Former infielder Ron Hunt recalls his days as a Met: second baseman set a single-season record for being hit by a pitch 50 times, but also was the first New York player to homer at Shea Stadium

RON HUNT, THE FIRST METS player to get a hit, score a run and hit a home run at Shea Stadium, wants to be on hand when the team officially closes the stadium.

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Speaking from his home in Jasper, Missouri, Hunt, 67, said he hasn't been invited to a Mets alumni function in many years, which is why he wondered whether he would be involved in ceremonies marking the end of Shea Stadium.

"I would hope since I was there to open Shea, I hope I will get an invitation to put it away, too," Hunt said. "And then an invitation to open the new one as well."

Said Mets vice president for media relations Jay Horwitz, "We're very aware of what he's done, so I'm sure he will be hearing from us in the season. I'm sure he'll be back."

Hunt visits New York twice a year. He attends the annual Baseball Assistance Team fundraising dinner every winter; in the summer, he comes to visit friends and hold a fundraising event for his baseball association. He used to host it at Shea Stadium, but he said the rising costs made him switch it to KeySpan Park last summer.

A trip back to close Shea Stadium will represent full circle for Hunt. He was their regular second baseman, but he started for the Mets at third base and batted third in the first game played at Shea on April 17, 1964. The Pirates won, 4-3, but Hunt put his name in the team history books when he led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a double and scored one batter later on Jesse Gonder's single. Three games later Hunt hit the first home run by a Met at Shea.

When Hunt was asked what he remembered from Shea's first game, he deadpanned, "Nothing." Then he said he recalled a lot of hoopla surrounding the stadium's opening, a large crowd--it was 50,312--and a fun atmosphere. Still, it wasn't the Polo Grounds, the Mets' first home.

"The Polo Grounds had history," Hunt said. "I guess that's the best way to put it. When you walked into that stadium, you remembered everything that you saw on TV. And now you had a chance to walk on it."

Hunt said he is disappointed that Shea Stadium is being replaced, in part because he worries how it will affect the fans. "Seems like the fans are getting further and further away from the ballpark these days," he said. "Corporate boxes are where the money goes. But I guess with all the money they're spending on these players now, you've got to be able to make some money back somehow.

"You want to know how much I made as a rookie? Seven thousand dollars! Seven thousand dollars! That was the rookie salary. Casey (Stengel) called me in the office about a month into the season and he said, 'Son, you need a raise.' I said, 'Yes, sir.' He said, 'How's $500 sound?' I said, 'Is that $500 a month?' He said, 'No! That's 500 a year.' So I called my wife--and it's still the same wife, 37 years now--I called her and she said, 'We'll take it!'"

Hunt's wife, Jackie, then came to tile phone and said they always loved New York. When the Mets played at the Polo Grounds in 1963, they lived in an apartment in Fort Lee, New Jersey. When the Mets moved to Shea in '64, the Hunts moved into a basement apartment in Maspeth.

Hunt owns the modern National League record for being hit by pitches in a season (50, 1971) and is fifth in major league history with 243 hit-by-pitches. He was traded to the Dodgers with Jim Hickman in exchange for Tommy Davis and Derrell Griffith in November 1966 and ended his 12-year career in 1974 with the Expos. "Ron got traded around a lot, but he always considered himself a Met," Jackie Hunt said. "That was the first team he was with, and we certainly didn't want to get traded. We were happy there. Mrs. Payson (former owner Joan) said he was the only guy other teams wanted. He was the only thing they had to trade."

Those obviously were some rough times for the Mets. They averaged 55 wins in the four seasons Hunt was there, from 1963-66. What Hunt remembers most is not the losses, it's the fans. "We drew good compared to what we put on the field," he said. 'Ill tell you what, we may not have won too many games, but by God, we hustled."

By JIM BAUMBACH

Newsday

Most Times Hit By Pitch, Season (Since 1900)

Year   Player           Team                  HBP

1971   Ron Hunt         Montreal Expos        50
1986   Don Baylor       Boston Red Sox        35
1997   Craig Biggio     Houston Astros        34
1910   Steve Evans      St. Louis Cardinals   31
1997   Jason Kendall    Pittsburgh Pirates    31
1998   Jason Kendall    Pittsburgh Pirates    31
2004   Craig Wilson     Pittsburgh Pirates    30
1987   Don Baylor       Red Sox/Twins         28
2001   Craig Biggio     Houston Astros        28
2000   Fernando Vina    St. Louis Carinals    28
1996   Craig Biggio     Houston Astros        27
2003   Craig Biggio     Houston Astros        27
2002   David Eckstein   Anaheim Angels        27

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