A great ballplayer who bravely fought cancer during his brief stint at Shea. I hope he is recovering nicely.Even before serving as a Mets coach, he had some interesting Mets-related episodes. He broke Ron Hunt's record for career HBP's. He also ended up in Tom LaRussa's doghouse (and on his bench) when, in 1988, he stated that he was hoping his A's would face the Mets in the World Series. He said he wanted a tougher opponent than the Dodgers... who defeated the Mets in seven, then whupped the A's in five, fueled in part by certain comments by Baylor and our own David Cone, among things. Kirk Gibson's homer off the Eck helped a little, too.
Of course, most interesting of all was his being a member of the 1986 Red Sox. In Mike Sowell's book "One Pitch Away," the author interviews Baylor from the visitors dugout at Shea. At the time, Baylor was the new manager of the Colorado Rockies. And I quote:
"Same spot, right here. Me and Tom Seaver, right in this corner. We sat right here for outs one and two, and then we moved up toward that step, ready to run out onto the field and celebrate.
"I like sitting here. I like to torture myself."
