Kevin McReynolds revisits the Mets NL East championship team twenty-five years later

Kevin McReynolds figured prominently in the New York Mets' quest for the National League pennant in 1988. The 28-year-old left fielder was in his second season with the Mets after a trade in December 1986 brought him to New York in exchange for Shawn Abner, Stan Jefferson, and Kevin Mitchell. Coming to the Mets fresh off of their World Series victory, he had lofty expectations for his time in Flushing.

Kevin McReynolds / N. Diunte

“You had high hopes with a team that strong,” said McReynolds during an appearance at a baseball card show at Hofstra University this Saturday. “[They] had great pitching at the time. You think it was going to be … almost like a dynasty in the making. You look back now; of course it didn’t turn out to be that. It was always an interesting team and [there was] a lot of good baseball too.”

McReynolds, who was known for his private nature off the field, came out in a major way in 1988, finishing third in the MVP voting behind teammate Darryl Strawberry and the Kirk Gibson of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He blasted 27 home runs, drove in 99 runs, and set the single-season record for the most stolen bases without a single caught stealing, going a perfect 21-21.

“They just saw a fat ol’ white boy over there, so they didn’t pay attention to me,” McReynolds joked. “As long as I didn’t run in situations where I could hurt us with an out … they gave me the green light.”

The Mets faced off with the Dodgers in an unforgettable National League Championship Series, with the Mets taking the first two of the three games. During Game 4, McReynolds launched a fourth inning home run to put the Mets up 3-2. Going in to the ninth inning leading 4-2 with Dwight Gooden on the mound, Mets fans felt confident that the potential for a series clinching Game 5 would take place at Shea Stadium; however, Dodgers’ catcher Mike Scioscia had plans otherwise.

After a leadoff walk in the top of the ninth inning, Scioscia blasted a home run to right field to tie the game, hushing the boisterous Shea Stadium crowd. The two teams battled in extra innings, until Gibson homered off of Roger McDowell in the top of the 12th to put the Dodgers in front 5-4. The Mets would not go quietly, as they put the first two batters on base with consecutive singles off of Dodgers reliever Tim Leary, forcing manager Tommy Lasorda to bring in ex-Met Jesse Orosco. The lefty specialist walked Keith Hernandez and recorded the second out of the inning when Strawberry popped up to second base.

Just as McReynolds approached the plate with the bases loaded, Lasorda summoned Orel Hershiser, who pitched seven innings in the Dodgers' loss the night before. He encountered a pitcher in Hershiser who refused to give in. He flew out to center field ending the four-and-a-half hour marathon.

“I ended up making the final out," he said. "We had beaten LA so many times during that year, but Hershiser was on that phenomenal streak at the time. You always hate to be the last guy to make the last out, but unfortunately someone has to win and someone has to lose.”

The Mets lost Game 5 at Shea Stadium, but forced the deciding game in Los Angeles when David Cone pitched a complete game 5-1 victory aided by a McReynolds home run. Hershiser was too much for the Mets to handle in Game 7 and the Dodgers advanced to the World Series, which they won in convincing fashion over the Oakland Athletics.

McReynolds played with the Mets through 1991 when he was traded to the Kansas City Royals as part of the Bret Saberhagen deal. He played two seasons in Kansas City until the Mets reacquired him in 1994 in exchange for Vince Coleman. He played half of the 1994 season before knee injuries ended his baseball career.

Spending the bulk of his major league career in New York, McReynolds said the fans captured his attention while playing in Queens.

“There were always a lot of fans, [but] they weren’t always fans for you at times," he said. "They were always very verbal and they [expected] a good product on the field. [The fans] were just one of the things to look forward to.”

The 53-year-old McReynolds lives in Little Rock Arkansas, and when he is not playing golf, he is pursuing a wide range of business interests.

“I play golf a lot, run a commercial duck hunting operation during the winter time, and a couple of friends and I own some pizza restaurants in Memphis.”

