I also recall when he was acquired. All of a sudden there was a couple new faces in the bullpen: McElroy and Billy Taylor.

I've always clumped those two together, and since Taylor stunk so bad, I assumed McElroy did, too. But he was actually somewhat solid, outside of that nasty WHIP (1.500) and high walk total (8 in 13 1/3 IP).

He didn't cost us much, and he was brought over with the real prize of the trade, Darryl Hamilton.

After a while it was obvious he was being carried more by the "Super Joe" hype rather than actual production and output. Don't get me wrong, he was a solid supersub and I'm glad we had him, but OPS+s of 60 get old after a while, too.

Still, he was a face of the franchise for a little while there.

Also, I've written him two autograph requests in my day, in 2004 and 2019, but he hasn't responded either time.

But what I never understood is, why did him debuting at 29 all of a sudden make him a hot commodity with big league teams? They had a whole near-decade's worth of career to start noticing him, but he didn't even reach Triple-A until he was 28 years old.

But when the Mets finally gave him the call, that made him a major league caliber pitcher that teams went out of their way to sign? The Red Sox utilized his services in 2020 and the Rays did so in 2021 and 2022 (not just that, the Rays TRADED for him, giving up two prospects).

So he wasn't worth looking at from ages 28 and before, then all of a sudden teams wanted him once a big league club took a flier on him...even though he didn't even impress in his first stint in the bigs.

I don't get it.

I McCan't believe they thought he'd be a good option at catcher.

On the bright side, his struggles are, in part, what opened the door for Francisco Alvarez, who has been decent so far.

Also, he signed an autograph for me through the mail in 2008, when he was in the Reds minor league system. He's never been much of a signer, but I got lucky. Then I tried him again in 2010, and he didn't respond.

He was with the club for seven seasons and was a face of the franchise during some, if not terrible, pretty bland times.

Because of his performance with the club, the voters in the Mets Hall of Fame project I run on another website elected him with 100% of the vote in his fourth try on the ballot.

(Also I wrote him an autograph request through the Mets in 2018 and he never responded).

Then he went and contributed some to that semi-magical 2022 club that won 101 games.

He's one of those guys that most baseball fans will forget, but to Mets fans will mean just a little bit more.

Currently, he's playing for Gastonia of the independent Atlantic League.

And when they traded him away, all they received in return was a guy who peaked at Double-A in their system (Chris Bullock).

Anywho, I've sent him four autograph requests through the mail in my day, most recently earlier this year. He's responded once, way back in 2005, when he signed in about a month.

"Few players stick out in my mind as being 'especially bad' with New York."

Well, Mayberry is another one. I could not understand why they stuck with him so long. He was on their roster through late July!

He played for them in 2015. it's hard to believe that a World Series team was able to make it to the Fall Classic at all giving a guy like John Mayberry so much playing time.