Customer Reviews

Double Blackjack: The Best and Worst Deals made by the New York Mets in their years of existence

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful book written by Liebenthal and very detailed. What else can you say about the Mets for the past 43 seasons you come to suspect the worst from this team from the Ryan-Fregosi deal to the Kazmir-Zambrano trade? This book although short and just gives a lot what of "what ifs" what if the Mets never traded for Nolan Ryan for Fregosi or Amos Otis for Joe Foy; Who??, or have given Seaver the proper contract he deserved or trade Staub, McGraw? The list goes on and on about bad trades and also the bad free agent signings like, Vince Coleman, Bobby Bonilla (Biggest Bust ever) you can throw in the Brett Saberhagen deal in there too; despite a 14-4 start to the strike season of '94. The worst trade was the Juan Samuel trade to the Mets for Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell. (Definitely a killer move there) Also another bad move for the Mets was not giving Strawberry a contract to keep him as a Met instead he went on to sign with the LA Dodgers and went on to ruin his career with altercations with drugs and alcohol and spousal abuse. Liebenthal doesn't talk much about the brutal moves that Steve Phillips made with Mo Vaughn and Roberto Alomar (which at the time was a no brainer until his hall of fame credibility was almost shattered in NY with his shoddy defense and lackluster 240 batting average that they had no choice but to trade him to the White Sox so at least he would have retained some of that hall of fame status that he was when he played in a bandbox like Camden yards and Jacobs Field. Just imagine what Alomar's career would be like if he played mostly at a ballpark that was similar to Shea stadium. I guarantee that his career statistics would be a lot less attractive and he would've been one of those players that come and go. Liebentahl also talks about the great moves the Mets have made throughout the years of existence, like bringing in Gil Hodges to manage the Mets in 1968, the Tom Seaver move which only worked because Atlanta at the time violate a rule, which stated that no team was aloud to sign players still playing for a collegiate team at the time. So it came down to three teams Mets, Phillies and the Cardinals all put in a hat and Seaver pulled out the paper and it said Mets and the rest is history. Signing Jerry Koosman who was later trade to Minnesota in exchange for a youngster name Jesse Orosco, who later on became a big part of the Mets 1986 World Championship team. Also moves that brought in Rusty Staub and even though he was at the tail end of his career, Willie Mays. Liebenthal also talks about the great moves the Mets made bring in Keith Hernandez to the Mets from St. Louis and sending Neil Allen in return. Moves like drafting Strawberry and Gooden. The trade that sent Hubie Brooks, Floyd Youmanns to the Montreal Expos for catcher Gary Carter in the winter of 1984.Trading for Bobby Ojeda and Ron Darling. The list goes on and on. This book written by Liebenthal would intrigue any Met fan who is interested in wanting to know what the franchise was like from birth to its glory year of '69 and '86 to the most dismal years of the late '70's to early '80's and the early to mid '90's.

I was highly anticipating reading this book, but found that it fell flat at only 94 pages. The author, in his introduction, states that he's going to write about the 21 best and worst deals the Mets had made. In his conclusion, he said he took poetic license and limited it to 18. Well, if you took each chapter by themselves and totaled them up, there are 32 total deals. The author says 18 because the chapters are essentially broken up. Chapter #1 is a high quality move, and what would be chapter #2 is really called low quality move #1.

Now, I just mentioned high quality and low quality. This is the authors way of denoting if the deal was good (high) or bad (low). The author has a total of (if you count each chapter by itself) 14 good, 14 bad, and 4 that were in-between. Sometimes the author will talk about the player and how he fared before he played for the Mets, and then talk little about that players days as a Met. I found myself feeling that not much effort was put into making this book. The author states that has been a Mets fan since 1969. If that's the case, he would know how to spell their names! He spells manager Davey Johnson's first name D-A-V-Y, and spells Gregg Jefferies name with only one G instead of two.

