Bobby Valentine and Lee Mazzilli Inducted Into Mets Hall Of Fame On Saturday Afternoon In Queens

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The New York Mets played their second game of their three-game series against the Miami Marlins on Saturday afternoon at Citi Field, with former manager Bobby Valentine and former outfielder Lee Mazzilli being inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in a pregame ceremony that pushed first pitch back to 4:31 p.m. ET. The franchise also honored the late team photographer Marc Levine with an achievement award before the inductees took the podium. Attendance was 38,552. The Mets won 6-1 behind Christian Scott’s first big-league victory.

Carlos Beltrán, the third member of this year’s Mets Hall of Fame class, will have his number 15 retired and his formal induction ceremony in September. Saturday belonged to Valentine and Mazzilli.

Bobby Valentine: From Stamford To Queens To Chiba And Back

Valentine was born in Stamford, Conn. on May 13, 1950 and attended Rippowam High School in Stamford, where he was an All-State player in football, baseball, and track. He remains the only three-time All-State football player in Connecticut history and set state records for career touchdowns with 53, alongside career interceptions for touchdowns with five. The career interception-for-TD record remains, having later been tied by two other players. As a sophomore in 1965, he averaged 5.6 yards a carry, scored 21 touchdowns, and led Rippowam to a 9-0 record and a state championship.

Valentine’s regular-season managerial record of 1,186-1,165 came across 16 seasons in the majors. He also played 10 years in the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1969 and from 1971-1972, the California Angels from 1973-1975, the San Diego Padres from 1975-1977, the New York Mets from 1977-1978, and the Seattle Mariners in 1979.

Valentine managed the orange and blue from 1996 until 2002 with his record at 536-467 — the second-most wins of any manager in Mets history, behind only Davey Johnson. He helped the Mets reach the postseason in 1999 with a National League Wild Card berth and the NL Pennant in 2000, when they played the New York Yankees in the World Series and lost in five games.

Mike Piazza, who caught for Valentine on that 2000 World Series team and was the headliner of those clubs, presented Valentine’s plaque on Saturday.

Valentine also managed the Texas Rangers from his first managerial opportunity at the MLB level in 1985 until after the 1992 season, and later managed in the Mets minor league system in 1994 at Triple-A Norfolk, finishing in fourth place with a record of 67-75 in the five-team West Division of the International League. After leaving the Mets in 2002, he returned to Japan in Nippon Professional Baseball to manage the Chiba Lotte Marines in his second stint, beginning in 2004 — a run that produced a Japan Series championship in 2005.

Valentine has been one of the foreign-born managers who shaped the modern NPB landscape, joining a lineage that includes Wally Yonamine, who managed the Chunichi Dragons from 1972-1977; Alex Ramírez, who became the first Latino-born manager in the league with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars from 2016-2020; Don Blasingame, who managed the Hiroshima Toyo Carp from 1978-1980 and again in 1992; Marty Brown, with the Carp from 2006-2009 and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2010; Terry Collins, who managed the Orix Buffaloes from 2007-2008; and Joe Lutz, who managed the Carp in 1975. The pipeline that Valentine joined and helped expand is a piece of the broader international development story that World Baseball Network exists to track.

The Days After September 11

Valentine’s seven years managing the Mets included the most-remembered ten-day stretch any Mets manager has ever navigated. Between September 11, 2001 and the resumption of baseball in New York City on September 21, Shea Stadium became a staging ground for first responders headed to Ground Zero. Valentine personally fed workers at his nearby restaurant. He organized players and staffers for relief efforts. He visited Ground Zero on multiple occasions.

At Saturday’s press conference, Valentine credited the orchestration to Jay Horwitz, the Mets’ longtime vice president of alumni public relations and team historian.

“After what Jay was able to pull off after 9/11,” Valentine said, “him orchestrating that movement of caring — that I was really proud and liked to be remembered as one of Jay’s followers. He said, get to St. Pat’s. And I got to St. Pat’s. He said, get to Brooklyn. And I got to Brooklyn. Without his coordination, I think 75 percent of the effort that people in the New York Met uniform made after 9/11 would’ve gone awry if Jay Horwitz wasn’t orchestrating that.”

Valentine helped establish Tuesday’s Children, a nonprofit created to support the more than 3,000 children who lost a parent in the September 11 attacks. The organization still operates today.

