July is a transformative month in the baseball calendar, characterized by high stakes and significant changes. This year, the New York Mets selected Oklahoma two-way player Carson Benge with their first pick in the MLB Draft, and with the trade deadline looming on July 31st at 6 p.m., the baseball world is brimming with anticipation and speculation. Reflecting on the profound impacts of these events, we revisit interviews with 30 players from Howie Karpin and my book, "You Never Forget Your First: A Collection of New York Mets Firsts," focusing on their reactions to draft day and being traded. These stories capture the excitement, uncertainty, and life-altering moments that define a baseball career.
Benny Agbayani
First Reaction to Being Drafted:Agbayani was initially chosen by the California Angels in the 25th round of the 1992 amateur draft, but he did not sign. A year later, the Hawaiian native was picked in the 30th round by the Mets.
“I passed [on signing a contract] my first time with the Angels. I didn’t think I was prepared mentally, you know, coming from the islands. I didn’t really have a lot of information about minor league baseball and making it to the majors was all about. I just thought it wasn’t right for me. I took a very big gamble my next year. I was very fortunate that the Mets gave me an opportunity. When that day came, I was at my mom and dad’s house. I had all my relatives there and it was a big gamble. I didn’t know I was gonna get drafted coming out of Hawaii. When [scout] Jim Woodward called me and said Mets took me in the 30th round, it was a sigh of relief. I was like, ‘Wow, I’m there. I got to go this time.’”
First Time Being Traded:In January 2002, Agbayani was traded from the Mets to the Colorado Rockies as part of a three-team trade.“I got a call from my agent, Dan Horwitz. He said, ‘I think you’re going to be on the trading block.’ I wanted to be a Met for life, but that never happened. I kind of felt heartbroken when I got a call from [GM] Steve Phillips. He told me that they’re going to trade me to Colorado with Todd Zeile. I didn’t want to go but that’s where I had to go.”
Rick Ankiel
First Reaction to Being Drafted:“I was in my house. Back then you didn’t really follow along like you do now. So, the phone rang, and it was my agent, Scott Boras, who said, ‘You know you’ve been drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals.’ Honestly, I didn’t even really know anything about the St. Louis Cardinals. I grew up a Braves fan. It was kind of disappointing because it wasn’t the Braves, but obviously, it all worked out. We just went out to dinner with all our family and friends.”
Benny Ayala
First Reaction to Being Traded:“I feel like it was a good opportunity for me to become an even better player and make it to the big leagues because I always thought the St. Louis Cardinals had good instructors. I went to New Orleans [Double A] and I was an All-Star, hitting .300 and slugging. What was disappointing was when I saw in St. Louis’ Busch Stadium, a player with the same number that I have. Then, I get traded to the Orioles organization by Frank Robinson. It was kind of difficult for me to get Frank Robinson to help me because we had a hitting instructor, but I found a way to make him work on my weakness.”
Kevin Baez
First Reaction to Being Drafted:“Back in the day, we had to wait by the phone. Baseball America, like a week before, said, ‘Top three rounds, probably Chicago White Sox.’ So, I didn’t know what to expect. Then, the phone rings and it’s the GM. Seventh round, from the New York Mets. I was ecstatic and excited because I grew up a Met fan. It was a dream come true.”
Mike Baxter
First Reaction to Being Drafted:Baxter was chosen by the San Diego Padres in the fourth round of the 2005 amateur draft.“That’s a memorable day. My goal as a child in Queens was to get drafted. I wanted to be a big leaguer. I remember sitting in my bedroom in New York with my parents, listening to the draft, and hearing my name called from the Padres in the fourth round. That was an emotional moment. I was just shocked and it was a very cool moment to spend with my family together.”
Rico Brogna
First Reaction to Being Drafted:: Brogna was a first-round pick (26th overall) of the Detroit Tigers in the 1988 amateur draft.
“Yeah, that was wild. I mean, that’s something I remember in great detail, only because I didn’t know if I had gotten picked high. I knew I was going to have a tough decision to make, so I didn’t think, up until the day of the draft, I was going to be a first-round pick. I kind of thought I’d signed a letter to Clemson and that was something I really wanted to do. I thought it might’ve deterred teams from picking me high. I kinda made up my mind if I went high, maybe even the top three rounds, that I would really give it serious thought about playing baseball. The morning of the draft, I was in school. I knew the draft started at 12 noon Eastern time and I called down. Over the loudspeaker, they called my name to come down to the main office area at like, 12:40, 12:45 or something. I just figured that was it. So, I figured that had something to do with it. At least I was thinking and it did. I saw the camera on my parents. I saw, it looked like a hundred, two hundred people. TV cameras, all that stuff, it’s surprising. I wasn’t expecting all that. Seeing my mom and dad really happy. When I turned the corner, I saw everybody. I knew they didn’t even need to tell me what happened. I figured I got drafted high, but I still got it. I had a decision to make with football and baseball. I figured when they told me I was drafted in the first round. Why are they all here? It’s because of the first-round thing, so that’s what they were making a big deal about. There was a good chance I would sign but it wasn’t a definite. I was really set on going to Clemson. Small town Connecticut. There [were] no draft picks [from] the area. No one ever really goes to pro baseball or Division I college football for that matter. The media was into it. It was a big deal. None of my decision was contemplated. The news media every day and commentaries and stuff. It was all positive.”
First Reaction to Being Drafted:
"I was really, really excited to be with the Mets ’cause I thought they’d give me a chance and that’s why they acquired me. Rebuilding and everything at the time."
Ike Davis
First Draft Experience:“The high school one was different because it wasn’t televised. I was coaching at a kids’ baseball camp when my dad called and said, ‘You just got drafted in the 19th round.’ In college, it was televised. I was at my house with a couple of potential high draft picks. We were all on the couch, and when the Mets called my name, we went crazy. It was a special day with my teammates.”
