The Mets will honor John Franco on June 3rd, making him the 26th member of the Mets Hall of Fame.
Yesterday, I put up a quick post about Franco during a few minutes I could spare during the middle of the day when I learned about the news. (You really shouldn’t be depending on me for your up-to-the-minute Mets news, but after complaining about a lack of Mets Hall of Fame inductees, I wanted to acknowledge the latest addition.)
I talked about Franco’s saves, his 14 years with the Mets, and his selection as the team captain. I did not mention any particular fond memories. I wanted to remedy that this morning, but I’m drawing a blank.
I think part of it is the teams Franco played for. Of his 14 years in a Mets uniform, I was really only paying attention to baseball for about half of them. Between the 1994 strike and the 2000 World Series, I don’t think I watched more than a couple of dozen major league baseball games. And except for the almost-but-not-quite contenders in 1990 and 2001 (and the 2000 playoffs), Franco was not playing on very good teams when I was paying attention.
Part of it is that Franco was the kind of closer who made fans (and, I’m sure, managers) crazy. He’d start an inning and put men on base, but more often than not he’d strand them there… somehow.
So I guess my favorite John Franco memory was meeting him at a Brooklyn Cyclones event a few years ago. It was great to take a photo with a former Mets captain who probably had a longer playing career in Queens than anyone other than Ed Kranepool.
So how about you… what are your memories of John Franco?
(Oh, and the spring training countdown has reached 24 days… just in case you thought I forgot 
)
I remember him coming up with the Reds. I never got the chance to meet him unfortunately.
Here’s something the Phillies did last year on Alumni night when john Kruk was elected to their Wall of Fame. Kruk signed autographs on the HOF Club level prior to the game on Alumni night. There were alumni signing throughout the park that night.
Paul will you be attending the Franco induction? I see that its on a Sunday- that just might work out for me.
I hadn’t given it much thought, but I think I was planning to go to a Trenton Thunder game that Sunday.
Sometime early in the 1984 season, I was at Shea for a game. Back then, it was pretty easy to buy Field Level box seats at the gate, albeit for seats down the foul lines. Anyway, as my friends and I waited for the game to begin, we saw a visiting player lingering near the railing between the 3B dugout and the HP backstop, well after BP had ended, and almost all players returned to their respective clubhouses. We hustled over to try and get an autograph—something, at the time, I’d never done before despite hearing guys would sometimes sign for fans.
I hustled down the aisle toward the player in the Reds uniform, who was a young guy, speaking with two young women in their twenties. My friends and I waited until their conversation was done, and then I asked the player if he’d sign for us.
“Of course,” the Red said, and he politely signed each of our programs.
We made our way back to our seats, and checked the (very legible) autograph, then the program.
“John Franco? Who the heck is he?”
“Some rookie.”
“At least we got a major leaguer’s autograph.”
Little did we know, 28 years later, John Franco would take his place among the all-time Met greats. Despite the ups and downs over the years, congratulations, Captain Johnny.
In case you were wondering, Franco is second to Kranepool in both games and years as a Met (at least based on my quick research right now).
I don’t have (m)any specific Franco memories, but I’ve always loved this image after Game 5 of the 2000 NLCS (which I attended). Franco was heading to his first (and only) World Series with the team from his hometown.
That is a great photo.
Thanks for checking the numbers – I was curious, but I didn’t really have time to do the research when I was writing that post.