Lee Mazzilli: The Brooklyn Kid

Mazzilli was born on March 25, 1955 in Brooklyn, N.Y. The Mets drafted him in the first round of the 1973 amateur draft — 14th overall — out of Abraham Lincoln High School. He told the assembled press on Saturday that he found out he was the Mets’ top pick the same way most kids in 1973 found out anything: by running home from school.

“I just felt — I guess Bobby did the same — was just get drafted and play professional baseball,” Mazzilli said. “And then when I found out that I was the number one pick of the Mets, I was really overwhelmed. I ran home from school to see my dad. I didn’t even expect that. I was the 14th pick in the country and I was offered $30,000 to sign at the time, which was like a million dollars. I wound up signing for 50,000 after two months of negotiating.”

Mazzilli debuted with the Mets in September 1976 and quickly became the face of late-1970s Mets baseball, the years between Tom Seaver’s trade and the 1986 World Series run. He was a 1979 All-Star and hit the first home run by a Met in an All-Star Game that summer in Seattle. He went on to draw a bases-loaded walk in the ninth inning that lifted the National League to a 7-6 victory.

Across two stints in Queens spanning 1976-1981 and 1986-1989, Mazzilli combined to slash .264/.357/.396. He ranks sixth in franchise history with 152 stolen bases and is tied for fifth in team history with 38 pinch-hits.

Al Leiter, the 2000 World Series-era left-hander who pitched in Valentine’s clubhouse, presented Mazzilli’s plaque on Saturday.

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Mazzilli returned for the 1986 World Series team. In Game 6 against the Boston Red Sox, with the Mets one strike from elimination, he came off the bench in the eighth inning, walked, and scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly by Gary Carter. He went 2-for-3 with two runs scored across Games 6 and 7. The man on third base when Bill Buckner’s error happened was a different teammate, but the one who scored the run that brought the Mets within one in that inning was Lee Mazzilli of Brooklyn.

“For me, in the seventies here,” Mazzilli said, “and a lot of you know that — New York was tough. It was a bad time in New York, not just baseball. City was broke, strikes, blackouts. I think the saving grace for me was playing baseball here and being fortunate enough to come from Brooklyn and playing in your hometown. I didn’t get the lean years of the seventies, I looked back at it. But for me, there was special. This is where I was born and raised. So played in your backyard. The Mets and Life, OK.”

The 1979 Spotlight, And The Roommates

Valentine offered the line of the afternoon when he was asked about that late-1970s Mets era.

“I didn’t play then, but I watched Lee play,” Valentine said. “And it was special. Everyone else was gone and he was left behind, and he was going to be the only thing that people would come to the stadium for. He was spectacular in his uniform. He had the audacity to do basket catches four years after Willie Mays left Shea Stadium. He could run and switch hit. The majority of our fans were females that just came to look at him run around the bases. It was an amazing time.”

Valentine joined the Mets in 1977 as a player and was Mazzilli’s roommate on the road — the last era before the collective bargaining agreement gave every player his own room. The two of them have remained close ever since.

“I probably could have played another five years if it wasn’t for him keeping me out at night,” Mazzilli said.

“Trust me, he’s not what you think,” Valentine answered. “Special thing. It’s just special.”

Lee Mazzilli, left, and Bobby Valentine high-five during an induction ceremony into the New York Mets hall of fame before a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

The Obstruction Call, And A Lifetime Reading The Rulebook

The two of them shared a memory from Game 1 of the 2000 Subway Series — Mazzilli was the Yankees’ first base coach that year, Valentine was managing the Mets — when an obstruction call became the moment of an at-bat both men still talk about.

“I read the rulebook twice a year from the time I was 14,” Valentine said. “That’s a fact. We talked the rules. And Lee got the rule being called and cost me money. And who knows if we won that game — we mass, I mean, everything could have changed. The whole world. That’s right.”

“Just to see him look at me, wink at me and say ‘I was proud of you,’ dude,” Mazzilli said. “It was special.”

Valentine was thrown out of that game and fined a thousand dollars.

Lou Lamoriello, A Hockey Hall Of Famer In The Room

Valentine closed his press conference by pointing to a man seated in the room — Lou Lamoriello, the Hockey Hall of Famer and longtime NHL general manager.

“In 1967, I had the honor of playing for this guy in Cape Cod when he was a 24-year-old college coach at Providence College,” Valentine said. “Coaching not only baseball, but also hockey and playing as a guy who wanted to make it. Finally at 24, he stopped playing in the Can-Am in the Cape Cod League and became a manager there. At 17, he brought me to play with him in the College League in Cape Cod and Yarmouth. That’s how I got scouted highly. That’s how come I was the number one draft choice. Lou Lamoriello is over here. Thank you. Thank you.”