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Bronx native Larry Miggins recalls Jackie Robinson's first day in the minor leagues

Jackie Robinson’s impact on baseball was felt immediately the moment he stepped on the field for the Montreal Royals in their season opener against the Jersey City Giants on April 18, 1946. In addition to all of the social implications behind Robinson’s debut, his 4-for-5 performance that included a home run, two bunt singles, and two runs scored by causing Jersey City’s pitchers to balk, left an indelible mark on his opposition.

Larry Miggins’ view of Robinson’s eye opening performance remains vivid some sixty-seven years later. The 20-year-old Bronx, New York native manned third base for Jersey City that day and had no trouble recalling how the day’s events unfolded.

“I remember it well,” the 87-year-old Miggins said from his home in Houston, Texas. “It was a full house, 45,000 fans. The place was packed.”

Larry Miggins

As the team went over its pre-game scouting report, information on Robinson’s tendencies were limited to what the manager had seen during batting practice. The Giants and Royals were due to meet in spring training, but the game was cancelled when officials in Jacksonville, Fla., upheld a city ordinance that did not permit mixed racial competition.

“Most of the guys were known by somebody, but when it came to Robinson nobody ever had seen him play,” Miggins said. “Our manager Bruno Betzel said he saw during batting practice that Robinson was a strong pull hitter. He said to me, ‘Miggins, you play him deep at third base.’”

Following his coach’s orders, Miggins positioned himself as instructed. During Robinson’s first two at-bats, the ball didn’t come Miggins’ way, as he grounded out to shortstop his first time up, and then hit a 335-foot home run down the left field line.

Expecting another powerful shot by Robinson, Miggins held his ground behind the third base bag as Robinson approached for his third at-bat.

“Next time up, I’m playing back, deep behind third base,” said Miggins. “He bunted and dropped one down. I could throw a ball through a brick wall in those days, so I pick it up and fire to first base and it was a real close play, safe. He could run too you know. He beat it out.”

Robinson proceeded to hit a single to right-center field during his fourth at-bat, which set the stage for Miggins to have another close encounter with the Royals second baseman. He did not think that Robinson would test him a second time with a bunt.

“Like an idiot, I’m playing him back at third base again the fifth time up. He dropped another bunt down and beat it out,” said Miggins. It was a lesson learned for the young infielder. “I gave him two hits that day and he never bunted again on me because I played him even with the bag from then on.”

Miggins went on to play parts of two seasons in the majors with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1948 and 1952, but his involvement with Robinson’s debut is one that he wears with a sense of pride and humor.

“They got him into the Hall of Fame and there he was, Rookie of the Year, MVP, and a World Series Champ, all because of the great start I gave him in baseball!” said a laughing Miggins. “I gave him two hits opening day and he never stopped from there, he just kept going. I always look back and that 4-for-5 opening day gave him a thrust for his whole career.”

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Archbishop Molloy coach Curran helped prepare New York Yankee Mike Jerzembeck to pitch in the majors

For over 50 years, Jack Curran helped to shape thousands of young men into baseball players that walked through the doors of Archbishop Molloy. During those 50-plus years, he sent countless numbers of players into professional careers other than baseball, but only two made the major leagues. One is current New York Mets outfielder Mike Baxter, the other is former New York Yankees pitcher Mike Jerzembeck.

Mike Jerzembeck

Jerzembeck, a member of the Yankees 1998 World Series Championship team, spoke with me regarding the influence of his high school coach on his development on and off the field through his teenage years.

The article recently appeared in the April 6 edition of the Times-Ledger newspapers in Queens.

"Yankee pitcher praises Coach Curran" - Nicholas Diunte - Times-Ledger Newspapers

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'Bullet' Bob Turley, 1958 Cy Young winner, passes away at 82

"Bullet" Bob Turley has run out of ammunition. The 1958 Cy Young Award winner passed away Saturday evening from liver cancer in a hospice care center in Atlanta. He was 82.

