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Mookie Wilson is a household name in New York. He won a World Championship with the Mets in 1986 and played 10 of his 13 professional seasons in Flushing. Second on the Mets all-time franchise list for triples and stolen bases, being surpassed only by Jose Reyes, Mookie became part of one of the most famous plays in the history of the game when his dribbler down the right field line got between Billy Buckner’s legs.

I had the chance to speak with Mookie about that memorable Game Six victory, his new role with the club, the 2010 First Year Player Draft, the farm system, and the current state of the franchise.

Mookie turned 54 years old earlier this year, but the moment he hit that slow-rolling ball towards first base is a moment that will stay with him for the rest of his life.

“Oh boy, there’s so much that did happen in that game,” the South Carolina native said in a nostalgic voice. “It’s a topic of conversation everywhere I go and it feels like just yesterday.

“My memory of that game is very vivid actually, because it’s such a talked about topic. The one thing I do remember is how we felt when we were in the process of losing that game and that thought was going to wash out everything that we had accomplished that whole year and that was what was on my mind and everybody’s mind.

“When events started to unfold and things happened the way they did it was almost that we were destined to win this, because we really should have lost that game. We were very lucky.

“There were so many things that even happened before that ground ball. The wild pitch, the four guys before me who all had two strikes on them, it all set the stage for a situation that every kid wants to be in, and I just happened to be there and I was just thinking ‘don’t make the last out,’ you know, ‘don’t be that guy.'”

As Mets fans will tell you fondly, Mookie fought off several tough pitches to stay alive before forever etching his name into history with his ground ball that got through Bucker’s five-hole.

What many fans don’t know is that right field umpire Ed Montague picked up the ball, marked it with a small ‘X’ and gave it to the team’s traveling secretary Arthur Richman, who joined the celebrations in the clubhouse at Shea Stadium.

“I was excited, I didn’t know what I was doing really,” Mookie said with a laugh. “First of all I couldn’t believe what had just happened, but I took the ball from him, signed it and gave it back to him. At that point it really didn’t mean anything to me, it was all about winning the ballgame.”

From there, the history of the ball saw it making its way not to Cooperstown but instead to a pair of private collectors; firstly to actor Charlie Sheen and then to songwriter Seth Swirsky.

“Arthur called me the day or the week he was going to put it up for auction for charity and asked if I minded and I said ‘Na, go right ahead. I gave you that ball, you do what you like with it,'” Mookie added. “He thought enough of me to ask me first and I guess he was giving me first opportunity to get the ball back.

“Man, if I had known the value of the ball at that time though. I was never really that sentimental about that stuff, but I told him to go right ahead and when I heard how much it went for I said ‘boy, you’re the smartest kid in the world, Arthur.'”

Mookie was reunited with the ball back in 2006 when he attended the special 20th anniversary celebrations at Citi Field. He also met with the ball’s new owner Swirsky, who loaned the ball to the club for display in Citi Field’s new Hall of Fame and Musuem.

“I’ve seen the ball a couple of times, but to actually see it and be around it really is a great feeling. It’s almost like you touch the ball and you travel back in time. It’s a piece of memorabilia that will always bring back memories…where you were, what you were doing, and that, to me, is the centerpiece of the whole museum.

“Now I might be a little biased because I had a personal involvement in it, but when I went to see it again it was like walking back through time.”

The museum has attracted positive comments throughout the Mets community, especially from fans who were vocal about the club’s apparent lack of history when the stadium was first opened in 2009. Click here for a behind the scenes tour. Among its biggest fans is the Mets former outfielder who says it was worth taking the time over and doing correctly.

“As important as we thought it was, the management probably wanted to make sure the ballpark was in working order. It was a criticism of mine too, I’ll be honest, but I also understood that there were things were more pressing. Now that they have the museum together it is really good. It was worth the wait.”

Mookie is now back working with the Mets as an outfield and baserunning coach in the minor leagues, fresh off taking some personal time after his managerial stint down in Brooklyn with the single-A Cyclones.

“Once you’re a baseball player, you’re pretty much a baseball player for life and you always have to be involved,” he said. His love for the game is still evident in every word.

He was approached by the Wilpons, Omar Minaya, and other people within the organization during the offseason about working with the club to instill what he called a “new culture” down on the farm.

“They said that this position was open and that they really needed to focus on their defense and baserunning this season and that this was part of the new culture that they were going to develop and they wanted to know if I wanted to be part of it.”

With his affection for the club and his history with the Mets, Mookie was all too happy to accept the offer. He said a few new players have been brought into the system since he stepped away from the game three years ago, but that the depth throughout all of the Mets Minor League teams is very promising.

“We have a lot of talent at the lower levels and it’s unbelievable. We have power and speed and pitching at the lower levels—it’s going to take a couple of years to see that, but I think that’s where the patience and development is going to come in. We do have players that are going to be ready to able to help the big club, no ifs, ands, or buts about that, it’s just a matter now of the development of those players.

“In terms of depth, we are very deep with potential outfielders and with regards to the infield we have guys who are going to be ready to step in and who are going to be able to perform at the Major League. I’m not a pitching guy but it appears we have guys who are on their way, so we are deep in a number of areas.

“Everybody knows Fernando Martinez and if not for injuries here right now he might be in New York at this point. Kirk Nieuwenhuis is in AA right now and he is a very intriguing athlete, he can run, he has a good arm, he has power, he hits from the left side and even though he can play a lot of positions he is very good at center.

“We have another kid in AAA who I like right now is [Jesus] Feliciano. He’s a very, very good ballplayer, very complete, very smart, and he’s leading that league in hitting at this point. We have other guys who are coming up, a local kid who is very high on the chart called Carlos Guzman and we have a guy at Port St. Lucie called Sean Ratliff, just to name a couple of guys. We also have guys at A-level who are going to be very, very good ball players, but they have some ways to go.”

With all eyes centered on the MLB draft in Secaucus, N.J. Monday, rumors have been building about who the Mets will add to their farm system. Michael Choice, Chris Sale, Yasmani Pomeranz, and Zack Cox have all been mentioned in passing, but Mookie says that with the depth the Mets already have, they will likely be drafting the best player available rather than trying to fill a specific need.

“Because we are pretty deep in the organization that they may go for the best available athlete at the time,” he said. Once they are in the system, how fast they progress through will depend on their skills, maturity, and circumstance. Take Ike Davis and Ruben Tejada as examples, Mookie says.

“It’s going to be a matter of need and there are a lot of variables to take into account, such as the age and youth of a person. The one kid who was up there already but came back to AAA because of his age was Ruben Tejada, who is a very good player. Ike was taken up because of need and he is doing quite well.

“We have to see what the big club needs and whether it’s going to be detrimental or advantageous to the player, because it’s not always the ‘now’ situation, we have to worry about the future of the ballplayer.”

Still, with all of the problems in the rotation and the lack of a runaway favorite in the NL East, Mookie says there is a lot to be happy about in New York right now.

“There are some encouraging signs, but I think people will agree that they are inconsistent. There is a big disparity between playing at home and playing on the road and I think that some of it comes from the attitude of being relaxed at home in a new ballpark. On the road we just don’t know.

“The inconsistency is the issue right now. I wish I could say what is causing the inconsistency, but I’m not there on a day to day basis but once we can straighten that out, we’ll be pretty good. If we can hold the fort until we get completely healthy, that should make the world of difference.

“Right now we will look around July to gauge where we are. It’s still early but every day wasted is a day you don’t get back.”

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Yogi Berra played catcher for the New York Yankees for 17 years and one season with the New York Mets.

Yogi is one of four players to win AL MVP three times. He also won World Series’ as a manager in both leagues. Yogi Berra played for 10 World Series teams.

Yogi is known for his quotes like, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Here is my interview with this baseball great:

BW: Did you not like hitting strikes since you are known for being a bad ball hitter?

YB: Maybe I just saw the ball good. I always felt if I could see it, I could hit it.

BW : How did you become a catcher?

YB: I played some as a kid, we played every position back then. The Yankees thought my future was as a catcher

BW: Who was your favorite teammate and why?

YB: I had lots of them.

BW: Who was the toughest pitcher to hit against? Who was the easiest?

YB: Herb Score of the Indians, before he got injured, was real tough. I don’t know about the other.

BW: What was your greatest thrill in baseball?

YB: I had lots of them. Catching the perfect game in the World Series. Winning 10 championships. Making the Hall of Fame – it’s hard to say.

BW: What made your Yankee teams so great?

YB: We won a lot. We had great team spirit and pretty good players.

BW: Is there a current player that is very similar to you? If so, who?

YB: That I don’t know. I always liked Pudge Rodriguez because he’s short like me. I like short catchers.

BW: Who was your idol growing up?

YB: Ducky Medwick of the Cardinals. He was my newspaper customer when I was a kid, and a great hitter.

BW: Did you really scuff the ball when Whitey Ford pitched? Why?

YB : No.

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Houston fans know him as the man who carried the Astros to the World Series in 2005. MLB Showdown players know him as the guy with 11 on-base, 18+ homer, and only five outs on card.

The rest of the world knows him as Morgan Ensberg.

