INSTRUCTIONS TO TEAMS:  KEEP YOUR SUPERSTARS' PATH ON MEMORY LANE

This offseason, I kept rooting for the Yankees to retain Aaron Judge and sign him until his presumable retirement year, which his 9-year deal could conceivably do.  Of course, as everyone knows, he had just won the American League's MVP Award with all first-place votes!  He also broke the American League record with Homers at 62 - which some (including me) feel is the new record for ALL of baseball (for those who disqualify the obvious steroid-aided hitters).  In either case, another reason why I wanted Judge to be re-signed by the Yankees was because I love having our superstars, All-Stars or future Hall of Famers stay on the Yankees for their whole career.  If they're still producing to any respectable level, it's the right thing to do for both parties and the fans.

Many of us who rooted for the Yankees were spoiled from the late 90s team with the likes of Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, and Hall of Famer Derek Jeter and, of course, our unanimously-voted Hall of Famer, Mariano Rivera.  Each of them were drafted by the Yankees and worked their way from our farm system to our team and, ultimately, through their retired days in baseball, wearing only the Yankees' pinstripes throughout each of those years.  Even someone who will never make the Hall of Fame but was a very good player, Brett Gardner, remained a Yankee throughout his career.  Most of us appreciated his grit and his contribution to our last championship team in 2009.

To demonstrate how rare it is to have one player remain on one team throughout their career, let's look at the Hall of Fame.  Based on recent conditions, only 54 players who were inducted into the Hall of Fame out of 234 played for only one team.  They include such greats as Chipper Jones; Edgar Martinez; Cal Ripken, Jr.; Ted Williams; Brooks Robinson; Sandy Koufax; Walter Johnson; Tony Gwynn; Jackie Robinson; Mike Schmidt; Al Kaline; Johnny Bench; Roberto Clemente; Craig Biggio; Bob Gibson; Stan Musial; Carl Yastrzemski; and some other Yankees including Lou Gehrig; Earle Combs; Bill Dickey; Phil Rizzuto; Mickey Mantle; Joe DiMaggio; and Whitey Ford.

Besides Judge, there are a few players from other teams who have played for only one team (so far) and are former All-Stars.  Some of them include Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers), Adam Wainwright (Cardinals), Joey Votto (Reds), Stephen Strasburg (Nationals), and Mike Trout (Angels).

I gave you a list of Yankees and even some players from other teams who remained in one uniform.  If you didn't notice, NONE of them were from the Mets!

While the pending re-signing of Judge was happening recently, our crosstown rivals, the NY Mets, had 2 players who were with them during their whole careers pending free agency:  Jacob deGrom and Brandon Nimmo.  Although I'm certainly not a Mets' fan, I was glad they re-signed one of their own, Brandon Nimmo.  Prior to that, I thought it was a disgrace for them to have not competed heavily for deGrom!  After all, he was clearly their best superstar over the past few years.  He also showed something I rarely see from the Mets, class!  Yes, he was a quiet type of guy, but he never showed up his competitors.  I've watched many Mets' games in my life and deGrom was certainly no Matt Harvey or Noah Syndergaard - thank God!!  Even during the period whereby Harvey & Syndergaard were demonstrating good numbers, "they" were the ones who got all of the hoopla from the Mets' organization, gaining nicknames and related promotions to their designated merchandise while deGrom stood in the shadows.  Yet, it was clear not too long thereafter that it was deGrom who was, by far, the best of the three!  

Recently, many from WFAN and the media began crucifying deGrom's injuries as a major factor and cited that it was becoming way too concerning.  They also claimed that deGrom did not want to stay with the Mets and that he was not in love with NY.  The latter may have been true, but why in hell should he have tried hard to stay with them?  After all, they kept ignoring him from the beginning, gave him inconsistent medical support, treated him as their third best starting pitcher for years, didn't sign him at the time he looked for a contract (prior to free agency), etc.  They, instead, saw nothing wrong with signing an almost-40-year-old pitcher (Verlander) from another team for 2 years in place of signing their own best starter, deGrom, to a 5-year deal, which would have ended with deGrom at a younger age than Verlander will be at the end of his contract.  Admittedly, Verlander just won a Cy Young, but deGrom was no slouch!  Plus, deGrom, as one of their own, deserved more than an outsider.  This man won his own Cy Young a few years ago without any run support from his team!  Thankfully, I heard 2 folks (Chris "Big Mac" McMonigle and Tommy Lugauer) from WFAN who voiced similar opinions to what I've been saying.  'm glad somebody in the media spoke up for deGrom.  Time will soon tell how healthy he will be for the Texas Rangers.

To further my point regarding the Mets' failures, in 1971, the NY Mets traded away Nolan Ryan.  Ironically, the pitcher with the most no-hitters (7) never threw one for his original team, the Mets.  In fact, until their supposed first no-hitter in 2012 by Johan Santana, they had none which meant that they played over 50 years without having their own - a MLB record for a team at that time.

{Of course, on a separate note, I must also mention that even that long-awaited no-hitter was questionable.  There was a controversial hit ball against Santana by none other than Carlos Beltran (a Cardinal at that time).  The ball happened to hit the chalk line which was not called a "hit", but should have, per baseball's rules.  Since it happened prior to the enacted allowance of replay usage, and since the umpires failed to examine the chalk line, the ball remained to being called a foul ball.}

Going back to my point of the Met's failures to retain players from beginning to end: in 1977, the NY Mets traded their "Franchise" player, Tom Seaver!  How on earth do you call him your Franchise, but you don't keep him within the Franchise?  Only the Mets do these extremely non-sensible things.  Tom Seaver (a part-time Met) and Mike Piazza (a part-time Met) remain as the only Mets to be inducted into the Hall of Fame with a Mets' designation.

Technically, a Mets' fan could point to David Wright.  It would be the only argument that could be had.  Their former Captain unfortunately had his career ended by a major back injury.  Don Mattingly had a similar back injury which ended his career, too.  We can only assume that they could have ended their careers in one uniform.  Worse than that was the instance of Thurman Munson, who tragically died in a plane crash a few years before his potential career-ending contract would have reached its ending term.

Besides that one "potential" case, I dare any Mets' fan to name any superstar player on their team that officially played their whole career in a Mets' uniform until retirement.  As I think even further (not something anyone ever wants me to do), I can name a few more of their drafted players who each showed greatness or at least very high skills, but they also left the Mets (or the Mets left them).  In fact, several of them ended up on the Yankees including Lee Mazzilli, Darryl Strawberry, and Doc Gooden.  Moreover, even one of their other very good pitchers from their 1969 championship team did not retire a Met - Jerry Koosman.  After all of these years, why haven't the Mets' fans made a fuss about this disservice of their end-of-service disgrace?

So, yes, I believe retaining some of the original drafted players is something each team should try to offer more effort towards.  Good job, Mets, for at least doing that for Nimmo; bad job for all of the other above average players you failed to keep.  Great job, Yankees, for retaining Judge and, by the way, for making him a Captain.  He clearly earned the opportunity to stay with us and to lead us!

Thanks.