Ultimate Mets Database - Memories of Leroy Stanton

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Leroy Stanton
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Memories of
Leroy Stanton

Leroy Stanton
Ultimate Mets Database popularity ranking: 712 of 1252 players

Leroy Bobby Stanton
Born: April 10, 1946 at Latta, S.C.
Died: March 13, 2019 at Florence, S.C. Obituary
Throws: Right Bats: Right
Height: 6.01 Weight: 200

Leroy Stanton was the most popular Ultimate Mets Database daily lookup on November 7, 2010, March 16, 2019, and April 10, 2019.

First Mets game: September 10, 1970
Last Mets game: September 28, 1971

Share your memories of Leroy Stanton

HERE IS WHAT OTHER METS FANS HAVE TO SAY:

Jim Snedeker
October 18, 2001
Based on Stanton's two at-bats I remember, I always felt he got a raw deal. One, he hit a ball to the top of the fence and it was caught; if it had gone over, he would have had a grand slam.
The other time, he was legging out a triple, and as he was sliding into third, the ball thrown by the outfielder to the third baseman hit Leroy in the back of the head, and he had to leave the game.

Tino Vieitez
June 8, 2002
I remember being ten years old and watching Leroy Stanton getting his first major league hit - a triple. As he was sliding into third base, he was hit on the head by the throw from the outfielder and knocked unconscious. If memory serves me correctly he had to be removed from the field on a stretcher. What a way to celebrate your first major league hit.

Jim Snedeker
June 10, 2002
Tino, imagine that--30 years later, you and I both remember Leroy getting hit in the head after his first triple! And I thought I was the only person in the world who had any memory of Leroy Stanton's Met days.

Alan
June 17, 2002
I remember it also, so I guess there are 3 of us! I also remember I didn't like him going in the Fregosi/Ryan trade. I thought he was going to be a real good one.

Prchrnewton
April 9, 2003
I am 42 years old and I will never forget that hit....I liked Leroy Stanton and was highly ticked off that they traded him for a bum, Jim Fergosi

Mark
January 15, 2004
I remember the Mets touting this Leroy as a potential 30 home run producer, a star on the rise, then they traded him in the package for Fregosi.

Stevie B.
April 1, 2004
I was too young to see Leroy's Mets or Angels days. I do remember him having some pretty good numbers with the expansion Mariners. I think in 1979 Leroy & Richie Zisk almost out-homered the whole Mets team. I think he hit 28 or 29 homers that year. (I could be off on the year.)

Bob P
April 9, 2004
Stevie B,
I think you are referring to Stanton's 1977 season with the first-year Mariners. Seattle picked him up from the Angels in the expansion draft after the 1976 season. Lee hit 27 homers and drove in 90 runs in '77 to go with a .275 batting average (the league hit .265 that year).
He had a couple of good years with the Angels in the mid-70s, most notably 1975 when he drove in 82 runs.
His career on base percentage was .311 (very close to average) and his career slugging percentage was .388 (about 18 points better than the league average). His main problem was that he struck out a lot (about 25% of the time), which in those days was not as acceptable as it is now.
After a poor season in 1978, he never played in the majors again. The Mariners released him after the 1979 season and the Blue Jays signed him in 1981, but his major league career was over.
Interstingly, baseball-reference.com shows that the most similar major league player to Stanton was Ron Swoboda.

Steven Gallanter
April 10, 2004
I seem to recall that Stanton began his career in the Mets system as a pitcher. I also believe that he suffered a severe beaning which led to the Mets giving up on him.
I only saw a few of his at bats against the Yankees but I remember that he swung very hard and reminded me of Danny Darwin of the Twins who also began as a pitcher.
One of baseball's many hardluck guys who were never in the right place at the right time.

RF Mojica
December 14, 2007
One of my most vivid memories watching baseball as a kid in the very early 70s was seeing Leroy Stanton trying to stretch a double into a triple. When he slid, his helmet came off and he got hit right in the back of the head with the ball. I remember that he was knocked out, or at least was hurt bad enough that they had to take him out of the game. Up to that time, he was thought of as one of the hot young Met prospects, but I don't remember ever seeing him play for them after that. I was pretty young at the time, so maybe my memory isn't 100% right. Of course his greatest claim to fame is being in the Nolan Ryan trade, but I think he had at least one pretty good year with the Angels.

Mr. Roboto
June 16, 2010
Here's an interesting tidbit on Leroy. He hit his first two major league home runs in a 6-2 Angels' win over the Yankees at Anaheim Stadium. This game was played on May 14, 1972 - the same day that Willie Mays homered in his first game as a Met. Although Leroy did not become a star player, it was a sign of the Mets' future getting away - just as the fans were celebrating the return of an old hero.
Leroy was a teammate of Nolan Ryan (with whom he was traded) in his five years with the Angels. He even played in three of the four no-hitters Ryan pitched with the California team. Leroy would have never gotten to be a part of any no-hitters had he remained with the Mets.

Jim Hardy
November 20, 2013
I served in the same unit with Leroy in 1967. I remember talking with him about baseball and was amazed at his knowledge of the game. He also talked about the Army trying to get him to play softball and he was refusing to do so since he felt it would hurt his game. He also said he was going to be in the big leagues one day. I think he was getting extra duty because of his statement to them that he wasn't going to play for the Army team. I have most of his baseball cards and tried to go see him play in Seattle when he was with the Mariners. It is funny how some people you talk to just a few times impress you the most.

colin mckeon
August 11, 2015
I was researching my very first baseball game and all I could vividly remember is Leroy Stanton getting a triple and then getting hit in the head with the ball as he slid into third base and carried off on a stretcher! Took about 30 minutes to determine the date of the game. Sept 28, 1970. I was surprised to see so many other people remember the play. I guess I was lucky to see it in person!

ron wohl
March 5, 2018
I was at his first MLB at bat at Shea - I was 9 and still recall him hitting a triple and then getting carried off on a stretcher after throw hit him in the head. Was a good hitter and they never should have traded him.

Steve Carp
March 14, 2019
I am hearing that he died in a car accident last night 3/13/19. RIP Leroy ????

Larry’s (Sad) Mets Memories
February 11, 2022
My interest in him was revived by the recent 50th anniversary of the “Fregosi Trade.” What was the attraction to Fregosi? -that caused Grant & Scheffing to make the foregoing insanity of trading the hardest-thrower in MLB (yes, I know, erratic) for a washed-up SS to play 3rd base, even more bizarre by adding a fine prospect the Mets could’ve used for outfield-bench strength, especially in the 1973 WS instead oft he useless Schneck or Stork. The contrast is not lost on me: MDG & BS simply held black prospects to a higher standard - the examples are unforgiving. This trade continues to confound, exposing the incompetence, indifference, & dismissiveness (i.e. elitism & racism) of the management of the “team” I grew-up idolizing. If I had only known, that the “Mets” are an organization run by plantationists; the team is the sales item (like every sports franchise, admittedly.) But I was too young & naïve.

Flitgun Frankie
February 15, 2022
There are other things to consider in the Ryan-Fregosi trade. First, don’t blame it all on Grant and Scheffing and absolve Gil Hodges just because Hodges is popular and everyone hates Grant. From reports at the time, Hodges was tired of and had run out of patience with Ryan.
Ryan got off to a sensational start in 1971. At the end of May he was 6-1 and leading the league in ERA. It seemed that he had finally grown up and figured things out. Then he fell apart and finished the year at 10-14 and Hodges had had enough.
Hodges knew Fregosi from his time in the American League. Fregosi had an off year in 1971 due to injuries, but the year before, 1970, was actually his best year in the majors. It wasn’t unreasonable to think he could make a comeback with the Mets. He was only 29 years old when the trade was made. Fregosi was a perennial all-star up to the year before the Mets made the trade. He wasn’t old (for instance, he was younger than Pete Rose, who made his own move to 3rd base around that time). Ryan was a sulky, inconsistent, underachieving young pitcher and Stanton was a promising but unproven prospect. Still not a good trade, but there were reasons it didn’t look so unreasonable when it was made.
It's too easy to just accept the "M. Donald Grant racist villain" narrative when, most likely, it was Gil Hodges who pushed for this trade, even though he died before the Mets played even one game after it was made. The trade turned out so badly because Ryan stopped sulking once he left New York (which he hated) and because Fregosi actually was washed up at age 30.