Championship Baseball ushered in the era of the Binghamton Mets By: Jim Maggiore
The 1992 season saw minor league baseball return to the Binghamton area after a 24-year absence, as the Binghamton Triplets (named in honor of the towns of Binghamton, John- son City, and Endicott) last played in town in 1968. Baseball returned with a flourish, with two Eastern League Championships being brought to Binghamton within the first three years of this baseball redux. This September, those two championship teams of 1992 and 1994 (along with the championship team from 2014), will be inducted into the Binghamton Baseball Shrine. Players from that 1992 team who went on to big league careers in- cluded right-handed starting pitch- ers Bobby Jones and Pete Walker, as well as catcher Brook Fordyce. The team won the Eastern League Championship, at home, in front of a standing-room only crowd, behind a complete game win from Bobby Jones, who hailed from Fresno, Cal- ifornia—the same hometown as Tom Seaver. The 1994 team also won its Eastern League Championship at home, also behind another sellout crowd, cour- tesy of the standout pitching of lefty Chris Roberts, who won 13 games during the season, second on the staff to the 14 posted by Bill Pulsi- pher. That 1994 team sent 14 players on to big-league careers, including second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo, shortstop Rey Ordonez, center fielder Ricky Otero, and pitchers Jason Isringhausen, Bill Pulsipher, Robert Person, and Joe Roa. (Outfielder Jay Payton joined the team just in time for the playoffs as well.) Fans of a certain age who attended the opening day game of the 1992 Binghamton Mets still can be heard talking about it to this day. In a way it was only fitting, that, after wait- ing for almost a quarter of a century for minor league baseball to return to Binghamton, Binghamtonians had to wait out three–that’s right— three consecutive days of rainouts! The season was scheduled to start the Thursday before Easter Sunday and a sellout crowd was in place to celebrate the opening of Bingham- ton’s brand new stadium. The host of celebrities visiting town that day included Governor Mario Cuomo, and various representatives from the New York Mets, including former All-Star shortstop Buddy Harrelson and for-
mer Mets’ pitcher Al Jackson. In his introductory speech as part of the dedication ceremonies, Cuomo poked a friendly jab at then Bing- hamton Mayor Juanita Crabb, ex- plaining that she threw a “few high hard ones his way as she fought for the stadium to be built.” (For the record—that championship season began with right hander Joe Vitko getting the win in a 1-0 game against Harrisburg during the first game of the doubleheader on Easter Sunday.) The team went 79-59 in its inaugu- ral season, finishing in second place in the eight-team Eastern League behind the Canton-Akron Indians by one game and ahead of the third place Harrisburg Senators by a half game. The Mets beat Canton-Akron in the first round of the playoffs, three games to one. The team re- peated its feat by beating the Har- risburg Senators (Montreal Expos affiliation) in the finals by the same three games to one tally. Steve Swisher had the honor of man- aging the team and his then 12-year- old son, Nick, spent his summer patrolling the diamond during batting practice at what was then known as Binghamton Municipal Stadium. That summer left an indelible impression on Nick. “That team was loaded,” he said in a short interview before he participated in an old-timer’s game in Cooperstown in 2022. “I remember seeing Bobby Jones pitch for them. They won it all!” Longtime season ticketholder Eileen Plunkett remem- bers Swisher was not always wel- comed by those ‘92 Mets. “He could be a real pain in the butt, always running around and getting in their way,” she recalled recently. Tom Wegmann, Apalachin resident since 1995 and now an executive with the Mathews Auto Group right here in Binghamton, was a spot starter and reliever for that ‘92 team and has some great memories from that historic season. “That team was so tightly knit. Often with a team you have groups of four or five guys hanging out, but on that team, we all went out to dinner together and hung out as a group, 15 or so guys getting together. We won with pitching and defense and played sound, funda- mental baseball.” Long before the 2003 film Finding Nemo came out, the 1992 Bingham- ton Mets had their own “Niemo,” in
their pitching coach, Randy Nieman, who was a member of the 1986 World Championship Mets team. Niemann had a stellar staff to work with that season, including future big leaguers Joe Vitko, Pete Walker, and John Johnstone. “He knew the right things to say, he understood per- sonalities, had a calming approach, talking you through things and help- ing you, make adjustments,” recalled Wegmann in a recent phone conver- sation. “Swisher was a tough man- ager, he expected you to be locked in and ready to go, he was an old school type of person. We respected him and played hard for him,” elabo- rated Wegmann. In 2022, Wegmann reunited with many of his teammates when the Rumble Ponies honored the 1992 team in pre-game ceremony. To- day, many of the members of that team are still involved in baseball. Shortstop Tom Allison is a scout with the Dodgers and utility infielder is director of scouting for the Pirates. Pete Walker is a longtime pitching coach for the Toronto Bluejays and first baseman Alan Zinter is a batting instructor in the Chicago White Sox organization. Only two years after the success of that ‘92 team, the 1994 team, led by manager John Tamargo, came to town and put together arguably the best season in the history of Bing- hamton’s affiliation with the Mets. By then the Eastern League had split into two divisions, the North and South, with the Mets finishing with a record of 82-59, winning the North division by 4.5 games over the New Haven Ravens, then affiliated with the Colorado Rockies. The division win was the first for Binghamton since the Triplets captured a division title in 1967. Jason Isringhausen and Bill Pulsipher, two-thirds of the trio known as “Generation K” for their strikeout totals (Paul Wilson, the third member, would pitch for Binghamton in 1995), anchored the pitching staff while the double play combination of Rey Ordonez (short) and Edgardo Alfonzo (second) provided defensive highlights every night. Alfonzo also led the way with the bat, hitting .293 with 15 home runs and driving in 75 runs. He teamed with center fielder Ricky Otero (.294 with 7 homers and 57 RBIs) and first baseman Frank Jacobs (.285 with 13 homers and 67 RBIs) to form a solid lineup. Alber- to Castillo provided stellar defense
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