Mets legend: “Marvelous Marv” Throneberry

Ok the Mets are off to a great start – as of yesterday they were 10-1 and in first place in the NL East (Subway Series, anyone?).

Just to keep all the Mets fans feet on the ground – here's a little bit about one of their legends.

Marvin Eugene "Marvelous Marv" Throneberry (September 2, 1933 – June 23, 1994) was an American Major League Baseball player, best remembered as the starting first baseman for the 1962 New York Mets, a team which set the modern record for most losses in a season with 120.

In one famous story, on June 17, Throneberry hit a triple against the Cubs, but he was called out after Ernie Banks took a relay throw and stepped on second base. "Didn't touch the bag, you know, Dusty", Banks told umpire Dusty Boggess.^[2] According to the legend, Throneberry was called out at second and manager Casey Stengel came out to argue the call, but he was told by the umpire "Don't bother arguing Casey, he missed first base, too." (In another version of the story, Stengel was told this by his first-base coach.) Stengel, after a pause, supposedly replied, "Well, I know he touched third base because he's standing on it!" The next batter, Charlie Neal, hit a home run, prompting Stengel to come out of the dugout following him and pointing at all four bases.^[3] Throneberry's mistake proved costly, as the Cubs won the game 8–7.

Throneberry, who facetiously came to be known as Marvelous Marv, maintained a sense of humor about his play, and he became a favorite with fans and the media. At one point he had a fan club which numbered around 5,000 members. It is reported that they wore shirts with the word "VRAM" (Marv backwards) and took up chanting "Cranberry, Strawberry, we love Throneberry."

Here's his Miller Lite commercial –