The great relief pitcher Mike Marshall was born on this day in 1943. He is a former Cy Young Award winner with the Dodgers. He was an interesting baseball character who was a very smart, quirky guy. He has a degree in Kineselogy and use that knowledge to great effect as a player. He was mostly known for his screwball.
He did have great success over his long career including the aforementioned Cy Young Award, 3 x saves leader and 2 x all-star. He still holds the single season record for most appearances by a pitcher with 106 and most games pitched in a row with 13. He accomplished this in his Cy Young Award year when he won 15 games and saved 21.
He played for several teams with most of his success coming from the Expos and Dodgers.
He did, however, spend his final year with the Mets, compiling a 3 and 2 record with a 2.61 ERA. Very impressive.
Because of his long and successful career, Mike Marshall is today's recipient of the Baseball Birthday Quote of the Day
"What he can do with a baseball is just amazing. I don't see how anyone ever gets a hit off him.
--Camilo Pascual
Happy Birthday to former Met Mike Pelfrey, born on this day in 1984.
Pelfrey played with the Mets from 2006--2012. His best year with the Mets was 2010 when he was 15--9.
After he left the Mets as a free agent, he signed with the Twins. In 2016, he signed with the Tigers.
"Our intent was to get a guy that can go out there and give us 30 starts; give us some innings, a veteran guy that has good clubhouse makeup."
--Al Avila, on Tigers signing Pelfrey
One time Met, Kevin Mitchell was born on this day in 1962. In an understatement of immense proportion, Mitchell was a unique individual.
He was known for several things. The one most important in Mets lore, is of course, his single in Game 6 of the '86 World Series that kept the game alive for the Mets. He ultimately scored the tying run when Bob Stanley threw a wild pitch to Mookie Wilson.
After the Mets traded him, Mitchell had some terrific seasons. The most notable was his 1989 MVP season with the Giants. He hit .291 that year with 123 ribbies and 47 home runs. His career was not so successful after that and he played for several more teams. He holds the record for being the only baseball MVP to play for eight teams.
Mitchell was known to enjoy a good time off the field which led to an all-time funny quote from Lenny Dykstra
"Mitch found God in spring training. Then every night he went out looking for a Goddess."
--Lenny Dykstra, on Kevin Mitchell
Happy Birthday to former Met and Padre Cy Young Award winner Randy Jones, born on this day in 1950.
Jones spent most of his career with the Padres, notably winning the Cy Young Award in 1976 with a 22 and 14 record.
He had quite a trio of interesting years.
1974--He was 8 and 22
1975--He won 20 game and had a 2.24 ERA
1976--He was Cy Young Award winner with 22 wins.
His time with the Mets was not awe inspiring.
He was 1 and 8 in 1981 with a 4.85 ERA and in '82 he was 7 and 10 with a 4.60 ERA.
He is today's recipient of the very funny Mets Baseball Quote of the Day from one of kings of the malaprops, the late Hall of Famer Jerry Coleman who said of Jones.
"On the mound is Randy Jones, the left hander with the Karl Marx hairdo."
--Jerry Coleman
One time Met Dan Napoleon was born on this day in 1942. His tenure on the Mets was short but the baseball quote about him was classic.
Napoleon played for the Mets in 1965 and 1966. 1965 was about as bad a statistical year as you could have. In 1965 he had 97 at bats and hit .144 with seven rbi's. No wonder he only had thirty three at bats in 1966 and hit .212 with no ribbies.
Of course leave it to Casey Stengel to poke fun at the famous last name of Danny Napoleon in our Mets Baseball Birthday Quote of the Day.
"He'll be OK if he keeps his hand out of his shirt."
--Casey Stengel, talking about Dan Napoleon
Happy Birthday to former Met, Kelvin Torve, born on this day in 1960. Torve briefly played for the Twins before signing with the Mets in 1990. He hit a solid .289 for the Mets in '90 in 38 at bats. He only had 8 at bats in 1991 with no hits. He played in the Japanese league after being waived by the Mets.
We don't have any quotes about Torve, but we have hundreds of Mets quotes at www.baseballquotations.com
Happy Birthday to one time Met Ralph Terry who was born on January 9th, 1936.
He is known in baseball lore for giving up the Game 7 World Series winning home run to Bill Mazeroski in the 1960 World Series. He more than made restitution for that two years later when he was the World Series MVP and had a 2-1 record with a 1.80 ERA including winning Game 7 of the Series, 2--0. That year he also led the American League in wins with 23.
He played the last two years of his career with the Mets and never won a game. In 1966, he pitched in 11 games and was 0-1 but he did have two saves. In 1967, he pitched only 3.1 innings for the Mets and did not give up a run so in the last year of his career, he had a 0.00 ERA.
In honor of his career, he is today's Mets Baseball Birthday Quote of the Day
"Ralph had all the pitches. He had a good fastball and he had a real good breaking ball that helped make the fastball better. He had that slider and he had that change."
--Ralph Houk, talking about Ralph Terry
