Remember1969: Who Won? The ultimate posting of the series - `1962

Mets Trades through the years:  Who won?

First Comments:   The last articles of the series.   I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed putting it together.   It has been both sentimental and educational for me.   I have learned a lot just by my habit of linking all players to their Baseball Reference pages.  That has led to a lot of hours of going into different rabbit holes and finding interesting stories.  Many times I have actually looked at Wikipedia pages of the players.   

Now for the trades:  October 1961 through November 1962

Notes:  This first trade in history is one of the most interesting.   It was listed on the sheet as: 

(1)  New York Mets traded Gus Bell to the Milwaukee Braves for Frank Thomas  (Nov 28, 1961)

But to be more accurate, it should be written like: 

(1)  Milwaukee Braves traded Frank Thomas and a player to be named later for a player to be named later and cash.    

It is unclear when the (or how much) cash changed  hands, but the remainder of the trade was Gus Bell going to the Braves and Rick Herrscher coming to the Mets on May 21, 1962.   As Hobie accurately noted  in the comment on Tuesday, both Bell and Thomas were in the Mets first-ever open day line-up, even if they were traded for each other.    I wonder if there might have been a different PTBNL if Bell hadn't gone 15 for 101 (.149) with a .198 slugging percentage in his 30 games with the Mets.   He went on to have four times the hits in just over twice the at-bats with the Braves that year.  

The rest of the list: 

(2)  New York Mets traded Lee Walls to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Charlie Neal and Willard Hunter  (Dec 15, 1961)

 (3)  New York Mets traded Bobby Gene Smith to the Chicago Cubs for Sammy Taylor   (Apr 26, 1962)

 (4)  New York Mets traded Don Zimmer to the Cincinnati Reds for Bob Miller and Cliff Cook  (May 6, 1962)

 (5)  New York Mets traded Jim Marshall to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Vinegar Bend Mizell  (May 6, 1962)

 (6)  New York Mets traded Hobie Landrith to the Baltimore Orioles for Marv Throneberry   (May 9, 1962)

Trivia:   Lee Walls (trade 2) was drafted from the Phillies in the expansion draft and never played for the Mets.  He was however, linked as he had been part of a trade two years earlier for Frank Thomas.   

If you think Bell got off to a bad start with the Mets, "Popeye" Zimmer was worse:  4 for 52 for a BA of .077 and slugging of .096.   He did draw three walks to raise the OBP up to .127.   

The players in trades 4 and 5 both went on to become major league managers.  

You don't get names like those in trades 3 and 5 any more .. Bobby Gene and Vinegar Bend are handles of the past.   

The Bob Miller obtained for Zimmer in trade 3 was a different Bob Miller than the one drafted in the expansion draft that was discussed in the trade article the other day.    Both Bob Millers pitched in 1962.   

A couple interesting reads are the Wikipedia pages for the other Bob Miller (the one that pitched until 1974) and also for Vinegar Bend Mizell.     Vinegar Bend's actual first name was Wilmer, becoming the first Wilmer to play for the Mets, long before the more famous Wilmer "I don't want to be traded" Flores. 

As far as the Who Won question for 1962, the Mets won hands down.  By my count they were 3 - 0 - 3 with trades 1, 2, and 6 being the definite winners.  The others were all inconcequential.   Throneberry became a legend, although not many back-up catchers can boast the .811 OPS that Landrith produced in his small sample size time with the Mets.  (23 games and just 45 at bats).

Final Thoughts:   It's been fun for the last couple months.  I hope to do a wrap-up article early next week with some final trade trivia, then move on to other topics.