ESPN has come up with another “greatest” list. This time it’s the Mets and it only goes 49 deep (not the usual 50). I suppose that’s because the Mets are only just over 50 years old. But when you consider the bottom of the list, you’d think they could put on someone like Ron Swoboda just to get it to 50. You can find the list by going to ESPN and finding their New York page. Here’s some quick thoughts on it:
1. The top 10 are (in order) Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Mike Piazza, David Wright, Jerry Koosman, Keith Hernandez, Jose Reyes, Cary Carter, and Carlos Beltran.
2. To make a team (four pitchers, one of which is left-handed) you get: Hernandez at 1st, Edgardo Alfonso at 2nd (he’s 11th on the list and the first player to spend significant time at second base–although he played at third as well), Reyes at short, and Wright at third. The outfield is Strawberry, Beltran, and Mookie Wilson (who is 15th on the list). Your starters are Seaver, Gooden, Koosman, and Al Leiter (who is 12th on the list). John Franco is the reliever (coming in at 14th), and the highest listed catcher is Piazza with Gary Carter being the highest rated player whose position is already taken. That makes him the DH.
3. I saw no major players left off, but I was surprised that Ron Darling (17 was higher than David Cone (18), but maybe that works for Cone’s Mets career.
4. Tug McGraw (19) finished higher than either Jesse Orosco (22) or Roger McDowell (41), which I liked.
5. I thought Tommy Agee was low at 25 and Ed Kranepool high at 26, although Kranepool had a lot of Mets records for a while. All were longevity numbers.
6. Jerry Grote, John Stearns, and Todd Hundley all made the list. I’d forgotten that Mets catching was reasonably deep.
7. And everybody’s favorite 1962 Mets player, Marv Throneberry was 49th. Ain’t that Amazin”?
Go take a look for yourself. If you disagree, take it up with ESPN.
Tags: Dwight Gooden, Gary Carter, Mike Piazza, New York Mets, Tom Seaver
Verdun2's Blog 
January 29, 2014 at 8:42 am
Thanks for the heads up. I’d no idea that there was such a list. Now I have to check it out.
-Bill
January 29, 2014 at 8:50 am
Anything for the little people. I’m practicing my Oscar acceptance speech. 🙂
v
January 30, 2014 at 8:14 am
I haven’t looked at the entire list, but from what I have seen in your article, I’d put no stock in what these fools have to say.
It seems obvious that the people who came up with this so-called “greatest” list were in diapers (and maybe not even born) when guys like Grote, Harrelson, and many, many others were playing for the Mets.
What surprises me is that they had the sense to put Koosman in the “top ten”.
I don’t get Cable TV, so I don’t get ESPN, but from what I’ve heard, I’m not missing much, in that most of their so-called “experts” have no common sense and think that nothing that happened before they were born has any importance.
We people who saw the Mets within their first eight years no better, and the people who saw the Mets from the BEGINNING know a lot more than I know, as well.
Glen
January 30, 2014 at 8:16 am
I meant “KNOW better”, not “no better.”
Glen
January 31, 2014 at 8:25 am
The list is pretty much what you’d expect from the WWL.
July 23, 2014 at 6:28 am
Belinda Broido
The 49 Greatest Mets | Verdun2’s Blog