First Time Being Traded:On April 18, 2014, the Mets traded Davis to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“I had been on the trading block since the end of the 2013 season. It was a prolonged situation. I wasn’t starting, and I knew it was going to happen. On the day of the trade, I was getting ready to go out to the field when Mets manager Terry Collins brought me into a meeting with Jeff Wilpon and Sandy Alderson. They told me I was traded to the Pirates. It was emotional for all of us. After the meeting, David Wright, who was about to start the game, ran into the shower and hugged me. It was a sad night, but a good send-off.”
Doug Flynn
First Reaction to Being Traded to the Mets: Flynn was part of the “Midnight Massacre” when Tom Seaver was traded to Cincinnati on June 15, 1977. In the trade, the Mets acquired Flynn, outfielders Steve Henderson and Dan Norman, and pitcher Pat Zachry.
“Pete Rose is the one that told me I was traded. We’re in the middle of a game, came over, or towards the end of the game. We were playing in Cincinnati and he told me I’d been traded. It hit me kind of funny because it just, you know, I’ve grown up a Reds fan. I played three years in the minor leagues, two and a half years in the big leagues. Now, all of a sudden, I’m going to a different team and being an old country, Midwestern boy, going to New York was going to be a little bit different from everything that I had known. The only time I really knew anything about New York was going in as a visiting player. As you well know, they can be a little tough on you. It doesn’t matter who you are. They know something about you and they’ll let you know about it when you go to the plate or if you’re out in the field. I wasn’t exactly sure how it was going to be, so I kind of took a few days to regroup, figure out what I wanted to do. I got my stuff. The players all said goodbye and they were excited, man, they’re getting Tom Seaver. I don’t blame them for being excited. It’s a little bit different up in New York but the good news is that people like [Mets publicist] Jay Horwitz and the other teammates that were still there, Koozie [Jerry Koosman], and all the guys couldn’t have been any nicer or better to me. They know I didn’t have anything to do with making the trade and it was a wonderful opportunity for a bunch of us young kids that we got a chance to play every day. Wish the results might’ve been better, but I wouldn’t trade anything in the world for it. I’ve told people often, if you’re a professional athlete, you want to play in New York. You talk about being under the bright lights and if you can’t handle it, and a lot of guys can’t, you can get run out of there pretty quick, but I enjoyed it.
“It took me a while to adjust, especially when I got a chance to play every day. It took a while and there was a lot of other things. There was some personal stuff going on in my life at that time in 1977. That’s well documented. My sister had disappeared. Even to this day, we are sitting here in 2020 and it’s still an unsolved mystery. So that changed my whole perspective on baseball. As a matter of fact in 1977, when I was going to spring training, I called the Reds and I said to Dick Wagner, ‘I need a place to stay outside of the normal place, ’cause I didn’t want to be around a bunch of media because we were getting phone calls on, at least, a weekly basis, usually a daily basis, trying to let us know what was going on in the investigation. Wagner says, ‘Well, you only got two years of big leagues. You got to stay with the team.’ I went, ‘Well, I’m not going to do that.’ I said, ‘I’d really like your permission to stay outside ’cause I want my mom and dad to be there so I can be with them,’ and he says, ‘Well, that ain’t happening.’ I said, ‘All right, I quit.’ He said, ‘You what?’ I said, ‘I quit. I got two World Series rings in my pocket, I’m out of here. See ya.’ So I hang up the phone and about an hour later, the phone rings and it’s Pete. Pete’s laughing and he said he quit. I said, ‘You just rolling.’ He said, ‘That’s funny. I already know the deal. I’ve already got you and your parents a place where I’m staying.’ He said, ‘It’s all taken care of. Don’t worry about it.’ I go to spring training in ’77 with Dick Wagner, not seeing eye-to-eye because that’s just the way it was and then I get traded. Even though I get traded to another town now, I got new media coming up, wanting to know what’s going with your family. So ’77 was a really tough year for me. It’s like today, I think about the situation every single day. So trying to play ball and concentrate, I probably didn’t do as good a job as I should have. I always said, the best players, at least the ones I know on a professional basis, are the ones that can concentrate the most and best, regardless of what’s going on in their life. Illness, sickness, divorce, whatever, they can put all that stuff out of the way. I don’t think I was mature enough at the time to do that at that time.”
Rod Gaspar
First Time Being Drafted: Gaspar was selected by the Mets in the 18th round of the 1966 amateur draft but did not sign. In the secondary phase of the 1967 June draft, the Mets chose Gaspar in the second round.
“Playing baseball at Long Beach State, I had a baseball scholarship there. I was a sophomore at Long Beach State when the Mets drafted me. I knew I was gonna get drafted by somebody because clubs and scouts had contacted me. Kind of funny, I never really heard from the Mets and I was obviously happy they drafted me. I had no intention of signing in 1966 because I wanted to go back to school and play ball. I had a real good year as a sophomore, but I made up my mind, I wasn’t gonna sign. [Mets scouts] Dee Fondy and Nelson Burbrink, they came to the house and offered me, I don’t know, $10,000, which is pretty good for an 18th-round draft pick I guess. I just said, ‘I’m not gonna sign this year.’ It really upset my parents because they never seen $10,000 in their lives. You know, their kid’s getting offered ten grand but I decided to pass on it. Hopefully, they’d draft me the next, I would sign, which is exactly what happened. They drafted me the second time in ’67. I was like their second-round pick in the secondary round, but I figured, second-round pick, I’m going to get a lot more money. I’m going to get my $20,000 bonus that I was looking for. I ended up getting $12,000 to sign in ’67.”
Tom Glavine
First Reaction to Being Drafted by the Atlanta Braves and LA Kings of the NHL in the Same Year: In 1984, Glavine was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. A few days later, Glavine was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the second round of the amateur draft.
“I was at my parents’ house when I got a call from Rogie Vachon, general manager at the time of the Kings. He told me they drafted me in the fourth round. They knew where I was going to college. They would talk to me in a couple of years, essentially, I guess after my junior year, where things were at and if they wanted to sign me at that point in time. Couple of days later, I was at high school baseball practice and my mom drove up to the field, so I knew something was going on. She talked to my coach and my coach and my mom called me over. She told me that she had just gotten a call from the Braves, that I was drafted in the second round by the Braves.
