{"id":1341,"date":"2010-01-19T21:05:59","date_gmt":"2010-01-19T21:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/?p=1341"},"modified":"2013-12-08T21:07:01","modified_gmt":"2013-12-08T21:07:01","slug":"know-your-millers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=1341","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Millers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>They weren&#8217;t related but shared a name and a Polo Grounds locker room for the 1962 Mets, becoming one of the mildly amusing sidelights in that sadly comic debut season.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/mbtn.net\/images\/miller-bobl.jpg\" width=\"183\" height=\"259\" \/>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/mbtn.net\/images\/miller-bobg.jpg\" width=\"183\" height=\"262\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s Robert Lane Miller on the left. He came to the Mets in the expansion draft from St. Louis, where he was a 1957 Bonus Baby and though unproven at the major league level, was just 23 with a promising right arm. Observers of the &#8217;62 squad would say Bob L. Miller (<a href=\"http:\/\/mbtn.net\/number\/24\">No. 24<\/a>\u00a0in your scorecards) had some of the best &#8220;stuff&#8221; on staff, but they also felt he hadn&#8217;t handled adversity well despite getting his share of it with a 1-12 record. He was traded after the season to the Dodgers and quietly began building a solid resume as a relief pitcher. Miller wound up pitching for 17 seasons for 11 different teams &#8212; including the Mets again in 1973 and &#8217;74, when he suited up in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mbtn.net\/number\/30\">No. 30<\/a>. In retirement Miller became the first pitching coach in the history of the Toronto Blue Jays, and was a scout for the Giants when he was killed in an auto accident in 1993.<\/p>\n<p>His roundfaced teammate to the right was Robert Gerald Miller, also a former Bonus Baby (Detroit, 1953) but a lefthanded minor-league journeyman when acquired by the &#8217;62 Mets in midseason.Bob G. pitched exclusively in relief for the &#8217;62 Mets, including five times in relief of Bob L. Miller, racking up a 2-2 record but a 7.08 earned-run average that year, wearing\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mbtn.net\/number\/36\">No. 36<\/a>. He was released shortly after the season and never pitched in the majors again, but confessed to reporters he was often mistaken for his more accomplished teammate.<\/p>\n<p>BIG thanks to longtime MBTN supporter Ed A. for providing the cards (he sent along even more cool stuff we&#8217;ll get to). And stay tuned for ruminations on the Bobby Joneses, Pedro Martinezes and Mike Marshalls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They weren&#8217;t related but shared a name and a Polo Grounds locker room for the 1962 Mets, becoming one of the mildly amusing sidelights in that sadly comic debut season. \u00a0 That&#8217;s Robert Lane Miller on the left. He came to the Mets in the expansion draft from St. Louis, where he was a 1957 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=1341\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Know Your Millers&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[466,283],"class_list":["post-1341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bob-g-miller","tag-bob-l-miller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1342,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions\/1342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}