Mazzilli, Valentine enshrined in Mets Hall of Fame

NEW YORK (AP) — Lee Mazzilli and Bobby Valentine, longtime friends, former roommates and New York Mets teammates who represent two different eras of the franchise, were still finishing each other’s sentences when they were inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame before Saturday’s game against the Miami Marlins.

“When we were rooming together, we couldn’t imagine us sitting in the room at nighttime and saying …” Mazzilli said before Valentine interrupted him.

“Because we never sat in the room at nighttime,” Valentine said with a laugh.

“Fifty years from now, we’re going to be in the Mets Hall of Fame?” Mazzilli finished. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Mazzilli, a Brooklyn native selected by the Mets in the first round of the 1973 draft, was a backup outfielder on the 1986 World Series winners — nearly a decade after he was one of the club’s few attractions in the post-Tom Seaver era.

The switch hitter batted .277 with 53 homers, 262 RBIs and 117 stolen bases from 1977 through 1980 while playing for New York, which averaged 97 losses per season.

He became the first Mets player to homer in the All-Star Game when he hit the tying shot in the eighth inning of the 1979 Midsummer Classic — when Mazzilli also worked the tie-breaking bases loaded walk an inning later in the National League’s 7-6 victory.

“The lean years of the ‘70s — I look back at it, but for me, they were special,” said the 71-year-old Mazzilli. “This was where I was born and raised. Play in your backyard, it meant a lot.”

Valentine, 76, was part of the Mets’ ill-fated pivot to rebuilding on June 15, 1977, when the utility man was acquired from the San Diego Padres for slugger Dave Kingman and Seaver was dealt to the Cincinnati Reds.

Valentine, struggling to recover from the broken leg he suffered in 1973, batted .222 in 111 games for the Mets before making a far bigger impact on the team as its charismatic manager from August 1996 through 2002.

The native of nearby Stamford, Connecticut, directed the Mets to their first back-to-back playoff appearances in 1999 and 2000 and to the World Series in 2000, where they fell to the crosstown Yankees in five games.

“To do a couple of playoffs and light this city on fire — how lucky was I?” Valentine said.

Valentine’s leadership was most vividly displayed during challenging times on — and especially off — the field.

His most famous baseball moment was on June 9, 1999, when he returned to the dugout in a hat, sunglasses and a mustache made out of eye black after being ejected in the 12th inning against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Mets won 5-4 in 14 innings — the fourth win in a season-saving 40-15 surge that began immediately after general manager Steve Phillips fired three of Valentine’s coaches.

“I ought to be remembered as the guy who shared — the guy who tried to understand his players and give everything I have to them,” Valentine said. “And then I wanted to have the people who were paying (for) tickets to come to the show kind of appreciate the product, you know?”

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Valentine was also at the forefront of the Mets’ community work following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when he worked around the clock as Shea Stadium turned into a staging area for relief efforts.

“To be unified in an effort to bring the city back and by God we did it,” Valentine said. “How lucky am I to be a part of all that?”

The Mets also honored late team photographer Marc Levine, who died in July 2024, with the club’s Hall of Fame achievement award. John Ricco, a longtime front office employee, presented a mosaic made up of pictures taken by Levine to his widow, Stephanie, and daughter, Samantha.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb