Is it Monday already?
On the baseball field in 1975, Mike Vail was not a dork.
Mike Vail was acquired by the Mets in a trade for the great Teodoro Martinez with the St. Louis Cardinals. Mike Vail had quite the year in 1975.
From a Mets fans perspective, 1975 was another frustrating year. Mets fans were wired a little differently back then. We had 1969 and 1973 as reference points that showed us that a poorly constructed team could be lucky enough to get hot and come from behind and compete. We still had the pitchers, we had Rusty Staub, and we thought we had hope.
But as the summer wore on, it was no shock that this wasn’t going to be a Mets year with the big Red Machine in Cincinnati and we are family in Pittsburgh. So sometime in June, or even earlier we started to hear about this kid rippin’ it up down in Tidewater. The Mets would be losing a game with maybe two hits total, and Ralph or Bob Murphy would let us know that down on the farm this kid Vail had 3 hits again.
The hype got hotter and hotter as the summer went on, with some reminders that the pitching at triple A wasn’t quite up to the big league level so calling up this Vail kid might not work out. Mike Vail went on to win the International League Player of the Year award in 1975. Although the announcers stuck to the line that we probably wouldn’t see him until September, if at all, suddenly at the end of August Mike Vail appeared in a Mets uniform.
Vail got into his first game against the Houston Astros and got a hit. He then proceeded to hit in a total of 23 straight games, setting a then Mets team record and a major league record for rookies (since broken). The fans couldn’t have been happier. A kid that actually lived up to the promise. No, on the baseball field in 1975, Mike Vail was not a dork. Mike Vail ruled.
So why are we writing about him here in the dork column (see criteria below re: Stork Theodore) ?
On the basketball court, Mike Vail was a dork.
During a winter pickup game, Mike Vail either got faked out of his shoes, or couldn’t fake left and go right, or closed his eyes to take a charge, or whatever and ended up with a dislocated foot, despite his Pro Keds, tube socks, head band and short shorts.
Not a big deal for a lot of teams, quite a big deal for the Mets.
You see bad GMing wasn’t invented over the last couple of seasons.
The front office decided that more starting pitching was needed, and they traded for the once great Mickey Lolich from the Detroit Tigers. Mickey had a great World series in 1968 winning 3 complete games and had been a steady performer. Of course, in 1975 it fell apart for Mickey and he ended up losing 18 games for a bad Tigers team. So who should the Mets trade for this aged star with an enormous pot belly? None other than Le Grande Orange, Rusty Staub. They probably thought Rusty was getting a little old and probably a little expensive, but hey with this new kid Vail what do we need Rusty for?
The trade was made and shortly thereafter Vail’s foot exploded and the rest is history.
Staub went on to have 3 consecutive years with Detroit where he had over 100 rbi.
Lolich came to the Mets in 1976 and went 8-13. He then retired after the season and opened a donut shop back in Michigan.
Vail finally came back sometime in 1976 with a noticeable limp and no speed and ended the season with a .217 average. He did a little better the next year, but was never what the Mets thought they had. He ended up leaving the Mets for Cleveland and played for 4 other teams as he ended up becoming a baseball dork also.
That’s it kids. Look forward to more remembrances from Bossman Senior right here.
Visit Oh Murph! for more…
12 Responses to “Dork Column of The Week: Mike Vail”
Leave a Reply
- The Charges against Omar Minaya
- Lohan to Murphy: “Lets rehab together”
- Photo: Mets Reaction to Frankie Punching Out His Pops in Law
- Kyle Singh has Beef with SNY
- Takahashi: 6IP 7H 1ER 10K $3000 in Car Damage
- Amare Stoudemire: New Yid On The Block
- Murph’s Corner Bar: George’s Seats, Almost.
- Daniel Murphy: Another Dimension
- Murph’s Corner Bar: Famous Lenny’s
- Bits and Pieces
- Caption THIS: A Helpful Hand
- Murphy to become Ike’s “Shabbos Goy”
- Oh Murph! Productions Presents: CAST AWAY
- Murph Ready?
- White guy is like older brother to other white guy
- Amazin’ Avenue
- Big Red Couch Web Design
- Chicago Mets Fan
- Citi Field Of Dreams
- Daily Stache
- Disgruntled Mets Fan
- Fightin Phillies
- Flushing Faithful
- Holy Land Hardball
- Hot Stove New York
- How Bout Them Mets
- Kranepool Society
- Locker Room Press
- Loge 13
- Long Island Met Fan
- Mets 411
- Mets Are Better Than Sex
- Mets Ballers
- Mets Blog
- Mets Forum
- Mets Grrl
- Mets Merized
- Mets Obsessed
- Mets Rant
- Mets Underground
- Mets Walk-Offs
- Metsopolis
- Murphandise
- My Summer Family
- NL East Chatter
- NY Baseball Digest
- On The Black
- Pessimets
- Points in Case
- Section 518
- Take The 7 Train
- The Real Dirty Mets Blog
- True Rivalry
I remember the mid 1970’s era Mets very well. My dad always took me the see the Phillies vs. The Mets in Philly in the 70’s. I remember my favorites back then. Jon Matlack and of course Tom ‘Terrific’ Seaver. I remember Cleon Jones, and Rusty Staub and what a great rivalry it was back then. People were a lot more friendly then, they didn’t fight in stands and stuff like that.
This was baseball, and it was indeed a very different era of no computers, no cell phones, and yes no internet. Yeah today’s stars make millions, and we pay great sums to see them in today’s market, but I’ll take 70’s baseball and the era anytime it was sort of a kinder era in some ways.
I remember those days well. The trade for Lolich was not because they thought they needed more pitching (which, of course, as we all know is always true), but rather because M. Donald Grant, the cheapskate president, didn’t want to pay Rusty and ran him out of town, although less publicly than they ran Tom Seaver out of town. Certainly all the papers knew and wrote about it at the time. One of the worst trades ever for a team that has a history of really bad trades.
When they traded Staub for Lolich, my other friends in high school who were Mets fans and I had a collective groan. We had seen if before when they traded Ryan, Otis and others for the likes of Joe Foy and Jig Fregosi. What we did not know was how we would keep seeing it again. Mike Vail blowing out his ankle was just an example of how the Mets would make a poor decision and have it followed by bad luck. Planning on him being the big bat was much like planning on Daniel Murphy as your opening day left fielder last year. That bad decision was followed by the rest of the team being injured around him as the left field experiment failed. Of course you could say he was the big bat, his 12 homers led the Mets!
What a shame that happened to Vail. Was he a high draft pick?
In any event, put him the category of failed Mets minor leaguers who never made it.
Shawn Abner
David West
Alex Escobar …, etc.
One thing that is missing from this report is that The Mets traded Rusty Staub because he refused to go on The Mets trip to Japan after the 1974 season. Every player that did not go on that trip was quickly traded away. Rusty was traded the next year. Rusty said that he couldn’t go because he had to run his restaurant in NYC. Yes The Mets were cheap then, but that was not the only reason for the trade. I’d say it was more from incompetence.
Mike Vail WAS a dork when it came to throwing the baseball. “He has a strong but inaccurate arm” Bob Murphy would kindly say. I remember him throwing the ball over people’s heads lots of times.
I went to one game Mickey Lolich pitched in 1976. He gave up two homers to Pitcher Larry Christenson of the Phillies.
And Seaver? He signed a 5 year contract at the highest salary in baseball at the time, $250,000 a year. Then free agency happened, salaries went through the roof, and Tommie wanted to renegotiate. Sorry The Mets said, you signed a contract. Tommie said if you won’t renegotiate, then trade me, and when The Mets pulled the trigger, Tommie cried. Note Seaver’s WS record:4 World Series starts…1 win 2 losses.
As I recall, Staub was traded duriing the Winter Meetings. The quote in Baseball Digest, by the brilliant GM of the Mets at the time, Joe McDonald, as to why the Mets traded Rusty was
“Mike Vail might hit .350 and Mickey Lolich might win 20 games.” Unbelievable. Keep in mind that the Mets already had a rotation of Seaver, Koosman and Matlack.
A few more things about 1975, it was Dave Kingman’s first year as a Met and he tore things up through June, actually on a pace to hit well over 50 if not 60 homers. He got hurt, wasn’t out for long but lost his home run stroke.
Seaver had an unbelievable season winning the Cy Young.
Seaver, Vail, Kingman and Staub made you think that maybe next year would be our year and then, the trade happened. On my birthday no less. Staub for Lolich. I was 10 and knew it was a horrible trade.
I did see Lolich pitch a great game in 1976, but for the most part he was terrible.
1. The ‘69 Mets in NO WAY could be construed as a “reference point” for a “poorly constructed” team. It was the prototype for what the Mets need to strive for, especially at Citi Field: good pitching and defense. Were you alive then or do you have any appreciation of the ‘69 Mets?
2. Seaver was not fantastic in the post-season, but he did pitch well. This is not example of a pitcher not pitching well, but rather that he did not pitch up to a George Thomas Seaver standard.
Good article. Lolich hated New York so much he sat out the 77 season and signed with san diego the year after. Trading Rusty for this donut man after a 105 rbi season was pretty dumb. It wasnt a salary dump as lolich was making good money at the time. There was a big dropoff after the big 3 pitchers for the Mets in case anybody has forgotten Randy Tate, Hank Webb and company. Losing George Stone was a huge blow to the organization and they panicked as they always do.
Gday! Great concept, but can this really function?
Hey Phung,
If by function you mean give me cancer then no, it can not function.
MikeVail’s late 1975 debut gave the Mets the luxury to trade RustyStaub.But to have settled on MickeyLolich?The Mets couldn’t have anticipated Vail’s ankle,but MDonaldGrant would’ve had to be blind not to notice Lolich’s stomach!