On July 30, 2004, the Mets traded Scott Kasmir and Joselo Diaz to the Tampa Bay Rays for Victor Zambrano and Bartolome Fortunato. Likely one of the single worst trades ever made in Mets history.

At the time the Mets were 49-53, seven games back in fourth place. The Mets hierarchy, led by General Manager Jim Duquette thought the Mets had a chance to win in 2004 so they made the trade sending their top pitching prospect who has flourished in Tampa Bay. The Mets finished the season 20 games under .500 at 71-91. Victor Zambrano was a total bust ending his Mets career in 2006 running off the field during a game with a blown out elbow while Kasmir celebrated an American League pennant last season.

The trade was panned when it was made by the press and the fans. No one realistically felt the Mets had what it would take to win the wild card let alone the division. The Mets rolled the dice and they came up craps. There is a lesson here.

This season, the Mets have suffered a series of injuries a team experiences once in every 20 years. I think back to 1987, the year after the Mets won their last World Series. That season, the Mets lost most of their starting pitching staff. After winning 108 games in ’86, the Mets fell back to 92 wins in ’87 ending up in second place and out of the playoffs. Of course, it was easier to handle then given the fact the Mets were the reigning champions. This season it’s a bit harder to be patient since the Mets have not been in the Series in nine years.

But sometimes you just have to say it just isn’t meant to be. Everyone, fans and media, are bashing the Mets poor play but let’s be fair. No team could survive losing six key players the way the Mets have. The Mets have lost Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, J.J. Puts, John Maine, and Oliver Perez for an extensive period of time. None of them are playing yet or are due back soon. How would the Yankees be doing right now if A-Rod, Jeter, Teixeira, Burnett, Pettitte, and Hughes were out.  What if the Red Sox were missing Beckett, Lester, Saito, Pedroia, Youkilis, and Oritz? Would they be leading the division?

Is it worth trading top farm players for a player that might or might not help the Mets win this year? And let’s be logical here. It will take more than one player to make up for the loss of all the Mets injured.

Many have complained that the Mets farm system is barren and cannot provide replacements for those who have gone down. I am the first one to criticize the Mets for not building a better farm system but this is an unrealistic expectation. First off, according to Baseball America, the Mets farm system is ranked at 17 out of 30, not last or at the bottom the way some angry fans have suggested. And do not forget, the Mets traded four prospects last year to acquire Johan Santana. Daniel Murphy is having a bad sophomore year but has the ability to be a fine hitter and believe it or not, he could be the first baseman of the future. Nick Evans should have been on the club after spring training and now that he is here, he’s not being played after having a couple of games where he had three big hits. That’s another story.

Do the Yankees or even the Red Sox with their fine minor league system have the players to replace six key players if they went down? I doubt it.

I’m not trying to defend Omar Minaya but I really do not think there is much he can do considering the severity of the injuries. The worst thing he can do now is make a trade for the sake of making a trade. Minaya has stated he would make a deal for the right player, a player that will be with the Mets for a while, not just rented for the rest of the season. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen.

Mets fans need some perspective. While their anger runs deep following two seasons ending on the last day in utter disappointment, it could be worse believe it or not. We love to bash Minaya, I have done it too, but let’s be fair, the culture of this team changed when he came on board. The Art Howe/Duquette Mets were horrible. Omar made the Mets relevant again. Has he made good deals, yes he has. He has made bad ones too. I love the way fans say that Omar has only made good trades because he has so much money to work with. One fan said give Billy Bean that money and he would build a dynasty. We don’t know that. Maybe Bean’s talent is working in a small market with little money to work with.  It’s so easy to be critical when things do not go right.

With the way the Phillies have played this season, I shudder to think just where the Mets would be had they not suffered such devastating injuries. What are you going to do? That’s baseball. You just cannot predict what can happen.

June 30, 1969

Busch Stadium II - The Mets scored six runs in the top of the first inning capped off by a three run home run from Jerry Grote. That's all the Mets would need as they thumped the Cardinals by a score of 10-2. Pitcher Jim McAndrew pitched a complete game winning his second game against two losses. As the third month of the season concluded, it was hard for fans to believe how good the Mets were playing.

Record 40-32, second place 7 games back. In addition to the win, pitcher McAndrew drove in two runs.

