As we saw yesterday, hastily but hopefully promoted Luis Rojas officially took over as the team’s 23rd manager. I’m going to “count” Carlos Beltran’s 84-day run–they just happened all to be off-days.
Rojas slipped on the No. 19 jersey–not because his older brother Moises wore 18 and his father Felipe Alou famously wore 17 as a manager–but because of his birthday September 1– 1/9 as they would say in in most places.
Rojas would be first first Mets manager to wear 19, and the first issue of the number since late last year when Sam Haggarty (Sam Who-herty?) appeared, mostly as a pinch runner. Haggerty–who was one of the guys they got from Cleveland in the Kevin Plawecki deal–was dropped from the 40-man roster a few weeks back when Dellin Betances came aboard, and subsequently scooped up by Seattle.
Here’s a newly updated list of Mets Managers By the Number:
| Manager | Years | Number |
| Casey Stengel | 1962-65 | 37 |
| Wes Westrum | 1965-67 | 9 |
| Salty Parker | 1967 | 54 |
| Gil Hodges | 1968-71 | 14 |
| Yogi Berra | 1972-75 | 8 |
| Roy McMillan | 1975 | 51 |
| Joe Frazier | 1976-77 | 55 |
| Joe Torre | 1977-81 | 9 |
| George Bamberger | 1982-83 | 31 |
| Frank Howard | 1983 | 55 |
| Davey Johnson | 1984-1990 | 5 |
| Bud Harrelson | 1990-91 | 3 |
| Mike Cubbage | 1991 | 4 |
| Jeff Torborg | 1992-93 | 10 |
| Dallas Green | 1993-96 | 46 |
| Bobby Valentine | 1996-2002 | 2 |
| Art Howe | 2003-2004 | 18 |
| Willie Randolph | 2005-2008 | 12 |
| Jerry Manuel | 2008-2010 | 53 |
| Terry Collins | 2011-2017 | 10 |
| Mickey Callaway | 2018-2019 | 36/26* |
| Carlos Beltran | 2020** | 15 |
| Luis Rojas | 2020 | 19 |
*-Switched to 26 upon announcement of Jerry Koosman retirement, 9/24/19
**-Did not appear in a game.
This Mets team is really driving you nuts, isn’t it? There’s a disease in the bullpen, the team itself is prone to sudden periodic shutdowns, so they are never safe from embarrassing themselves but at the same time the 2019 Mets are as accomplished as any group they’ve run out there for years. I suppose this is an indictment of their manager but it’s more than just that. And with Cano and Nimmo back … and now Jed Lowrie even (!!) they’re arguably better now than they’ve ever been, so I’m not ready to give up, even though I have twice already: Once back on July 24 after they’d slept-walked though a home loss to San Diego, falling to 46-55; and again the other night when Mickey, Sewald & Diaz teamed up to deliver that joke of a 9th inning.