Willie Montanez & John Matlack

The other day the Orioles trotted out a player named Montanez and it made me nostalgic for good ol' Willie Montanez.

Willie was another of the non-stars of The Torre Years (Flushing version).

At age 29, Willie was an all-star for Atlanta, so the Mets traded away John Milner and John Matlack in a multi-team deal to get him.

Now Mets fans, what happens when the Mets bring in someone else's All-Star?

That's right, they would come to Shea and suck.

Montanez handed in .256 with 17 homers and 96 RBI in 1978 - not bad, add some steroids and 17 is 30 modern day homers....but in 79 the suckiness crept in and he hit .234 before being shipped off to Texas for Ed Lynch and Mike Jorgensen.

I'm a little young to know why the Mets gave up on Matlack who won 15, 14, 13, 16, 17 and 7 games before being sent off as a 28 year old lefthander.  He seems to me like the kind of guy you'd want around.  Maybe some old-timer out there can hit comments and educate me.  (And don't tell me that uniform doesn't look 100 times better than what they wear now

Willie Montanez, wherever you are, I lift my Rheingold to you.

The Mets Police