Roy Staiger

Somebody in the cage appears to be hitting with a gunshot wound.

Roy Staiger was the umpty-umph in the long parade of Met third basemen, playing 148 games overall there for the Mets, from 1975-1977, along with two appearances at shortstop. He was the Mets primary third-baseman in 1976, but hit only .220, with a .551 OPS. His fielding was apparently better, posting only nine errors and a range factor better than the league.

Clues I've been unable to unearth may reveal why Joe Frazier (the Mets manager of the time) gave him so much opportunity. The Mets finished 15 games behind the Phils, but were better than that according to Pythagoras, by five games, and perhaps shouldn't have messed around so much with such a project. (Bill James originated the use of pythagorean math to quantify how well a team should do based on it's runs scrored and runs yielded. For more see below.) A slumping Wayne Garrett ended his eight seasons with the Mets in a mid-season trade to Montreal, but Joe Torre, who played 83 games at third for the team in 1975, was limited almost exclusively to first in '76, where Ed Kranepool, Dave Kingman, and John Milner hardly needed his help as much as Staiger and Warning-Track Wayne did at the hot corner. Torre, who hit .306 with a .754 OPS, likely lost Frazier's confidence with the glove. He certainly gave up on Kingman at third base after 1975. It was left to Roy. Frazier was perhaps a glove man.

Two accounts at the Ultimate Mets Database confirm the notion that Roy knew how to handle the glove, including one amusing account of a fan who masqueraded as Roy. Go figure, because Roy actually led the International League in RBI in 1975. Maybe that's why Frazier thought he'd eventually get it going. To judge from the number's on Roy's card below, however, he hit occasionally in the minors, but only after repeating a level. No such luxury was available in the bigs.

(kcmets.com colleague Stephen Goldleaf, upon reading an earlier version of this column, alertly pointed out that Joe Frazier was Staiger’s manager during that solid-hitting season in Tidewater, which may go a long way toward explaining Frazier’s confidence in Roy.)

Roy wore the number two for the Mets, and isn't even close to the least accomplished Met to wear that that ill-fated number. (Heck, there’s even an argument — if you discount Kevin Elster’s non-two years and have a big problem with Mackey Sasser's throwing hitch — that he’s the best number two in Mets histoy. A lot of reserve infielders regularly wore it, but it was seemingly taken out of circulation after he gave it up in 1977, until Phil Mankoski donned it in 1980, a rare tribute for a low number and a part-time infielder.

Roy would return to play a handful of games for the '79 Yankees wearing number 51. (This page suggests he retired after the 1978 season -- don't trust them though,as here the same peeps report on a demotion of Staiger from AAA to AA, while stating matter of factly that Dave Righetti had been released. I wish!) It (#51) was hardly as distinguised a set of digits, and the bastards finished an uncharacteristic fourth, so Roy didn't even see any of the bonus money for high-placed teams. If you pan down this page, you'd find a scouting report from Gene Michael suggesting Staiger had been showing promise learning second base. Perhaps Stick was practicing psychology, trying to put the fear of God into Willie Randolph, but Roy never appeared at the keystone for the Yankees nor the Mets.

Roy is holding at fourteenth all-time among Mets in games played at third base (142), which puts him ahead of such luminaries as Richie Hebner, Gregg Jeffries, and Jim Fregosi. His spot is secure, barring injury to Edgardo Alfonzo at number three (knock wood), which may give Joe McEwing a shot to move up (#36 at 44). A failure to resign the Fonz may introduce a prospect such as David Wright or Ty Wigginton, both unlikely. Barring that, his biggest immediate threats come from a potential reacquisition of Matt Franco (#22 at 94) or Tim Bogar (#24 at 79).

As I said, his spot is secure.

What more can I tell you about Roy? He had one career triple. He joins my former neighbor Jim Beauchamp, as well as Jackson Todd, as an Okie Met. He wasn't much on the basepaths, but his eye showed some promise. If you want to use him in a poem, he almost rhymes with Jim Gosger, Dennis Springer or the most appropritately named Butch Metzger. He was traded for none other than Sergio Ferrer. A recent six-month long research project conducted by a dozen lifelong Met observers ranked him as the 223rd-best all-time Met.

I couldn't find him listed residentially anywhere, but I hope, wherever he is, that the world found more use for him than the Mets did.