Ultimate Mets Database - Memories of Rick Cerone

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Memories of
Rick Cerone

Rick Cerone
Ultimate Mets Database popularity ranking: 309 of 1252 players

Richard Aldo Cerone
Born: May 19, 1954 at Newark, N.J.
Throws: Right Bats: Right
Height: 5.11 Weight: 195

First Mets game: April 9, 1991
Last Mets game: October 5, 1991

Share your memories of Rick Cerone

HERE IS WHAT OTHER METS FANS HAVE TO SAY:

Mr. Sparkle
February 17, 2002
Back in the early 80's, when arguing Mets vs Yankees, my college roommate would always say "Thurman Munson's charred body could play a better cather than Rick Cerone." Rude as hell statement but it always made me laugh.

a mets fan
April 5, 2002
A real working class man who played great for all those years and never slacked off. Almost like the catching John Franco.

Larry Burns
May 28, 2002
Mr. Sparkle, Have you ever seen Rick Cerone catch? I hate to admit it but your college roommate was right on the mark. This guy couldn't catch a partner at Plato's Retreat before the 1980s, the Yankees must be having him show defensive drills to Jorge Posada.

Jujo
January 21, 2003
Met Cerone at a Newark Bears game a few years back. Nice guy.

Jon
January 28, 2003
Probably the most regrettable thing I ever did as baseball fan was yell, louder than I ever should have, "CERONE, YOU SUCK!!!" after he allowed a third stolen base in a 1987 Spring Training game in Fort Lauderdale (Yanks v. Twins). I was a smart-ass college student on Spring Break and was oblivious to the fact that the entire stadium (and Cerone) would hear me clearly and all of those Grandmothers in the stands, and Rick Cerone himself, would turn their eyes to me at once in dusgust and pity, forcing me to act like the I-Didn't-Do-It Boy.
I'm sorry, Rick. That was obnoxious.

Maxwell Kates
July 1, 2004
Rick Cerone was the first person who ever told me that I should go into broadcasting. Though I never achieved the successes I had hoped for, I gave it my best shot before switching careers (to accounting). Thanks, Rick.

Kiwiwriter
September 9, 2004
All of Newark is grateful to him for bringing baseball back here, and he is still a very nice and warm guy. He signs autographs at the drop of a hat. I told him I enjoyed watching him as a Yankee and Met, and he said he "enjoyed getting to be one."
As a Met, he tried to infuse the 1991 Mets with something they lacked -- good old New York/New Jersey street smarts and fire -- but it didn't work. He couldn't ignite Howard Johnson, whose shy personality was anathema to the image the Mets had for him as their leader.
I'm glad he was able to play for both teams. He still catches Yankee Old-Timer's Day games

Jonathan Stern
March 30, 2005
The collapse of the Frank Cashen Mets became official in 1991 when the Mets suffered an epic eleven-game losing streak. I was at Shea for the eleventh loss, the first game of a double-header against Joe Torre's St. Louis Cardinals. In the second game, the Mets pounded the Cards, ending the streak. But even in victory, something profoundly disturbing took place, something that perhaps even more than the losing streak foreshadowed the wasteland the Metsville would become during the years that followed.
Frustrated by his failures on the mound, a St. Louis pitcher drilled Howard Johnson. Everyone in the park knew what would happen next. Hojo made a threatening motion towards the mound and both benches emptied. But Hojo, a new born-again Christian, stopped himself before leaving the batters box, stranding his teammates in the center of the diamond. Leading the Mets' charge was Cerone, who stormed onto the field in his catcher's gear and slide-tackled the pitcher. This was certainly the definitive moment of Cerone's brief Mets stint. It was his crowning moment as well. He was one of the few guys on that 1991 team that played and acted with heart, which is probably why the increasingly teflon early 90's Mets phased him out from that very game on. The fans cheered Cerone, ex-Yankee though he was, as he left the field. But amidst the cheers, the feeling of deflation throughout the park was numbing.
Hojo didn't defend his territory after he was hit by a pitch during a rally. Hojo, our best player and team leader by default, didn't stand behind his teammates while they were standing up for him. Hojo, one of the last of the swaggering 1986 Mets. I was truly embarrassed for him.

mike friedman
February 8, 2007
I met Rick 23 years ago when I helped provide transportation for him to attend a little league banquet. He was a real stand up guy and spent a lot of time with the kids that evening. He gave me his autograph which I still have. I would like to see him again someday. He left me with a very postive impression. He wasn't a superstar catcher but he made the very best of his talent by catching all those years in the "bigs".

Shickhaus Franks
January 12, 2011
I also met Cerone at a Newark Bears game as he owned the team until he sold it a few years back. He's also part of Canada's baseball history: He was the first starting catcher for the Toronto Blue Jays and their first game was played under snowy conditions on April 7, 1977 at the old Exhibition Stadium vs the Chicago White Sox and part of the Canadian TV broadcast is on YouTube as well. I wonder what his salary was like when he was paid under Canada's money rules and such?

Carl Henry
January 30, 2023
Rick Cerone Sings!
1981 45 release by Rick Cerone, heartthrob catcher for the New York Yankees. Rick is drawn to a snowy, Christmastime, empty Yankee Stadium by the memory of that "special girl" he saw watching him in the stands against the Jays.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XenZSo3tnwA