To save you time and money, here are the deals mentioned in the book, in order:

High: acquire Tom Seaver through draft lottery

Low: trade Tom Seaver

High: acquire Tom Seaver (again)

Low: Tom Seaver signs as free agent elsewhere

High: bring in Casey Stengel as manager

Low: bring in Jeff Torborg as manager

High: acquire Donn Clendenon

Low: trade Amos Otis

High: bring in Gil Hodges as manager

Low: trade Nolan Ryan

High & Low: acquire Willie Mays

High & Low: acquire Rusty Staub

High & Low: M. Donald Grant is fired and replaced by Linda DeRoulet

High: Team sold to Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon

High: Rusty Staub signs as a free agent

Low: Frank Cashen retains Joe Torre as manager

Low: Claudell Washington and Dave Kingman sign as free agents elsewhere

Low: acquire Ellis Valentine

High: acquire Keith Hernandez

High: acquire Ron Darling

High: draft Dwight Gooden

Low: acquire George Foster

High: acquire Howard Johnson, Gary Carter, and Sid Fernandez

Low: Ray Knight signs as a free agent elsewhere; trade Kevin Mitchell

Low: trade Lenny Dykstra, Roger McDowell, and Mookie Wilson

High & Low: acquire Bob Ojeda (bad only because of hedge trimmer finger incident and future boating accident with Cleveland)

Low: Darryl Strawberry signs as free agent elsewhere

Low: acquire Vince Coleman

Low: acquire Bobby Bonilla

High: bring in Bobby Valentine as manager

High: acquire John Olerud

High: acquire Mike Piazza

The author states on the back cover that "I know I have only scrached the surface of the Mets' transactions." I'm sure Mets fans out there will agree that there are a lot more deals that should have made this book.

This book was written by someone who obviously is a loyal and dedicated Mets fan, and he clearly put a great deal of passion and effort into it.

However, Mr. Liebenthal either relied too much on a faulty memory or did not do enough fact-checking, and this resulted in a number of errors, too many for someone claiming to be an "expert" on his topic.

For example, the author states on page 1 that after being illegally signed by the Atlanta Braves and having his contract voided, Tom Seaver was awarded to the Mets in a lottery involving the Mets, Braves, and Dodgers. Actually, the Braves were forbidden from signing Seaver, and the lottery involved the Mets, Indians, and Phillies. Also, on page 88, he states that the Mets beat the Braves in Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS in 13 innings, when in fact the game went 15 innings.

More minor, but also glaring (to this reader) was the repeated misspelling of the name of former manager DAVEY (not Davy) Johnson.

In addition, the author writes in a very cumbersome style, with unexplained assertions and questionable choice of words. Staying on page 88, he states that Todd Zeile's "moniker" (why not just say "name?") starts with "Ze, an interesting juxtaposition." Why is that an interesting juxtaposition? The author doesn't explain.

On the same page, in describing Game 1 of the 2000 World Series, the author states that the Mets had a one-run lead and that reliever Armando Benitez "should have been able to hold the vanguard." HOLD THE VANGUARD?? What the heck does that mean? The closest definition of vanguard is "the forefront in any movement, field, activity, or the like." Why not keep it simple and just say "hold the lead?"

Finally, the author strained my concentration with repeated cliches like "lidlifter" to describe the opening game of a series.

Mr. Liebenthal obviously has plenty of knowledge of and passion for the Mets, but I wish I hadn't spent the money on this book.

I had high expectations about this book as a Mets fan. After all, the title says it all. Although I enjoyed reading it (a fast and easy read), I was taken aback by some of the poor research and mistakes. Most notably, the author blames Bob Ojeda for the tragic boat accident that claimed the lives of Tim Crews and Steve Olin. Bob Ojeda,who suffered from survivor's guilt for years, was not driving as stated by the author; and the only reason he didn't have his head taken off was that he was slouched down in his seat on the boat (having your head scalped is not a minor injury Mr. Liebenthal). The facts of that tragic night are so well known, it makes one wonder why the author would go beyond emblishment and venture into possible libel merely to smear a beloved Met. Read this book only as a guide and to bring back some memories, but don't rely on it for facts or accuracy. There are better sources.

the person who wrote the review above does not know what they are talking about. This is a great book but there is no part about tennis or topsy turvy day. Anyways who is the wizard of Roz. DONT PAY ATTENTION TO THE REVIEW ABOVE