
Unfortunately, the good times didn't last long. Henderson only hit .174
during the Mets' crushing loss to the Braves in that year's NLCS, and he
was infamously caught playing cards with
Bobby Bonilla
in the clubhouse while their team battled into extra innings of Game 6 in an eventual
10-9 loss that ended the Mets' season. In 2000, sour because the Mets
didn't renegotiate his contract and give him a raise, Henderson sulked
and hit only .219 over his first 31 games before getting waived on May
13, a day after he failed to run out a flyball and then shouted at a
reporter. Unofficially retired in 2006, Henderson mended fences with the
team and rejoined the Mets as a special instructor, helping mentor
Jose Reyes.
He was promoted to first base coach the following year
before he and the Mets parted ways one last time.
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2011
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
ROBERTO ALOMAR
One of the best players of the 1990s,
Roberto Alomar
was named to the
All-Star team every year during the decade while playing for the Padres,
Blue Jays, Orioles and Indians. He continued the streak in 2000 and
2001, so when the Mets traded for him ahead of the 2002 season, they
thought they were getting one of the best second basemen in the game.
What they got, however, was a player who quickly freefalled into
mediocrity, perhaps because of age (he was 34 when the 2002 season started),
mounting nagging injuries, or the immense pressures that come with playing
in New York. Whatever the case, Alomar managed to hit just .265 with 13 home
runs in a season and a half before the Mets salvaged any remaining trade
value for him and sent him to the White Sox for three minor leaguers. He
retired just two years later with a career .300 batting average, 10 Gold
Glove awards and a pair of championship rings.
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2014
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
TOM GLAVINE
One of the key components of the Braves' dynasty during the 1990s,
Tom Glavine
was a five-time 20-game winner and a two-time Cy Young Award
recipient during his time in Atlanta, as well as the MVP of the 1995 World
Series. On top of that, the left-hander always pitched his best against the
Mets. Over 36 career starts vs. New York, he held a 2.82 ERA -- his lowest
figure against any National League team. So when he became a free agent
following the 2002 season, it only made sense that the Mets outbid everyone
for his services, securing him to a four year, $42.5 million dollar deal.
While he never captured the same success in New York as he did down south,
Glavine still put up consistent numbers. From 2003-07, he started at least
32 games and pitched at least 183 innings each season, and was named the
team's Opening Day starter four times. He made the All-Star team in 2004 and
2006, the latter year his best with the Mets as he went 15-7 with a 3.82 ERA.
He continued pitching well into the postseason, tossing six shutout innings
in the NLDS vs. the Dodgers and seven shutout innings in Game 1 of the NLCS
vs. the Cardinals. However, he lost Game 5 and the Mets eventually fell short
of the World Series by losing in seven.
Re-signing with the team for 2007, Glavine won his 300th career game on
August 5, pitching 6.1 innings of two-run ball at Chicago. He's the only
pitcher to accomplish this feat wearing a Mets uniform, although the fourth
to have played for the team to do so, joining
Warren Spahn,
Tom Seaver
and
Nolan Ryan.
However, his season ended on a terrible down note, as he lasted
just a third of an inning while giving up seven runs in the season finale
against the Marlins, essentially costing the Mets a chance at returning to
the playoffs. That put an exclamation point on an epic collapse that saw
the team lose six of its last seven games and go from seven games up on the
Phillies as of September 12, to a game out when the season concluded. He
declined an option to stay with the Mets and instead spent one last season
back with the Braves before calling it quits with a career record of 305-203.
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2014
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
JOE TORRE
Though Joe Torre
may be more well known in New York for his accomplishments
with the Yankees, it was actually with the Mets that the Hall of Famer first
was introduced to the Big Apple. After racking up nine All-Star selections with
the Braves and Cardinals, as well as an MVP award with St. Louis in 1971,
Torre joined the Mets via trade from the Redbirds just after the 1974
season, dealt in exchange for pitchers
Tommy Moore
and Ray Sadecki .
He hit .247 mostly playing third base in 1975, then .306 mostly playing first base
in 1976. In 1977, the Mets fired
Joe Frazier
as manager after 45 games and
opted to replace him with Torre, making him the only player/manager in team
history, as well as the youngest manager (36) in team history. However, he
only lasted as player/manager for two months before he decided to concentrate
solely on his responsibilities as skipper.
In six seasons as Mets manager, Torre never led the team to a winning record.
His overall record stood at 286-420 when he was relieved of his duties after
the 1981 campaign. However, he does hold the distinction of being ejected
more times than any manager in Mets history at 24. He would go on to manage
the Braves from 1982-84 and the Cardinals from 1990-95 before joining the
Yankees in 1996, replacing
Buck Showalter.
He headed up the Bronx dynasty for
12 years, winning six pennants and four World Series while never finishing a
season with fewer than 87 wins. Torre managed three final seasons for the
Dodgers from 2008-10, then joined the commissioner's office in 2011 and was
selected to the Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee in 2014.
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2015
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
PEDRO MARTINEZ
After three consecutive losing seasons, the Mets wanted to make a statement
in 2005. Starting with naming
Omar Minaya
as new general manager and
Willie Randolph
manager, the team then opened up its pocketbook and acquired
arguably the two biggest free agents on the market:
Carlos Beltran and
Pedro Martinez.
The pitcher rewarded New York with a typically spectacular first
season on the club, going 15-8 with a 2.82 ERA, an All-Star selection, and a
big-league-best 0.949 WHIP. He began 2006 in similarly dominating fashion,
going 5-0 over his first 9 starts.
The turning point during his Mets tenure, however, came on May 26. Pitching
on the road against the Marlins, Martinez was instructed to change his
undershirt by the umpires and consequently slipped and fell in the clubhouse,
injuring his hip. To his detriment, he continued to pitch through the pain,
altering his delivery in the process and ultimately leading to him tearing
his left calf muscle, as well as his right rotator cuff. He was never the
same after that, as he finished 2006 with a 4.48 ERA and missed the
postseason completely. He then made just five starts in 2007, although he did
manage to record his 3,000th career strikeout in his season debut at
Cincinnati on September 3. Martinez finished out his contract with the Mets
in 2008, holding a disappointing 5.61 ERA over 20 starts, and then concluded
his career spending one season with the Phillies before retiring as a
five-time ERA champion and three-time Cy Young Award winner.
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2016
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
MIKE PIAZZA
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2022
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
GIL HODGES
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