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Reactions

Mets fans remember the heartbreakers

Here is a sampling of your reactions:

Mookie Wilson hit .274 over 12 major league seasons.  Scott Cunningham/Allsport

Has any Met ever been more beloved than Mookie Wilson ? Probably not.

See if you can follow the logic: We have two center fielders who both want to play every day. One hit .296 the previous season, the other had 57 SBs over the last two seasons. So what should we do? If you're Frank Cashen, you trade both of them.

Trading Mookie -- for any reason -- represents a huge gaping wound for Mets fans. That Mookie was traded for Jeff Musselman -- shipped away in exchange for 58.1 innings from a mediocre, weasel-faced middle reliever -- is salt on the wound. The complete lack of logic and necessity that motivated this trade will cause the wound to fester for years to come.
Elliot, Bethesda, Md.

Your whole article brought back horrible memories, and I thought that you hit all of the important points but one.

At the same time that they let Darryl go, they also went on to sign Vince Coleman , the second-worst Met of all time (Richie Hebner will always be the worst), and the personification of everything that went wrong with the Mets and with baseball generally in the first half of the 1990s. Don't I remember Frank Cashen pontificating about the need to evolve from a power-based team to a speed and defense oriented one? Great concept, Frank. And remember the firecrackers? The golf club and Dwight Gooden's shoulder? (even putting aside the spring training assault allegations) Vince made it truly embarrassing to be a Met fan.

Darryl was a big baby a lot of the time during his Mets career, but he was OUR big baby. To lose him, and then to bring on a waste of space like Vince, was, cumulatively, at least as big a body blow as any of the other disastrous deals in Met history.
Mark Curley, Farmingdale, N.J.

You forgot Rusty Staub for Mickey Lolich in 1975. Staub went on to drive in 318 runs over the next three seasons with the Tigers while Lolich pitched only one season for the Mets going 8-13.
Glen B., Bridgewater, N.J.

One deal that came back to haunt the Mets and almost created the ultimate nightmare was the loss of Mike Scott to the Astros. It wasn't until Scott picked up the split-finger fastball while pitching for the Astros that he became one of the most dominant pitchers in the game at that time. However, the Mets came within a hair of having to beat him in a Game 7 showdown during the 1986 playoffs, a task they had earlier shown they were not up to. If they had had to play a Game 7 against Scott, we Mets fans would probably still be claiming that it was his illegally scuffed ball that kept us from reaching our predestined heights in 1986.
Unsigned, Kailua, Hawaii

I was nine years old the day the Mets traded away Lenny Dykstra. He was my hero. My walls were plastered with Dykstra posters. I was across the street at my neighbor's house. The news came across the television screen. I ran across the street, crying my eyes out. I locked myself in my room and didn't come out till the next day.
Shannon Clancy, Kings Park, N.Y.

For whatever inexplicable reason, my personal moment of heartbreak didn't make your list of heartbreak moments for the New York Mets. That moment would be the day in 1992 the Mets traded David Cone for Jeff Kent.

David Cone won five World Series after leaving the Mets. Otto Greule/Allsport

I was 10 years old, and loved no Met more than Cone. Sure, Darryl Strawberry's departure felt like a complete betrayal, but trading Cone was the team's decision, not his, and it felt horrible. Here was the heart and soul of the Mets, a man who poured his guts out every time he got to the mound, a man who loved pitching in New York and wanted to re-sign with them. All of a sudden, he's gone. Nothing marked the beginning of the end (and the beginning of four horrible seasons, 1992-1996) better than my favorite Met's departure.

Naturally, Thompson was horrible and Kent frustratingly inconsistent. To add insult to injury, the year after Kent is traded, he becomes a force with the Giants. I always hated the Yankees, but when they acquired Cone, I had to root for them every fifth day.
Jesse Alson-Milkman, Brookly, N.Y.

Not long after the trade of Lenny Dykstra came another trade that sent packing another immensely popular Met. While he will be forever known in baseball lore for his trickler that went between the legs of Bill Buckner, I will remember Mookie as being my all-time favorite Met. My dad likes to tell the story that my third word after "mom" and "dad" was "Mookie".

