30 Years Ago: A Look Back at the 1978 Mets

Let’s drift back to 1978. The TV show Lou Grant captured the nation’s collective conscious, as evidenced by children everywhere naming their imaginary friends ‘Ed Asner.’ Teenage boys were dying their hair red as Ralph Malph Mania was at an all-time high. And ‘Captain Stubing’ topped ‘Bubba’ as the most popular nickname for high school football players. Musically, the Bee Gees showed us how important having chest hair is for a nation to feel good about itself. And at the movies, America couldn’t get enough of 35-year-old, singing, dancing teenage delinquents in Grease, and 30 years later I’ve proven Animal House’s point that you can get through life fat, drunk and stupid.

While American culture was at its zenith, the New York Mets were hitting rock bottom. They finished in last place for the second of three consecutive seasons. And they had the worst record in the National League, with a 66-96 mark, coming in 24 games behind first-place Philadelphia. The team followed up the Midnight Massacre of 1977 by trading away Jon Matlack and John Milner in a four-team swap in December of ’77. Jerry Koosman and Ed Kranepool were all that were left of the ’69–’73 glory years of the team. The Joe Torre–led squad was in a rebuilding mode, only nobody knew what they were trying to build.

The offense could only manage to hit 86 home runs that year. The team leader was first baseman Willie Montanez, who blasted 17 round-trippers and also paced the Mets in RBIs with 96. He was mostly known for his flamboyant bat flips and snatch catches. He came close to driving in 100 runs so was traded the next season, as the Mets weren’t going to put up with that kind of success in those years. Doug Flynn manned second base. He was so good in the field and so bad at the plate that he would often throw himself out when he hit a grounder to second. Shortstop Tim ‘Crazy Horse’ Foli was back for his second stint with the Mets. A master at throwing the bat at the ball on an outside pitch during a hit-and-run, he once almost hit coach Dal Maxvill with his bat and just ran away thinking he might get grounded by Torre. He was later found playing for the Pirates and helped them win the ’79 World Series. At third base was Lenny Randle, whose punishment for punching manager Frank Lucchesi while on the Rangers was to play for the Mets.

Catcher John Stearns was one of the few bright spots as he hit 15 home runs, drove in 73 and set a then-NL record for catchers by stealing 25 bases. The fiery four-time All-Star started a bench-clearing brawl that April with Montreal when he hit catcher Gary Carter, and he broke Dave Parker’s cheekbone when the Pirate right fielder was tagged out in a home-plate collision. A few years later Stearns ran down and tackled a drunken fan who ran onto the field, and once even chased annoying Braves mascot Chief Noc-A-Homa off the field. How can you not love John Stearns?

Left fielder Steve Henderson made Mets fans forget all about Tom Seaver when he grounded into 24 double plays (leading the league) and committed 11 errors (the most by any outfielder)―ok, maybe not. Teen idol Scott Baio, er Lee Mazzilli patrolled center field. He led the team in batting with a .273 average (yes, that led the team), hit 16 dingers, knocked in 61 and stole 20 bases. And if it weren’t against the rules, he would have played every game without his shirt on. Elliott Maddox played the most games in right field. He tried to make Mets fans forget about Mike Vail, which was easy because they had forgotten about him a long time ago. On the bench were Met legend Ed Kranepool, who was one season away from calling it quits and is still waiting for his number to be retired, future manager Bobby Valentine (acquired for Dave Kingman the same night as the Seaver trade), jack-of-all-trades Joel Youngblood, backup catcher Ron Hodges and outfielder Bruce Boisclair.

One of the greatest pitchers in Mets history, Jerry Koosman, had the unfortunate role of being the ace of this team. He finished with a 3-15 record and 3.75 ERA. After the season, when he realized he had only won three games while pitching 235.1 innings (he originally thought it was a typo), he decided to go home and pitch for Minnesota whether he was traded or not (he was, for Jesse Orosco, and won 20 games for the Twins in ’79). Craig Swan had a career year when he led the NL with a 2.43 ERA, and finished with a 9-6 record. Sadly, his right arm would fall off only a few years later ending a promising career. The only member of the Mets to be selected to the All-Star game that year was Pat Zachry (10-6, 3.33 ERA). He never got into the game, as manager Tommy Lasorda wasn’t really sure if the Mets were still in the league. He was allowed to wear his uniform, though. Nino Espinosa was the fourth starter (11-15, 4.73), and made the franchise proud by giving up the most runs in the league (107). Mike Bruhert, Kevin Kobel and Tom Hausman also started that year.

Out in the bullpen, Skip Lockwood saved 15 games, had an ERA of 3.57 and took the old Mets bullpen cart out for joyrides all over Queens. Guys named Paul Siebert, Dale Murray, Butch Metzger, Dwight Bernard, Mardie Cornejo and Bob Myrick also came in to relieve games for the Mets. It was unclear whether they were actually major league pitchers, though.

Joe Torre had his hands full with this group. M. Donald Grant did everything he could to ruin the franchise, and these late-’70s teams were the result of his handiwork. The 1978 Mets jumped out to a 3-0 record but soon fell apart into a shambles. At least they had 1979 to look forward to. It couldn’t get any worse, could it? Don’t answer that.