On the blog today, we have a 1977 "dedicated rookie" for Brooklyn-native Lee Mazzilli, who made his MLB debut with 24 games at the age of 21 in 1976 for the New York Mets:
Mazzilli
hit .195 in his short time with the parent club as a September call-up,
going 15-77 at the plate with two homers and seven runs batted in.
The "Italian Stallion" had himself quite a following back in his old neighborhood during his
first tour with the New York Mets between 1976 and 1981..
Once
Tom Seaver and Dave Kingman were shipped out Mazzilli was their star and
future, giving the Mets some solid seasons between 1977 and 1980.
The
Lincoln High School grad made his only All-Star team in 1979, arguably
his finest as a Big Leaguer when he hit .303 with 181 hits and 79 runs
batted in, all career-highs, along with 34 stolen bases and 78 runs
scored.
He would go on to put in 18 seasons as a player before
moving on to coaching, and eventually managing, which he did with the
Baltimore Orioles in 2004 and 2005.
I remember when Joe Torre
was out as Yankee manager after the 2007 season and my favorites for the
job were Mazzilli or Larry Bowa.
Anyway, by the time
Mazzilli retired as a player he finished with a .259 batting average,
with 1068 hits over 4124 at-bats in 1475 games, stealing 197 bases,
along with numerous young girls' hearts in my neighborhood!
