Mets Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing #17: Rookie Promise to What-If: How a Basketball Injury Altered Mike Vail’s Career

Welcome to the seventeenth installment of Mets Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing, where we dig through the cobwebbed corners of Mets history like we’re trying to find that one last Kellogg’s 3D Super Stars card to complete the set. These are the guys who didn’t get monuments or memoirs—but for a flash of brilliance, a hot streak, or a very Mets moment, they were ours.

Last week, we celebrated Rod Kanehl, the original everyman Met who may have literally run through a wall. This week, we fast-forward to 1975, to the tale of a guy who showed up, set Shea on fire, and then—just as quickly—vanished into the fog of unmet expectations and unfortunate injuries.

Let’s talk about Mike Vail.

He had the bat. He had the build. He had the feathered ’70s hair that could’ve gotten him cast in a CHiPs spinoff—which, reluctantly, reminds me of that photo of Mike and a 15-year-old me in 1975. I'm hesitant to share it, but my dedication to giving our readers a good laugh outweighs my embarrassment at my complete lack of 70s cool. Let’s just say one of us looked like a future big leaguer… and the other looked like Donny Osmond’s third cousin, twice removed.

Vail arrived in a trade with the Cardinals in July of 1974, sent over with Jack Heidemann, whose name sounds like he should be managing a hardware store in Massapequa for Teddy Martinez. Vail, came with buzz. He tore up Triple-A in ’75—batting .342 with 15 homers in 111 games for Tidewater—and by late August, the Mets had seen enough. They called him up.

And boy, did he deliver.

In his first game, he laced a pinch-hit single. Then he kept hitting. And hitting. And hitting. He hit in 23 straight games, breaking the modern-day rookie record at the time. Shea Stadium started to buzz every time he stepped to the plate. By the end of the season, he’d played just 38 games—but batted .302 with 3 homers and 17 RBIs. Mets fans, always looking for salvation, began whispering the name “Mike Vail” like it was a secret password to the postseason.

He had that sweet, compact swing. The easy power to right. And he looked, for all the world, like the next cornerstone outfielder in Flushing.

While Mike Vail never quite became the middle-of-the-order star the Mets hoped for after his dazzling 23-game hit streak in 1975, he still had a few Met moments worth remembering — especially with the long ball. He hit three home runs in a span of just eight days in September ’75, including one off the red-hot rookie John Candelaria, and followed that up with eight more dingers in 1977, two of them against future Hall of Famer Jim Kaat. Vail seemed to specialize in lefty-lifting: he went 7-for-11 with two homers and 8 RBIs off Kaat during his career. He also mashed Doug Rau, Enrique Romo, and Will McEnaney, and posted a 1.182 OPS or better against each of them. Vail wasn’t choosy — just productive, if you threw from the left side.

And then, in classic Mets fashion… winter arrived. Literally.

During the offseason, Mike Vail decided to play some pick-up basketball. Maybe to stay in shape. Maybe because he had five bucks riding on a game of HORSE. Whatever the reason, he dislocated his foot, tore some ligaments, and just like that, his career trajectory went from “rising star” to “medical mystery.”

He missed most of the 1976 season and never really looked the same again. The bat slowed. The hype cooled. The Mets cooled even faster. By 1977, Vail was playing behind guys like Lee Mazzilli and Joel Youngblood, and he was shipped off to Cleveland after the season as part of a six-player deal that also included the immortal Paul Siebert.

But Mike Vail didn’t fade away entirely. He carved out a respectable journeyman career, playing for the Cubs, Reds, Expos, Giants, and Dodgers. He hit .290 in 1980 for the Cubs. He played in 10 major league seasons overall. But he never again hit with the promise or the electricity he brought to Queens in those heady late-summer nights of ‘75.

And yet, for those who were watching, we remember.

We remember the streak. We remember the buzz. We remember the kid who looked like a star, played like a star, and then vanished like a magic trick in a Members Only jacket.

Mike Vail isn’t on the Citi Field outfield wall. He’s not showing up in anniversary highlight reels. But he gave Mets fans something we’re always desperate for: hope. For a few weeks in ’75, he made the future seem bright. He gave us a reason to watch when the team was otherwise sputtering. He made you believe in tomorrow’s lineup card.

So here’s to Mike Vail—the rookie who roared, the streak that shimmered, and the Forgotten Face of Flushing who proved, once again, that in Metsland, the brightest stars sometimes burn out the fastest.