Turley broke in with the St. Louis Browns in 1951 before being drafted into the Army during the Korean War. He returned in 1953 and stayed with their franchise as they moved to Baltimore in 1954.

Bob Turley in 1959 / Sports Illustrated

The right-hander was given the ball for the Orioles first home game on April 15, 1954. Opposing Turley that day was Virgil Trucks of the Chicago White Sox, who also passed away earlier in the week. Turley pitched a complete game, striking out nine batters while surrendering only one run.

"I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous going out there," said Turley to the Baltimore Sun in 2009. "But I pitched the whole game. Had to. Back then, if you didn’t go nine, they sent you back to the minors."

In their inaugural season, Turley led the team in wins and innings pitched, while his 185 strikeouts were enough to lead the American League. He won the team’s Most Popular Oriole award, which was done by fan voting. His prize was a brand new Cadillac. Author Gene Fehler told the story of Turley’s teammate Cal Abrams in “When Baseball Was Still King,” that the award wasn’t without some controversy.

“Halfway through the season, I was leading the popular by so many that I thought I had the Cadillac,” Abrams said. “At the end of the year, Bob Turley had doubled what I had, and I couldn’t figure out how until a few years later. He had told all the kids in the park to go in the stands and pull the coupon out of the booklet and put his name on it and stick it into the barrel, and that’s how he won.”

Turley’s advocacy for his cause was not enough to keep him in Baltimore past that first year. Baltimore’s most popular player was involved in a 17 player trade that included Don Larsen going to the Yankees, in return for a group of players that included Gus Triandos, who died on Thursday. (After baseball, Turley went into business with Triandos.)

He spent the next eight years in pinstripes, winning two World Series championships in 1956 and 1958. The latter championship season was Turley’s marquee year. He won the Cy Young award in 1958, going 21-7 while pitching a league leading 19 complete games. He capped off the season with two victories in the World Series, earning the Most Valuable Player award in the process. He attributed his success that season to his endurance on the mound.

“When I left spring training, I had to pitch nine innings in a spring training game before the season started," said Turley in a 2009 phone interview conducted by the author. "They take them out real early now.”

Known for his fastball, Turley became more efficient as he matured as a pitcher. He realized that he didn’t need to strike out every batter he faced.

“I would throw the sinker, and they would hit the top of it and it would get me out of innings pretty quickly," he said. "I developed a slider too. The biggest thing was, they hit it. When I reached back and threw a fastball, they'd tip it or swing and miss. You want them to hit it.”

Turley was sold to the Los Angeles Angels prior to the start of the 1963 season and split time with the Angels and the Boston Red Sox that year before retiring.

In his post-baseball career, Turley made millions as the national sales director for Primerica Financial Services. He told Sports Illustrated in 2001 that the currency of playing for the Yankees advanced him in his entrepreneurial pursuits.

"It helped me in the business world," he said, "Playing with the Yankees gave me the credibility to make the money Roger Clemens makes, and in business, credibility is your name.”

In retirement, he remained a fan favorite, graciously obliging his fans when he returned for Yankees Old Timers Day.

“I can’t understand some of these players today,” he said. “Nothing ever bothered me, signing autographs, doing interviews. You have all the privacy you want when you get out of the game.”

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Earl Hersh, 80, played with Milwaukee Braves in 1956

Earl Hersh

Earl Hersh, an outfielder for the Milwaukee Braves in 1956, passed away at his home in Hanover, Pa., on March 18, 2013. He was 80.

Click here to read more about Hersh's career, including excerpts from a 2011 interview where he talks about his major league debut.

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Virgil Trucks, pitched two no-hitters for the Detroit Tigers, passes away at 95

Virgil Trucks, who spent 17 seasons as a pitcher in the major leagues and served in World War II, passed away Saturday March 23 at a hospital near his home in Calera, Alabama, according to his daughter Carolyn Beckwith. He was 95.

Trucks was signed by the Detroit Tigers in 1938 and immediately posted a record setting season, striking out 418 batters for their Class D team in Andalusia, Ala. He earned the nickname “Fire” from an Alabama sportswriter for his blazing fastball that he used to tear through hitters at the lower levels of minor league baseball. He rapidly ascended the ranks of the Tigers minor league system and was in a major league uniform at the end of the 1941 season.

Virgil Trucks / Author's Collection

He spent the next two seasons with the Tigers before enlisting in the United States Navy in 1944. While in the service, he played for the baseball team at the Great Lakes Naval Station, which allowed him to stay in shape for his return to the Tigers just in time for the 1945 World Series. His complete game victory in Game 2 of the World Series helped lead the Tigers to winning the championship in seven games.

Trucks spent the majority of his career with the Tigers, pitching two no-hitters in 1952, which ironically accounted for two of his five wins that season. The Tigers, looking to go with a younger staff, traded Trucks to the St. Louis Browns at the end of the year. He would later play for the Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Athletics, and New York Yankees, before finishing his major league career in 1958. He pitched briefly in the minor leagues in 1959 and barnstormed with his good friend Satchel Paige in the off-season.

“I was living in Kansas City, Missouri when I retired and so was Paige," said Trucks in a 2009 letter to the author. "He had a friend that booked some games and he called me to go with him and I accepted. Most players barnstormed after the season because we could make enough money to live off of until next season.”

He finished with a career record of 177-135 that included two All-Star appearances in 1949 and 1954. He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1974. In 2004, he published his life story, "Throwing Heat: The Life and Times of Virgil Trucks," with co-authors Bill Bozeman and Ronnie Joyner.

The Alabama native remained a popular figure with fans throughout his retirement, spending countless hours responding to every fan mail request. He often replied with hand written letters to those who sought correspondence.

“[I receive] 20 or 30 [a week], sometimes more," Trucks told the Birmingham News in 2009. "That's just letters. It doesn't count baseballs and pictures they send. I don't like to keep the stuff around. If I wake up and can't go back to sleep, I'll go answer my mail in the middle of the night.”

His daughter Beckwith said that his fans kept him energized well into the later innings of his life.

“He has always adored his fans,” she said to the Shelby County Magazine in 2012. “When I was little, I would help him sort through his fan mail. … He always made it a point to reply to every single one.”

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Bill Greason spreads the word about Negro League baseball, World War II, and his faith

“Discover Greatness,” has been the theme for the traveling exhibit of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum for the past 20 years that has showcased the history of African-Americans in baseball. An increasingly rare opportunity to witness one of the legends who played in the Negro Leagues tell their story live and in-person came to Mt. Calvary Baptist Church on Saturday in Mullica Hill, N.J.

Bill Greason / N. Diunte

Eighty-eight-year-old Rev. William “Bill” Greason, former pitcher for the Birmingham Black Barons and St. Louis Cardinals, delivered an impressive sermon in which baseball, history, and spirituality were effortlessly intertwined. Greason, a Montford Point Marine who served in World War II, has been the pastor of the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama for more than 30 thirty years. He found his calling during his time in the military.

“In February 1945 on a little island called Iwo Jima, people were dying all around me. I took a little bible with me,” he said. “Two of my best friends were killed on that island. I prayed and I said, ‘Lord, if you get me off this island, whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it.’ It’s strange. A calling is strange. It’s a burden on you. You can’t shake it if you’re really called, no matter what you do or where you go. That’s what happened to me. I just threw up my hands and said here I am, use me.” 

He delayed his start in the ministry to pursue a career in baseball upon his return from World War II. His career in the Negro Leagues started in 1947, when he was picked up off of the sandlots of Atlanta, Georgia.

