milladrive
01-19-2009, 11:37 AM
On a mere two of Cowtippers' Mets Hall of Fame ballots, what was it about Wayne Garrett that gernered so little support? A couple of votes on his first ballot (ballot 8) and no support at all on the subsequent ballot.
Number 29 on my '04/'05 list of top 100 Mets, it's quite baffling to me that he was shown such little reverence here.
The Mets went to and won a World Series with Wayne Garrett playing most of their games at third base. He drove in the decisive runs in the final game of the '69 NLCS. Then the team he helped as a rookie couldn't wait to demote him.
Joe Foy came. Bob Aspromonte came. Jim Fregosi came. Garrett hung around while all three imploded. Three years in a row, the Mets had themselves a third base messiah yet barely used him at the position.
By 1973, there was nobody but Wayne to play third. And he did, at the highest level of his career. During the stretch of all stretches, September '73, Wayne Garrett was at least the second-best reason to Believe in the Mets. From September 4 through the October 1 clinching, Wayne hit safely in 19 of 23 games, including the last nine in a row. He batted. 333, hit six homers, drove in seventeen runs and scored twenty. In the World Series, he hit two more homers. Wayne Garrett not only brought the Mets within one game of ultimate victory, he secured himself another year as third baseman.
Naturally, the Mets went out after that and got themselves an old Joe Torre to take his place. Garrett continued to persevere, though, winning back his job before '75 was done, eventually putting in 709 games at the position, about a million more than any Met third baseman before him.
Wayne was finally ousted from the hot corner by Roy Staiger. Yes, that Roy Staiger.
Any input for his lack of support here would definitely help shed some insight, at least for me.
Number 29 on my '04/'05 list of top 100 Mets, it's quite baffling to me that he was shown such little reverence here.
The Mets went to and won a World Series with Wayne Garrett playing most of their games at third base. He drove in the decisive runs in the final game of the '69 NLCS. Then the team he helped as a rookie couldn't wait to demote him.
Joe Foy came. Bob Aspromonte came. Jim Fregosi came. Garrett hung around while all three imploded. Three years in a row, the Mets had themselves a third base messiah yet barely used him at the position.
By 1973, there was nobody but Wayne to play third. And he did, at the highest level of his career. During the stretch of all stretches, September '73, Wayne Garrett was at least the second-best reason to Believe in the Mets. From September 4 through the October 1 clinching, Wayne hit safely in 19 of 23 games, including the last nine in a row. He batted. 333, hit six homers, drove in seventeen runs and scored twenty. In the World Series, he hit two more homers. Wayne Garrett not only brought the Mets within one game of ultimate victory, he secured himself another year as third baseman.
Naturally, the Mets went out after that and got themselves an old Joe Torre to take his place. Garrett continued to persevere, though, winning back his job before '75 was done, eventually putting in 709 games at the position, about a million more than any Met third baseman before him.
Wayne was finally ousted from the hot corner by Roy Staiger. Yes, that Roy Staiger.
Any input for his lack of support here would definitely help shed some insight, at least for me.