Mets All-Star History

On July 30, 1962, at Wrigley Field, Richie Ashburn pinch-hit for Turk Farrell and belted a single to left. That was the first appearance by a New York Met in an All-Star game. In 46 years of All-Star play, the Mets have had one MVP, fielded the starting pitcher three times and hit only two home runs. That sounds about right for the lovable, yet not-so-successful franchise. Ashburn scored the first Met run after recording his first hit in '62. In 1964, Ron Hunt took his position at second base to become the first Met to start an All-Star game. He batted eighth and went 1-3. That was also the only year the game was held at Shea Stadium. Tom Seaver made his All-Star debut as a rookie in 1967 and picked up the first Met save in Anaheim. Jerry Koosman and Dwight Gooden also went to the Midsummer Classic as rookies. And Koosman recorded a save in his debut in '68. 1968 was also the first year the team had multiple players appearing in the game?Seaver, Koosman and Jerry Grote. The first Mets pitcher to start for the National League was, of course, Seaver. He toed the rubber in 1970, and threw three innings without letting in a run while striking out four, as the NL won 5-4 in 12 innings when Pete Rose famously crashed into Ray Fosse with the winning run. Tug McGraw notched the first victory for a Mets pitcher in 1972. That same year and the next, Willie Mays made his last two All-Star appearances, while wearing a Mets uniform. The only MVP award won by a Met player was picked up in 1975 by Jon Matlack (since he was a Met he had to share it with the Cubs Bill Madlock). Matlack earned the victory by pitching two shutout innings and striking out four batters. Four years later, Lee Mazzilli almost won the award when he hit a pinch-hit home run (in his first All-Star at-bat) to tie the game in the top of the eighth. The next inning he drew a bases-loaded walk to drive in what turned out to be the winning run. The 1986 game saw a glory matchup on the mound when Dwight Gooden faced Roger Clemens. Gooden took the loss when he gave up two runs in three innings pitched. That year, not surprisingly, the Mets fielded the most starting players in their history (Gooden, Gary Carter, Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry), and also added a reserve player (Sid Fernandez). El Sid picked up the save in '87, and Gooden started and lost again in '88. Al Leiter was the last Mets pitcher to get on the ledger, when he was stuck with the loss in 2000. Mike Piazza made six All-Star appearances as a Met, which ties him with Seaver and Strawberry for the team record. Strawberry and Carlos Beltran share the team record for most career All-Star hits with four. Beltran also just missed out on an MVP award in 2006, when he went 2-4 with a double, but Trevor Hoffman blew the save as the AL won, 3-2 (and American Leaguer Michael Young was given the award). That same game, David Wright hit a home run in his first All-Star at-bat. This year, Billy Wagner is representing the team (insert joke here), but the only Mets deserving of an All-Star starting berth are Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez.