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The 1976 season was a strange one for the New York Mets. Keep in mind that although Joe McDonald was the General Manager of the Mets, it was in name only, as M. Donald Grant was the man running the show and had his hands in everything.
The 1976 season actually got its start when Grant hired Joe Frazier as manager on October 3, 1975, immediately after the season had ended. The Mets had fired Yogi Berra two-thirds of the way through the 1975 season, replacing him with coach and former Mets shortstop Roy McMillan. Rather than keeping McMillan on, and giving him a chance, the Mets promoted Frazier from Tidewater to take over for the 1976 campaign. (Frazier would not get much of a chance either. Lasting only the one season and 45 games into the ’77 season.)
Then on December 12, 1975, Grant made his one big move of the off-season, basically banishing fan favorite Rusty Staub to the Detroit Tigers for an over-the-hill Mickey Lolich, the 1968 World Series hero.
Alan Karmin is an award-winning journalist and author. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and spent most of his life growing up in the New Jersey suburbs. Alan's family were avid Brooklyn Dodgers fans and when the Dodgers moved west, the Mets became the team to root for. The Mets have always been a true focal point, Alan even wrote a term paper in high school to analyze what was wrong with the Mets. While at the University of Miami, Alan honed his craft covering the, gulp, Yankees during spring trainings in Fort Lauderdale for a local NBC affiliate, as well as the Associated Press and UPI. He broadcasted baseball games for the University of Miami, and spring training games for the Baltimore Orioles and Montreal Expos. New York Mets Mania is a forum for Alan to write about his favorite team and for baseball fans to chime in and provide their thoughts and ideas about New York's Amazin' Mets.
