NY Mets: Many Marvelous Metropolitan Mishaps

Francisco Rodriguez' arrest and potential release from his contractual obligation to the Mets bring to mind several head scratchers from Flushing. Let's take a trip down memory lane...

Bobby Valentine and the fake moustache

June 9, 1999, Mets' Manager Bobby Valentine was ejected in the 12th inning for arguing a catcher interference call against Mike Piazza. Undeterred, Bobby V returned to the dugout wearing sunglasses and a fake moustache, only to be picked up by the broadcast team's cameras. Valentine was fined $10,000 and suspended three games for his homage to Keith Hernandez.

Vince Coleman's parking lot decisions

In April 1993 Vince Coleman injured Dwight Gooden's pitching arm by haphazardly swinging a golfclub in a parking lot, but that wasn't the dumbest thing he did in a parking lot that year...

Vince Coleman's explosiveness

...later that season, Coleman threw a lit firecracker into a crowd of autograph seekers at a Dodger Stadium parking lot. The explosion injured three children, including a 2-year=-old. Coleman was suspended the rest of the season and miraculously only received only 200 hours of community service with no jail time.

Strawberry and Gooden run afoul of the law

Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden started their Mets' careers as...never mind, this will take way too much time to dive into. Let's move on.

Agbayani's gift

On August 12, 2000 the Mets led the Giants 1-0 in the fourth inning. With one out and the bases loaded Agbayani caught a flyball and thinking there were three outs trotted off the field handing the ball to a young fan. Realizing the error Agbayani retrieved the ball from the fan but not before two runs scored. The Mets went on to win the game, preserving Agbayani's fan favorite status, if not his pride.

Photo opportunity

In possibly the only memorable photo day in baseball history, 1989 provided Mets fans with a glimpse into the infighting of the Mets. Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry exchanged blows after a photographer tried to position Straw and Crazy Mex next to each other. Strawberry expressed that he didn't want to stand next to a back-stabber and Hernandez said he was tired of Darryl's %&*#$.

Turns out, according to Bob Klapisch, that Strawberry got wind of Hernandez' campaign to sabotage his MVP chances the year before by encouraging reporters to vote for Kevin McReynolds. Bad move Keith.

K-Rod's punchout

August 11, 2010, Fransisco Rodriguez became upset with the grandfather of his twins(girlfriend's father) and decided to throw down on him in the Citi Field family room and was arrested for assault. To add injury to insult, K-Rod injured his hand leaving the Mets thoughts of relieving Rodriguez of the remaining $18 million left on his contract.