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Three players from different eras of Mets history have joined the list of participants for Old-Timers’ Day, scheduled for Aug. 27 at Citi Field.
The team held a Zoom call Thursday with Billy Wagner, Howard Johnson and Ken MacKenzie, all of whom have committed to the event. The Mets last held Old-Timers’ Day in 1994.
Wagner, the Mets closer from 2006-09, received 51 percent of the vote on the most recent Hall of Fame ballot and has three opportunities at enshrinement remaining. A player needs 75 percent of the vote for induction by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
“I’m trending in the right way and I have got a lot of good people who have said really nice things about me,” Wagner said.
The left-hander’s major league debut came with the Astros against the Mets at Shea Stadium in 1995. Wagner recalled facing Rico Brogna, who nearly homered against him.
“But who cared?” Wagner said. “It was my major league debut, and I was throwing it as hard as possible, and plus at that point, I was throwing strikes, so everybody was all excited.”
Johnson, who played third base for the Mets’ last World Series winning team in 1986, had his own memories of Shea Stadium.
“I remember that stadium being massive, and it shook when the people were really riled up,” Johnson said. “In the World Series, it was incredible what was going on during that Game 6, especially. Just a loud ballpark, not so much anymore do you hear the airplanes crossing. I think that was a big deal back in the day.”
Among Johnson’s notable accomplishments with the Mets was three times reaching 30 homers and 30 stolen bases in the same season. Johnson stole a career-high 41 bases in 1989.
“I never was the fastest guy, but I loved stealing bases, and my focus almost always was to get on base and try to steal, and I had that in me,” Johnson said. “I wanted to be that kind of player. If somebody walked me, I could steal and be in scoring position, to score a run for my team and make them kind of pay.”
MacKenzie, 87, was an original Met — joining the franchise at its inception in 1962. The lefty managed a winning record (5-4) for a team that lost 120 games.
“We didn’t have an infield that got very close to ground balls, so they didn’t make a lot of errors,” MacKenzie said.
The Mets previously announced a list of attendees that includes Robin Ventura, Jon Matlack, Ron Swoboda and Daniel Murphy, among others. Mike Piazza announced on Twitter his intent to attend. The team will roll out further attendees as the year progresses.
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