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The 1976 season was a strange one for the New York Mets. Keep in mind that although Joe McDonald was the General Manager of the Mets, it was in name only, as M. Donald Grant was the man running the show and had his hands in everything.
The 1976 season actually got its start when Grant hired Joe Frazier as manager on October 3, 1975, immediately after the season had ended. The Mets had fired Yogi Berra two-thirds of the way through the 1975 season, replacing him with coach and former Mets shortstop Roy McMillan. Rather than keeping McMillan on, and giving him a chance, the Mets promoted Frazier from Tidewater to take over for the 1976 campaign. (Frazier would not get much of a chance either. Lasting only the one season and 45 games into the ’77 season.)
Then on December 12, 1975, Grant made his one big move of the off-season, basically banishing fan favorite Rusty Staub to the Detroit Tigers for an over-the-hill Mickey Lolich, the 1968 World Series hero.
The New York Mets announced the 2026 inductees into the team’s Hall of Fame. Centerfielders Carlos Beltran and Lee Mazzilli, and manager Bobby Valentine will be enshrined during ceremonies next season. I applaud all three, but I would kind of like to know…what took so long?
When you take a look at those three names, you would have thought that they were already a part of the Mets legacy and honored in the organization’s Hall of Fame. You have to wonder how and why players, managers, coaches, broadcasters, executives, etc., are selected while others are not.
Remember the book Go, Dog. Go!? One little dog going in…three big dogs going out. Two big dogs going up…one little dog going down…
My favorite book as a child describes the comings and goings of the New York Mets offseason.
Gone are Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, Edwin Diaz, Jeff McNeil…and Paul Blackburn, Gregory Soto, Max Kranick…all now with other teams. Oh…there is also…Luis Acuña, Brandon Sproat, and prospect Jett Williams. And Starling Marte and Jesse Winker are no longer on the roster, but they are still out there if the Mets want them back.
Here are pitchers Devin Williams, Luis Garcia, and Freddy Peralta; infielders Jorge Polanco, Marcus Semien, Vidal Brujan, and Bo Bichette, and outfielder Luis Robert, Jr.
David Stearns waited out the market and then swiftly moved to remake the Mets roster. He has repeatedly said that the Mets needed to get younger and more athletic, and it pretty much seems that he accomplished that, even at the cost of players that Mets fans loved. Whether it translates into wins on the field, is yet to be seen.
So now two one-time New York Mets will go into the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer. First, the Era Committee voted in Jeff Kent. And the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) has now tapped Carlos Beltran, along with Atlanta Braves star centerfielder Andruw Jones. But while Kent will likely be wearing a San Francisco Giants cap, it looks like the New York Mets will now have their third player officially enshrined with the team cap.
Alan Karmin is an award-winning journalist and author. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and spent most of his life growing up in the New Jersey suburbs. Alan's family were avid Brooklyn Dodgers fans and when the Dodgers moved west, the Mets became the team to root for. The Mets have always been a true focal point, Alan even wrote a term paper in high school to analyze what was wrong with the Mets. While at the University of Miami, Alan honed his craft covering the, gulp, Yankees during spring trainings in Fort Lauderdale for a local NBC affiliate, as well as the Associated Press and UPI. He broadcasted baseball games for the University of Miami, and spring training games for the Baltimore Orioles and Montreal Expos. New York Mets Mania is a forum for Alan to write about his favorite team and for baseball fans to chime in and provide their thoughts and ideas about New York's Amazin' Mets.
