Well, Cowgill had a name doppelganger, too, and I sometimes got them confused. There was our man Collin Cowgill and in the minors at about the same time there was a guy named Collin CARGILL. Both surnames rank super low in popularity in the USA (think ~11,000th for the former and ~7,000th for the latter), yet they both played at the same time. What are the odds?

Also, less interestingly, Cowgill didn't sign the autograph request I sent him in 2015.

Despite our gripes about him, however, he did make the Hall of Fame ballot in 2021, though he didn't get any votes.

Also, I've sent him a couple autograph requests in my day. He didn't sign the first time, but he did the second time, in 2020.

I primarily recall that time he was playing in indy ball and attacked the pitcher with his bat after being hit by a pitch.

He is currently the manager of the Conspiradores de Querétaro in Mexico.

His daughter later became famous as a professional wrestler.

Also, I've sent him six autograph requests in my day, with no luck.

I fell in love with Byrd in the early part of the 2013 season. I was a six year old I wanted to see some serious power and as lucky I was to see the latter half of David Wright's prime with him hitting many memorable homers, his power numbers fell after 2005-2011ish. This was before I really started watching every game late in the 2012 season. At the beginning of 2013 Byrd was the first true slugger I watched on the Mets every single day. I saw Marlon club numerous clutch home runs both on TV and at a number of games I went to.

I still very clearly remember where I was when I heard the news he was traded to Pittsburgh (Weird to think of them as a playoff team) I was in my grandparents basement in Brampton, Ontario. My dad calmed me down after I was done crying saying how the Mets got a future star in Dilson Herrera whom I thought was the real deal his entire time with the org because we gave up such a good player in my eyes to get him.

Byrd's time in Queens is overall very nostalgic to be and is connected to a bunch of completely random tidbits of that era of Mets baseball from late 2012 to 2014, basically everything from when I started watching to when we won the 2015 NL Pennant. For example when I think of Byrd I imagine the 2013 ASG, the bright orange Los Mets jersey and last but not least the short but very fun peak of Jenrry Mejia.

Marlon is very much a random player to associate with all of this but he was without a doubt my favorite player when all of the things I mentioned above were happening. His 2013 season is still one of the reasons why I have loved the Mets all these years later.

Notably, he pitched in the Mets 18 inning game against Milwaukee on May 4, 2019. He tossed the 13th inning.

He's also one of the few Mets pitchers to finish with a career Mets ERA of 0.00.

Wallace was one of those other guys. A former #11 overall pick, he had a 1.72 ERA for Norfolk in 1996, then had an acceptable run with the Mets later that year. He stuck around in their system through 1999 and though he had some decent years at Triple-A, the vagaries of baseball made it such that he never made it back to the big league club (guess they deemed Mel Rojas a better option in 1998 and Josías Manzanillo/Billy Taylor better options in 1999).

And now, like many of them, he's just a blip in baseball history.

(Also, he didn't sign the autograph request I sent him in 2010).

The risk of acquiring him didn't pay off, of course, but the logic behind the deal was actually (for once) understandable. Especially since all he cost them was a middling minor leaguer who never advanced beyond A ball (Dawrin Frias).

I fondly remember Eric O'Flaherty, actually, but obviously not because of his time with New York.

He fit the mold of that era's New York Mets pitcher—an astoundingly recognizable name, but when you look at the stat log you see he didn't actually do much with New York. Others that come to mind are Terry Bross, Jeff Musselman and Wally Whitehurst. I think their name recognition stems largely from the fact that they pitched smack dab in the middle of the era of hyper-produced baseball cards. So even though they didn't do much, you were constantly seeing their names on cards, so they engrained themselves deep in your mind anyway.

He was a good minor league pitcher, though. 22-11 with a 2.31 ERA between 1987 and 1988.

At one point, he was on the farthest periphery of my "Hall of Fame" dark horse list. Not so now. Usually I'd say it was him going to the Mets that killed whatever sliver of a chance he had. But by watching his play, he alone killed it.

What is cool though is that before he became a star he signed an autograph for me through the Astros in 2012.

Stanek posts a 6.06 ERA. Maton posts a 2.51 ERA in about twice as many games.

So what do the Mets do? Ditch Maton and bring Stanek back. Dumb dumb dumb.

Maton, right now, has a 0.00 ERA, 11.1 K/9 and 0.618 WHIP in a league-leading 12 appearances.

Should've brought Maton back instead (or, at least, as well).

Maton was a reliable, though all-too-short-lived reliever. Can't go wrong with his 2024 performance (regular season, at least). It was fairly unsung additions like him that helped them turn the tide and become a true playoff team.

Wish you had a longer MLB career, Joe. ("Sic transit gloria.")