Shawn Green
First Reaction to Being Drafted: Shawn Green was chosen by the Toronto Blue Jays as the 16th pick in the first round of the 1991 amateur draft.
“I stayed home from school that day. In California, there were these scout leagues. Just some minor league guys that played on the weekends in the fall. They kind of gather up the best prospects in the area and just played all day. I knew that they [Blue Jays] were really interested. They had come to my house. I visited several teams to gauge my interest and get to know me and all that. There were rumors that the Blue Jays were going to take me. Once I got the phone call, it was pretty surreal to get drafted in the first round. I signed with Stanford so I knew it was gonna be a tough decision ’cause I had planned on playing college baseball. I remember going back to school halfway through. I don’t know if I had a test or something I had to go to, but I kind of was excited to go back because all my friends who are wanting to know. Obviously, this was before most people had cell phones. So everyone was anxiously waiting to hear what happened and so I was excited to go back to school and tell everybody.”
First Reaction to Being Traded to the Mets: “There were rumors floating around. Our team had fallen out of the race a little bit and there’s some really good, young prospects. They wanted to play Carlos Quentin. There’s only a few teams they could trade me to, more West Coast teams, so they had to let me know. When they said, ‘Hey, we got this deal worked out,’ keep in mind, one of the minority owners who was kind of running the team was Jeff Moorad, my agent for my whole career, then he switched over, became an owner. It was kind of a personal situation where he felt really bad, even asking me. I was at a point [where] I enjoyed my time in Arizona. It was kind of a nice reprieve from playing in a big market with a lot of pressure and kind of dealing with some of the ups and downs that I had my last couple of years in LA. So I was kind of ready to get back into the market, where there was a lot more pressure and energy and New York’s obviously the number one in that regard. So [Moorad] said, ‘We got a deal worked out.’ He called me over to his office, said ‘We got a deal worked out with the Mets. What do you think?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I want to do it.’ I had a lot of friends there, a lot of guys I felt really comfortable playing with. I’d already played with and was close to Carlos Delgado, I played eight years with him and [Paul] Lo Duca I had five years with him in LA. Guillermo Mota I played with in LA and liked a lot. Same with Duaner Sanchez. Chris Woodward, I played with in Toronto. So I knew a bunch of these guys and I knew it would be a really easy transition in the clubhouse. The team was super exciting with the youth of [Jose] Reyes and [David] Wright and veteran stars like [Carlos] Beltran, Delgado, [Billy] Wagner, and [Tom] Glavine. The team, they got a real shot and I’m not getting any younger, so it sounds like a great opportunity and that’s why I made the move.”
Butch Huskey
First Experience Being Drafted: Huskey was chosen by the Mets in the seventh round of the 1989 amateur draft.
“I was on the American Legion baseball field. They took me off the field and said I could no longer play American Legion since I had been drafted. That was a crazy afternoon, crazy evening because I didn’t know what to do. Then [a] scout got in contact with me, Jack Zduriencik [who went on to become the general manager of the Seattle Mariners]. I don’t remember any celebrations.”
First Time Being Traded: On December 14, 1998, the Mets traded Huskey to the Seattle Mariners for pitcher Leslie Brea.
“That was kind of a blur also, but I remember having a kind of feeling of betrayal. I didn’t understand trading and all that stuff, but once I got to thinking and talking to other people, is that when you get traded, there’s somebody out there that wants you. That’s the way I looked at it as [the Mariners] wanted me to come to Seattle and be a player on their team more than the Mets wanted me at the time. There had been a lot of people getting traded from the Mets at that time.”
Jeff Innis
First Reaction to Learning He Was Drafted:
“This is funny. As you can tell, most of my stories are self-deprecating, which is very accurate. I remember just hoping to get drafted, but the first day is just the first couple of rounds. I was like, there was no way. I was lucky to get drafted period, but like I hung around the house and wouldn’t leave the telephone the first day. Like I was going to get called right away. Like I was gonna get drafted, like first or second-round pick. Oh my God, I was not even close to that but it was funny. I was such a geek and such a nerd that I hung around the house all day, the first day.”
“Then, the second day, I think it came later in the day. I was just thrilled. It was just a magical time. It was funny because I grew up in a small town in central Illinois and my brother [Brian] had been drafted the year before by the Dodgers in the sixth round. I remember that experience and then, that next year I was drafted. About a half hour before I found out I was drafted, my best friend was drafted by the Orioles in the 10th round. So it was just weird and kind of special, not just because of me, but just because we happened to have three guys in that two-year period in a very small town drafted in the major leagues. Just the fact that I was paying attention and I might get drafted. When the Mets called me, I was just very appreciative and just felt incredible. It was just a magical time in my life for sure.”
Howard Johnson
First Reaction to Being Drafted: Johnson was selected by the New York Yankees in the 23rd round of the 1978 amateur draft. He did not sign with the Yankees and was taken by the Tigers with the 12th overall pick of the secondary phase of the January 1979 draft.