A former All-Star and the fourth-place finisher in the 2005 NL MVP voting, Ensberg burst onto the baseball scene in 2002 and was one of the top third basemen in the game from 2003-07. Now retired, he is trying his hand at broadcasting and writes a blog, Morgan Ensberg’s Baseball IQ .

He very kindly accepted my request for an interview last week, and I had the great honor of talking to him about the ups and downs of his career, the sabermetric revolution, and what life is like as a retired baseball player.

LJP: You had great years in ’03 and ’06, but there’s no question that your 2005 season was the best of your career.  Can you talk about that? Did you do anything differently? Was there a tangible feeling that you were playing at a new level, or did it seem like you were just doing the same things with different results?

ME: In 2005, the Astros organization didn’t believe that the team was going to win, so they simply let our “starting lineup” play. But besides that, I was really aggressive at the plate and I tried to swing as hard as I could.  

LJP: On the other side of the coin, things sort of fell apart for you in 2007. Do you know what happened? Did you feel like you were a step behind while you were playing, or did it seem more like plain old bad luck? If you were a manager, what would you have done to try and right your ship?

ME: 2007 was bad because I was more concerned about getting “booed” by the fans then concentrating on the game.  It wasn’t anything that had to do with my body or anything else.  I was physically fine.

LJP: Your guys’ run in 2005, that was just an amazing postseason. The 18-inning game with Atlanta, getting revenge on the Cardinals, even in the World Series there were some great games and you fulfilled every boy’s dream by hitting a home run on the national stage. How incredible did that feel? What was the most memorable part of that October?

ME: I want to tell you that it was the most incredible feeling ever.  But the reality is that we didn’t get to enjoy the experience.

It is about winning.  Sure, I had some time to look around before the game and think how cool this was.  But we are in the “fire” so to speak. 

LJP: Based on the theory that we are unable to see the whole story by simply watching games, the “sabermetric revolution” has changed the way fans think about baseball. As a player, you were even more entrenched in the heat of the game, and therefore, some would say, even more susceptible to losing sight of the big picture.

How did it feel to have your contributions quantified in stats like Ultimate Zone Rating and Wins Above Replacement? Did you ever pay attention to those numbers? Do you agree that a more detached approach is necessary to identify larger trends?

ME: I don’t think it matters how my stats are quantified.  However, it is important for players to understand what is expected of them.

As for larger trends, I agree in most instances.  But again, it is important to understand the situation the stats are presented.

For example, if you simply pull our black and white numbers and not understand the teams dynamic, you won’t get accurate answers.  You can use the “Garbage in, garbage out” mantra if you like. 

Ultimate zone rating still needs adjustments.  UZR takes into consideration “range” but that assumes that “range” is something that is needed.  I would agree that a certain amount of range is important, but teams will get better and better at positioning so a premium will be placed on ground balls hit right at the players. 

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If you thought ‘Shea’ was just the name of a stadium, or you don’t know your Jay Payton from your Joan Payson, a trip to the New York Mets’ Hall of Fame and Museum may be just what the baseball doctor ordered.

When Citi Field opened its doors to 41,007 baseball enthusiasts on April 13, 2009, the one thing Mets fans wanted more of was history.

There weren’t enough memories of former greats who patrolled the Polo Grounds, there was precious little mention of the World Series victories from 1969 and 1986, and, on a more superficial level, there simply was not enough orange and blue.

The Mets listened to fans’ suggestions and after ensuring the stadium was ready for Opening Day last year, they put in hours of work throughout the off season to make Citi Field feel like home this year.

Over-sized baseball cards of historic Mets now line the concourse down first and third, the home run apple from Shea takes pride of place outside the ballpark right next to the No. 7 subway stop, and a new museum branches off from the Jackie Robinson rotunda to the right of the main entrance.

I had the opportunity to meet with Tina Mannix, the senior director of marketing with the Mets, for a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum to learn a little more about the newest addition to the stadium. Putting it all together, it seems, is much more than just getting some game-used jerseys and balls and displaying them for a year or two.

Relative humidity in cabinets has to be maintained around 50 percent, UV filters need to line the windows, and every aspect of the storage and recording of each item is determined ahead of time.

“This was all built as part of the game day experience,” Tina said. “The goal was to house and pay tribute to Mets history in the right way and to build it in a way that it can stay here for a long time.

“We wanted to honor our history, whether it’s players or managers or members of the team that made a mark­—we kept using the term ‘an indelible mark’ on the franchise. We wanted it to be a great place for fans to learn a little bit about the history that they may not have known, and for a generation to pass along to another generation.

“We wanted it to be a place people would be proud of. We will have been around 50 years in 2012 so it’s not like we’ve been around that long, but our history is very unique and very different, and we clearly wanted to celebrate those great moments.”

While the two World Series trophies are the first thing you notice in the Ring of Champions when you enter the museum, the Mets hit all of the right notes with their displays.

The busts commemorating all 21 members of the Mets Hall of Fame that were on display in the Diamond Club at Shea Stadium have been replaced by Cooperstown-esque plaques, and there are fantastic displays dedicated to the history of Mr. Met and defining moments of the franchise.

Add that to one of Keith Hernandez’s 11 Gold Gloves, Tom Seaver’s Cy Young award, an original record of Meet the Mets , Benny Agbayani’s bat from the Subway Series, and John Franco’s FDNY cap that he wore after 9/11 and you leave the museum full of nostalgia and pride.

Even Casey Stengel’s handwritten notes saying Ed Kranepool “should block more grounders at first base” and that Bobby Klaus was a “fair bunter and good hustler” are pure gold for fans of an older generation.

The Mets have a rich broadcasting heritage too, and it seemed only fitting that Ralph Kiner, Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy, Howie Rose, Gary Cohen, Billy Berroa, and Juan Alicea were represented in the museum. You can hear four famous calls from each broadcaster and watch the corresponding footage on an overhead monitor, reliving the moments these personalities brought into your living rooms.

Tina said: “Interactive displays are part of the whole experience and they are important especially with our younger fans because they help them learn about the team and its history…about where the team came from.

“We are very proud of the Jackie Robinson rotunda and we realize that we are a product of the Dodgers and the Giants. It’s fact. We wear the NY symbol because of the New York Giants and we wear orange and blue because of the blue of the Dodgers and the orange of the Giants.”

History and story-telling is a theme throughout the 3,200 square-foot museum, and nothing tells a better tale than the ball that Mookie Wilson hit that trickled through Bill Buckner’s legs in the 1986 World Series, on loan from private collector Seth Swirsky.

Swirsky, a songwriter and long-time Mets fan, said he was more than happy to loan the ball to the museum.

“I’m a die-hard longtime fan and I went to Shea Stadium,” he said. “I went to the World Series at nine years old in ’69, and I really grew up with it. So for me to end up with this ball was a tremendously humbling experience and I was glad to be able to lend it to the Mets. I’m so, so happy that fans are getting a good feeling from it.

“I was completely thrilled to help the Mets in any way I could. They have given me so many thrills and they’re my team, you know. The way the Mets have done everything is very professional.

“I’m happy to give back to the Mets. The more that see it, the merrier.”

The ball is housed next to the timeless photo of the ball getting through Buckner’s wickets in the Defining Moments exhibit, inscribed with the message to Mets traveling secretary Arthur Richman: “To Arthur. The ball won it for us. Mookie Wilson, 10/25/86.”

Tina added: “We all knew this ball existed, the Mookie ball. This is the ball. We knew Seth was a big Mets fan and he wanted to make sure it was protected.”

To read a special article on the history of the ball and an in-depth interview with its owner click here.

While the ball is one of the higher-profile artifacts at the museum, there are more than 60 items in total, many on loan from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and private collectors.

The museum was specially designed by Populus, formally HOK Sport Architects, who helped create the Royals Hall of Fame at Kauffman Stadium, and there are a number of controls in place to make sure everything stays in pristine condition.

“The National Baseball Hall of Fame has been amazing to work with and they were one of the first people we called. We have a great relationship with them,” Tina said.

“These display units were built to Cooperstown’s specifications and we wanted to make sure we did everything the right way. They’re trying to protect what they loan, and so it if meets with Cooperstown approval we should be good.

“We had talked about a museum for a long time. It was something that had been part of the conversation and it was really just a matter of priorities and finding the right space and allocating the right amount of time to do it the right way.”

Temperature and humidity monitors, called thermographs, gauge conditions inside the cabinets and staff members record the totals every week before reporting back to Cooperstown every three months. The exterior windows all have UV treatments to limit the type of light entering the museum, and the exhibits are strategically arranged so that sensitive items are not exposed to direct sunlight.

In addition, the museum staff has to reach a consensus on the appraisal of every item on display, and loan agreement forms have to be exchanged and signed between the Mets and every exhibitor.

When I spoke with Erik Strohl, senior director of exhibits and collections at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, he said it takes years of experience to put a museum together successfully, but that he was excited to be able to help the Mets highlight their own heritage in Flushing.

“We have had a couple of staff members visit the museum and they have said it is fantastic. From the pictures it looks like they have done a really good job and the visitors seem to enjoy it,” he said.