Marc Levine, The Lens Of A Generation

Before the inductees took the podium, the franchise honored the late Marc Levine with an achievement award. Levine was the Mets’ team photographer for decades and the man behind many of the most-circulated images of the Mike Piazza, Bobby Valentine, and Carlos Beltrán eras. His tribute video played to a hushed Citi Field. The Marc Levine image of the season — projected across the new center-field video board on Saturday — set the tone for the ceremony that followed.

What Bobby V Said About Today’s Mets

Asked what advice he would give to current Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, who is navigating a 24-33 start in his second year leading the franchise, Valentine spoke about the modern challenges of holding a clubhouse together.

“It’s about getting people to believe,” Valentine said. “The more that you have something — someone to believe in — it’s easy to share belief and let people understand that’s what’s needed. That’s the struggle that Carlos, that everyone has today in this game. There’s so many more preachers out there that are in their ears trying to get them to believe in them. Whether it’s the hitting coach, the pitching coach, the guys that — it’s ridiculous, the culture that he is trying to manage in. You have to get them to believe in you. And you don’t know what the other dude is saying. That’s distraction. That’s what keeps guys from performing at their best. And this city is number one in distractions. No one’s even close to second.”

Valentine added that he believes there is still a path forward for the 2026 Mets.

“This is a tougher place to come back,” he said. “It’s just distracting. If they can have that universal feeling that that’s happening, whether or not, you know, they used to say, oh, the boys called a clubhouse meeting and that was going, or the fight on the field, or the manager getting thrown out, or the rain out when you’re losing by 10 after four innings — that all of a sudden something happens and people start focusing on playing again instead of focusing on the losses and the next win again. Here it’s always about the loss and the next win. That has to be controlled. If it is, with a constant message, I think there’s plenty of excitement left here at Citi Field.”

Mazzilli — who has watched many of Mendoza’s games this season — sees something in the younger players the Mets have promoted.

“They have all the tools,” Mazzilli said. “They’re exciting. They’re playing, and that’s what they have to do. They have to get a chance to play. I think everyone in this room has noticed that they’re pretty good players. They’re gonna have to learn. They’re gonna go through their ups and downs. But I think there are some good things ahead of those kids — these young kids. I like watching them. They run, they take the extra base, they’re pitching at the plate. They play good defense. So there’s something to grasp onto these young guys.”

The Game That Followed

After the ceremony ended and the field was cleared, Christian Scott took the mound for the Mets and worked five innings, allowing one earned run on five hits with eight strikeouts for his first Major League victory. Jared Young hit his first home run of 2026. Hayden Senger hit his first career home run, a solo shot to left-center in the bottom of the seventh. Juan Soto walked, singled, and drove in his 25th run of the season. The Mets won 6-1 to even the series at one game apiece.

Tyler Phillips took the loss for Miami, allowing three earned runs on six hits in five innings of his second career start. Christopher Morel and Liam Hicks each had multi-hit nights for the Marlins, but Miami left seven runners on base and went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. The series finale is Sunday at 1:40 PM ET with Janson Junk facing Jonah McLean.

The Beltrán Date Is On The Calendar

Carlos Beltrán’s number 15 retirement ceremony and Mets Hall of Fame induction will take place in September at Citi Field, a separate and bigger night that the franchise has reserved for the player tracking toward Cooperstown induction in 2027. Beltrán was 70.3 percent on the BBWAA ballot in January and currently serves as Special Assistant to Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns.

Saturday belonged to Mazzilli and Valentine. Both men received standing ovations from a Citi Field crowd of 38,552 fans that braved a cloudy 57-degree Memorial Day weekend afternoon. The Brooklyn kid and the kid from Stamford — roommates in 1977, manager and first base coach in 2000, Mets Hall of Famers in 2026 — stood at midfield and high-fived each other before walking off together.

The orange and blue have inducted 38 members into their Hall of Fame. Two more were added on Saturday. One more is coming in September. The franchise that produced them is still trying to find its footing in 2026. The men who were once charged with carrying it are now permanent fixtures of its history.

— MT

Photo: Mike Piazza, left, presents Bobby Valentine with a plaque during an induction ceremony into the New York Mets Hall of Fame before a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger) · Graphic: World Baseball Network