Better Know a Metstache: John Franco
by Teufel Stubble | March 26th, 2009
John enjoyed the fact that his mustache and eyebrows were interchangeable.
What is a save? You may think that it’s when a pitcher finishes the game for the winning team and enters the game with a lead of no more than three runs and pitches at least one inning, enters the game with the potential tying run on base, at bat or on deck or pitches for at least three innings. Here at The Wright Stache, we view a save as someone who joins a team and brings with him hometown pride, respectability and a sweet stache. As such, there was no one better at the save in Mets history than one John Franco.
John joined the Mets for the 1990 season after being acquired from the Cincinnati Reds. John brought a Brooklyn attitude to the Mets (he’s from Bensonhurst) and had no problems pitching in Queens (he threw two no-hitters while playing for St. John’s). The son of a Department of Sanitation worker, John was a hard-working, no-nonsense workhouse out of the bullpen.
14 years after joining the Mets, he left us having compiled an amazing resumé: team captain, a team record 276 saves and a mustache that served as a beacon of hope during even the dreariest mid-90s Mets seasons. After one partial season with the Houston Astros that we refuse to acknlowledge, John retired from baseball with 424 saves, the fourth most in MLB history, the most by any left-handed pitcher and the second-most by a pitcher with a mustache (trailing only Lee Smith).
John Franco was a leader, an inspiration and a hairy, hairy man. He would often sport an 11am shadow. But he knew how to rock a stache. And you don’t need to shave when you know how to save.
Now you better know a Metstache.
Tags: Better Know a Metstache, john franco, saves
Better Know a Metstache | Teufel Stubble | 
March 26, 2009
By Nerdzah Ball Soup, March 27, 2009 @ 1:00 pm
I’m a loyal Mets fans and reader of thewrightstache, but I have to take issue with this post and 99% of Mets fans on the subject of John Franco.
This is a subject close to my heart – so much that I won’t even use a common nerd tactic of “statistics” or “facts” to support my argument. What I will say is that my friends and I watched Franco come out of the bullpen for 14 long years and could never understand the citywide love affair with him.
Put aside the stupid tomato plants in the bullpen and garbage man dad and all that other blue collar New York bullshit, and what you have is a very average relief pitcher who managed to hang around long enough to get a bunch of saves. We used to refer to Franco as Captain Cardiac, because when he came in late in a game, you knew he would give you a heart attack before getting out of the inning. His normal outing went like this: walk, groundout, double, pop-up, single, walk, groundout. He was a junkball pitcher who survived by getting out terrible hitters by bouncing 80mph screwballs 6″ in front of the plate. I can’t remember him ever striking out a decent hitter – because he wasn’t very good.
If people identified with him as a New Yorker and a tomato fan, that’s fine – I root for guys who wear glasses. But don’t fool yourself into thinking he was anything but a middling, junk throwing lefty specialist who everyone drank the cool-aid on.
[Reply]
By Teufel Stubble:
March 27th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Nerdzah, it’s a touchy subject. 14 years is a long time. I agree, I had my share of adolescent cardiac episodes watching Johnny try to finish out some games. But he toiled away of some crummy mid-90s teams. I mean, really, Joe Orsulak?! So, while Johnny was by no means a dominating force, neither were the Mets teams that he played for. Cut him some slack. Or at least respect his stache!
[Reply]