“In 1947, the Nashville Black Vols heard about me and invited me to come and start play with them. I played did pretty good, I won 12 games and lost four,” he said.

Within a year, his fine pitching caught the interest of the Birmingham Black Barons.

“The next year … in spring training, I was in Ashville, North Carolina, and the Black Barons came through," he recalled. "Our pitcher started against them and they bombed him. They put me in and I shut them out in seven innings. That was on a Monday night; Saturday morning, I was in Birmingham. I don’t know how they got me, they bought me or whatever, but in 1948 I was with the Barons.”

His expertise on the mound helped guide the Black Barons to the final Negro World Series. They squared off against the Homestead Grays, who were led by future Hall of Famers Cool Papa Bell, and Buck Leonard. Greason won the only game for the Black Barons in the 1948 series.

“To have an opportunity to pitch in that environment, it was something exceptional,” he said.

On that club, patrolling center field was a 17-year-old budding superstar in Willie Mays. Greason became close with the teenage sensation.

“Piper [Davis] brought him in and we became roommates on the road," Greason said. "We’re still good friends. He was the greatest young player [I ever saw]. He had unusual gifts. He could catch it and throw it; he did it all. He was what they called a phenom. I knew he was going to do well as a ballplayer, and he did.”

Their friendship has persisted more than 65 years.

“Willie and I are real close now. I’ve been going to his birthday parties for the last five-to-six years. I said to him, ‘I’ve gotta have proof that I’ve been here.’ I’ve got about three of those San Francisco jackets, balls, and shirts.”

He later made his way into the minor leagues by way of Mexico after serving with the Marines during the Korean War. The Oklahoma City Redbirds of the Texas League signed him in 1952, making him the second black player in league history. Greason shared how he converted even the toughest of fans with his artistry on the mound.

“I had one in Beaumont, a lady. Boy! It looked like every time we played in Beaumont, it was my time to pitch and she’d sit right behind our dugout,” he said. “The more she talked, the stronger I became. It was just a challenge. If you know who you are, you don’t worry about what people say. They call you all kinds of names and say whatever they want to, but you have to stay focused. That’s what happened and I kept my mind on whatever I had to do. After the season was over, she came to me and said, ‘Bill, I tried to get you, but you did well. I’m proud of you.’ I said, ‘Thank you.’” 

He compiled a record of 25-14 during his two seasons in Oklahoma City, prompting the Cardinals to trade for his services just prior to the 1954 season. Greason was called up to the Cardinals in May. Not only did he take a pay cut from his salary in the minor leagues to go to the majors, he was used sparingly by manager Eddie Stanky. He appeared in only three games during the month he was with the club. He was given a short rope on the mound by the ill-tempered Stanky.

“He came out to the mound," Greason recalled. "I’m out there trying to get the ball over the ball over the plate and he walked right up in front of me. ‘Get the damn ball over the plate!’ I said, “What in the hell do you think I’m trying to do? Do you think I’ve got a string on this damn ball?’ He turned and left. I knew I wouldn’t be there long.”

Despite his short career in the major leagues, Greason beamed with pride this weekend to be able to uphold the traditions of the Negro Leagues.

“A lot of our young people don’t know anything about the Negro Leagues. … It had a great influence on our people, baseball; this was all we had in Birmingham. On Sundays, after the game, people would leave worship service, come to the ballpark dressed like I am right now and this was all that we had at that time. Baseball was very important to a lot of people and they loved the ballplayers. And we did our best to be respectful, treat people nice and help people where we could.” 

Bill Greason giving his service in uniform / N. Diunte

His focus now with whatever time he has left is to foster a deeper sense of spirituality with the younger generation.

“Baseball had its time. The Marines had its time. I’m trying to help young people. I’m at a Bible College trying to help young ministers to really take the calling seriously and not worry about the money. It’s about people. If we can get God in the hearts of people, we could change things. If not, it’s going to remain the same.”

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