I remember going to games and listening to the crowd chant "MOOOOOOOK!" and becoming red in the face because I thought that they were booing my favorite player. However, once my grandpa informed me that the chant was a term of endearment I became elated that other people felt the same way I did about Mookie. I can remember the day that he got traded for some bum named Jeff Mussleman. My mom broke the news to me in the car after she picked me up from camp. At first I was in complete disbelief that the franchise could do this to one of their most beloved players as well as one of the all-time leaders in steals and triples in franchise history.

I cried all the way home that day. As it did when Ray, Darryl, and Lenny left, part of the Mets died the day Mookie was traded.
Matthew Klotsche, South Huntington, N.Y.

In 1990, the Mets fired manager Davey Johnson even though they were pennant contenders during all of his six-plus seasons as manager, including winning the World Series in 1986. It was a short-sighted move, caused by panic, during a team slump. Johnson's firing was a bonehead move rivaling the Dykstra trade. Johnson followed his Mets stints with several more contending seasons with otherwise flawed teams. The man is a winner (despite what happened in LA last season). Meanwhile, the Mets went through several ineffective managers and many years in the National League's wasteland before finally returning to contention in '98.
David Schor, Queens, N.Y.

Just wanted to say that even though I am now a Mariners fan and have gone through the Johnson, Griffey, and A-Rod disasters, I will always recollect the Mets trade of Tom Seaver as the most horrible experience of my sport fan existence.

I still have the original N.Y. Post with the "The Mets trade the franchise" headline and a picture of Seaver emptying out his locker on the back page.

The only worthwhile player the Mets got was Henderson. Pat Zachary? Doug Flynn?. Oh my gosh!! they were horrible.

In all fairness they could have gotten Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, and Bob Feller in their primes and I still would have hated the trade.
John Morgan, Seattle, Wash.

I honestly don't remember all the circumstances that surrounded this event, but the most painful experience for me was when the Mets released Gary Carter after the 1989 season. Growing up playing catcher in the little league and being a huge Mets fan, "The Kid" was someone I always respected and looked up to. He was a class act, a great player, and always put his heart into the game. From a team stand point it might have made sense not to re-sign Carter since he was getting on in years (although I don't recall them having a particularly good catcher for several years after). But as a fan of the game and the players who made it worthwhile, I hated to see Carter leave the Mets and spend the rest of his career having to bump around with the Giants and Dodgers.
Matt Dufner, Edison, N.J.

The day Tom Seaver came back to N.Y. in a Reds' uniform. I was there. He got a standing O. I cried like a baby and I've hated the Mets until this day. By the way he won the game. It was great day for Tom Terrific's fans and a bad day for the Mets front office. They don't care about the fans ... never have, never will..
Julio Melendez, Apopka, Fla.

I remember the Jeff Kent trade rather vividly. He was a tough, respectable, and likeable guy on a terrible team. He had that Dykstra-HOJO-esque quality about him. He made it easier to follow my favorite team after growing up with the successes of the 80s. I'll never forget the interview that he did in the Mets clubhouse AFTER he was traded talking about "bleeding Mets blue" instead of the get out of jail free card he was just given. I'm glad he's gone on to such great success ... too bad it wasn't with us.
Brian Slater, Somerville, Mass.

Tom Terrific going to the Reds. I was just a kid Met fan living in Jersey and I couldn't fathom why such a thing would or could happen. I cried, then I got angry and tossed out all of my baseball cards (Seaver rookie, Koosman/Ryan rookie, and LOTS of other great cards) and I boycotted baseball the entire next season (although my mom caught me checking boxscores out of the corner of my eye on occasion). I didn't really get back into baseball, at least not like I was, until a guy named Strawberry came along, and lets not even go there ...
Pat Smith, Mitchell, S.D.

When the Mets traded Kevin Mitchell to the Padres for Kevin McReynolds. What were they thinking? The Mets had just won the World Series and had a promising rookie. They gave up Mitchell for an average player. The Mets general management did something STUPID by trying to look smart.
Patrick Mills, Boynton Beach, Fla.

When the N.Y. Mets traded their entire minor league system for Frank Viola . Frank was good, but for almost an entire future pitching staff and a closer?
Joshua Dickerson, Syracuse, N.Y.

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