“This is going to sound strange, so, the night of the draft, I went to a Boston concert. Boston was playing [a gig] in Tampa, so I went to, I forgot the name of the arena, but I went to the concert. It might have been St. Pete, might’ve been in the civic center down in St. Pete. I liked Boston in high school. I told my parents, ‘If someone calls, I get drafted, write it down and let me know who drafted me, so I have it.’ What was weird, back then we didn’t have cell phones. We didn’t have any internet to go on and find out. If they called you, that’s how you found out. So I wasn’t gonna sit around and wait by the phone all night. I had tickets to this concert with my buddy, so I went. Sure enough, I get home and there’s a note on the table. [Reading the note] ‘New York Yankees, 26th round and they said they would call you,’ and that was it. So, I got a phone call from the scout the next day, the next morning, and sure enough, we talked. Back then, you were basically the property of the team that drafts you until the following draft, which back in those days, they had a draft in January. They had two phases to that. The second phase was ’cause you were drafted but didn’t sign, so I was in that draft. The Yankees didn’t want to sign me at that point. They said, ‘Just go through your college, play a year and we’ll revisit it and stuff.’ They were very honest with me. I didn’t really feel like wanting to go to rookie ball, but that’s what they were saying. They felt like, ‘You know what, you get better at your position next year by going to JUCO, so it’s exactly what I did. I liked junior college, played the fall, didn’t sign with them [Yankees] in January. Tigers drafted me in the secondary phase. What’s weird is where I live, I lived in Clearwater. A lot of scouts, a lot of baseball people were in that area, but I never ran into one Tiger scout. So, I didn’t have a name or face or anything. When they called me and they told me that they drafted me, his name was Bob Reasonover, he was with the scouting bureau and he drafted me for the Tigers and I thought it was cool. The Tigers, I met with them, they promised me spring training and a chance to make a team in the Florida State League. We’d have to go to rookie ball if I was good enough to make the ballclub and I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ So that’s how I saw it.”
First Time Being Traded: On December 7, 1984, Johnson was traded from Detroit to the Mets in exchange for pitcher Walt Terrell.
“I remember it was the last day of the winter meetings and my wife and I were at home with our daughter, who was just born that year. I got the phone calls early in the morning and it was Bill Lajoie, the general manager of the Tigers. We always had a real good relationship. He said, ‘HoJo, we traded you today.’ I was like, ‘Traded me?’ He says, ‘Yeah, we needed a starting pitcher and I was afraid Sparky wasn’t gonna use you like he should use you, so we dealt you to the Mets.’ I said, ‘OK, I appreciate the phone call and always enjoyed playing for the Tigers.’ He said, ‘You’re going to be getting a phone call from Jay Horwitz with the Mets.’ Then, I got a call from Jay and the rest is history.”
Bobby M. Jones
First Reaction to Being Drafted: Jones was selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 44th round of the 1991 amateur draft.
“I think I was playing basketball actually. It was after the state tournaments, so I was back home in Jersey and I was at the park playing basketball. I didn’t think I was gonna get drafted. I knew I was talking to a lot of teams, but I didn’t think I was going to get drafted. I ended up going late to the Brewers as a draft and follow. They wanted me to kind of stay at Chipola [College] and then offer me before the next draft and see if they can keep me from going to another team or going back into the draft. I had a pretty good year, that year. We were pretty good. I think they offered me some decent money for what I wanted and I was already committed to University of Alabama, but I really wanted to get going with my pro career. I knew the Angels liked me in the upper rounds. I tried to get good money and ended up signing with the Brewers.”
First Reaction to Being Traded to the Mets: In January 2000, the Mets acquired Jones and pitcher Lariel Gonzalez from Colorado in exchange for pitcher Masato Yoshii.
“I was in Jersey playing basketball in the off season. I had to run out of the gym. My dad called me. I had to run out of the gym, go shower and do a press conference. Pretty neat feeling, very exciting, very exciting times, especially before you get there. That was an exciting day for me. It was not what I probably wanted as far as how it went, but it was definitely an exciting day, for sure, getting traded there.”
Jerry Koosman:
First Reaction to Being Traded by the Mets: After the 1978 season, the Mets traded Jerry Koosman to the Minnesota Twins for left-handed reliever Jesse Orosco and right-hander Greg Field. In his final two seasons with the Mets, Koosman was 11–35.
“We had a very poor team those two years. I had chest pains from all the losing and we were really a Double-A club for those two years, you know, playing against major leaguers. It was really wearing on me. Since they were in a rebuilding position, I didn’t want to wait for years again until they got the club built up to where you’re a competitor, so I really wanted to be traded. I had a bottle of champagne and caviar waiting because I was expecting it. I celebrated because I was happy to be playing at home. I was a Twins fan ever since the Twins moved to Minnesota.”
Terry Leach
First Reaction to Being Drafted:Terry Leach was chosen by the Boston Red Sox in the seventh round of the January 1976 supplemental draft, but the pick was voided because Leach was ruled ineligible due to his age.
“I was in college at Auburn. At lunch time, we used to eat at this boarding house. I had been in the bathroom and my catcher came busting in there and told me, ‘Terry, you just got drafted,’ and I said, ‘To go to Vietnam?’ I had no idea anybody was looking at me for baseball. You know, Vietnam was still going on and you had the draft and everything. I thought that’s what he was talking about, so that’s how I heard about it the first time.”
Barry Lyons
First Reaction to Being Drafted: In 1981, Barry Lyons was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 25th round of the amateur draft out of Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. The Mets chose Lyons in the 15th round the following year.
“In 1981, I was told by my college coach that I was most likely to be drafted. I suffered a broken hamate bone in my left hand during that season and missed about a month of the season and didn’t have the season I had hoped to have as a junior. I was excited and certainly hopeful that my childhood dream would come to fruition by being drafted. I waited at home with my parents. Actually, there were some photos taken standing by the phone, but the phone never rang. I did get drafted, but I didn’t find out until the next day. I got a call from John Metro, an older scout of the Major League Scouting Bureau and he told me that I had been drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 25th round. I wasn’t going to sign. He said he could be down by my house later that week. In essence, I told them, don’t bother, I’m going back to school. I was somewhat dejected that the phone didn’t ring. I played the Cape Cod League as a freshman. Then I played in the Kansas Jayhawk League as a sophomore. That third year, my junior year, I had a chance to go play in Alaska.