What should the Mets do? Should they give up some or all of their prime prospects for a batter? Or should they just bite the bullet and hope that key players return from injuries and help right the ship?

Personally, I would bite the bullet. If the Mets make a deal for even an Adam Dunn, they are going to have to give up a lot of talent because of the position they are in. But even Dunn, with his home run power, may not make much of a difference.  If the Mets had lost the three games from the Yankees playing fundamentally sound baseball, I would feel more confident in giving up some of the future for help now. But how is Adam Dunn or whomever going to teach Daniel Murphy how to play fundamentally sound? How is giving up a Jon Neise or Bobby Parnell going to make Fernando Tatis hit the cutoff man or stop hitting into double plays? How is a trade going to help David Wright hold the ball when he has no chance of making the play at first? How is bringing in another player going to convince Jerry Manuel to walk Derek Jeter because Mariano Rivera is on deck? How is acquiring a slugger going to make Francisco Rodriguez lay them over the plate for the same Rivera who had two at bats the entire season previously? Please explain that to me.  For all the hitting woes the Mets have, it’s the defense that has really killed them this month. The Mets simply cannot catch the baseball.

The Mets were outplayed and outclassed the entire subway series this season except for the one win in game 2 of the Yankee Stadium series. Think about it… Luis Castillo drops a simple popup that would have given the Mets the win in the subway series opener. Instead the Mets lose as Mark Teixeira crosses home plate. In the Sunday game at the Stadium, ace Johan Santana gets pummeled for nine runs, the worst outing of his career. On Friday evening at Citi Field, the Mets make three errors in one inning looking like the Bad News Bears. They are one hit on Saturday night when they went down 1-2-3 in all but one inning. Then last night, during a nightmarish first inning, they allowed the Yanks to score three runs in part from a fundamental blunder by Daniel Murphy.  The Yankees took the series five games to one, the worst since they were swept in all six games back in 2003. But in 2003 the Mets were horrible and not going anywhere. Hmm, come to think of it, maybe there is not that much difference to this year’s club after all.

As a Mets fan, the most embarrassed I ever felt was when the Yankees celebrated the 2000 world championship on Shea Stadium’s turf. This weekend was a close second. Our new ballpark was no advantage at all. Again, I did not have much expectations but I thought the Mets should at least have won one game.  And had they played well fundamentally, maybe they would have.

I am beginning to think that Jerry Manuel is not cut out to be this team’s manager but forget the Mets firing him. That is not going to happen while they are still paying ex-manager Willie Randolph through this season.  Manuel has not done a good job at getting this team to play the game the right way. I realize it could be the coaches too but the manager is responsible. He is the captain of the ship.

Manuel is not the only one to blame here. There is plenty of blame to go around. Omar Minaya should have gotten another bat last winter when everyone was screaming for him to do so. We kept hearing about how the Mets scored enough runs last year. While that was true, we see now there is no fallback if the worst were to happen and let’s face it, with Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, John Maine and Oliver Perez on the DL, the worst has happened.

So the question remains now, how should the Mets proceed? Mortgage the future making a trade and hoping it is not a sequel to the Scott Kasmir trade or ride out the storm and hope that Daniel Murphy, Nick Evans and others can start to figure it out.  The latter is a better choice to me but the Mets are faced with this glaring problem. They have a 140 million dollar salary, the second highest in baseball. That kind of money just cannot be justified for a team likely to finish 15 games under .500 at their current pace.  All I know is I’m glad I am not in Omar’s shoes.

June 29, 1969

Shea Stadium - Mets ace pitcher Tom Seaver took the mound to try and end the Mets losing streak. Seaver pitched a complete game as the Mets won easily 7-3. The Mets scored two in the first inning but the Pirates tied it in the second. In the third, the Mets scored two and then three more in the fourth to complete their scoring. Seaver struck out 10 Pirate hitters for his 12th win of the season.

Record 39-32, second place 8 games back. Ed Charles (the Glider) went three for four and drove in two runs. Donn Clendenon drove in three.

June 28, 1969

Shea Stadium - The score was tied 2-2 through seven innings. But the Pirates scored five runs in the top of the eighth to blow the game wide open. Gary Gentry gave up three runs but Tug McGraw in relief gave up four. The Mets rallied for two in the ninth but fell short losing their fourth game in a row by a score of 7-4.

