brooklyndodgermemories

As the new 1962 New York Mets bumbled their way to winning 40 games
while losing 120 perhaps the most inept player on the field was
Marvin Eugene Throneberry, better know as "Marvelous Marv". The
lovable bums developed a love affair with the fans as manager Casey
Stengel summed up this team with this famous quip, "Can't anybody
here play this game?"
Marv Throneberry was born in Collierville, Tennessee on September 2,
1933. The left-handed six-footer began his professional baseball
career in 1952 when signed by the New York Yankees as a slugging
first baseman to hit home runs over the short right field in Yankee
Stadium. With the New York farm team in Denver in 1955 Marv hit 36
home runs with 117 RBI's. He debuted with the Yankees on September 25
appearing in only one game when he had two hits, one single and a
double, but was soon sent back to the minors where he stayed for the
next three years.
When Marvin made it back to the Yankees in 1958 he became a part-time
first baseman hitting .227 in 60 games with seven home runs, and
had .240 and eight homers the next season. Talking about himself, "I
am a sweet hitter. Not really a good hitter. Just a sweet hitter",
and although he had a Mickey Mantle hitting stance Marv struck every
third time at bat. On December 11th Marv was traded to Kansas City
with Hank Bauer, Norman Siebern, and Don Larson who threw the only
World Series no-hitter in 1956. In return the Yankees received Roger
Maris and two other players.
Within two years Throneberry was on his way to Baltimore, and then
back to New York joining the fledging 1962 Mets where he had his best
season hitting 16 home runs. Many of the expansion Met players were
past their prime, and even manager Stengel had been fired by the
Yankees in 1960 for being too old. or as Casey later commented, "I'll
never make the mistake of being 70 again."

After Manager Stengel appeared on a float in the Macy's 1962
Thanksgiving Day parade he said, "The Mets are going to be amazin'."
The Mets began their season with nine consecutive losses, and found
many new ways to lose a game. The suffering fans kept coming back,
however, and developed a love affair with the futile Mets and
especially Marvelous Marvin Throneberry who became a symbol of
incompetency with poor fielding and shabby base running. In one game
with the Chicago Cubs Marv clubbed a three-base hit, but was called
out for failing to touch second base. Manager Stengel ran out to
protest, but before he said a word the umpire told Casey to forget
it, the runner had also missed first base. Casey looked over at third
and said, "He sure as heck touched third base as he is standing on it
right now." In the top of that same inning the Cubs' Don Landrum led
off with a walk, but was immediately picked off. The umpire's
decision, however, was negated as Marv obstructed the runner. In the
bottom of the ninth the score was 8-7 for Chicago with two men on and
two outs and Throneberry up to bat. It was certainly the perfect
place and time for Marv to atone for his atrocious playing that day,
but needless to say, Marvin struck out. .
When the team decided to have a birthday party for Marv, skipper
Stengel suggested it would not be a good idea as the ballplayer would
probably drop it anyway. And when another player dropped an easy fly
ball, Marv yelled over, "Hey, are you trying to steal my fans away
from me?"
The moniker of Marvelous Marv was coined by Mets owner Joan Payson
after a Throneberry home run when she said, "Wasn't that marvelous of
Marvin!" He was an almost unknown with the Yankees, A's, and Orioles,
but with the Mets Marv went on to become one of the best known .237
hitters in all of baseball history.
Marv disagreed with the Met management regarding his 1963 salary, and
so after 14 games into the season the lovable loser was
unconditionally released. After his last major league game on May 5,
1963 Marv left the clubhouse for the last time to find that he had
been accidentally locked in, and after 30 minutes of yelling he was
finally released. The incident certainly epitomized Marvelous Marv
and the 1962 New York Mets.
Twenty years later Marvelous Marvin Throneberry returned to public
view as a deadpan comic in beer ads on television by saying, "I still
don't know why they asked me to do this commercial." Marvin died of
cancer on June 23, 1994 at his home in Fisherville, Tennessee at the
age of 60.
Marvelous Marv summed up his career with, "I got errors as part of my
reputation, but I still wouldn't trade one moment of my career for
anything else in the world. I got to do what only four hundred other
guys did each year , and I did it for seven years, playing at the
same time as my brother, Faye, so both of us, from one family, were
luckier than millions of families out there who could only dream. We
lived that dream." (Note: Faye was a relief outfielder for three
American League teams from 1953 to 1961 although the two brothers
were never on the same team together.)

"CRANBERRY, STRAWBERRY, WE WANT THRONEBERRY

It is only appropriate that after seeing the Mets bumble through the last two seasons that you should post about Marvelous Marv. I can still remember being at Jones Beach on A Sunday afternoon listening to the Mets game. Thronberry hits a triple, then is called out for missing second base. Casey comes out to argue and is told he missed first as well. In the second year Marv has a contract dispute, Gene Woodling just made a player coach sticks up for Marv. Woodling gets release and Marvelous Marv never plays another game in the major leagues.

Fans think that Throneberry was an "original" Met. This isn't so. Marv hit the scene in May, 1962.

Stengel never said: "Can't anybody here play this game?"...........he actually said: "Can't anybody play this here game?". Jimmy Breslin CHANGED the quote to "fit" the title of his book on the Mets.

Although it is now hard to believe, Marv at one time was the #1 prospect in the Yankees organization. It was also thaought that Thronberry would be the next great Yankee power hitter.

Just goes to show you that the difference between a great amatuer player and a "low level" MLB player isn't that much of a leap............................but to be great at the highest level is mind-boggling. All of the MLB players that we as fans consider to be shitty, were All-City, All-County, All-State, etc. wherever they came from. Once the player faces others at a much higher level than he's used to, it can all fall apart. Once your confidence is shaken, you're toast. Throneberry hit 45 HR's and drove in 145 in AAA (Denver) a couple of seasons. Once you hit "the show" things are different. Only a select few thrive at the top level. And only a select few of THEM thrive for a long period.

Almost all professional hitters can hit the fastball, only the best can hit a major league curve on a consistant basis.