If Your Birthday is September 20th...

...you share it with Jason Bay.  A rising star with the Pirates and a big contributor to the 2009 AL East-winning Red Sox, with 119 RBIs, he looked like the big bat the Mets needed as a new decade began.  But things went off the rails near the 7-line -- his performance dropped off markedly, and he was further impacted by a pair of concussions from running into outfield walls.  The Mets bought him out after 2012, and the Western Canada native was out of baseball a year later.

(Below:)  Reliever AJ Ramos was a Marlins all star in 2016 and came to the Mets in a mid-season trade a year later.  But his time in Flushing was cut short due to a shoulder injury.  These days, he appears on MLB Network Radio.

Saturday's spotlight shines on Greg Burke, the submarine-tossing righthander who spent half the 2013 season with the Mets.  He appeared in 32 games, but registered neither a win nor a save.

Wally Backman gets his cake and cards on Sunday.  The scrappy half of the champion '86 Mets 2nd base platoon, he led off the historic bottom of the 10th inning in game six of the World Series... by flying out.  He then watched from the dugout as the club built one of the most famous comebacks in post-season history.  The Oregon native managed several Mets farm teams as well as the independent league Long Island Ducks (2019-'23), but a domestic violence charge and problems with alcohol likely cost him a chance to be a big league skipper.






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