“The day after the draft, I was offered $1,500 and I told them, ‘Thank you but no thank you.’ I wanted to go back and finish my senior year. I played for a great, legendary godly man, Dave ‘Boo’ Ferris. He was a great Red Sox pitcher back in ’45, ’46 and was their pitching coach in the fifties. I met with him after I turned down the Tigers and basically had a great heart-to-heart conversation before I went to the Cape Cod League and told him I wanted to come back. I had a great summer in the Cape Cod League and an outstanding senior year and was excited about the draft. I knew I was a senior and didn’t have much leverage, but I got a call from [Mets scouting director] Joe McIlvaine. It was the second day of the draft because it was the 15th round. He offered me a thousand dollars, I told him I had some school left to complete, and he came back with a whopping $500 additional bonus, so $1,500, and I was like, ‘So, that’s it.’ He said, ‘Son, do you want to play professional baseball?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir. Pack my bags right now.’ The next day I left for Shelby, North Carolina, and I met the scout who drafted me, Joe Mason, a great guy. I met him in Montgomery, Alabama, on my way to North Carolina. He claims it was some other fast food joint, but for whatever reason, I recollect Burger King. I met him at a fast food restaurant, he bought me lunch and I signed that contract, then continued on my way to North Carolina and joined the South Atlantic League team.”
Jon Matlack
First Reaction to Being Drafted by the Mets: The Mets made Matlack the fourth overall pick of the 1967 June amateur draft.
“I found out during the day. I was actually on the football field at the high school. We were practicing for our commencement, which was going to be the next day and the baseball coach came down onto the field and pulled me aside and gave me the news. I told the folks as soon as I got home. We were not a particularly outgoing group; we might’ve celebrated at home. We might’ve gone somewhere for a sandwich. It’s hard to say and I honestly don’t remember.”
First Reaction to Being Traded by the Mets: On December 8, 1977, Matlack was part of a four-team trade that sent him from the Mets to the Texas Rangers.
“Everybody said when you got to the big leagues, don’t buy a house, and for God’s sake, don’t fix it up. That’s the kiss of death. Darned, if I didn’t buy a house. We had three projects we wanted to do over a three-year period. I was literally in the basement cleaning paint brushes from completing the paint job on the screened in porch that we had added over the summer. [Mets GM] Joe McDonald called and said, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news.’ I said, ‘Oh, really. What’s that?’ He said, ‘Well, the good news is we traded for Willie Montanez.’ I said, ‘Oh, great. What’s the bad news.’ He said, ‘We traded you to get him.’ It was a shock. “I guess I had been quoted somewhere along the line about possibly wanting a trade, which was totally inaccurate. What I wanted was some action by the front office that would support our offense to support our pitching and defense, which was pretty solid at that point. I don’t know why that wasn’t forthcoming and the irony of the whole thing was that I was so ingrained in the National League and doing my thing in the National League, that if you had asked me the night I was traded to name one player on the Texas team, I could not have done it.”
Jesse Orosco
First Reaction to Being Drafted: Orosco was chosen by the St. Louis Cardinals in the seventh round of the 1977 January draft. Orosco did not sign and was chosen in the second round by the Minnesota Twins the following January.
“St. Louis offered me a chance to play. There was no money at that time and I wasn’t worried about that. I was just happy I was drafted. Then, the second year is when I said, ‘OK, maybe I have a chance,’ so I kept working harder, harder, and harder to play. I asked my coach, Rusty Fairly. I said, ‘What does it take to get to the major leagues?’ He said, ‘You know, I’ll just keep working hard and I’ll back you up and everything.’ Then, the Twins drafted me. I was at junior college, so I didn’t have an opportunity to do a three or four year, so I took that option. I said, I can’t mess around and it might be my only chance. It was great just going and we had a short spring training for about 10 days. They tried everybody out and then they sent me to Melbourne, Florida, to play out there. Then they sent me for the season to Elizabethton, Tennessee, and got my first full year of pro baseball, which was fantastic. I never played ball like that before.”
First Reaction to Being Traded to the Mets:
“I finished that season off in rookie ball. Then, the offseason, I get a call to say I was traded to the Mets and I didn’t know what to think about it. At the time, I thought I had a very good season in rookie ball. I learned later on that time that sometimes trades happen and it’s because, you know, filling in a spot for somebody else or this or that. At the time, we had a left-hander whose arm went out on him. So that’s why they wanted me for that deal. I was happy what I did with the Twins and I said, I’m going to get my chance over in New York. So, yeah, that was more than I could ask for as far as like getting an opportunity and so forth. That worked out really well.”
First Reaction to Being Traded by the Mets: On December 11, 1987, Orosco was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a three-team trade also involving the Oakland A’s.
“It looked like it was happening. Randy Myers was coming and I understood that. He was the new, young arm and he did have a great arm and a great career also. I just kind of talked to the Mets and said, ‘Do I have a choice where I wanna go?’ They go, ‘Where would you like to go?’ and I said, ‘Well, if I can go closer to home, you know, Los Angeles or somewhere out there.’ ‘OK, we’ll see what we can do.’ I get another call, not much later and Joe McIllvane was the [vice president for baseball operations] at the time and he goes, ‘We made the trade and you’re now with the LA Dodgers,’ so I was happy, very happy to be going back home. Sad to leave the Mets ’cause I had a great time. We had, pretty much a lot of the same guys for many years so that was hard, leaving there, but I was going to play with a contender and how did I know that we [the Dodgers] were going to win the [1988] World Series.”
Amos Otis
First Reaction to Being Drafted: Otis was chosen by the Red Sox in the fifth round of the 1965 amateur draft, the first baseball amateur draft in history.
“Before the 1965 draft, I was also watched by a gentleman from the San Francisco Giants. He’s what you call a ‘bird dog’ scout and he was watching me from the time I was 11 years old. I always told him I was going to be a baseball player, make it to the major leagues. I’m waiting to get drafted after those years and all of a sudden, I get a call from the Mets and I go to New York for a tryout, and it was like I was very successful. They [the Mets] told me, don’t sign with anybody. Then, the draft come along, and the Red Sox drafted me. I wanted to play baseball. Growing up in Mobile, we didn’t have a lot, family was poor, but I felt like a rich kid because I was the baby and they did everything I ever wanted, I got so. I felt like, go ahead and sign and I did. I gave the money to my parents and there was emotion, of course, you know, being drafted by the Red Sox. My opportunity to play baseball, professionally.”
