Growing up in New Jersey, summertime for Al Leiter was, as he places it, “WOR, Bob Murphy, Lindsay Nelson and Ralph Kiner.” Leiter has imprecise reminiscences of 1969, when he was almost 4 years previous and the Mets made a magical run to an unbelievable World Series title:
“Black-and-white TV, upstairs at a house in Pine Beach, my older brothers and my dad, all excited when they won.”
Tom Seaver, after all, “walked on water, as far as the Leiter family was concerned,” he provides. In 1973, when the Mets made their subsequent journey to the World Series, Leiter was seven and “in the sweet spot of being a young boy, loving baseball,” he says.
No surprise Leiter, now 57, describes himself as a Mets fan “at birth.” Lucky for him, he finally received an opportunity to pitch for the workforce he swooned over as a child and he was so good at it he’s headed to the Mets Hall of Fame. Leiter can be honored Saturday at Citi Field together with Howard Johnson and broadcasters Gary Cohen and Howie Rose.
Leiter, no shock, is thrilled to be acknowledged. “Ya think?” he says, laughing.
“I believe this: It’s always in that innocent heart of every Major Leaguer — once you sign professionally, you know it’s a job. But deep in your baseball soul, you have an affinity for the team you rooted for as a little boy.”
Really, Leiter did extra than simply pitch for the Mets — he was an affable star in Queens, one who lifted up teammates and followers and helped gas the most effective eras in membership historical past. Leiter, who arrived in a Feb. 6, 1998 commerce with the Marlins, was an enormous a part of the Mets return to the MLB postseason in 1999-2000 after the post-Nineteen Eighties drought.
“Short of winning a World Series, it’s the best seven years of my baseball life,” says Leiter, who did win the Fall Classic with the 1993 Blue Jays and 1997 Marlins. When it resulted in 2004, he was upset.
Still, his identify is all around the Mets’ file books — he’s nonetheless sixth in wins and solely Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden, Sid Fernandez and Ron Darling made extra begins in Flushing. Leiter, who was 95-67 with a 3.42 ERA with the Mets, is one among solely 9 Met pitchers with greater than 1,000 strikeouts.
He additionally authored the most effective big-money pitching performances in membership historical past, fairly an announcement contemplating the Mets’ pitching bloodlines. In 1999, Leiter threw a two-hit shutout in Cincinnati in a tie-breaker recreation for the National League Wild Card berth, sending the Mets to the playoffs for the primary time since 1988. When followers method him, he says, it’s the sport they point out most.
“It was just masterful to watch him carve up the Reds,” remembers reliever Turk Wendell. “Me, Johnny Franco, Dennis Cook, we were sitting in the bullpen saying, ‘We getting in this game?’ We were on call, but chilling out. That was an awesome performance.”
Leiter all the time embraced his internal Mets-ness — he cherished assembly former Mets and was a mentor to youthful teammates. He soaked up knowledge from Sandy Koufax, the Hall-of-Famer who grew up in Brooklyn with ex-Mets proprietor Fred Wilpon. Leiter nonetheless cherishes the day Wilpon gave him Koufax’s cellular phone quantity.
Leiter particularly cherished moments with Seaver, a Mets broadcaster from 1999-2005. Leiter would hunt down The Franchise on the workforce airplane to speak pitching whereas sipping wine from Seaver’s winery.
They even had a ritual of types: Seaver would pluck the opponents’ lineup card from the again pocket of Leiter’s uniform pants on the times Leiter pitched. Then he’d go down the batting order with concepts: “The fifth inning on, he won’t beat me and he won’t beat me. Then he’d do the seventh inning,” Leiter says. “They were small, simple conversations that made sense.”
When the Mets strived to supply consolation or distraction to the households of Sept. 11 victims, Leiter was amongst these on the forefront. “Al has a great way of looking into someone’s eyes when talking to them,” says former Mets supervisor Bobby Valentine. “You feel like he’s looking right into your brain or soul. He was able to show the compassion that was needed in a very sincere way.”
On the mound, Leiter exhibited a repertoire of quirks. He’d chomp on his glove or stomp round, his feelings oozing from each pore. Those, alongside along with his hitting — Leiter had a lifetime common of .085 — nonetheless make teammates chuckle.
“Everyone says you’re supposed to control your emotions; Al allowed his to propel him forward,” Valentine says. “I appreciated that.”
Says Leiter: “When you’re so locked in, you really lose yourself and you don’t care what it might look like. I guess I did some goofy stuff.”
All of the above may be fodder when he’s launched Saturday. Franco is dealing with that. Leiter is the godfather to Franco’s youngest daughter and the 2 former Mets are longtime buddies.
“Al,” Franco says, “is a guy you want in a foxhole with you.”
A phrase of recommendation to his teammates, although: Beware Leiter’s celebratory hugs.
“Al doesn’t know his own strength,” jokes former teammate Todd Zeile. “He’s just so strong and has no idea he’s crushing your body. And he’s got passion to go with it. It’s very unique to Al. It’s an Al-type of embrace.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com