Welcome to my next installment of Mets Through The Years. Today we’ll go back 30 years to 1996. IMO this is one of the most interesting Met teams in their history. Not good, but interesting.
First, some background. The Mets were emerging from the “Worst Team Money Could Buy” years of the early 90’s. They had fired nice guy Jeff Torborg and hired tough guy Dallas Green. Slow but steady progress was being made in the strike/lockout years of 1994-95. Going into 1996, optimism ran rampant through both the club and the fans. Why? Because GENERATION K was finally here!
You may have forgotten about Generation K. Obviously, it didn’t work out. If it had, you would have remembered. We’ll get back to Generation K shortly. First, we’ll talk about what DID work out that year - three guys who had career years, all in the same year!
Check out these numbers:
LANCE JOHNSON (CF) - NL Batting Champion at .333. Led league in hits and triples. 50 SB.
BERNARD GILKEY (LF) - 30/117/.317, .955 OPS
TODD HUNDLEY (C) - 41/112/.259, .906 OPS
All three of those guys got MVP votes. Johnson and Hundley were all stars.
That was pretty much the offense, as the supporting cast was meh. Butch Huskey, Carl Everett, Rico Brogna, Jose VIzcaino, Alex Ochoa, etc. However, they did have two youngsters worth noting - Edgardo Alfonso and Rey Ordonez. Three years later, they formed half of what Sports Illustrated suggested was maybe the best infield ever. (I think they meant defensively. The other half was Robin Ventura and John Olerud.)
Then there was the second baseman. And one of the worst trades in Met history.
The second baseman was Jeff Kent. He was a good hitter, but a subpar fielder and a locker room malcontent. At age 28, he was viewed to have reached his peak. Then at midseason, the Mets were presented with an incredible opportunity. An offer from the Indians to trade Kent for - Carlos Baerga! A three time all star, and two time Silver Slugger, who was still only 27! The Mets had pulled off a coup, or so we thought.
What the Mets didn’t know was that at age 27, Baerga was basically done. It happens to some guys. They also didn’t know that Kent would go on to have a Hall of Fame career. That trade was so Mets.
On to the pitching. They had a good closer in John Franco, and some decent setup guys. (One of whom, Jerry DiPoto, is now POBO of the Mariners.) But the starting pitching was thin. The ace was a journeyman named Mark Clark, who went 14-11 with a 3.43 ERA. Bobby Jones (the righty, there were two of them back then) and Pete Harnisch also contributed.
What about the rest of the rotation? That’s where Generation K comes in.
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Generation K was a term given to three highly-touted and highly-marketed young pitchers: Jason Isringhausen, Paul Wilson, and Bill Pulsipher. Pulsipher and Isringhausen debuted in 1995 and were impressive. Wilson, who was the first pick in the 1994 draft, was about to join them.
Met fans were ecstatic. Remember Seaver, Koosman, Gentry in 1969? Gooden, Darling, and Fernandez in 1986? Good things happen in threes, right?
Well, not so much. Pulsipher had an arm injury in spring training which proved to be season-ending and career-limiting. Isringhausen and Wilson were occasionally injured and generally ineffective, with a combined 11-26 record and a combined ERA over 5.
Enter tough guy manager Dallas Green. Green was clearly unimpressed with Generation K. Green was quoted that “These guys don’t belong in the big leagues. That may sound harsh and negative, but what have they done to get here?”
It was an opinion perfectly suited for the privacy of GM Joe McIlvaine’s office. Not so well suited for the New York Times. McIlvaine fired Green a week later, and cited his Gen K comments as one reason. McIlvaine believed (correctly IMO) that these comments were counterproductive to developing the confidence of his young pitchers.
Green’s replacement? Bobby Valentine, the prototypical players’ manager. The pendulum swings back and forth to this day.
All this drama resulted in a 71-91 record, good for 4th place. But better days were coming soon. Nice guy Valentine took the team to an 88 win season the following year, and the World Series three years later.
Next up is the 1986 team, which we all remember fondly, even if our memories are not firsthand.
