Wood vs. Wood #213

Last time 1962 cruised to a 7-3 win. Will it win again here?

Richie Ashburn sticks his tongue out at spring training. The Hall-of-Famer was picked up by the expansion Mets before the 1962 season, in what would be the last of his 15 seasons. He was coming off two years with the Cubs, but the photo that Topps used looks older than that, more like the Phillies pinstripes he wore from 1948 to 1959. Considered the fastest player and best defensive outfielder in the league, Ashburn led the NL in hits three times and walks four times, with over twice as many walks as strikeouts. For his career he hit .308 with 2,578 hits and 1,198 walks. After his retirement as a player he immediately became an announcer for the team. In September of 1997 he died of a heart attack at New York's Grand Hyatt Hotel after a Mets game, weeks before he was planning to retire.

Rookie Randy Myers is also in a spring training shot, perhaps deep in thought, perhaps staring into space. Myers pitched in just five big league games in 1986 and was not on the postseason roster, but by 1988 he was sharing the closer role with Roger McDowell. After the 1989 season the Mets traded him to Cincinnati for John Franco in a rare swap of closers. Both teams did well with the trade, but the Reds had more immediate success, with the team riding the Nasty Boys bullpen anchored by Myers and his 38 saves, all the way to a World Championship. Myers was dominant in the postseason with 8.2 scoreless innings and four saves, earning NLCS MVP honors. Myers would become an itinerant closer throughout the 1990s, with a year in San Diego, three years (and two NL saves titles) with the Cubs, two years (and an AL saves title) with Baltimore, and brief stops in Toronto and San Diego, as shoulder woes brought his career to a premature end. Overall in 728 games he went 44-63 with a 3.19 ERA and 347 saves. He is now President of the T.O.D.A.Y. Foundation in the state of Washington.