Frank Lary, "The Yankee Killer" pitched in parts of two seasons for the Mets. The crazy part is that during both seasons he was acquired in the spring, then dealt away in the summer. For his first tour of Shea, Lary was purchased from the Tigers on May 30th, 1964. Frank labored for 57.1 innings pitched, posting a 4.55 ERA in '64. This wasn't good enough for the Mets brass, so on July 31st of the same year, he was dealt to the Braves for Dennis Ribant. Picking up Ribant turned out to be a very good deal, but the cherry on top was that the Mets were able to reacquire Lary the following spring. The Braves were having a roster crunch before opening day, so Lary's contract was again sold to the Mets on March 28th, 1965. The second time around turned out to be much better for Lary. He hurled a 2.98 ERA over 57.1 innings pitched. The Mets were a very bad team in 1965. Casey was fired and Wes Westrum took over as manager. There was no room for the aging ace, so Frank was dealt to the contending White Sox in July for a player to be named later. On July 26th, 1965, The Mets received Jimmy Schaffer to complete the deal. Lary finished the season with the White Sox, but retired afterwards. He passed away on December 14th, 2017.
The first ball was purchased off of eBay and is inscribed "21 - Wins, Lead League in '56" The second ball is just a nicely signed Selig ball, with no inscriptions. Either one could be a trade piece to help complete my collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment