Ty Wigginton Triumphantly Returns to Shea 9/7-9/9

Once upon a time (2003), when the Mets were terrible and resourceful fans could scalp the scalpers 5 minutes before gametime, we really didn't have much to look forward to at Shea. The tail end of the core that led us to the 2000 World Series was slowly proving that they had nothing left in the tank, and watching overpriced has-beens trot around the field was wearing thin. Rey Ordonez, once touted as a long-term solution at shortstop was gone. Mo Vaughn was (mercifully) gone. Fonzie and Jay Payton went on to greener pastures. The time was ripe for a new breed of Met to be brought up. Jason Phillips finished the season batting .298, and his AGP (Awesome Goggle Percentage) was a staggering 4.333 (same scoring system as OPS). And in a season where the Mets finished 66-96, Ty Wigginton led the team in at-bats (573), games played (156), hits (146), RBI's (71) total bases (227) and hustle (unofficial). He also led the team in strikeouts (124) and batted a pedestrian .255. Truth be told, any time any player is leading your team with those numbers, you know it's been a long season. (Side note, Wiggy also gave Mets fans one of the few bright spots of 2004 when he almost single-handedly decimated the Yankees going 3-4 with two HRs and a single to complete the Shea sweep of the Yankees that year). Anyway Jason was traded to the Dodgers after the 2004 season for (I believe) Jae Seo after batting .218 the prior year, and Ty was traded right before the 2004 trading deadline to the Pirates while hitting .285 and on pace to have a career year in almost every statistical category; sadly, his only crime was not being as good as David Wright('s considerable hype). Call me crazy, but to this day I cannot wholly give myself in support to D. Wright. Anyway Wiggy was traded for Kris Benson (who eventually turned into John Maine and Jorge Julio, the latter of which turned into El Duque). So you could say that Wiggy was (and still is) worth two front-of-the-rotation starters. You probably wouldn't*, but you could. Anyway as it turns out, I have tickets to the Mets/Astros game on 9/8 at Shea, AND the Dodgers/Astros game on 8/13 at the Ravine, and who turns out to be the mid-season replacement for the anemic Ensberg/Lamb combo at third? So when he's back in Flushing this September, I'll be there early to try to get him to sign my hat for a 3rd time, and hopefully he'll be remembered by the crowd, at least a little, for being a gritty, hard-nosed player, and one of the only entertaining parts (along with mercilessly booing Roger Cedeno) of what was an otherwise dismal season.


*Unless you were former Texas Rangers GM John Hart