First time he heard his name in trade rumors:
“The pressure was heavier. The rumors and everything was going on. Gil Hodges called me in the wintertime and said, ‘Could you play third base?’ I said, ‘Well, I started out as a shortstop and I said, ‘Sure, I could play it.’ He said, ‘If you could play third base, you could go to the big leagues,’ same year, ’69. So, in spring training, he worked with me every single day. He would hit me 150 ground balls and kept working with and working with me to where I felt comfortable, plus I had Ed Charles working with me. An ol’ veteran like Ed, he knew what he was doing. I make the team and the pressure eased up a little bit, but now I’m about to be a starting third baseman. We took a picture with the starting lineup and everybody. The pressure was still lighter. Of course, Ed Charles, Cleon, [Tommie] Agee, all those guys are telling me, just be yourself, relax because you can do it. You didn’t get here because you couldn’t fight.
“Opening Day, I didn’t start. Nobody, Gil or nobody said anything to me. I played three games at third base in Philadelphia. I got three or four hits and I never played third base again. Of course, the rumor started that I didn’t want to play third base, but that’s how I got to the big leagues, being a third baseman. My heart was in the outfield, center field, because at Triple A, that’s the position I played and I thought I played it very well. So, there were rumors circulating along and if you’re controversial, people always remember you. They don’t forget anything, so I just went along with the rumors. I say, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to play third base, I hope they trade me.’ Of course, they ended up trading me on my dad’s birthday, December 3rd, 1969. So that was like a birthday gift for him because I wasn’t playing. He said, ‘Maybe you get the opportunity to play every day over in Kansas City.”
First Reaction to Being Traded by the Mets:Otis was traded to the Kansas City Royals in 1970.
"Getting traded was unexpected. I had started to find my groove with the Mets, but Kansas City gave me the opportunity to really shine. It was a pivotal moment in my career."
Lenny Randle
First Reaction to Being Traded to the Mets: On April 26, 1977, Randle was traded from Texas to the Mets for a player to be named later (Rick Auerbach).
“[Tom] Seaver and Jerry Grote were the first ones to greet me. Grote said, ‘Leave the son of a bitch alone. You guys are driving him nuts, you writers. Henry Hecht [of the New York Post], get the hell out of the way, move,’ and I went, ‘Dang, this guy’s security? No, he’s a catcher.’ So he pushed everybody out of the way. He said, ‘Let me show you where your locker is. Here’s my cup. This is for you because I’m going to be throwing changeups and you’re going to need a big cojoney catcher, ’cause you’re going to get involved and I hope you got kids.’ I still have that cup. So I felt very welcome. Then, [Ed] Kranepool goes, ‘If there’s anything you need, you see me. I’m like the mayor.’ He opened his coat, he had 16 watches on one side, a couple of keys to cars, whatever you need. Hats, jackets, he had everything jewelry. I said, ‘Whoa, it’s Ed frickin’ Kranepool, Mr. Met, wow!’
“The fourth guy was Willie Mays. (Mays was a Mets’ coach in 1977.) [Mimics Mays’s high pitched voice] ‘You just shut your mouth up and then keep your eyes on the prize. You stay focused. If you don’t, I’m going to cut your dick off. God damn, we’re gonna look for some car, show you what you need to live, and you leave that field every day, dirty. Dirty field, dirty attitude, dirty ballplaying, you win some games. You ain’t got no dirt on your feel, on your uniform, you’re gonna see me in your locker, after the game, before the game and for the rest of your life.’ Dusty Baker had warned me that he’s a no-nonsense guy. Leave it on the field.”
Dave Schneck
First Reaction to Being Drafted:
“Back when I was in 10th grade, I was being scouted back then as a pitcher. I remember a guy from Cincinnati approached me in high school, said, ‘We want to keep an eye on you,’ blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was drafted by the Mets when I graduated and being proud of, at least, being drafted. You gotta be drafted before you go anywhere back in those days. So I was drafted 38th round. I always felt it was good enough to be there.”
Ray Searage
First Reaction to Being Drafted: Searage was drafted by the Cardinals in the 22nd round of the 1976 amateur draft.
“My dad got the phone call from [scouting supervisor] Tim Thompson and said that I was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals and that he would be coming to see me to sign a contract in about two or three days. I was sitting in my living room. We had this little bar in the living room and talking to him on the phone, my dad gave me the phone and he goes, ‘Do you want to play?’ ‘Yeah,’ [he answered with a laugh]. [Thompson] said, ‘We’re gonna offer you $3,000 and you’ll be a part of the Cardinal organization and I’ll fill in the blanks when I get there.’ It was freaky because I forget who called, what newspaper? I’m talking to them on the phone. My dad gets on the phone and they want to talk to him. My dad goes, ‘He’s got the best of both worlds. He could go play major league baseball but also finish his education in the meantime, too.’ So it was pretty cool.”
First Reaction to his Son Being Drafted : Ray’s son, Ryan, was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 18th round of the 2005 amateur draft. Ryan was an outfielder who was drafted out of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. He played two minor league seasons in the Pirates organization.
“Pretty exciting moment. Here’s my son, who’s playing baseball. He wasn’t a pitcher, but he got the chance to play professional baseball. When we found out, we went out to dinner, we celebrated that way and stuff. He had a pretty good head on his shoulders, he knew what he had to do. It wasn’t like he was starry-eyed and everything like that. He was focused on what he had to do. It’s just he had a couple of injuries that were going on with him. It was really exciting when he got drafted and you know, he hit a grand slam against Brooklyn when he was with Williamsport.”