Record 38-32, second place 7.5 games back. Cleon Jones went 3 for 4 with a run batted in.

Do you remember the first time the Mets ever played the Yankees? No, it wasn’t in 1997 when Dave Mlicki shut out the Yanks by a score of 6-0. That of course was the first game that counted.

The first time the Mets played the Yankees occurred in 1963 at the old Yankee Stadium, the one where DiMaggio and Ruth actually played at. The date was June 20, 1963 and it was the first Mayor’s Trophy game the two clubs played in.

The Mayor’s Trophy game was actually started many years earlier when the Yankees played the New York Giants in an exhibition game during the regular season. Most years, the Yankees played the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Mayor’s Trophy Game raising money to benefit sandlot baseball throughout the city. The game was played every year until the two National League clubs left for the west coast.

It was decided to restart the Mayors Trophy Game in 1963, the second season for the Mets. In the first contest, the Mets defeated the Yankees by a score of 6-2. It was especially enjoyable for Mets manager Casey Stengel who had been let go by the Bombers after the 1960 season. The Yankees paid the Mets back during the inaugural season of Shea Stadium. The Mets lost to the Yankees 6-4 on August 24, 1964.

The series continued every year through 1979. In 1969, the Mets first championship year, the Mets defeated the Yankees 7-6 at Shea Stadium. During the Yankees championship seasons of 1977 and 1978, the Mets defeated the Yanks at Shea 6-4 then the Yanks beat the Mets 4-3 respectively. Through ’79, the Yankees led the series 9-7-1. The one tie came in 1979 when the Mets and Yanks tied at one run each.

George Steinbrenner hated the game. He hated anything having to do with the Mets gaining success, even for bragging rights against the Yankees. So the series ended after 1979 but it was restarted for two seasons in 1982 and 1983. The last Mayor’s Trophy Game occurred on April 21, 1983, a 4-1 loss at Shea Stadium. The Yankees and Mets would not play again until inter-league play began in 1997. However, during spring training, the Mets played the Yankees on and off over the years. It has not happened in recent years though because of the travel time between Tampa, where the Yankees train, and Port St. Lucie.

The last exhibition game the Mets played during the regular season, not including games against triple A affiliate Norfolk, occurred in 1986. Ironically, the Mets played the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on September 4 in a game benefiting the Jimmy Fund. The Jimmy Fund is a long running charity in Boston that raises money for cancer patients. Both clubs, closing in on division titles, had to realize there was a chance of meeting in October and of course they did. The Mets won that game by a score of 7-3 in front of a sold out Fenway Park.

The Mets did not play the Yankees during the regular season again until 1997 when Mlicki pitched his gem at Yankee Stadium.

Last evening the Yankees played the Mets for the first time ever at Citi Field. After clobbering the Mets, the Yankees have the edge in inter-league play with 40 wins against 30 losses. And of course, the one subway World Series played between the two teams went to the Yankees 4 games to 1.

Perhaps someday in the distant future the Mets will dominate the Yankees. I wonder if any Mets fans today will live long enough to see it.

June 27, 1969

Shea Stadium - Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Steve Blass held the Mets scoreless until the ninth inning. The Bucs beat the Mets by a score of 3-1. Mets starter Jerry Koosman did not pitch bad at all giving up just two runs on six hits while striking out nine. But Mets hitters could not do much against Blass, compiling only three hits, and losing for the third straight game. 

Record 38-31, second place 6.5 games back. Catcher J.C. Martin drove in the lone Mets run.

The new SNY special about the miracle Mets of 1969 is extremely enjoyable. I have a couple of complaints I'll get out of the way first. The difference between the "Ghosts of Flatbush" produced by HBO and "Miracle In New York: The Story of the '69 Mets" is painfully obvious. HBO, a subscription channel, presents their programming without commercial interruption. SNY does not have that luxury. Unfortunately, there were so many commercials during the first fifteen minutes of "Miracle", I turned on my DVR and waited for the airing to conclude so I could watch it later and zip through the ads. It seemed SNY got most of the long commercial breaks out of the way during the first quarter hour. This and the fact that "Miracle" was not produced in high definition are my only complaints (at least on Cablevision, the format was presented cropped on the bottom and ends with black bars).

The content in the program was terrific however. The show was produced in the Ken Burns style including interviews with many who were involved or who observed the events of that time. Actor and life long Mets fan Tim Robbins recounted his memories and narrated the documentary. Having experienced 1969, "Miracle In New York" did a wonderful job of telling the improbable tale of the National League's worst team of that decade storming to the championship during a year when we recovered from two assassinations, witnessing the ongoing Vietnam struggle, men walking on the moon, and Woodstock.

One of the highlights of the show are the impressions made of Gil Hodges. Most players interviewed repeated the common theme that the success of the '69 Mets rested clearly on the shoulders of the former Brooklyn Dodger and New York favorite, Hodges. Players recounted how his leadership made a difference, how Gil changed the philosophy and attitude, that losing would no longer be tolerated. One of the best interviews in the program is that of former Mets coach Joe Pignatano. His New York style interpretation of events painted a great picture of how things changed for the Mets under Hodges.

The program also includes some great archival footage of important moments of '69, specifically the Tom Seaver near perfect game of July 9th, the Mets taking over first place on September 10th, and of course the post season in October. The video highlights are interspersed with comments from Seaver, Bud Harrelson, Cleon Jones, Al Weis, Jerry Koosman, Jim McAndrew, Pignatano, Jimmy Breslin and a former Shea Stadium usherette. Mets broadcasters Howie Rose and Gary Cohen are interviewed as well. Those two grew up in Shea Stadium's upper deck. Who better to offer a perspective from the fans point of view than two life long Mets fans, Cohen and Rose?

Some original video tape from that year is shown along with news reel clips. I was a bit disappointed with the use of some world series footage lifted from the MLB highlight reel narrated by Curt Gowdy commercially available but the producers probably did not have much else to draw from. Also the game winning hit by Ed Kranepool from the July 8th win against the Cubs is used at least three times throughout the program. I guess there is not as many clips available from forty years ago as I would have thought.

All in all, "Miracle In New York" is well done and is very good. I wish they would have made it longer. So much happened during that season, the special could easily be 90 minutes or more. Also, it would have been nice to display the names of the 1969 Mets that are now deceased at the end of the show. However, I am just being picky. If you are a Mets fan and want to remember that first championship season or experience it for the first time, I recommend catching "Miracle In New York: The Story of the '69 Mets" which will be repeated often this season on SNY.

June 26, 1969

Shea Stadium - The Mets were shut out by the score of 2-0 by Phillies pitcher Grant Jackson. He allowed only four Mets hits en route to the complete game effort. With the loss the Mets ended up splitting the four game set with the Phillies.

Record 38-30, 6.5 games back. Mets pitcher Don Cardwell recorded his eighth loss of the season with only two wins.

Who knows if Nick Evans will be the spark the Mets needs. Will he be the unlikely hero to help the Mets overcome an injury decimated roster? Consider the following...

Here was a guy, Evans, who came up last year and performed very well at the major league level. Was he an all star? No. Was he rookie of the year? No again. But he came up, got key hits, played good in the field. If anything, Nick looked as if he could be a young fourth outfielder or even a starting outfielder this season. So what happened?

In spring training, Evans played great. He hit home runs and drove runners in consistently. It looked for sure Nick had made the major league club. But at the end of spring he was demoted to triple A Buffalo where he struggled. Perhaps it was the disappointment of not making the Mets or the surroundings of playing for a dreadful Bisons team. But what ever the reason, Evans struggled mightily at triple A. His struggles were so pronounced he was demoted to AA Binghamton. At the point of his demotion, Evans was batting .093 with 27 strike outs in 75 at bats.

At Binghamton, Evans started off slowly. But then he started to get it together and for the last couple of weeks he tore the cover off the ball. He was hitting so well, he finally got called back up to the big club, bypassing Buffalo, a few days ago. He hit 3 home runs with the B-Mets and drove in 9 in 25 games. His average was a much more respectable .276.

In last night's game against the Cardinals, Evans had no difficulty in proving home runs can be hit at Citi Field, driving one into the left field reserved seats several rows back with one on and two out.

It's too early to predict that Evans will become the diamond in the rough that was hinted at last year. But one thing is for sure. He deserved to make the team at the end of spring but he became a victim of the numbers game. I'm just glad Omar Minaya didn't do anything silly like trading him for another fading player. Evans can be a good hitter at the major league level. And if you have been paying attention, the Mets are a bit short on good hitters right now.