Root For Mazzilli
By lefty
Although Joe Torre won their first battle Tuesday with an 11-3 victory in Baltimore, “we believe” Lee Mazzilli will fight back. Mazzilli and Torre have a long history together. Maz has seen the relationship grow from mentor, to boss, to friend and now equal.
Lee Mazzilli made his Met debut in September of 1976 by hitting a three run homer in his second at bat. At the time, Joe Torre was in the twilight of his playing career playing most games at first base. The next year when Mazzilli became a regular, Torre retired from playing and replaced Joe Frazier as the Mets manager. Torre and Frazier combined to lead the Mets to a record of 64 wins 98 losses that season, but "The Italian Stallion," as he was called by the New York media, and other young players gave Met fans hope that they would some day recreate the miracle.
Both Brooklyn born Italians were starting new chapters in their lives, but neither would find success in New York in those days. Mazzilli would be traded, (to Texas for Ron Darling and Walt Terrell, and later Texas traded him to the Yankees for Bucky Dent) and Torre would never win more than 67 games in his five years managing the Mets. They both did finally go on to find success in New York, with Maz coming back to help the Mets win the World Series in 1986, and Torre has single-handedly tamed the Steinbrenner beast to bring victories back to the wrong New York team.
Torre is also responsible for Mazzilli being where he is today having brought him back into baseball after Mazzilli left baseball world for seven years. Torre got Maz a job managing in the Yankee minor league system, and later hired him as a coach for the Yankees for four seasons. So for this week anyway, let’s hope this is a case of the student defeating the teacher.
Some Articles about the reunion;
Baltimore Sun
New York Post
Daily News