Art Shamsky
First Reaction to Being Traded to the Mets:
“I was in shock. Anytime you get traded the first time, it’s always a shock. You’re leaving friends you grew up with. Teammates, sharing good moments, bad moments. Guys you spent time with in the minor leagues. So I was in a little bit of a shock. [Reds GM] Bob Howsam called me. I had gotten hurt that year and came home to St. Louis for the winter and had surgery on my lower back. I thought he was calling to see how I was feeling. Before he could say anything, I said, ‘Mr. Howsam, I just want to let you know I feel great. Looking forward to next year.’ I had come off a year where I was hurt a lot. The year before that, I had 20 home runs in only 230 at-bats. Really disappointed in ’67 because I didn’t have the same as I did in ’66. A lot of it had to do with staying healthy. You have to stay healthy. I was really banged up, I hurt my back. So, I was home in St. Louis, he called and he said, ‘I’m glad you’re feeling good. Just want to let you know we just traded you.’ I was in shock when you first heard those words the first time. I said, ‘Where to?’ and he said, ‘To the New York Mets.’ My first reaction was just despair because the Mets were an awful team. I didn’t really like New York; it was so big. Just kind of a tough city for me as a visiting player. He said, ‘Bing Devine is going to give you a call,’ Bing Devine was the general manager then. I knew Bing Devine as a kid growing up in St. Louis. They had scouted me and he was the general manager for a lot of years in St. Louis but he had moved over to the Mets. He did call a little while later. I was still in shock. He said, ‘We’ve been trying to make this deal for you for a while. I hope he realized I’m just smoothing this over because I saw the team they had. The usual team had lost almost a hundred games every year and finished last. He did sound optimistic and made me feel a lot better. I was really happy that he called, and I thanked him for that. I hung up the phone, feeling a little better, but still in shock. Then I picked up a paper two days later, saw that [Devine] left the Mets and came back to the Cardinals. [The trade] turned out to be the best thing that happened to my baseball career. I came over, made a lot of new friends and fell in love with the city of New York. Two years later, we win the World Series and my life changed. I’ve been in New York ever since. I spoke with Rose about this and I said, ‘Frankly, I had a chance to start my career with guys who ended up in the Big Red Machine. That would’ve been great to be a part of but I wouldn’t trade it for being part of that Met team because it was such a historical team. It was such a great story because of where we came from to become champions and how that team resonated with fans for 50 years. For me, it’s the best of both worlds. Coming up with all those great players with Cincinnati and then, being with the Mets and really being able to be part of that ’69 team.”
George Theodore
First Reaction to Being Drafted:
“At the time it wasn’t publicized so much and there wasn’t much hysteria about what’s going on. I think I found out by reading the paper that I was drafted along with two other fellows from Salt Lake City. I thought this is great. Then, I didn’t hear from anybody for a couple of weeks. I thought, maybe it didn’t happen. Finally, a ‘bird dog’ scout called me and said, ‘Are you interested in signing?’ I said, ‘Yeah, you bet I am.’ From there, the things in motion and [Mets scout] Roy Partee, he came and he signed me.”
Frank Thomas
First Reaction to Being Traded to the Mets: On November 28, 1961, the Mets acquired Thomas from Milwaukee for a player to be named later and cash. The trade was completed in May 1962 when outfielder Gus Bell was sent to the Braves.
“When I hit the fourth home run, [Braves GM John] McHale called me up to his office. He said, “We want to sign you for next year.’ I looked at him, I said, ‘John, this is June. I’ve never been signed this early in my life.’ He says, ‘Well, we want to make sure we have you for next year.’ I said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to keep my mouth shut.’ So that’s what I did.
“I never went back to him and said I was going to take it or anything else. The season ended and I was up in Milwaukee. The phone rang. It was McHale on the phone. ‘Frank,’ he says, ‘we just traded you to the New York Mets.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I almost dropped the phone because I had a chance to go to a ballclub that wasn’t doing well. I had a little bit of a disagreement with the owner, Lou Perini. He asked if I wanted to go to the Mets. I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Well, you’ve been traded. I said, ‘OK. How did the deal come about?’ He said, ‘Well, George Weiss called me from the Mets.’ He said, ‘Do you need any hitters?’ McHale said, ‘Yeah, I need a hitter.’ He said, ‘Would you be interested in Frank Thomas?’ He said, ‘Yes, I would. What do you want for him?’ He said, ‘Well, give me a minor league pitcher and $100,000.’ So McHale said, ‘OK, the deal is made.’ That was it.”
Bobby Valentine
First Reaction to Being Drafted: Valentine was chosen by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the fifth overall pick in the 1968 amateur draft.
“It was rather late at night. Fresco Thompson, the vice president of the LA Dodgers, called me. There wasn’t that much celebration. I was hoping that it would be the Yankees who had the fourth pick and they took Thurman Munson, I guess, even though that wasn’t announced on the phone call. The Dodgers were my least favorite team, as a matter of fact, so I don’t remember any celebration.”
First Reaction to Being Traded to the Mets: On June 15, 1977, the Mets acquired Valentine and Paul Siebert from the San Diego Padres in exchange for Dave Kingman.
“I had just bought a house in San Diego and was told by the general manager that I’d be with the team for a few years and it was a great place to settle down. Now it’s June 15th. I was having lunch with Billy Buckner, who was in town with the Cubs. The drapes just came in for the house and we’re figuring out putting up the drapes and the phone rang and [Padres GM] Buzzie Bavasi was on the phone. He said, ‘Hey, I know that you always wanted to play in New York, so I just made a trade and you’re in it.’ My first thought was, ‘Oh, interesting. I’ll get to play for the Yankees.’ Then he said, ‘The Mets want you to meet them,’ wherever the heck they were playing that night. So it was a confusing kind of phone call, that’s for sure. You know, I wasn’t a very good player then. My ankle was in shambles and I was a little embarrassed to think that I was being traded. I had to go and explain to another team how bad my leg was and all that stuff. So it was a bit exciting to get back home but it wasn’t the way I wanted to get back home.”
Turk Wendell
First Reaction to Being Drafted: Wendell was chosen by the Atlanta Braves in the fifth round of the 1988 amateur draft out of Quinnipiac College.
“Leading up to the draft, it was fairly chaotic and hectic with scouts at every game. My junior year at Quinnipiac, we only had three junior pitchers and we all got drafted and our first baseman got drafted. He was a senior that year, so there were a lot of scouts at the games. My coach told me at the beginning of the season, we had a kid named Dominic Rovasio who threw pretty hard. He said at the beginning of the season, all of the scouts are calling about Dom, but he goes, after three games into the season, they’re calling about you. I ended up going in the fifth round and Dom went in the 32nd and [pitcher] Brian Landy in the 42nd and our first baseman went in the 45th round [actually 22nd]. We ended up all signing and leaving so they didn’t have any senior pitchers. I thought I was going to get drafted by the Expos ’cause that scout was calling me constantly. The day before the draft, that Braves scout who signed me called. He stayed at my house for about, I don’t know, six or seven hours that day, just talking to my parents, talking to me. I remember I got so bored with the whole deal. I just went across the street to the park and played a little basketball, shot some baskets. Reality comes and I get a phone call that the Braves drafted me in the fifth round and my parents were just super excited. I remember my mom saying, ‘You don’t even seem that excited or that happy. This is what you’ve worked for.’ I said, ‘Well, this was supposed to happen.’ It wasn’t really a reality ’cause they hadn’t seen all the scouts and everything, so they thought it was a long shot I guess.”
First Reaction to Being Traded: In September 1991, Wendell was traded to the Chicago Cubs for catcher Damon Berryhill and pitcher Mike Bielecki.
“I was at Quinnipiac. We played an alumni game and I was driving in my buddy’s car when I heard on the radio that I’ve been traded. I thought, what the heck? I just had a great season, but I guess the reality of it was they basically traded two big leaguers to get me. So I thought I’m definitely going to get a chance to make it to the big leagues to play in the big leagues. They traded two big leaguers to get me.”
First Reaction to Being Traded to the New York Mets: On August 8, 1997, the Cubs traded Wendell, Brian McRae, and Mel Rojas to the Mets in exchange for Lance Johnson and two players to be named later who turned out to be pitcher Mark Clark and infielder Manny Alexander.
“There was a lot of talk in the papers that I was going to be traded. I didn’t know about the Mets. I always said I never wanted to play for New York because I’m not a Yankee fan and I don’t like big cities. Chicago is a big city, but it’s all spread out. It’s not like New York is. The baseball gods hit me in the ass. Hindsight, it was the best thing that happened to me, the best thing to happen in my career, but it was intimidating. I guess people thought that I was kind of scared to play in New York the way it might’ve come out but when I got the clubhouse, sat in my locker, I don’t know who it was but they brought over a Dalmatian dog and they said, ‘Hey, we heard you are scared so we got you a dog.’ It was our clubhouse guy, Charlie Samuels. That was his dog. That was kind of a joke. After about an hour, just sitting in the clubhouse in New York, I kind of remember like yesterday, looking around and going, Wow, I finally made it to the big leagues. It’s not a knock on the guys that I played with in Chicago or the organization itself, but they were owned by the Tribune at the time and it was a business to them. So there were no extra little perks of being a player. You got one hat to start spring training, one hat to start a season, another hat to start the All-Star break. In New York, you got any kind of dirt on your hat, you got a new one. In Chicago, you got one game jersey and two pairs of pants. One for batting practice and one for the game. If you rip them, they patched them or they sold them. In New York, we had four or five jerseys in the locker all the time. In Chicago, everybody would come off the field with maybe one or two baseballs. We’d put them in the locker so we could send a box of baseballs home that we had to throw in the wintertime. In New York, they just shipped a case of baseballs to your house.”
David Wright
First Reaction to Being Drafted: Wright was chosen by the Mets with the 38th overall pick in the 2001 amateur draft.
“It was draft day, and at the time, in Chesapeake, where I was going to high school, school was still in session. I had to go to school that day. My parents wouldn’t let me skip it anyway but I was pretty close to, obviously, graduation, be I had an exam that day. It was an anatomy and physiology exam. So I went to school, took the exam. After the exam, I’m rushing home and I missed pretty much the whole first round. Like picks one through thirty I missed. Back then it was the dial-up internet and you had to wait forever to get the connection and we’re all huddled around. I just invited, like it was some coaches that came, some close friends and family so it wasn’t like a big to-do. So I rush home and I go through the door and nobody’s like cheering me on. So I knew that I wasn’t drafted in the first round. Just then, the supplemental round has started. So it was pick thirty-one, didn’t get drafted. Thirty-two, so and so forth. Then thirty-eight, you know the way that it works. They ready your ID number, your draft ID number and they said, ‘Wright, David Allen from Hickory High School, Chesapeake, Virginia, with the New York Mets.’ It was kind of a surprise to me. Randy Milligan was my scout, who I grew up watching play for the Norfolk Tides, ‘Moose Milligan’ we used to go yell. Then, I met the crosscheckers. Gary LaRocque was the guy in charge so met [him] and sat down with him. They didn’t show a ton of interest like some of the other teams did, so it was kind of a surprise. We grew up Mets fans because of our Triple-A team [that played in Norfolk]. So like the place went nuts and it was unexpected. I know that the Braves had some interest and they had two first-round picks and they passed. Then, I knew the Rockies were interested and they were at the end of the supplemental round. I think they were pick like 40th or something like that. It was kind of a surprise to use but then we just started celebrating and just hung around the house with coaches and some teammates and close friends and family. It was kinda cool the next day at school because they announced it on the loudspeaker. One day you’re taking an anatomy and physiology test, the next day you’re a first-round pick, first draft pick of the New York.
The month of July holds a unique significance for baseball players, marking pivotal moments that can alter the course of their careers. For many, it's the beginning of a dream realized, as they are drafted and take their first steps towards the major leagues. For others, it's a time of transition, as trades can uproot them from familiar surroundings and thrust them into new opportunities and challenges. Whether starting a journey as a draft choice or navigating the uncertainties of being traded, July is a life-changing month in the world of baseball, filled with excitement, hope, and the promise of new beginnings.
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