Bob’s family had a small farm of sorts near our place in the Spring Grove area of Illinois.My grandfather Pa used to go to their place for eggs.

Bob was my grade school and high school hero - he was a really great kid AND leader. I NEVER saw Bob put down or, in any way, demean a boy with lesser skills. He was the perfect combination of great player and great leader, imo. When at St Peter’s, Bob insisted ALL the boys in the upper grades must be allowed to play. We often had ten men on a team or more, just so everyone could play. Sure, it wasn’t REALLY baseball, or football, but, this was long before there was were little leagues. Now, how many jocks would do that, instead of making sure they, themselves, had fun?

Bob was also good football player and was the starting QB at Grant HS in Ingleside, ill.

I don’t think things went as well as they could have for Bob in his early adult years, but I lost track of him as we moved on.

I can only hope he had a good life - because he deserved it.

...but by the end of April, he was hitting .256. And he never really recovered, and all he gave the Mets, for the most part, was headaches and frustration. He resuscitated our hopes in July by hitting .336 that month, though by and large highlights became few and far between.

Still, he finished 6th in Rookie of the Year voting in 2004—and it wasn't a weak crop that year, either. Future Met Jason Bay won, while Matt Holliday, Aaron Miles and Khahil Greene also earned support.

Anyway, by 2005 he was a non-factor and by 2006 all he could get the Mets in a trade was journeyman Eli Marrero from the Rockies.

(And, of course, when he leaves the Mets he puts it together to hit .345 with Colorado, then .288 the next year and .293 with Houston in 2008).

Matsui was just an underwhelming guy. He had great power and speed and averages in Japan and didn't give us any of them.

After his stay in the majors, he returned to Japan, where he played until 2018, when he was 42. He finished his career with nearly 2,900 hits, 250 homers, 500 steals and over 1,500 runs at all levels.

Jose Bautista. Jason Bay. Carlos Gomez. Jason Vargas. Gary Matthews.

I remember Matthews playing with New York in 2002—not that I saw him play, I just remember his name from stat logs—but back then he was just a nobody. The Mets ditched him to the Orioles early in '02 for John Bale, who never played for New York, and it was after leaving the Big Apple that he embarked on a decent run that lasted nearly a decade.

From 2002 to 2009, he showed good pop and speed, while making an All-Star team in 2006. He had 19 home runs that year; the next, he had 18, with 18 stolen bases.

So of course New York decides to bring him back ... in 2010 ... when he was 35.

That was a bad year, and Matthews exemplified it all the more. I couldn't understand why they kept him around so long. He was awful, he was a headache, he was a dud.

Few players stick out in my mind as being 'especially bad' with New York. Matthews is one of them.

Also, I've sent him two autograph requests in my day. The first was through the Oklahoma RedHawks in 2004 and the second was through his home address in 2020. He has yet to respond.

That sort of quirkiness is what endeared him to Mets fans, including those who vote in the Mets Hall of Fame project I run on another website. He was elected with 100% of the vote on his third try.

In 2015, he signed a card for me through the mail in just 20 days.

He did pretty well for their Triple-A club in both 2008 and 2009, as well, though in limited duty. In the former year, he hit .291 and he followed that with a .290 mark the next campaign.

Guy is soft as pudding, and looks to everyone but himself to “will” him (with prayers, good vibes, and standing ovations)……

Real fans don’t forget the crap you pulled with that other loser Baez, during the 5 minutes he was here.

How about you just hit the baseball, like you’re being paid $341MM to do?

*thumbs down*

……clown.

I was, off the bat, wrong, as he was totally awesome his first season in New York. What a campaign. 15-8, 2.82 ERA. An All-Star. He worked his way into Mets lore when the sprinklers went off on him. With a bunch of other markers that year, he truly gave us hope.

But I was also right, because for the rest of his time with the club, he was hampered by injury. He was an All-Star in 2006, but he played just 23 games. It started off very well—he had an ERA under 3 through late June and through August 9, he was still 9-4 with a 3.42 ERA. But it ended on a sour note, as he was 0-4 with a 15.43 ERA over his final few starts, giving him a season line of 9-8, 4.48. Yet still, I wanted him pitching, because he was Pedro Martinez, and he could be a game changer.

And I wanted Pedro back in 2007, because his presence could've made the team a true playoff contender. They went most of the year without him and it showed. And when he did return near the finish of the season, he had a 2.57 ERA. (Being a Mets fan, I probably also had my share of doubt about whether Pedro would bounce back, but rose-colored glasses and all that).

I have no real recollection of how I felt in 2008. Probably cautious, though optimistic, to start based on his 2007 flourish. But I think it pretty quickly became clear that the writing was on the wall for Pedro and his career when he again got injured and never really got going during the year when he did play.

All in all, I'm very glad we had Pedro and I have positive memories of him. Just to have a character and a legend like that around was awesome. But to have him perform well as often as he did—even if it didn't always show on his statistical log and even if it was in fits and starts due to injuries—made his presence all the better.

He was one of those long-shot Mets prospects I wanted to succeed, but it wasn't meant to be.

I've written him two autograph requests in my day, one through the Norfolk Tides in 2005 and one through the St. Paul Saints in 2009, but he hasn't signed either time.

Though his time with New York was relatively short, his impact was impressive enough that he was elected in the Mets Hall of Fame project I run on another website. It was a battle, however—he had to wait until his 14th try on the ballot, though he earned a solid 86% of the vote when his time finally came.

In Mets top prospect chronology, I also think of Lastings Milledge as coming after Martinez, come to think of it.

Anyway, by 2009 I was already jaded as a Mets fan, so I had no real hopes for Martinez, so I wasn't disappointed when he failed. In fact, I anticipated it.

It's crazy that he last played professionally in the Dominican Winter League in 2016-17 and he was just 27 years old at that point. He last played in the majors when he was 24. Which means, right now, he's still only 35. It's been all these years and he's STILL at an age when players are active in the majors.

To go a from top-20 prospect (and a four-time top-100 prospect) to being out of the majors by age 24 means he really, truly was an all-time flop.

Also, in 2010, I wrote him an autograph request through the Buffalo Bisons. He never responded.