Erik worked with the team to determine everything from security measures and cabinet temperatures to where the Mets store items that are not on display to where they check new artifacts in when they come to the stadium.

Most of the items on loan from Cooperstown are hardy and durable—Tommy Agee’s glove from 1969, Mike Piazza’s batting helmet, Agbayani’s bat that drove home the winning run in the Mets only Subway Series victory—and that is important because they generally require less stringent care than items like documents or photographs.

“It’s hard to maintain levels exactly in a museum where members of the public are. You really want the temperature around 68 degrees, but for relative humidity it depends because each type of artifact needs a different type of humidity. In this case where you are talking about things that are made from all different types of medium you really just try to pick a happy point in the middle, somewhere between 45 and 55 percent relative humidity.

“The most important thing is not necessarily what the actual temperature and humidity are, but that they maintain a standard and that they don’t fluctuate. That is more dangerous than having it a little bit too high or low.”

There is a fine balance between invaluable and priceless at the museum, and I think that is one of the things that makes it intriguing.

The original scouting report on Darryl Strawberry is a remarkable artifact, but it actually came from the Mets own human resources department, and the paper mache head of the Mr. Met mascot is one of the originals from the mid 60s that was just stored away until now.

Wherever you look, there’s a story to be told. That is one of the reasons behind replacing the Hall of fame busts, like what you would see at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, with the plaques which provide an insight into their careers and contributions. Four more will be added on Aug. 1 when Strawberry, Doc Gooden, Davey Johnson, and Frank Cashen are inducted.

“We knew we wanted to do something different with the busts because they don’t really tell a story. We felt like we wanted to tell a little bit about the person and what their impact was,” Tina said.

“It’s not that the Hall of Fame wasn’t a priority, but we decided we needed to bring it back. We needed our Hall of Fame to actually have a home, otherwise you have these members but what does that really mean? It’s just something on paper as opposed to a place where people can really learn about it. You want people to know about who Joan Payson and Casey Stengel were.”

They will join the famous icons of Mets history, which include Bud Harrelson, Jerry Koosman, Ed Kranepool, Gary Carter, and Tom Seaver—someone who is featured prominently throughout the museum.

Speaking about the Seaver jersey on the uniform display wall, Tina said: “A lot of the collectors have different items, and it was just about what tells the best tale.

“Collectors have game-used Seaver jerseys, some have signed Seaver jerseys, and others have jerseys from the ’69 season. But this is a Tom Seaver game-used 1969 signed World Series jersey. That’s pretty special.

“Could we have filled a wall with Tom Seaver stuff? Sure, but we wanted to show unique stuff and and we also wanted to show more current stuff which is why you’ll see a Jose Reyes jersey or a Carlos Beltran jersey or a Gary Carter bat. We didn’t want it to be just about guys in our Hall of Fame because our history’s more than that.”

As Tina moves along the display she stops at a smaller jersey that evokes a completely different emotion. “I can stand here and look at Mookie Wilson’s jersey and think ‘Oh my God, I remember when he wore that, look at how small it is. Look at the different fashion through the years.’”

If the jerseys were an expected element of the museum, one little collection which was not was the set of four World Series press pins.

“The press pins are a baseball tradition if you will,” Tina said. “They end up being collectibles and you have to work with MLB on the design.” In the past, say in 1969, only a small number of pins were made for the press. As more and more credential were handed out, clubs decided not to date the pins with a specific year, allowing them to be created in advance when a trip to the World Series loomed.

“More recently the pins will say ‘Third World Series,’ ‘Fourth World Series,’ etc. They’re not dated like they use to be.”

While there are obvious benefits to this in ensuring the pins are ready, it also leads to disappointment when they have to be locked away. As for the Mets’ “Fifth World Series” pin, it has been safely locked away since 2006 when Carlos Beltran struck out against the St. Louis Cardinals with the bases loaded in Game Seven of the NLCS.

Tina added: “It takes a while to create a pin and we were one inning away in Game Seven from going to the World Series, so our pin was already made. That is the world of baseball. There were t-shirts in my office saying ‘National League Champions 2006’ which we had to mail back to MLB.

“You can’t have thousands of pins made overnight. You have to prepare a little ahead of time.”

And when history moves on and the need for the press pins leads to the Mets bringing home a third World Championship trophy?

“You bring me that problem and I’d be very happy,” Tina laughed. “I don’t think anyone would mind having to move parts of the museum around to deal with that.”

The Hall of Fame and Museum is open to all ticket holders on game days. Individuals and groups can also visit the museum as part of the newly-announced Citi Field tour which opens on Memorial Day next weekend. For more information, click here or call 718-507-TIXX.

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