The rumbling had begun not lengthy after Wes Westrum had reached out to Mets administration to debate his future and was advised, in essence, that he had none, not in Flushing. That was Sept. 21, 1967. Salty Parker was a lifelong baseball man, however he was no long-term reply for the Mets. He managed the final 11 video games of the 1967 season, received 4 of them.
No, there was just one reply for the lady who owned the Mets, Joan Payson.
And his identify was Gilbert Ray Hodges.
Payson had been a lifelong Giants fan and was, in reality, the one shareholder on the Giants board who’d voted in opposition to the transfer to San Francisco. Later, she was given first dibs on New York’s new Nationwide League growth crew and seized it. Regardless of her loyalty to the Giants, nonetheless, Payson at all times held a gentle spot for one previous Dodger. Hodges.
“I don’t know anybody who’s met Gil Hodges who doesn’t assume the world of him,” Payson mentioned on Oct. 11, 20 days after Westrum was exiled, the day the Mets employed Hodges to be their supervisor.
It was a pricey transaction for the Mets, as a result of Hodges was nonetheless beneath contract to the Washington Senators as supervisor. They agreed to fork over $100,000 (round $888,000 in 2022 dollars), a file quantity for a non-player. The Senators have been additionally due a participant; their first ask was Tom Seaver.
“If Seaver had been concerned within the deal,” Hodges mentioned just a few years later, “there would’ve been no deal.”
So the Mets supplied three names, all pitchers: Invoice Denehy, Al Schmelz and Frank McGraw — also called Tug. McGraw’s lone declare to fame was that he’d been the primary Mets pitcher to ever beat Sandy Koufax. However he was nonetheless years away from reinventing himself as a better, and serving to to reinvent the place of aid pitcher, too. The Senators selected Denehy, who solely a 12 months earlier had been rated as excessive as Seaver, had shared the 1968 Topps card with Seaver for “Greatest Mets Rookies.”
“We have been prospects 1A and 1B,” Denehy advised the Hartford Courant in 2020, just a few days after Seaver died.
It took just a few weeks to decide on these particulars. So on Oct. 11, 1967, earlier than Sport 6 of the World Collection between the Cardinals and Purple Sox, the Mets held a press convention in Boston. Hodges was seated between GM Bing Devine and VP Johnny Murphy. He was ecstatic, each along with his deal (three years, $60,000 per) and his return to New York, the place he and his household had saved their Brooklyn dwelling.
“It’s probably the most cash I’ve ever made in baseball,” Hodges mentioned. “And it’s the right scenario for me and my household.” Then he joked: “Joan [his wife] accepted the job just a few days earlier than it was even supplied.”
What we all know now, after all, is the truth that this transfer reworked not solely the Mets as a franchise, but additionally Hodges as an icon. It solely took two seasons for the Mets to rise from a 61-101 file in 1967 to a world championship in 1969; it took Hodges 53 extra years to persuade the Corridor of Fame to open its doorways to him, which it should Sunday in Cooperstown.
For as terrific a participant as Hodges was with the Dodgers and the Mets, it nearly actually took his 4 years managing the Mets — plus the growth of Corridor rules permitting voters to contemplate the whole lot of a person’s baseball life — to make today occur.
The humorous factor? In actual time, the hiring wasn’t greeted with unanimous acclimation. There was Hodges’ managerial file — 321-444 — in 4 ½ years in Washington. (“Hodges’ lifetime file appears an ideal match for the Mets’ lifetime file,” Submit columnist Larry Service provider quipped.)
There was the actual fact Devine clearly didn’t wish to make the deal, that it was pressured on him by Payson and truly closed by Murphy (who’d roomed with Senators GM George Selkirk as a Yankee years earlier than). Devine quickly left the Mets to return to his previous job with St. Louis, which within the second felt like a horrible blow. And the actual fact is: $100,000 was some huge cash in 1967. And what if Invoice Denehy grew to become a star?
Properly, Payson had loads of money reserves. Denehy wound up with a lifetime file of 1-10. And Hodges added weight and heft to his standing as a borderline Corridor of Fame participant. If it wasn’t the most effective deal the Mets ever made … properly, it’s within the dialog.
Vac’s Whacks
I'm not a kind of guys who ever wonders “What would George say?” in the course of the periodic intervals when Yankees followers query Hal Steinbrenner’s spending habits. I'm, nonetheless, completely a kind of guys who wonders, “What would George say?” after that doubleheader loss to the Astros. Which may’ve been a first-ballot again web page corridor of fame entrant.
I acknowledge I’m a bit of late to this social gathering, however “Yellowstone” has made for an exquisite summer time binge watch within the Vaccaro family.
The Braves actually are beginning to remind you of the relentless posse from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Child.” You half anticipate Buck Showalter to open up a press convention and ask, “Who're these guys?”
We will agree that the Jets could properly enhance greater than the Giants this 12 months — perhaps rather more — and Gang Inexperienced should have 2-3 fewer wins than Massive Blue, proper?
Whack Again at Vac
Howie Siegel: If Jalen Brunson seems to be a speedster, can we name him Brunson burner?
Vac: Howie will likely be right here all week. Strive the veal.
Alan Hirschberg: The massive query isn’t when Jacob deGrom will make his first begin. It’s when will he make his second?
Vac: (As Mets followers all nod silently and solemnly …)
@dye11: I don’t assume the Yankees have to fret about shedding dwelling area by one sport, the Astros can cruise to a 6-8 sport margin over the Yankees. Yankees must hope they don’t see the Astros within the playoffs interval.
@MikeVacc: I don’t know if the Astros are within the Yankees’ heads, however they positive appear to be within the followers’ heads.
Mike Pristas: I've a present for you. I used to be a lifelong Pirates fan till I met my neighbor Bob, a lifelong Yankees fan. It’s nice to root for a crew that's making an attempt to win. I've since transformed to the pinstripes. In any case, I've a nickname for my former Pirate Clay Holmes who is a good success story and hell of a better: “Surelock Holmes.”
Vac: Hey, what can I say? I like that.
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