GaryMrMets
03-16-2007, 11:05 PM
http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070315&content_id=1844942&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym
Linked to the genesis: Julio Franco is, of course, baseball's Met-husela, 48 years old and intent on playing when he's 50. He broke in in 1982, before Wright was born. Although he wasn't there for professional baseball's debut, the Mets' 2007 media guide does link Franco to the game's roots.
It notes that the first Major League game was a National Association meeting of the Cleveland Forest Cities and the Fort Wayne Kegionas, May 4, 1871, and that Deacon White of Cleveland had the first hit.
White eventually played with Detriot Wolverines and a fellow named Sam Thompson, who played with Charley O'Leary and the Detroit Tigers in 1908. O'Leary played for the St. Louis Browns in 1934, and Bobo Newsome pitched for the Browns that year.
Thirteen years later, one of Newsome's teammates with the Yankees was a rookie catcher, one Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra, who, in 1965, took his final nine at-bats in the big leagues with the Mets. One of those Mets was a left-handed rookie pitcher named Tug McGraw, who was pitching for the Phillies in 1982, when a rookie shortstop made his debut against the Cardinals on April 23.
That shortstop -- who singled in his first at-bat, against Bob Forsch -- was Franco.
Seven players and 136 years make the six degrees of Julio. Eat your heart out, Kevin Bacon.
Linked to the genesis: Julio Franco is, of course, baseball's Met-husela, 48 years old and intent on playing when he's 50. He broke in in 1982, before Wright was born. Although he wasn't there for professional baseball's debut, the Mets' 2007 media guide does link Franco to the game's roots.
It notes that the first Major League game was a National Association meeting of the Cleveland Forest Cities and the Fort Wayne Kegionas, May 4, 1871, and that Deacon White of Cleveland had the first hit.
White eventually played with Detriot Wolverines and a fellow named Sam Thompson, who played with Charley O'Leary and the Detroit Tigers in 1908. O'Leary played for the St. Louis Browns in 1934, and Bobo Newsome pitched for the Browns that year.
Thirteen years later, one of Newsome's teammates with the Yankees was a rookie catcher, one Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra, who, in 1965, took his final nine at-bats in the big leagues with the Mets. One of those Mets was a left-handed rookie pitcher named Tug McGraw, who was pitching for the Phillies in 1982, when a rookie shortstop made his debut against the Cardinals on April 23.
That shortstop -- who singled in his first at-bat, against Bob Forsch -- was Franco.
Seven players and 136 years make the six degrees of Julio. Eat your heart out, Kevin Bacon.