{"id":895,"date":"2008-04-14T01:50:05","date_gmt":"2008-04-14T01:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/?p=895"},"modified":"2013-12-01T01:51:40","modified_gmt":"2013-12-01T01:51:40","slug":"happy-ron-hodges-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=895","title":{"rendered":"Happy Ron Hodges Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Mets on Tuesday will celebrate the pioneering efforts of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mbtn.net\/player\/hodges-ron\">Ron Hodges,<\/a>\u00a0who broke the Scrubeenie Barrier by lasting 12 seasons in a Mets uniform, the first 11 without even being considered a regular starting option.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/42.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-127\" alt=\"42\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/42.gif\" width=\"58\" height=\"48\" \/><\/a>To mark the historic occasion, every player on the Mets will be outfitted in the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mbtn.net\/number\/42\">No. 42<\/a>\u00a0jersey Ron made famous while rotting on the bench behind Grote and Dyer; then Grote and Stearns; and then Stearns and Grote; and then Stearns and Trevino; and then Trevino and Stearns; and then Stearns and Trevino again; and then Mike Fitzgerald. Relievers from Harry Parker to Wes Gardner found Hodges&#8217; target while warming up in the bullpen; and managers from Berra to Frazier to Torre to Johnson called on his left-handed bat to pinch hit in crucial situations, provided they had already used Kranepool, Staub or Jorgensen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Waiting around to be useful and occasionally contributing something worthwhile are attributes I want my guys to inhabit,&#8221; explained manager Willie Randolph, who donned the 42 jersey at last year&#8217;s event. &#8220;We need to go out there and show our fans that in each of us beats the heart of a lefthanded hitting reserve catcher, preferably a veteran.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For Hodges, 11 seasons of waiting around for a shot came to delicious fruition in 1983, when as a 34-year-old, he was the starting catcher in Tom Seaver&#8217;s glorious, opening-day return to Shea Stadium. Hodges set career highs with 110 games played and 250 at-bats.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a lefthanded-hitting catcher with a reputation for strong defense, I understand that Ron Hodges was every bit the player I am,&#8221; added the Mets&#8217; current starter behind the dish, Brian Schneider. &#8220;Ron&#8217;s career reminds me of how blessed I am.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">* * *<\/p>\n<p>* Actually, all Mets are to wear 42 Tuesday to honor Jackie Robinson. The above wasn&#8217;t meant to disparage his contributions, or Ron Hodges&#8217;s, for that matter.<\/p>\n<p>* Cultural omniblogger\/librarian Mike Tubridy&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/boatagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com\/2008\/04\/mets-by-numbers.html\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Boat Against the Current&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0blog has nice words on Mets by the Numbers and its launch party last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Mets on Tuesday will celebrate the pioneering efforts of\u00a0Ron Hodges,\u00a0who broke the Scrubeenie Barrier by lasting 12 seasons in a Mets uniform, the first 11 without even being considered a regular starting option. To mark the historic occasion, every player on the Mets will be outfitted in the\u00a0No. 42\u00a0jersey Ron made famous while rotting &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=895\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Happy Ron Hodges Day&#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":[134,348],"class_list":["post-895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ron-hodges","tag-uniforms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895","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=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":896,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions\/896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}